LIGHTHOUSE BLOG

J.D. Hayworth The Only True Choice for Pro-Lifers

  

   Of the two viable candidates running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Arizona, only one is worthy of a vote from true pro-life voters.  That candidate is J.D Hayworth.  The other candidate, John McCain, has a spotty pro-life record and has not been an advocate for pro-life causes.  For instance, McCain supports experimenting on baby embryos, which of course kills them.  McCain also supports using federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research.  J.D. Hayworth opposes both.

   As far as ratings from pro-life groups, JD Hayworth has a 100% rating from ProLife Arizona, and a 100% rating from National Right to Life.   Even Arizona Right to Life said, "AZRTL PAC acknowledges that J.D. Hayworth had a perfect pro-life voting record during his service in the U.S. House of Representatives."  It does NOT say the same about McCain.

   John McCain, on the other hand, received a 0% rating from ProLife Arizona for not completing its survey.  He has only a 75% rating from National Right to Life.  Though controversially endorsed by Arizona Right to Life this year, he was passed over in 2008 for his support of embryonic stem cell research, a position he still holds.  

   Arizona Right to Life has taken a public relations thrashing for its endorsement of McCain.

   National Right to Life endorsed Fred Thompson in 2008 over John McCain because of McCain's support for testing embryos, in addition to McCain's support of McCain-Feingold, legislation which heavily restricted the 1st Amendment rights of pro-life groups.

   As recently as 1999, John McCain is quoted as saying about abortion, "I'd love to see a point where it is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force X number of women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations."  San Francisco Chronicle & CNN, August 1999

   Arizona pro-lifer voters have a clear choice on Tuesday to protect and advance the sanctity of life, and that choice is J.D. Hayworth.

Race-Based Groups Defy Dr. King's Teachings

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

- Martin Luther King, Jr. (August 28, 1963)

Forty-seven years after those profound words were spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King, we still have race-based groups that are shamefully considered mainstream and acceptable in our nation.

Two such groups, the NAACP, and the Black Student Union of Phoenix College, held rally yesterday in Phoenix, purportedly to commemorate Dr. King.

Do they not see the irony in their commemoration of Dr. King while basing membership in their organizations solely on skin color?

It amazes me how often Dr. Kings teachings are lost on the very people he so desperately sought to help.  In some people, we've sadly seen little progress indeed.

Apathetic Passengers Also To Blame in Newark Security Breach

The Newark security breach that shut down the airport because one guy ducked under a security rope to kiss his girlfriend, has set up a firestorm of controversy about safety at airports.  While I'm all for safety at airports, I have to ask, what in the hell were the passengers who just walked by the guy thinking?

Of the dozens of passengers witnessing the violation, only one apparently told the guard, and none intervened to stop the guy.  Are some of us that self-absorbed that they can witness a major security breach and do nothing about it because it doesn't directly impact them?  Apparently some of the people in Newark that day were.

The result of the breach was an airport shutdown, major economic losses, as well as time and manpower.  If the man had been a terrorist, I truly hope those people that watched him breach security would have felt culpable for the lives lost as a result of having done nothing to stop him.  

Terrorism is on the rise in America folks.  We must all do our part to prevent it.  We cannot just sit idly by and pretend that it doesn't impact all of us.  Doing so will be at our own peril.  Thank God the passengers on the Christmas Northwest flight had more courage than the people in Newark.

Fry's Food Stores Fund Planned Parenthood Through Komen Foundation's Race For The Cure

Fry's Food Stores continues its 5 year partnership with the Susan G. Komen Foundation's Race for the Cure this year, hoping to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the dual purpose cancer "research" and Planned Parenthood fund-raising organization.

It has long been known that the Susan G. Komen Foundation has a strong partnership with Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, which was founded in an effort to eradicate minority children, among other things (see below).  Despite pleas from cancer patients and donors year after year to direct all cancer research money to find a cure, as Komen advertises, Komen continues to donate a portion of the "research" money to Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood does no cancer research.

