This article was posted to a local sig run by people supportive of Focus On The Family and Family Research Council. It's heavily anti-gay and anti-choice, read at your own risk (last time I posted one of these, I got e-mail from someone wanting to put their fist through the screen). [ Article crossposted from yfn.family.news ] [ Author was Family Magazine Sysops (xx155@yfn.ysu.edu) ] [ Posted on 24 Jul 1993 21:09:16 GMT ] |\ | |^^^^ | | |^^^^ | | || |^|^| |^^^^ | | | \ | |--- | | | |---| | | | |__| | | | -- | | \| |____ | | ____| | | | | | |____ | | ___________________________________________________________________ Volume 4, Number 9 July 1993 L I B E R A L S S T U N N E D ! Liberals who usually dominate the U.S. House of Representatives were rocked by pro-lifers June 30 in a vote on the Hyde Amendment. Pro-abortion members attempted to use House rules to block a vote on any amendment that called for even modest restrictions on federal funding of abortion under Medicaid. After hours of hot debate and sharp verbal exchanges, a limited version of the Hyde Amendment was eventually passed by an astounding 256-171 vote. =Loopholes Approved= The language Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) forced to the floor for a vote was a watered-down version of the famed Hyde Amendment of the past 16 years. Previously, abortions were funded under Medicaid only when it was claimed a pregnancy endangered the mother's life. Because of complicated rules on amendments crafted to favor House leaders, Mr. Hyde was not allowed to get a vote on this historic amendment language. Instead, he offered an amendment that allowed for funding in the cases of rape, incest or when a pregnancy is claimed to threaten the life of the mother. These changes cause concern. Expanded conditions will bring about more abortions, more loss of life. The provisions on rape and incest require no reporting and can be abused. But Mr. Hyde's attempt to include a reporting requirement was snarled by the rules. To have pressed ahead on this point might well have jeopardized the entire amendment. =Freshman Role= Critically important was the role of the 114 newly- elected members. This was their first direct vote on abortion. Liberal pundits had huffed and puffed about an "end to the abortion debate" coming from last November's election returns. Freshman Democrats voted 50-5 against the modified Hyde amendment; Republican newcomers voted 44-4 in favor of the funding restrictions. While pro-life groups fought for more protective language in the Hyde Amendment, they welcomed the clear implications of the overwhelming vote. The pro-abortion Clinton administration and its liberal allies in Congress have been dealt a body blow. Abortion advocates conceded as much. Congresswoman Pat Schroeder (D-CO), an abortion radical, said the Hyde amendment loss signals trouble ahead for other issues involving abortion. =Wide Hyde Impact= President Clinton must now worry about two high profile nominees. Both have made clear statements favoring federally funded abortions. Supreme Court choice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has questioned the constitutionality of the Hyde amendment (Courtwatch, this issue). Joycelyn Elders, Clinton's pick for Surgeon general, has loudly demanded federal funding of abortion (Newswatch, this issue). Their extreme views contrast sharply with the people's elected representatives in the House. The Hyde vote may also influence action on the so-called Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). Pro-abortion lawmakers are attempting to get FOCA considered by the House without any amendments. The bill currently requires states to pay for abortion without any restrictions. The Hyde vote is solid evidence that this House will not support funding for abortion on demand. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Health Care Plan may also be affected by the Hyde vote. The Clintons' plan would force Americans to pay for abortions through their insurance premiums. Only 23 percent of Americans, according to a May 27 *CBS/New York Times* poll, want private insurers to cover abortion on demand. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), a strong advocate of national health care, is worried. Gov. Robert P. Casey (D-PA) says requiring abortion coverage will kill health care, a position endorsed by the nation's Catholic bishops. But moving to the "center" on this issue could be hard for Bill Clinton. Late in May, a coalition of 84 liberal organizations announced it would hold the president accountable for his promise to include abortion coverage as part of a standard package of benefits. These groups are not simply asking that abortion be tolerated, but that all Americans accept complicity and pay for it. That's a position not even media wiz David Gergen can sell. O N T H E H I L L DANCE, PARDNER! Rep. Ernest Istook (R-OK) introduced an amendment to the District of Columbia appropriations bill that would stop the city from implementing its "domestic partners" ordinance. The measure allows unmarried, adult, non-dependent co-habitants to register with the mayor as "domestic partners." They would receive health care benefits and certain other legal rights. In previous years, this measure was promoted as the "same-sex marriage" act and has been a clear attempt by the homosexual lobby to redefine family to gain acceptance of their lifestyle. The Istook amendment passed on a 251-177 vote. DICEY YCTC. President Clinton's tax package recently passed the Senate by the narrowest of margins. Vice