Planned Parenthood's Heroes of Eugenics - Slobodan Milošević ,President of Liberia Charles Taylor, Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic

Planned Parenthood wants you to know that making this planet a little less populous is everyone's concern - like Global Warming* - let's get behind heroes of Eugenics like these great fellows!

Distinguished Eugenics Community Activists and Planned Parenthood Honorees in the Making!

Slobodan Milošević
Charles G. Taylor
Radovan Karadzic

Why, only the other day the gals at Planned Parenthood chirped,

“With the stroke of a pen, President Obama has lifted the stranglehold on women’s health across the globe. His repeal of the global gag rule ends eight long years of policies that have blocked access to basic health care for women worldwide. No longer will health care providers be forced to choose between receiving family planning funding and restricting the health care services they provide to women. ( Real Choice - Abort AND Win Valuable Prizes!)

“Expanding access to family planning is not only good, basic health care; it saves women’s lives. In some parts of Africa, women have a one-in-10 risk of dying in childbirth, a sad fact only exacerbated by the gag rule. Women’s health and well-being are the bedrock of freedom and independence for individuals, families, and entire communities. Avoiding disease, having access to clean water and nutritious food, deciding whether and when to have children, and being safe in pregnancy and childbirth make women stronger and improve the quality of life for families and communities. ( Give African Kids A 100% Chance of Being Murdered!)

“Planned Parenthood thanks President Obama for taking immediate action on this critical health issue. With President Obama, women in the U.S. and around the world have a president who puts protecting and strengthening women’s health first. Just a few days after he’s taken office, we can clearly say that thanks to President Obama, it truly is a new day for women’s health.” ( Gosh -YES!)

Source: Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević was brought to trial for war crimes and genocide, but died in custody on March 11, 2006, before the trial could be concluded.
Former Liberian President Charles G. Taylor was also brought to the Hague charged with war crimes; his trial was provisionally scheduled to begin in April 2007, but was postponed until June 2007 to allow the defense more time to prepare, and is now ongoing.
Former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade on 18 July 2008 and brought before Belgrade’s War Crimes Court a few days after. He was extradited to the Netherlands, and is currently in The Hague, in the custody of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He has not yet entered a plea; his next appearance was on 29 August 2008.


The above mentioned Eugenics Heroes are pikers compared to the Harpies of Planned Parenthood -

*WORLDWIDE INCIDENCE AND TRENDS
• The number of induced abortions declined worldwide between 1995 and 2003, from nearly 46 million to approximately 42 million. About one in five pregnancies worldwide end in abortion. [1]

• For every 1,000 women of childbearing age (15–44) worldwide, 29 were estimated to have had an induced abortion in 2003, compared with 35 in 1995.[1]

• The decline in abortion incidence was greater in developed countries, where nearly all abortions are safe and legal (from 39 to 26 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44), than in developing countries, where more than half are unsafe and illegal (from 34 to 29).[1]

• Most abortions occur in developing countries—35 million annually, compared with seven million in developed countries[1]—a disparity that largely reflects the relative population distribution.

• On the other hand, a woman’s likelihood of having an abortion is similar whether she lives in a developed or developing region; in 2003, there were 26 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 in developed countries compared with 29 per 1,000 in developing countries.[1]

Chicago Sun Times Wants Catholics to Shut Up - Abortion Is A Great Way For Woman to Look Better and Get Empowered!

A woman's right to choose means that she should be empowered to have Old Doc jam a sharp or blunt object into her wombed child; yank the corpse out and toss Junior's guts into a can unencumbered by civil, moral or ethical constraints whatsoever.

The Chicago Sun Times a wad of thinning sheets of howling opinion and bugger all thought slicked up some encomiums from its three readers in reaction to Catholic Bishops doing their jobs:

Catholic Church forgets other 9 commandments
Comments

November 13, 2008

I love stories about the abortion issue and the Catholic Church. The last time I checked there were 10 commandments, not just one.

They pick and choose our politicians to punish for their personal beliefs on commandment No. 5 ("Thou shalt not kill"), yet they overlook all the other ones.

How about commandment No. 6 ("Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors wife") or No. 7 ("Thou shalt not steal")?

Are these lesser offenses in the eyes of the Catholic Church?