While Komen and Planned Parenthood claim none of the money goes directly toward abortions, but instead toward post-its, pencils, and other things, none of the money Komen gives to Planned Parenthood goes toward cancer research.  Essentially, Komen is lying to its donors, many of whom are victims of cancer struggling with their diseases while hoping for a cure.

Further, anyone who's ever run a budget knows that Komen's and Planned Parenthood's claims are a bogus shell game.  By funding office supplies, Planned Parenthood is free to allocate more funds for abortions.  Think of Saddam Hussein's Oil for Food Program.

Susan Komen's Foundation is tragically but legally free to raise money for Planned Parenthood if it so pleases, however, misleading donors that their money goes to cancer research is unconscionable, immoral, and should be illegal.

Fry's Food Stores is also free to raise funds for the Komen Foundation, but we are free to not shop there.  

___________________________

Quotes from Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood:

On blacks, immigrants and indigents:
“…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’ ’spawning… human beings who never should have been born.”  Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization, referring to immigrants and poor people

On sterilization & racial purification:
Sanger believed that, for the purpose of racial “purification,” couples should be rewarded who chose sterilization. Birth Control in America, The Career of Margaret Sanger, by David Kennedy, p. 117, quoting a 1923 Sanger speech.

On the right of married couples to bear children:
Couples should be required to submit applications to have a child, she wrote in her “Plan for Peace.” Birth Control Review, April 1932

On the purpose of birth control:
The purpose in promoting birth control was “to create a race of thoroughbreds,” she wrote in the Birth Control Review, Nov. 1921 (p. 2)

On the rights of the handicapped and mentally ill, and racial minorities:
“More children from the fit, less from the unfit — that is the chief aim of birth control.” Birth Control Review, May 1919, p. 12

On the extermination of blacks:
“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,” she said, “if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America, by Linda Gordon

On respecting the rights of the mentally ill:
In her “Plan for Peace,” Sanger outlined her strategy for eradication of those she deemed “feebleminded.” Among the steps included in her evil scheme were immigration restrictions; compulsory sterilization; segregation to a lifetime of farm work; etc. Birth Control Review, April 1932, p. 107

And finally:

“The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” Margaret Sanger, Women and the New Race (Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923)  (*Quote collection compiled and available at dianedew.com)

Most of us will never forget...

 

Pan Am 103...Remembering a Family Friend

I remember well when Pan Am 103 was eviscerated in the air just before Christmas, on 21 December 1988.  The brother of my brother's friend was on that flight, and his parents lived just down the street from mine.  Out of respect for their privacy, I'll call him Jack, but that's not his real name.

Jack was coming back from a business trip in Frankfurt.  Typically he'd fly straight to Detroit, but this trip was different.  It was Christmas, and he wanted to see his daughter.  So he hopped a different plane to go see his daughter, who lived in New York.    In trying to see his daughter, he was tragically and viciously prevented from ever seeing her again. Cowards stole him from his family and his precious daughter.

Here's a a description of what the passengers likely experienced, from Wikipedia:

A Scottish Fatal Accident Inquiry, which opened on 1 October 1990, heard that, when the cockpit broke off, tornado-force winds tore through the fuselage, tearing clothes off passengers and turning insecurely-fixed items like food and drink trolleys into lethal objects. Because of the sudden change in air pressure, the gases inside the passengers' bodies would have expanded to four times their normal volume, causing their lungs to swell and then collapse. People and objects not fixed down would have been blown out of the aircraft into the −46 °C (−50.8 °F) outside air, their 31,000-foot (9,400 m) fall lasting about two minutes.^{[13][page needed]} Some passengers remained attached to the fuselage by their seat belts, crashing in Lockerbie strapped to their seats.^{[citation needed]}

Although the passengers would have lost consciousness through lack of oxygen, forensic examiners believe some of them might have regained consciousness as they fell toward oxygen-rich lower altitudes. Forensic pathologist Dr William G. Eckert, director of the Milton Helpern International Center of Forensic Sciences at Wichita State University, who examined the autopsy evidence, told Scottish police he believed the flight crew, some of the flight attendants, and 147 other passengers survived the bomb blast and depressurization of the aircraft, and may have been alive on impact. None of these passengers showed signs of injury from the explosion itself, or from the decompression and disintegration of the aircraft.^{[citation needed]}

That Christmas Eve, as many in the neighborhood went to Mass to celebrate the Birth of Jesus, Jack's family sat in the front row near us in the small chapel in the Detroit suburb, the sadness on their faces indescribable.  Yet in their sadness they found the strength to carry up the gifts to the awaiting priest.  At 20 years old, that moment had a profound affect on me.  It proved that despite tragedy, faith can redeem us and fill us with grace. 