President Albert Gore broke a tie vote (only after some skittish Democrats, facing restive voters next year, were allowed to walk). While Senate Democrats scrapped the BUT tax and altered several other key provisions, they kept in place the Clinton administration's repeal of the $400 young child tax credit given financially- strapped families with newborn children. These same lawmakers only a few months ago waxed eloquent about moms' need for more time to bond with their babies. Now, they are making it financially more difficult for mothers to do just that. Slick. ELDERS WATCH. Bill Clinton's nominee for U.S. Surgeon General ran into a united front of opposition from pro- family groups. FRC's Vice President Kay Coles James told a July 7 press conference in Washington the Arkansas health director had "consistently diminished the value of our children." Mrs. James urged senators to examine Elders' Arkansas record, where teen pregnancies actually *rose* 17 percent during her tenure. "Condom giveaways do not result in better behavior, few pregnancies or better health," Mrs. James said. She noted that the U.S. has spent more than $2.8 billion on the contraceptive-based Title X program since 1970 while non-marital teen births have risen 61 percent. SCOUT BASHER PAYZANT. San Diego's school superintendent Tom Payzant faces tough questioning in his Senate confirmation hearings. Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) vows to probe President Clinton's nominee for Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education. At issue will be his ouster of the Boy Scouts from the city's classrooms. Payzant booted the Scouts, charges the Free Congress Foundation's Michael Schwartz, so he "could enforce his pro-homosexual views on nine-year-old boys." Payzant has championed school-based clinics, condom giveaways, and the gay-oriented Project 10. He also forbade teachers to give students failing grades to build "self esteem." A R O U N D T O W N TRANSPORTED. The U.S. Department of Transportation became the first Cabinet department to sponsor "gay pride" month in June. Under the direction of Secretary Federico Pena, the department spent $1900 in taxpayer funds on various activities, including group discussions and the showing of a film. The events featured speeches by Pena and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), and avowed homosexual. Pena aggressively pushed the events, even forcing the U.S. Coast Guard to advertise it. The Coast Guard, under threats from gay Rep. Gerry Studds (D-MA), had banned a prayer breakfast speech by FRC President Gary Bauer in February. Question: If Coast Guardsmen attend "pride" events at DOT headquarters, does that constitute "telling?" Don't ask. AIDS CZARINA NAMED. According to the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, the U.S. will spend $15.2 billion annually on AIDS by 1995. But Kristine Gebbie, Clinton's new AIDS czarina, will likely push to increase Federal funding for AIDS treatment and prevention even more. Gebbie, the former health director in Washington state, supports federally funded clean needle giveaways to drug abusers. She also believes that public schools should provide condoms. Not surprisingly, she favors more explicit AIDS education. Recent studies show that in San Francisco, where the AIDS education could not be more explicit, one-third of young homosexuals continue to practice promiscuous sex without condoms. COPPING A PLEA. Answering charges that television violence affects children, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox changed their pleas from "innocent free speech advocates" to "guilty with an explanation." The networks announced that they were willing to experiment with a "Warning Label" to be placed at their discretion. Label advocates pointed to more than 3,000 studies showing a consistent correlation between viewing violence and aggressive behavior. Not discussed--equally powerful sexual images. But critics argue the networks' irresponsibility can't be covered up by a few labels--a gesture made to avoid stronger measures supported in Congress. A C C R O S S T H E N A T I O N TRAILBLAZERS. Six Oregon communities--four counties and two cities--passed measures that prevent special civil rights protection from being extended to homosexual behavior. Despite media claims that the measures were "anti-gay," they are not aimed at denying homosexuals their rights. Rather, they prevent homosexuals from claiming minority status based on their behavior. Homosexuals experience no loss of rights under the measures. These victories, in some cases by 2-1 margins, are an encouraging sign to pro-family activists who are attempting to get similar measures on the ballot in six states. C O U R T W A T C H =RUTH OR CONSEQUENCES= President Clinton announced June 14 his nomination of Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, of the DC Circuit, to the Supreme Court. Early signs suggest that Clinton achieved a triple goal with this choice: --an easy confirmation process; --political credit for choosing a "moderate; and --a reliable liberal vote on the Court on key social issues. Over the past two months, various potential nominees came and went, culminating in Judge Stephen Breyer of the First Circuit. Breyer, a genuine moderate, was interviewed June 11 by the president, and looked like he would get the nod. But, according to informed sources, Clinton balked at Breyer's free-market ideas on regulatory issues. Ginsburg had been widely assumed to be out of the running because of a speech she gave in March (before) Justice White's resignation announcement) in which she criticized *Roe v. Wade.