Sean Lowry, Beverly

Stay out of politics
Please, as a Catholic, I ask if there isn't someone who will tell Catholic bishops to get out of politics?

Their moral stance is fine when it is applied to their religion, but not to a whole country. After all, it was not God who told us that abortion was wrong, but a group of cardinals who voted that a child was given a soul at the moment of conception rather than at the moment of birth, and it only won by one vote.

Arlene Cozzi, Lake View

George should step down
Cardinal Francis George needs to step down. Any person who does not protect innocent children needs to be replaced. He has allowed pedophiles to have close contact with children for years. That shows that something is really wrong. This is just another example of what our society thinks of children. Our laws do not protect them, because they cannot vote. So our politicians turn their backs on them.

Lea Tomassone,

River Grove

Yep, powerful commentary.

Here's the AP on the Catholic Bishops Stand on Abortion:

Cardinal Francis George told a gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Monday that continued support for abortion rights will undermine any advances in social justice that come from a new president and Congress.

George, president of the bishops group, said: ''we must all rejoice'' that an African American will be in the White House for the first time in a country that ''once enshrined slavery'' in law.
But he said the U.S. still violates universal human rights by keeping abortion legal.

''The common good can never be adequately incarnated in any society when those waiting to be born can be legally killed at choice,'' George said.

His speech didn't directly address the policies of President-elect Barack Obama, who is Protestant, and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, who is Roman Catholic. Both men support abortion rights and take other stands that differ from Catholic teaching.

At a later news conference, George said bishops are preparing to lobby the Obama administration on policies that diverge from Catholic teaching on marriage, abortion and other issues.

AP

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The Chicago Sun Times while sinking like a doughball in the gullet of a Kankakee River Channel Catfish, fights for a woman's right to cosmetically get rid of excess weight brought on by sexual relations. Abortion is no more than liposuction, if one has no moral root. In my experience, the only women who have ever argued stridently for abortion seemed to be as willing to toss husbands, unruly pets and even their unaborted children. Too much bother. 'Get that Duck out of MY Oven!'

The Pink T-Shirts of Planned Parenthood stayed in the wearhouse this Campaign Cycle, but the fashionable and smart ladies who Salon will be out in full howl and the Chicago Sun Times will whine its way into oblivion.

Father Bob Barron had nice explanation that would be lost on the threeMetro Chicagoans getting their Shouts Out with the Sun Times above - you see the Catholic Church is not the Democratic Party! Troubling, LuLu?

The problem here is that the social teaching of the church flows necessarily from and is subordinated to the doctrinal convictions of classical Christianity. We care for the poor precisely because we are all connected to one another through the acts of creation and redemption. More to it, we worry about the marginalized precisely because all of us are cells, molecules and organs in a mystical body whose head is Christ risen from the dead. And our work on behalf of social justice is nourished by the Eucharist, which fully realizes and expresses the living dynamics of the mystical communion.

Read more - read something -http://www.catholicnewworld.com/cnwonline/2008/1109/faithculture.aspx

Abortion is an evil. Parse up a Nuanced storm.

American Catholics - Time to Ask Where We Go to Mass - Grant Park or The Parish Near You!

Archbishop Charles Chaput wrote in his recent book, Render Unto Caesar,

“The point we must never forget is this: We need to keep fighting for the human person, starting with the unborn child and extending throughout life. We abandon our vocation as Catholics if we give up; if we drop out of political issues altogether or knuckle under to America’s growing callousness toward human dignity. We need to keep fighting. Otherwise we become what the Word of God has such disgust for: salt that has lost its flavor.”

The Sun Times, Chicago's Progressive Independent Voice of Chicago, is fighting for Gay Marriage. No children result from gay marriage - a biological imperative - but the Sun Times hammers home 'It's about the Children.' Which is the burning issue? Gay Rights it seems. Third Trimester Kids die every day thanks to Advocacy of a Woman's Right To Choose having a doctor jam a spike into the babies skulls and yank out the corpses with forceps, but the real heart-tugger comes when Randy and Andy ( gender Neutral handles) can not obtain a Cook County Marriage Licence from Dave Orr.