I recently met the son of another victim of that flight.  As a result of losing his dad, Billy, I'll call him, had a tough time moving forward and went through a dark period for several years.  He's doing well now, but his story reminds us all that there are many living victims of that flight, many who still suffer greatly for their losses of 21 years ago.

I can't imagine what Jack's family or Billy's family are thinking knowing one of the cowards responsible was released from prison yesterday, but I know I'm disgusted by the "compassion" received by the cowardly murderer.  Yet I can take some solace in knowing that justice will be God's, and it will be eternal.  No, Pan Am 103 will never be forgotten.

Party of Purity vs. Party of Anything Goes

Republicans have taken flak lately for being willing to lose Colin Powell as a Republican.  Good riddance, many say, since Powell supported Obama and has questionable Republican values.

Republicans are usually willing to kick fallen members from their ranks in an effort to retain a purified ideological core.  In essence, if you're not acting like a Republican, Republicans say, why should you be allowed to call yourself one and confuse the public?

Such was the case with the recent Republican Congress, who was booted from office for ignoring the principled values that got them elected in the first place.   They gave Republicans and fiscal responsibility a bad name.

On the flip side you have the Democrats, who are truly a party of anything is acceptable as long as your check clears.  There are few real lasting principles associated with the Democrat Party, save for the negative ones of high taxes, abortion on demand, weak on defense, and fiscally irresponsible government.  Sure, Democrats favor some good things, but in the end they support whatever keeps them in power.

A good example is how they took control of Congress in 2006, promising to have the troops home in mere weeks.  Three years later, liberal President Obama is putting MORE troops in harms way, and the liberal-controlled Congress lifts nary an eyebrow in opposition.

So too does it go with President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonya Sotomayor, who has questionable qualifications for such an important position.  Her own recorded statements about her nationality making her more qualified, and that judges make policy, should make her questionable to anyone.  Add to that her statements that the 2nd Amendment does not allow for individual gun ownership, and we should all be up in arms - Democrats and Republicans alike.

However, she is expected to win confirmation in the Senate easily - not because people thinks she's anywhere near the best candidate - but because politicians are too afraid to oppose a Hispanic woman.  That's frightening to me.  Regardless if she is the first one-armed, red-headed, albino Eskimo, she should be evaluated on her qualifications, not ethnicity.

So what we have are Republicans who strive perhaps to deep into the ideological purity pool, and perhaps lose some good men like Powell, and Democrats, who are willing to put up with anything as long as there is political gain. 

Republicans would do well to remember Reagan's line that someone who agrees with you 80% of the time is your friend.  Democrats would benefit from actually standing for something by opposing poor choices once in a while.  Sotomayor is hardly the best choice for the Supreme Court, and Democrats should, for a change, put substance above symbolism. 

Andrew Thomas Takes on Planned Parenthood - Planned Parenthood Admits It Doesn't Understand Statutory Rape

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

May 20, 2009

 

For more information contact:

Mike Anthony Scerbo, Public Information Officer

(602) 506-3170 (office) or (602) 489-6913 (cell)

 

County

Attorney

Calls on Abortion Clinics to Report Sexual Abuse of Minors                       

Videotapes of Activities at Planned Parenthood Facilities at Issue

 

In response to recent events at local Planned Parenthood clinics, County Attorney Andrew Thomas is publicly calling on Planned Parenthood to report sexual abuse of minors to law enforcement and to train and instruct all staff members to do so.  Thomas has taken this action after an adult, posing as a 15-year-old impregnated by a much-older adult, visited two Planned Parenthood clinics and was offered an abortion for a fee at both facilities.  The encounters with Planned Parenthood were videotaped at two Phoenix Planned Parenthood Offices.

