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Commentary on October 9 News - Nobel Prize, Zapatero, D&P, African Synod, No LSN on Monday

Dear Readers,

LifeSiteNews will not be publishing on Monday, so enjoy the break from the travails of the world.

It appears that the Nobel committee has hugely undermined its international credibility with its decision to grant the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama. We have rarely, if ever, seen such widespread derision from all sides of the ideological, political and social spectrum over a Nobel decision. Unbelievably, the Vatican press office has once again managed to jump in on the wrong side on a major issue and look very foolish as a result.

Spain's rabidly pro-abortion, socially radical Prime Minister will be visiting his like-minded friend in the White House on October 13. Concerned Women for America is urging pro-life Americans to show out in force in solidarity with the Spanish pro-life movement that needs all the help that it can get at this time.

Development and Peace again. Just how militantly pro-abortion does a group have to be for D&P to finally stop denying that there is any problem with its funding decisions. The All Rights for Everyone Network is clearly the wrong type of group for the Canadian Catholic bishops' international development arm to be giving even a nickel to.

Hilary White's second report on statements at the African synod of bishops is a must read. It confirms everything that we have been trying to tell the world for years. UNICEF, UNFPA, Stephen Lewis, etc. etc. must be stopped. Cultures and lives are being destroyed by these imperialistic predators who treat Africa like a garbage dump for all the worst of their social ideas and experiments.

So Acorn needs money to fight fires now. Good grief. Maybe the next thing is that they will be awarded a Nobel prize - for whatever.

Have a great weekend.

Steve Jalsevac
LifeSiteNews.com

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Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize to the Shock of Journalists and Pro-Life Leaders

UK Times on Line: "absurd decision on Obama makes a mockery of the Nobel peace prize"

By Patrick B. Craine and Steve Jalsevac

OSLO, Norway, October 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Early this morning, the Nobel Committee awarded U.S. President Barack Obama the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, prompting shock both from journalists and pro-life leaders.

The award, the Committee says, was given to President Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."  The Committee says that they have "attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons."

They credit him, further, with having "created a new climate in international politics."  "Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," they say.

Pundits point out that the Nobel committee's rush to give Obama the award is likely unprecedented since he had only been in office for 12 days before the February nomination deadline for the prize.  "The prize seems to be more for Obama's promise than for his performance," comments Jennifer Loven of the Associated Press.  "Work on the president's ambitious agenda, both at home and abroad, is barely underway, much less finished. He has no standout moment of victory that would seem to warrant a verdict as sweeping as that issued by the Nobel committee."

A much blunter, typically British commentary was given by Michael Binyon of the UK Times on Line (see brief video) ." Binyon states, "The award to Obama is arguably one the most absurd awards that the Nobel Committee has ever made." He continues that giving the peace prize to the U.S. President "will be met with widespread incredulity, consternation in many capitals and probably deep embarrassment by the President himself."

Binyon charges that there is a crass political agenda for the award stating, "Rarely has an award had such an obvious political and partisan intent." The Times journalist explains the outcome of such a situation: "Instead, the prize risks looking preposterous in its claims, patronising in its intentions and demeaning in its attempt to build up a man who has barely begun his period in office, let alone achieved any tangible outcome for peace."

On the lighter side, Tommy De Seno of Fox News addressed the situation with humor in his article, How to Win the Nobel Peace Prize In 12 Days in which he reviews the president's first 12 days in office.

De Seno's article ends with:  "January 31: Took the day off.  February 1: Skipped church. Threw a Super Bowl party. So there you have it. The short path to the Nobel Peace Prize: Party, go to meetings, skip church, release federal funding to pay for abortions in foreign countries, party some more. Good grief."

On the issue of Obama and peace, it is being stressed, for example, that the president is currently engaged in two wars - in Afghanistan and Iraq - and, though he has indicated a desire to withdraw from Iraq, he's done little thus far.

Further, the news comes as the President is embroiled in national controversy over the federal funding of abortion in his health care reform.  Pro-life leaders have long warned of Obama's radical abortion agenda.

This is not the first time that the Nobel committee has shown its preference for leading abortion advocates. Among others, In 2007 it awarded a shared Nobel prize to former US vice-president Al Gore. The world's pro-life leaders responded that Gore's strong support for world de-population and abortion made him especially unsuitable for the Nobel Prize.