In Arkansas, voters barred unmarried couples from becoming adoptive or foster parents in a state that doesn't have enough foster homes. This action comes despite a recent study showing that same-sex couples play a critical role in the world of adoption because they will take the kids who are the hardest to place -- older children and ones with special needs.

So, a supposed pro-family measure winds up hurting children.

Now that sounds Urgent!

Stop the Presses!

That is because marriage is between two people of opposite gender - a union that is intended - great lawyer-word INTENT - to propagate the species, or more feely -Families.

Gays enjoy sex to express love between two people of same sexual gender ( Man to Man; Woman to Woman). Everyone else expresses their love with sex in hope of having children and raising them according to that union.

The expression of love comes in many forms - sex is one and a powerful one. In our times ( between the 1960's and today) one of the most powerful expressions of love has become politics: Advocacy Politics pick and issue, get behind it and votes will pour in.

As Chicago Sun Times Advocacy Columnist, Neil Steinberg said today in his column on Chicago: The New Athens,

One thing this election has taught me is that there are lots of facts, an infinity of facts, and too many people seize on just a few, puzzle pieces that fit neatly into their puzzled minds. Then they ignore the rest, staring at one pebble in a field of boulders.

The father and son singing might not be important. But it's something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.
-- Ambrose Bierce Devil's Dictionary.

It is time for principles to skip politics. Catholics, like me, need to take a long hard look at ourselves and ask, 'What do I believe? What do I share with my children? What is worth holding on to and what is worth letting go?

I listened to Catholic Journalist Raymond Arroyo last night and pointed out the liturgical nature of the Obama Celebration - almost a Mass it was! Thousands of people took Communion with President Elect Obama.

The Obama Liturgy in Grant Park on Tuesday Night and all that it means might be a good start to begin my examination of conscience.

We all live together to be sure, but we go Hell on our own.

Yes, indeed. Abortion has Advocacy. Gays have Advocacy. The Unborn are on their own.

McCain/Palin: Cardinal George Opposes Abortion - Media Shills for Obama and Lawyers Look for an End-Around

Lawyers and Media Shills will toss more manure than a mad cow and generally they get away with it - barrels of ink and a litigious impulse.

Most people have solid convictions and good sense. Lawyers and Media Shills will talk until it seems that they win - consequences be damned. This morning two clear examples glare at us from the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times over abortion and the election. McCain/Palin oppose Abortion and Obama/Biden is committed to Abortion. A lawyer and a Media Shill tell Catholic readers how to ignore the teachings of their Church, their Cardinal Archbishop, and their convictions and do what too many Catholic politicians do . . .what ever they feel like.

I'll stick with my beliefs and listen to Cardinal George - OK, pinheads! Start whining about scandal and war and anything but the issue of abortion - no wait, the lawyer andthe Media Shill are on it. Go back to your Pop Tarts.


Carol Marin, who had absolutely no moral compass when the chance of a hot story led her to help destroy the lives of an immigrant couple*, uffishly opines that Cardinal George of Chicago** is morally skewed:

Why has abortion become the principal litmus test of devout Catholicism? Or of a candidate's fitness? And why is a woman's womb always the first and foremost rallying cry of the culture wars?

I went back to read the bishops' own 12-page treatise, issued in 2004, called "Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility."

It is a long and thoughtful document.

"We face fundamental questions of life and death, war and peace, who moves ahead and who is left behind," it reads.

Amen.

Amen? '. . .And Blessed is the Fruit of Thy Womb, Jesus' - when? That's from the Hail Mary. For Catholics it seems to me that it extends to the womb, Carol. Carol Marin is all about the story and the story is all about Obama getting swept into the White House. Like the Fogartys and Carols need to get National Buzz - that's all that matters. They can be charged, imprisoned falsely, bankrupted and nearly destroyed, but Carol gets what she wants. That's the Media. Especially the Sun
Times.

And the there is the Medill Ayers Dodgers at the Chicago Tribune who have trotted out a lawyer. There's lawyers and then there's lawyers - Doug Kmiec was a lead anti- Abortion lawyer and now he is a hair-splitter:
For the last several months, conservative bloggers have been lampooning me for endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president—admittedly, a somewhat unusual thing for a Republican to do—so some political paddling is fair. What is unfair has been those Republican partisans who have tried to close the door on Obama in the name of the Catholic faith.