* But on Sunday, June 13, she was interviewed by the president, and the following day he made it official. The Ginsburg nomination is being treated very differently from the way Republican nominations to the Court were treated. Nominees Rehnquist, Scalia, Bork, Kennedy, Souter, and Thomas were all made to spend a perilous two-to-three months in "Juristic Park" before they were voted on. By contrast, Ginsburg seems to be undergoing a coronation rather than a confirmation--with Republicans as dutiful train-bearers. What is the true juristic profile of Ruth Bader Ginsburg? First, what does she "criticize" about *Roe v. Wade?* Two things: 1. *Roe* forced an overly rapid change, thereby strengthening the right-to-life movement. Ginsburg criticizes *Roe* for being a less effective vehicle for liberalized abortion than it could have been. 2. Rather than the "privacy" theory of *Roe,* Ginsburg believes the right to abortion should be based on the theory that restrictions on abortion discriminate on the basis of sex, and therefore violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. This theory would strike down more abortion regulations than the *Roe* theory did. Ginsburg has even speculated that the Constitution requires taxpayer funding of abortions. Just after the House has reaffirmed the Hyde Amendment, the Senate may be about to confirm someone for the Supreme Court who thinks the Hyde Amendment is unconstitutional. Ginsburg is also a former general counsel to the ACLU's Women's Rights Project. Her feminism is not extreme, but she is very willing to read it into the 14th Amendment. This is the essence of judicial activism: viewing the Constitution's language as a blank check to federal judges, allowing them to enact their political preferences under cover of "interpreting the Constitution." To be sure, Ginsburg's judicial record is not that of a zealous liberal activist. She has been more centrist as a judge than her ACLU past would have suggested. It is also true that President Clinton could have made a more left-wing appointment (and probably will do so next time). But there is no doubt that with the Ginsburg nomination, he has kept his campaign promise to cement the Court's pro-abortion position, and to move it to the left. =WHITE RETROSPECTIVE= It would be appropriate here to say a few words of appreciation for retiring Justice Byron White, especially since the major media don't seem eager to do it. A Democrat, appointed by President Kennedy, White did not always delight conservatives. But on the social issues that are paramount for us, White was a might fortress, defending the common sense of the American tradition against the increasingly bizarre abstractions being churned out as "constitutional law" by the elites. War veteran and football star, Rhodes Scholar (back when common sense was still required in academia), tireless enemy of the *Roe v. Wade* decision, generous friend of religion in the public square--we will miss you very much, Justice White, just as we miss the old- style Democratic Party of which you are a sterling exemplar. P O L I C Y U P D A T E ="FLAG" FOOTBALL= "It's illegal. It's stupid. It will cost lives." That's the way Maj. Chuck Johnson describes the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" compromise on gays in the military. Maj. Johnson backed up his blunt words with action: he resigned his commission January 29, the day President Clinton announced the military would drop "the question" about homosexuality from entrance forms. Maj. Johnson will leave the Marine Corps after 18 years of distinguished service, just two years short of a pension. Maj. Johnson's brave sacrifice is stiffening the resistance of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Joint Chiefs are trying to keep homosexuals out without openly defying their commander-in-chief. The Chiefs want recruitment forms to state that "homosexuality is incompatible with military service." Bill Clinton's gay allies insist this language must go. The Chiefs want recruits to sign a statement acknowledging that homosexual conduct, homosexual statements or attempts to marry a person of the same sex will lead to discharge. But the Chiefs are willing, reportedly, to drop "the question." This is the source of a power struggle. Prestigious former general officers--retired admirals and generals who, like the Chiefs, are respected as "flag" officers--are urging the Chiefs publicly and privately to dig in. The flags know the compromise cannot work in practice. Stand firm, they tell their brother officers, and Congress will back you up. Capitol Hill sources are confident that Congress would vote to keep the ban--provided the Chiefs do not opt for a compromise. But with Clinton demanding $119 billion in Defense Department cuts, the Chiefs are staring down a gun barrel. Can they afford to defy their commander- in-chief? Col. David Hackworth, America's most decorated war veteran, shows why the Chiefs can't afford *not* to defy Clinton. Writing in *Newsweek* (June 28), Col. Hackworth finds Clinton the most despised commander-in- chief he's seen. He even calls for Clinton's impeachment if he presses the gay initiative. That's not all. Pentagon data show a serious decline in the quality of Army recruits. *The Navy Times* cites the lifting of the gay ban as the leading cause of "high anxiety" in the sea services. And now we are marching to Macedonia. I N S I D E D. C. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY WINS / by Gary L. Bauer Last July, I had to report the sad news that the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled unconstitutional even a non-denominational school graduation prayer spoken by a Rhode Island rabbi. The Court went out of its way then, it seemed to me, to show its hostility to America's heritage of religious liberty. What a difference a year makes. All over our country, students have initiated their own prayers. Last fall, tens of thousands joined in "Meet Me At The Pole" events, where they offered simple prayers for God's blessings on their families, their schools and their communities. During 1993 graduation exercises in town after town, students similarly defied the ACLU and braved media scorn to keep prayer a part of their special public moments. These young people won't tell stories of "getting wasted" or committing acts of vandalism during grad week. Instead, they'll share with their children and grandchildren a cherished memory of standing up to the arrogant abuse of authority. They are today's young defenders of freedom and faith. That's not a bad legacy for the Class of 1993. The Supreme Court, perhaps sensing a populist ferment, this year refused to consider stamping out student dissent. It also decided favorably *Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches School District,* a case where a school district rented its facilities after school hours to a wide variety of community groups, but refused to rent to a church. The church wanted to hold a public showing of Dr. (James) Dobson's film series, *Turn Your Hearts Toward Home.* The school district maintained that to allow the showing of a film with religious content would violate the establishment clause. "No," said a unanimous Supreme Court. The school district's refusal to rent to the church violated the free speech clause. Government may not treat religious speech less favorably than other speech just because it's religious. How refreshing! In *Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District,* a deaf student, who had a legal right to a sign-language interpreter in school, wanted to take his interpreter with him when he transferred to a religious school. The school district said "No." --sending the interpreter into the religious school would violate the establishment clause. The Supreme Court disagreed. It said that it was the Zobrests' decision, not the government's, that caused the interpreter to be in the religious school. Thus, the First Amendment was not violated. This is the key distinction that advocates of education vouchers have been making for years. In this year's free exercise case, the Court struck down Hialeah, Florida's restrictions on animal slaughter because they city's ordinance seemed to be targeted at the unpopular Santeria sect. Many religious freedom defenders recognize this Court ruling as a victory because it limits the ability of government to infringe upon religious liberty. As important as these Supreme court victories are, however, we must not forget that is we, the people, who must stand up for religious freedom in our land. And when we do stand up, even the High Court can be put on notice. As Thomas Jefferson said: "It is in the manners and spirit of the people that a republic is preserved in vigor." O N T H E H O R I Z O N * Ominous trends for AIDS suffers. July 7 *Washington Blade,* homosexual newspaper in the nation's capital, reported on June 17 workshop in San Francisco by HEMLOCK SOCIETY founder and suicide advocate *Derek Humphry.* Event drew crowd of 100, mostly homosexual and many with AIDS, for discussion of suicide methods and issues. Euthanasia data from the Nether- lands, where blind eye is officially turned to assisted deaths, have long shown AIDS sufferers among primary objects of "mercy killing." Ironically, U.S. homosexual activists use "elevated" suicide rates among young homosexuals to advance Project 10 and other pro-gay school counseling programs. * Some observers fear national Republican Party decision to tap former Reagan official to lead grassroots policy roundtables *may open, not close, GOP wounds* caused by 1992 electoral debacle. *Michael Baroody,* former White House public affairs chief, reportedly *meeting with wide spectrum* of national Republican activists before campaign goes local. In *Virginia,* at least, grassroots upsurge in June was decidedly conservative--*huge 13,000-delegate* Republican convention nominated former Congressman *George Allen* for governor and Home School Legal Defense Fund President *Michael Farris* for lieutenant governor. Virginia one of the few states to hold statewide elections in national off-years. * Fatherhood theme riding summer wave. *Time* magazine cover story (June 28), *New Republic* editor Fred Barnes ("Quantity Time," July 12) and *Washington Post* columnist William Raspberry ("Becoming Fathers to Their Children," July 7) took up common themes: fathers make a unique and irreplaceable contribution to children's lives. Family Research Council deployed similar ideas in advertising campaign kicked off Father's Day weekend in *Wall Street Journal* and Washington, DC dailies. For samples of the series, "Being a Dad is Important Business," write FRC or call our Hotline at (202) 783-HOME. -- Doug Sewell, Tech Support, Computer Center, Youngstown State University doug@cc.ysu.edu doug@ysub.bitnet !cc.ysu.edu!doug Geek (ca. 1942): a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usu. includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake - Websters.