 

Under state law, A.R.S. § 13-3620, medical professionals, such as doctors and nurses, as well as people who are responsible for the care or treatment of a minor are required to report instances of sex crimes or abuse in which the victim is a minor.  Thomas is recommending that new legislation be passed to make clear the statute applies to nonprofessional employees and workers at medical or abortion clinics, such as clerical and triage staff, not just licensed medical professionals.

 

Thomas stated, “Medical professionals are required to notify law enforcement when they learn a child has been the victim of sexual abuse.  That obligation applies to those working at Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood should honor the letter as well as the spirit of the law by plainly instructing their employees to report alleged sexual abuse of minors to the proper authorities, and by making sure these instructions are followed.”

 

Just prior to the release of these videos to the local news media, Planned Parenthood contacted the Phoenix Police Department and inquired about whether they could receive training on these matters.  The

County

Attorney

’s Office has notified Phoenix Police that prosecutors from its Sex Crime Bureau would be available and willing to fulfill this request in coordination with Phoenix Police.  However, Planned Parenthood has not responded to follow-up calls from Phoenix Police regarding this request for training.

 

 

 

Obama Nominees: Ethnics Over Ethics?

Obama has yet another nonimation scandal on his hands.  One has to wonder whether, when he proclaimed ethics would lead his administration, he didn't mean ethnics.  By ethnics, I am not referring to race, but instead the liberal culture which is so often corrupted by power, influence, and a lack of values. So many of his appointees have had problems with the law, that one can't help but wonder about the derth of scandal free liberals.   Read story...

Banks Ignoring Short Sale Offers, or Exhibiting Extreme Incompetence

In the last several months, I have submitted four short sale offers to Citibank and Countrywide.  Despite having fax receipts, the banks claim they never received the documents, several times.  And on another occasion, Countrywide, having waited several months to review the documents, decided the documents were too old and needed to be re-created, including the offer itself.  Huh?

Citibank, for its part, completely ignored a short sale offer for nearly five months, at which time the buyers walked.   Two more short sale offers submitted to Citibank have not been responded to by the bank.  One of those buyers is about to walk away.

Countrywide has been sitting on an offer for nearly six months.  When I called the buyer's agent the other day to check in, the agent told me that the buyer was walking becuase the buyer beleived that the home's value had dropped below his offer price. 

On one of the many calls I placed to Citibank, where the documents, though sent three times, "had not been received," I asked if the documents could be emailed in.  The response was that documents could only be faxed.  When asked if I could communicate directly with the person in charge of that particular property, I was told no.  And on that same call, when asked what was the current status of the short sale, the phone representative said she "could not interpret the notes."  I asked the same representative just how I was supposed to get information if I couldn't speak to the person in charge of the account, and the representative couldn't interpret the notes.  She didn't know.

Early last year I had an opportunity to sell a few dozen builder properties for $.85 on the dollar.  The banks, not Citi or Countrywide in this case, would not go for the deal.  They later sold the same properties for much less. 

Working with Citibank and Countrywide has been a nightmare.  Neither bank appears interested in working with their mortgagees to keep their homes, and neither is willing to sell the properties to a buyer.  Yet the federal government has dumped billions into these banks.

It seems to me that if the economic downturn started in the housing market, then that's where the government should focus its attention.  President Bush was right when he said last fall that the feds have the patience to buy up properties, as it did with the Resolution Trust Corporation back in the '80s, and wait for the market to improve.  To date, I haven't seen the government doing that, despite the enormous success of the RTC program in terms of profit for taxpayes.

It don't know the exact solution, but it seems apparent that banks are working neither in thier own best interests, nor that of the taxpayers or homeowners.  The feds, for their part, seem to be focusing on sysmptooms of the housing mess, and not on the problem itself. 

In the meantime, lives are being destroyed.