Obama does not advocate the reversal of Roe vs. Wade, and orthodox Catholics do. We do for the very clear reason given by George in a Sept. 2 letter—namely, "one cannot favor the legal status quo on abortion and also be working for the common good."



That's exactly right, but what's wrong is for Republican partisans to claim this to be Obama's position. It's not. Rather, Obama believes there are alternative ways to promote the "culture of life," even given the law's sanction of abortion.

The central hope of the Obama campaign is to find common ground—not by "favoring" that which can never be acceptable, the taking of innocent unborn life, but by dealing with the legal reality in a way that at least reduces the likelihood of abortion. Chicago is only Obama's adopted home, but in this he represents the best of her "I will/city of big shoulders/let's get something practically done" spirit.

Unlike Obama, I regret to say the current Republican Party thrives on demonizing its opposition to win elections. Without ideas, there is only name-calling. That's too bad because additional avenues for strengthening a culture of life open up when we avoid demonizing those who disagree with our Catholic view that life begins at conception. Talking strongly pro-life, Republicans often do little, promising that some judge not yet appointed is the answer or advocating leaving it all up to the states to decide, seldom acknowledging that many, perhaps most, states would end embedding the "legal status" of abortion—exactly contrary to the cardinal's thoughtful instruction.

Obama seeks to extend a helping hand (increased funding for prenatal care, maternity leave and less cumbersome and expensive adoption) with an astute understanding of how closely economic circumstances and abortion are related. Both reasonable extrapolations from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics and a recent Catholic in Alliance for the Common Good study find that improving the economic well-being of the average family in general, and of the women facing the abortion decision in particular, can save unborn lives.
From 1979 to 1990, during a difficult inflationary economy, the annual rate of abortion increased by 14.2 percent, resulting in an additional 740,000 abortions. In the more economically stable decade following, the annual rate decreased by 34 percent, meaning that approximately 2.3 million children who would have been aborted are alive to-day.

The pretense that the GOP is now an agent for change for what it, itself, instituted is far too Orwellian to be accepted. The Obama-Biden team says to the average working person in America: Your work matters, and it will be compensated at a family wage; your retirement will be safeguarded from corporate fraud and manipulation—be it by cooking the books a la Enron Corp. or the legal abuses of a shadow banking system that by profligate lending practice has precipitated massive government bailouts and the takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Sen. John McCain is an honorable man caught between a failed presidency and the tired ideas of his party that only invite repetition of that failure. There's no reason that failure should be extended in a way that blocks the greater protection of unborn life.

Douglas W. Kmiec is the author of "Can a Catholic Support Him?—Asking the Big Question About Barack Obama" and former constitutional legal counsel to President Ronald Reagan.

Mr. Pettifogger talks eleven to the dollar on a ten - Obama and Biden extend helping hands and McCain/Palin are Orwellian - got it dummies?

Conscience does not matter. Life does not matter. All that matters is that Obama gets in for Lawyers and Ink-Slingers.

It is not gonna happen.

Hey, Carol! Amen!








*Instead, I will post an interesting passage from The Blanket a website dedicated to a united Ireland. Two Chicagoans, Mary and Chris Fogarty, had their life's savings depleted in an attempt to defend themselves from the FBI, IRS, MI-5, and other acronymic agencies with the complicity of NBC 5's Carol Marin.

I remembered the case, because one of the murdered people was related to a girl who taught at Bishop McNamara in Kankakee ( funny how that town dovetails ( George & Lura Lynn & etc.), and I remembered how much storm the story had around the time of the Good Friday Peace Accords and the horrific Omagh bombings.

There should be a 'Follow-up' story to this - but the News media rarely do that when a story goes south on them. Carol Marin, how about some answers?

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html

** Cardinal George's Statement:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In the midst of a lengthy political campaign, matters of public policy that are also moral issues sometimes are misrepresented or are presented in a partial or manipulative fashion. While everyone could be expected to know the Church's position on the immorality of abortion and the role of law in protecting unborn children, it seems some profess not to know it and others, even in the Church, dispute it. Since this teaching has recently been falsely presented, the following clarification may be helpful.

