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Is Mandatory Participation in Vaccine Trials ‘Not as Outlandish as it Might Seem’?
(Image source: The Atlantic)
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Navy’s Plan to Keep Strait of Hormuz Open? Dolphins
By many accounts, anti-faith sentiment has been working its way into the U.S. military this year. While the examples are anecdotal, they are collectively creating some angst in religious circles. Atheists are battling over a cross that was placed at Camp Pendleton in California, there is a continued push for non-believing chaplains , a cross has been removed from an interfaith military chapel in Afghanistan and the U.S. Air Force Academy backed out of a toy drive (because it’s sponsored by a Christian group). And these are just a few of the examples. Now, those who are worried about the continued erosion of faith and values in the U.S. military have another example to add to their roster. Fox News’ Todd Starnes is reporting that the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center implemented a policy that prevented family members of wounded military soldiers from bringing Bibles and other religious materials to their loved ones. The policy was apparently set in a memorandum from the medical center’s commander, Chief of Staff C.W. Callahan. On September 14, the guidelines were issued for “wounded, ill, and injured partners in care.” It states , “No religious items (i.e. Bibles, reading material, and/or artifacts) are allowed to be given away or used during a visit.” This policy — which led Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to give an impassioned speech on the House floor asking the president to intervene — has now been overturned. But the fact that it was implemented in the first place only adds fuel to the fire when it comes to questions about the military’s take on faith. Watch King discuss the military’s handing of faith issues, below: In an interview with Fox News & Commentary, King said , “The President of the United States should address this and should excoriate the people who brought about this policy and the individual who brought it about should be dismissed from the United States Military.” He continued : “That means you can’t bring in a Bible and read from it when you visit your son or your daughter, perhaps – or your wife or husband. It means a priest that might be coming in to visit someone on their death bed couldn’t bring in the Eucharist, couldn’t offer Last Rites. This is the most outrageous affront.” Sandy Dean, a public affairs official for Walter Reed, says that the policy will be re-written to “articulate” the center’s “initial intention which was to respect religious and cultural practices of our patients.” Dean claims that there was never an intent to prevent family members from providing religious materials to patients.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (AP)
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Walter Reed Military Hospital Bans Bibles & Religious Materials — Then Overturns Policy
So, the Office of Congressional Ethics joined in the Holiday Document Dump Spirit ( ho, ho, ho! ) on Friday and unloaded a two-year-old report on Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s cameo role in the Blago Senate seat trading scam. The announcement is on the OCE site here , but you can read the 300-page report right here in case you missed it: Review No 09-9812 Referral to Committee The upshot: The toothless OCE found “probable cause” and “substantial reason to believe” that not only did Jackson conspire to trade campaign cash for the Senate appointment, but that Jackson also broke the law by using taxpayer-subsidized office resources to promote a “public campaign” for Barack Obama’s old seat. Straight from the report: There is probable cause to believe that Representative Jackson either (1) directed a third-party, most likely Mr. Raghuveer Nayak, to offer to raise money for Governor Blagojevich in exchange for appointing Representative Jackson to the Senate seat, or (2) had knowledge that Nayak would likely make such an offer once Representative Jackson authorized him to advocate on his behalf with Governor Blagojevich. Because former Governor Blagojevich, Nayak and Mr. Rajinder Bedi have declined to cooperate with the OCE investigation, and because the OCE cannot compel their cooperation, the OCE is unable to determine whether there is a substantial reason to believe these allegations. …There is substantial reason to believe that Representative Jackson violated federal law and rules promulgated by the Committee on House Administration concerning the proper use of the Member’s Representational Allowance. Specifically, the OCE learned from Representative Jackson and his staff that staff resources both in the Representative’s Washington, DC and Chicago, Illinois, offices were used to mount a “public campaign” to secure the Representative’s appointment to the