When Mother Teresa of Calcutta received the award in 1979, as Catholic.org points out, she stated in her reception speech, "I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing - direct murder by the mother herself. ... Because if a mother can kill her own child - what is left for me to kill you and you kill me - there is nothing between."

Obama has denied repeatedly that his reform would fund abortion, but as FactCheck.org stated in August, "as for the House bill as it stands now, it's a matter of fact that it would allow both a 'public plan' and newly subsidized private plans to cover all abortions."

Language that would ensure the plan does not fund abortions has been repeatedly voted down in the House and the Senate.  The U.S. Bishops released a letter yesterday expressing their "disappointment" that the problem of abortion funding has not yet been addressed in the bill, and insisting that they will "vigorously" oppose the legislation until the problem has been addressed.

Joe Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League called Obama's receiving the award "tokenism," agreeing with others that he has not done anything to merit the prize.  "It cheapens the award to the point that it means nothing, it's just a token," he said.  "He hasn't done a thing except talk. ... So it demeans the prize to the point that it has no significance.  And it's a shame because it belittles all those people that went before."

Agreeing with Mother Teresa that abortion is "the greatest destroyer of peace today," he said, "That's right.  That's right.  And this man is one of biggest promoters of abortion.  Consequently, ... it's just an aberration.

"I am utterly shocked," said Judie Brown of American Life League.  "It just seems to me this is one of the most political moves ever made and that it justifies the fact that Obama can be pro-abortion, in favour of killing millions of people, and still be recognized as a leader of peace, which is simply ridiculous."

"In awarding the prize to Obama, the Nobel Committee is announcing that abortion is the cornerstone of a hellish 'peace'," she said, "- the damning silence of 51 million aborted children in the United States alone.  The Nobel Committee has bestowed the 'Peace Prize' on a man dedicated to war in the womb."

Last year, after it was announced that Canada's highest civic award was to be awarded to the nation's leading abortionist, Henry Morgentaler, ten previous recipients of the award eventually returned their medals to the Governor General of Canada.  In their comments, it was indicated that the award had become debased by the presentation of the same high recognition to a prolific abortionist.

See related LifeSiteNews Reports

Obama's First 100 Days: The anti-life plan is now established

Obama Administration Calls for Universal Access to Abortion at UN Meeting

Obama Science Czar Envisioned "Planetary Regime" of Forced Abortion and Sterilization Program in Book

Foul-Mouthed Homosexual Activist and Anti-Christian Bigot Appointed to Obama Administration

Obama Nominates Extreme Pro-Abortion Gov. Sebelius as Health Secretary

Congressmen Blast Obama Nomination of Radical Pro-Abort to Head Justice Dept. Legal Counsel

Secretary of State Clinton Admits Obama will Work to Dismantle Abortion Laws around the World

Obama's "Safe Schools" Czar Dreamed of "Promoting Homosexuality" to Schoolchildren

Obama Appoints "Abortion Reduction" Catholic to HHS Faith Office

Archbishop Chaput Gives Vatican Dose of "Humble Realism" on Barack Obama and Notre Dame Scandal

Prominent Kenyan Physician: "This Administration of Obama, is Going to be a Nightmare for Our People"

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Pro-Life Leaders Shocked at Vatican Spokesman "Appreciating" Obama Peace Prize

Vatican Spokesman Fr. Lombardi Says Vatican Appreciates Nobel Prize to Obama

By John-Henry Westen in Washington, D.C.

VATICAN CITY, October 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has reacted to the Nobel Peace prize being awarded to President Barack Obama saying that the news "was greeted with appreciation at the Vatican in light of the president's demonstrated commitment to promoting peace on an international level and, in particular, in recently promoting nuclear disarmament."

Given President Obama's vigorous support for abortion, pro-life leaders reacted with shock and dismay to the reaction by the Vatican spokesman.

One pro-life leader, who wished to remain anonymous, told LifeSiteNews.com, "If Obama was good on international peace and nuclear disarmament but favored the killing of Jews, its not likely he would get either the Noble Peace Prize or be praised by the Vatican."

Human Life International President Fr. Tom Euteneuer reacted to Lombardi's statement saying, "I really don't know who Fr. Lombardi is speaking for. The pope is not mentioned and I am glad for that."  Euteneuer who is currently at a conference in Germany added: "Fr. Lombardi must have forgotten that Pope John Paul II was not granted the Peace Prize in 24 years of peace-making around the world because the leftists on the Nobel Committee obviously don't give this Prize for actual results of peace."