The Catholic Church, from its first days, condemned the aborting of unborn children as gravely sinful. Not only Scripture's teaching about God's protection of life in the womb (consider the prophets and the psalms and the Gospel stories about John the Baptist and Jesus himself in Mary's womb) but also the first century catechism (the Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) said: "You shall not slay the child by abortions. You shall not kill what is generated." The teaching of the Church was clear in a Roman Empire that permitted abortion. This same teaching has been constantly reiterated in every place and time up to Vatican II, which condemned abortion as a "heinous crime." This is true today and will be so tomorrow. Any other comments, by politicians, professors, pundits or the occasional priest, are erroneous and cannot be proposed in good faith.

This teaching has consequences for those charged with caring for the common good, those who hold public office. The unborn child, who is alive and is a member of the human family, cannot defend himself or herself. Good law defends the defenseless. Our present laws permit unborn children to be privately killed. Laws that place unborn children outside the protection of law destroy both the children killed and the common good, which is the controlling principle of Catholic social teaching. One cannot favor the legal status quo on abortion and also be working for the common good.
This explains why the abortion issue will not disappear and why it is central to the Church's teaching on a just social order. The Church does not endorse candidates for office, but she does teach the principles according to which Catholics should form their social consciences. The teaching, which covers intrinsic evils such as abortion and many other issues that are matters of prudential judgment, could not be clearer; the practice often falls short because we are all sinners. There is no room for self-righteousness in Catholic moral teaching.

The Conference of Bishops in this country and the Bishops of Illinois have issued statements about Catholic social teaching and political life. They are available in our parishes. All of us should keep our country and all the candidates for office in the next election in our prayers. God bless you and your families.

McCain/Palin: Catholics Seem to Give McCain/Palin the Zogby Boost

The Zogby Numbers seem to indicate Catholics to be the big demographic in the McCain/Palin Bounce over the flat Obama/Biden ticket. Makes Sense - Obama Loves Abortion and Hates School Choice and Joe Does What the DNC Tells Him.

They Are no Mavericks!

All they got is Hollywood - We got Altar and Rosary Societies and Knights of Columbus Councils everywhere!


Some Very Strange Numbers From Zogby

Fritz Wenzel, a spokesman for the Zogby polling organization, is on XM POTUS08 right now, and he says that according to their numbers, McCain's surge in the polls started during the Democratic convention... which strikes me as rather odd.

Then he says that Sarah Palin is helping McCain by "double digits" among Catholic voters, particularly in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Michigan. While I don't find that impossible, it's interesting that a non-Catholic political figure would move the dial for Catholic voters. (Having said that, it's easy to picture her "hockey mom" style playing with Catholic voters in those states...)

[UPDATE: Numerous readers argue this is the Trig Palin effect. Yeah, that would make sense. A couple readers are telling me Sarah Palin was baptized Catholic, but I am skeptical that that would be the reason that Catholic voters would be shifting to the McCain-Palin ticket; that fact just doesn't seem publicized enough, nor seem like the piece of data that would shift a voter from one ticket to another, as Biden is Catholic.]

Independent women voters, as a portion of the sample, shrunk from 15 percent to 7 percent, but they went to Obama-Biden, not McCain-Palin. Yet among independent voters overall, McCain-Palin leads Obama-Biden, 49 percent to 42 percent.


All of this is from a Zogby Interactive poll of likely voters. For what it's worth...


09/08 01:13 PM

John McCain: Obama - Planned Parenthood's Purse Puppy

This one ought to give any American pause about Senator Obama's judgment and capacity to lead the country.

This is an exerpt taken from the full transcript of Obama's Oath of Fealty to Planned Parenthood - The People who Abort.

Huge Hat Tip to Laura Echevaria - Transcribed by Laura Echevarria: Click my post title for the full transcript!

Read carefully.

Barack Obama: Well, the first thing I’d do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. [Applause.] That’s the first thing that I’d do. Um, but the, okay, but, but your question about the federal courts is absolutely on target. I taught Constitutional Law for ten years and I have to say after reading this latest decision and the series of decisions that the Supreme Court has been putting forward that I find it baffling.