Senate. None of this is new news — most of the details emerged in the Chicago press and at trial — though the moldy oldy report includes a fresh, 17-page CYA letter from Jackson and his attorneys denying everything and invoking the see no corruption, hear no corruption defense. The delayed disclosure of the 2009 OCE comes just as Blago is scheduled to be sentenced early this week following his June conviction in the pay-for-play corruption case. And while OCE plays docu-dump reindeer games, the House Ethics Committee has decided to play more Kick the Can . Sporting its own holiday scandal muffler, the panel announced…it would have nothing to announce. It reneged on a do-something Friday deadline in Jackson’s ethics case and said it would continue to investigate: Pursuant to House Rule XI, Clause 3(a)(8)(A) and Committee Rules 17A(b)(1)(A) and 17A(c)(1), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee jointly decided on October 18, 2011 to extend the Committee’s review of the matter until December 2, 2011. In order to gather additional information necessary to complete its review, the Committee will continue to review the matter pursuant to Committee Rule 18(a). The Committee notes that the mere fact of conducting further review of a referral, and any mandatory disclosure of such further review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee. As The Hill reports, Jackson faces a challenge from his left flank and has asked reverse Midas Touch pal Barack Obama for help. Careful what you wish for, crony: While the committee has not set a new deadline for its decision, the delay threatens to push the committee’s findings into later this year — during what could be a tough primary battle for Jackson. The primary election is March 20. Former Rep. Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.) announced in early October that she would challenge Jackson for a new Chicago-based congressional district. That district is primarily composed of Jackson’s current constituents, but includes substantial areas of the Chicago suburbs more familiar with Halvorson. Jackson’s concern over the district is significant enough that he reportedly asked President Obama for help in the 2012 race. Jackson headed then-Sen. Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign in Illinois. And while the Ethics Committee emphasized that “conducting further review of a referral … does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred,” having the threat of Ethics Committee punishment looming over Jackson’s primary fight is disconcerting. Halvorson has indicated she will make it a campaign issue. As commenter Flyoverman quipped here almost a year ago: “The only ethics committee with any clout is an informed electorate.” Or as I always like to put it: The ballot box is the ultimate sanitizer. *** Previous/related: Capitol Hill’s other dirty laundry Summer of corruption: Blago verdict watch, Day 14; Update: Count 24 – lying to feds – GUILTY; deadlocked on all remaining counts against Blago and bro; mistrial declared; lone juror holdout Summer of corruption: Blago verdict watch & Jesse Jackson, Jr. watch The long, hot Summer of Corruption Blago appointed Obama’s AG to probe corruption; probe found no corruption; Holder forgets the whole thing
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Capitol Hill plays Jesse Jackson, Jr. games: Docu-Dump and Kick the Can
Culture of Corruption…Mwah! For the past four years, I’ve spotlighted the fight to bring Planned Parenthood’s predators to justice in Kansas. In October 2007, then-AG Phill Kline filed a 107-count criminal complaint against the PP racket, with counts ranging from falsifying documents to performing illegal late-term abortions. In February of this year, I noted the prolonged witch hunt against Kline — which blew up in the radical abortion lobby’s face. Today’s syndicated column scrutinizes the overseer role Obama HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has played throughout the PP/Kansas health bureaucracy’s stonewalling of the truth. See Life News and Planned Parenthood Corruption for background and documents. *** Shredding Kathleen Sebelius by Michelle Malkin Creators Syndicate Copyright 2011 If a private health insurer had engaged in the kind of criminal obstruction that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has been tied to in her home state of Kansas, it would be a federal case. Instead, it’s a non-story in the Washington press. Nothing to see here. Move along. On Monday, a district judge in the Sunflower State suspended court proceedings in a high-profile criminal case against the abortion racketeers of Planned Parenthood. World Magazine , a Christian news publication, reported on new bombshell court filings showing that Kansas health officials “shredded documents related to felony charges the abortion giant faces.” World Magazine reported: “The health department failed to disclose that fact for six years, until it was forced to do so in the current felony case over whether it manufactured client records.” The records are at the heart of the fraud case against Planned Parenthood. Kansas health bureaucrats now shrug that the destruction of these key documents — which they sheepishly admitted had “certain idiosyncrasies” — was “routine.” Who oversaw the agency accused of destroying the evidence six years ago? Sebelius. As governor of Kansas, Sebelius fought transparency motions in the proceedings tooth and nail for years. Prosecutors allege a long-running heinous cover-up to manufacture false records of patients who had late-term abortions — and to whitewash Planned Parenthood’s systemic failures to report child rape. Former GOP state Attorney General Phill Kline’s investigation turned up massive discrepancies in reported child rape statistics compared to Planned Parenthood and the late late-term abortionist George Tiller’s bogus claims. Planned Parenthood of Overland Park and Tiller together performed abortions on 166 girls aged 14 and under and only reported one each to authorities. So, 164 cases of underage rape or statutory rape went unreported and were not investigated by authorities. Where are Joe Biden to decry actual rape atrocities and Nancy Pelosi to decry dire hazards to women’s health when we need them? A Kansas district judge found probable cause of criminality in the abortion providers’ records; another district judge found probable cause to believe Planned Parenthood committed 107 criminal acts. Sebelius’ response? A bloody ideological soul mate of Tiller’s, she launched a vengeful witch-hunt against Kline. The state ethics board accused him of lying. The left-wing state Supreme Court Sebelius appointed stymied Kline’s subpoenas and appeals. Kline was cleared of all ethics violations. In fact, for 20 full months, the state’s disciplinary board for lawyers suppressed an internal investigative report concluding there was zero probable cause to justify the ethics complaints. Where there’s obstructionist smoke, there’s corruption fire. Under Sebelius’ watch as governor, an inspector general also reported that her appointed health policy board had “applied pressure to alter an audit report , restricted access to legal advice and threatened to fire her for meeting independently with legislators,” according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. Entirely fitting, of course. The war on whistleblowers and inspectors general has been a hallmark of the current White House. And the radically pro-abortion rights Sebelius has ruled ruthlessly from her Beltway perch: policing citizen critics of Obamacare through a taxpayer-funded Internet snitch brigade; threatening private companies and insurers who have increased rates to cope with Obamacare coverage mandates; lashing out at newspapers who dare report on the costly consequences of the federal law. As she bullies private companies to meet discriminatory and arbitrary disclosure demands, Sebelius has yet to be held accountable for overseeing state government agencies that conspired to hide the deadly truth about the Big Government/Big Abortion alliance from taxpayers. Like her boss in Washington, Sebelius’ political playbook has a single page: Destroy the messenger.
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Shredding Kathleen Sebelius
At New York Times, ” Protesters Bare All Over a Proposed San Francisco Law .” Apparently folks hang out all day in the buff, at restaurants even. I doubt that’d be so appetizing. Anyway, Zombie was on hand: ” San Francisco’s naked protest and the ethics of public nudity .” It turns out the “nude in” was sponsored by Bare Naked in Public. Zombie has a link to the website, which features all kinds of pictures of public homosexual sex acts. Naturally, all the San Francisco progressives are blabbering on about how this is just “free speech.” Free public radical gay sex is more like it. I mean c’mon, it’s not like decent middle class families are excited about raising their kids in the Castro. It’s a gay red light district. These are same types pushing for homosexual marriage in California — and mounting extremist hate campaigns against their opponents, the folks still standing for some old time values. What a disgrace, sheesh. The Zombie post is probably NSFW, by the way. And that’s say nothing of the rim-station blow jobbers at Bare Naked in Public.
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Nudity Group in San Francisco Promotes Radical Gay Public Sex
For a good portion of next week, I’ll be in Louisiana, working on an article for the magazine on Louisana Gov. Bobby Jindal and the accomplishments of his first term. Besides his policy successes, Jindal has already surprised the state by making the Louisiana Democrat Party a virtual nonentity in this year’s gubernatorial race: Campaign reports filed last week with the state Board of Ethics showed just how big a financing disparity exists between Gov.