Because sometimes they are striking down acts of Congress like the Violence Against Women’s Act showing very little deference to Congressional decision making and that somehow when it comes to a piece of legislation that is not taking into account clear doctrine that the Supreme Court has laid out, they say, “Oh, that’s fine. Congress can make those decisions.” There is an inconsistency and I believe a hypocrisy in terms of how we see many of these decisions issued.

That’s why I think it’s important for us obviously to get not only a Democratic White House as well as a stronger Congress to protect these rights. But I also think it’s important to understand that there’s nothing wrong in voting against nominees who don’t appear to share a broader vision of what the Constitution is about.

I think the Constitution can be interpreted in so many ways. And one way is a cramped and narrow way in which the Constitution and the courts essentially become the rubber stamps of the powerful in society. And then there’s another vision of the court [sic] that says that the courts are the refuge of the powerless. Because oftentimes they can lose in the democratic back and forth. They may be locked out and prevented from fully participating in the democratic process. That’s one of the reasons I opposed Alito, you know, as well as Justice Roberts. When Roberts came up and everybody was saying, “You know, he’s very smart and he’s seems a very decent man and he loves his wife. [Laughter] You know, he’s good to his dog. [laughter] He’s so well qualified.”

I said, well look, that’s absolutely true and in most Supreme Court decis--, in the overwhelming number of Supreme Court decisions, that’s enough. Good intellect, you read the statute, you look at the case law and most of the time, the law’s pretty clear. Ninety-five percent of the time. Justice Ginsberg, Justice Thomas, Justice Scalia they’re all gonna agree on the outcome.

Emphasis my own. The Words are Obama's - he means them.


Parse up a storm Progressive! Abortion is murder. Choice is rhetoric. Obama is rhetoric. John McCain is genuine Change.

John McCain: Anti Abortion. Obama is all for it - so was CHairman Mao!

NARAL endorsed Barack Obama who told Planned Parenthood that he would fight for the right of Mothers who choose to murder their babies. Choice, argues NARAL, is Justice. I don't think so. But let's take a look at what a Pro Choice culture, Red China, has done for women.

Chairman Mao, a Communist Icon, demanded, advocated and ordered Abortion.

Here is what happened to a woman named Mao - no relative.

From Wikpedia

Mao Hengfeng is a women's rights and human rights activist in the People's Republic of China. A mother of twins, she was reportedly dismissed from her job in 1988 because she became pregnant for a second time with a third child, in contravention of China's family planning regulations. Mao refused to have an abortion, and was subsequently detained in a psychiatric hospital. She gave birth on 28 February 1989, and notified on 20 March that she had been dismissed from her job for missing sixteen days of work. This was the period when she was giving birth and recuperating, as well as recovering from her ordeal in the psychiatric institute.


[edit] Appeal and petitions
Mao Hengfeng appealed against her dismissal under China's Labour Law, and was reinstated to her job. However, the soap factory where she worked disputed the ruling. Mao was seven months pregnant with her fourth child at the time of the appeal hearing, when the judge reportedly told her that if she terminated this third pregnancy he would rule in her favour. Concerned for the welfare of her existing family, Mao terminated her pregnancy against her wishes, but still the court ruled against her, apparently because she had taken sixteen days of "unauthorized leave" from work, and also for her original violation of family planning policies.

From 1990 to 2004 Mao repeatedly petitioned the authorities for redress for her dismissal from work, her forced abortion, and the denial of other basic rights including that of freedom of expression. She had also made several attempts to initiate legal proceedings against the authorities in relation to these abuses, but courts repeatedly failed to respond or refused to file the cases.

As well as actively petitioning authorities to seek redress for herself, Mao Hengfeng has also acted to safeguard the rights of others. For instance, she is known to have actively supported other people seeking redress over alleged forced evictions in Shanghai and Shanxi province, and is reportedly regarded by the Shanghai authorities as one of the city's most persistent and experienced petitioners. She is actively campaigning on behalf of other individuals arbitrarily detained in "Re-Education Through Labour" or psychiatric facilities, including women held for alleged violation of family planning policies.

She opposes arbitrary detention and campaigns for legal reforms that ensure redress and protect ordinary people against abuse of power.


[edit] "Re-Education Through Labour" and recent developments in Mao's case
Mao Hengfeng was assigned without trial to eighteen months' "Re-Education Through Labour" (RTL) in April 2004 after repeatedly protesting about various abuses of her rights. Her welfare allowances were discontinued, leaving her family in severe financial difficulties. Many people in Shanghai openly demonstrated in support of her.

Since her release in September 2005 she has continued with her protests and has suffered further abuses along with her husband, Wu Xuewei, who was reportedly beaten by the police and may face criminal charges. Both are at risk of further human rights violations, including arbitrary detention and torture or ill-treatment.

On 13 September 2005, Mao and Wu were both reportedly beaten by police when they gathered with over a hundred other petitioners at Putuo District Court in Shanghai. They were supporting Xu Zhengqing, a petitioner who was facing trial in connection with his attempts to attend a memorial service in Beijing in January 2005. Along with dozens of other petitioners, the couple was detained by the police. Mao Hengfeng managed to escape and tried to continue her protest on behalf of Xu Zhengqing. However, she was detained again and sent back to her residential district, where local police and government officials apparently threatened her with imprisonment if she continued her protests and presented her with a formal police summons for investigation on suspicion of 'disturbing the normal lives of others'.

From 23 to 27 September, Mao and her family were reportedly held under a form of house arrest after she stated that she would go to a United Nations representative office in Beijing to protest about the abuses. Seven police officers reportedly stood guard in front of her flat preventing her from leaving, even to go shopping. On 29 September she was again placed under house arrest; an official told her that this would continue until the end of the fifth plenary session of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party on 11 October. The following day, three police officers and seven District Official Guards were stationed in front of her house. She was warned that she would be detained or face violent treatment if she tried to break out.

Amnesty International is following Mao's case, and this entry has been taken mostly from their article on her.

Choice ? Looks more like Death, Torture and Imprisonment.

John McCain is against Abortion. Barack Obama is for Abortion. I am for John McCain.

Click my post title for John McCain on Human Dignity

John McCain: The Only Pro Choice President for 2008 - Choice in Schools

Choice begins in Education -choosing a favorite toy, book, song, subject, and friends. Choices get more confusing. People calling themselves educated adults are a big cause of that confusion. One guy training teachers in Chicago, Bill Ayers, chose to be an enemy of America, during his college years and chose to be a domestic terrorist bomber. Choices are tough - or should be. Barack Obama chose to be friends with Bill Ayers, as well as indicted political fixer Tony Rezko - whose friends with am Iraqi arms dealer. Some choices, those.

Choice in PC America has become a euphemism for the right to kill an unborn child. Pro Abortion candidates Senators Clinton and Obama cling to a woman's right to decide to unburden herself of a life that she he helped create. Fair enough.

I believe in Choice, but not in any one's right to kill an unborn child. I believe that tax-payers have a right to choose a school that performs as it should, is safe, offers solid values that produce competitive and dedicated American citizens.

Only one candidate running for President of the United States offers real Choice in Education. I can say Choice. I do not believe that Planned Parenthood has an exclusive lock on the use of the word. Choice needs to be an option.

John McCain is the only Pro Choice candidate. He has my vote. Here's what John McCain has to say about Choice:

John McCain believes our schools can and should compete to be the most innovative, flexible and student-centered - not safe havens for the uninspired and unaccountable. He believes we should let them compete for the most effective, character-building teachers, hire them, and reward them.


If a school will not change, the students should be able to change schools. John McCain believes parents should be empowered with school choice to send their children to the school that can best educate them just as many members of Congress do with their own children. He finds it beyond hypocritical that many of those who would refuse to allow public school parents to choose their child's school would never agree to force their own children into a school that did not work or was unsafe. They can make another choice. John McCain believes that is a fundamental and essential right we should honor for all parents.

As president, John McCain will pursue reforms that address the underlying cultural problems in our education system - a system that still seeks to avoid genuine accountability and responsibility for producing well-educated children.

John McCain will place parents and children at the center of the education process, empowering parents by greatly expanding the ability of parents to choose among schools for their children. He believes all federal financial support must be predicated on providing parents the ability to move their children, and the dollars associated with them, from failing schools.

Click my post title for more on John McCain - The Pro Choice Candidate.

BTW - John McCain is dead set against Abortion.