American Life League President Judie Brown called Lombardi's statement "an insult to every practicing Catholic but at a more dramatic level a slap at Mother Teresa… who said 'the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion.'"  Brown, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that she was "outraged" by Lombardi's statement and called on Pope Benedict XVI "to deal with" Lombardi "once and for all".

This is the latest of the seemingly pro-Obama statements that have come from left-leaning circles in the Vatican.  It follows public comments from the editor-in-chief of L'Osservatore Romano Gian Maria Vian saying that Obama is not "pro-abortion" but "rather, pro-choice."

In July, Swiss Cardinal Georges Cottier, former theologian of the papal household under Pope John Paul II and currently an influential adviser in the Vatican appeared to downplay the pastoral concerns of the American Bishops over President Barack Obama giving the commencement address to the University of Notre Dame's Class of 2009 and receiving an award.

Chicago Cardinal Francis George also commented on the controversy saying: "L'Osservatore Romano - it is true - may have written a dozen lines in favor of Obama, some cardinal may have spoken in enthusiastic terms of the current American administration, but beyond the journalistic hype one point remains: the Church cannot betray itself."

The Cottier article recently garnered a politic but pointed response from Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput. "When Notre Dame's local bishop vigorously disagrees with the appearance of any speaker, and some 80 other bishops and 300,000 laypeople around the country publicly support the local bishop, then reasonable people must infer that a real problem exists with the speaker - or at least with his appearance at the disputed event," wrote Chaput.  "Reasonable people might further choose to defer to the judgment of those Catholic pastors closest to the controversy." 

See the complete front page of the October 10 L'Osservatore Romano

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Commentary: Vatican Press Office Director Fr. Lombardi - Six Strikes but He's Still not Out

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American Pro-Lifers to Greet Spain's Prime Minister at White House

Zapatero seeks to radicalize Spain's abortion law

WASHINGTON, Oct. 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Spain's Socialist Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, will meet with President Obama at the White House on Tuesday, October 13. Zapatero will be met by Americans in solidarity with Spain's citizens against his attempt to increase abortions.

Zapatero recently proposed a bill to liberalize Spain's abortion law. The bill would allow 16-year-olds to get abortions without parental consent, increase abortion without restrictions to 14 weeks, and change abortion from a crime to a social "right."

Spanish pro-life groups will hold a march in Madrid on October 17 to protest Zapatero's efforts to radicalize Spain's abortion laws. Doctors in Spain who face being forced to perform abortions or thrown in jail will join the march.

Concerned Women for America (CWA) and other pro- life activists will gather at the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue at 10:00 a.m. on October 13 during Zapatero's visit.

"Spain's pro-lifers and doctors can be encouraged that Americans stand with them against Zapatero's attempt to increase abortions. Pictures of Americans supporting life and opposing Zapatero during his White House visit will be sent to Spain to build momentum for Spain's march for life," said CWA President Wendy Wright.

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Mexican "Human Rights" Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' Organization Pressures State to Provide Abortion Services

CCCB rep says investigations of D&P groups on-going beyond that of original committee that went to Mexico

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent

MEXICO CITY, October 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Mexican "human rights" organization funded by the Canada's Catholic bishops Development and Peace organizaton is seeking to pressure the state of Guanajuato to conduct abortions, LifeSiteNews has learned. Meanwhile, a CCCB spokeswoman told LifeSiteNews today that there are "on-going" investigations of D&P funded groups by the CCCB beyond the already concluded investigations by the team that went to Mexico this past summer.

The Mexican organization, which calls itself the "All Rights for Everyone Network" (Red "Todos los Derechos Para Todos y Todas" or TDT) reported on July 17 that it had submitted a request to the federal government to denounce the state of Guanajuato, because "the state does not provide legal interruption of pregnancy services" and because "even when the victim of sexual violence who has an abortion is not punished, she continues to be considered as a criminal by the authorities."

In fact, abortion is not legal in the state of Guanajuato, although abortions under certain circumstances do not carry a penalty.  However, TDT follows the international pro-abortion movement's approach of claiming that the absence of criminal penalties makes the practice "legal."

For failing to provide abortions, TDT says that the state of Guanajuato "transgresses the human rights of women, provoking an inequality in the state that limits and restrains liberties and the rights of victims of sexual violence."

The organization states that, along with several other groups, it submitted a formal request to the federal government's National Women's Institute to declare a "Gender Violence Alert for Discriminatory Offense" against the state of Guanajuato for such "transgressions," on May 6 of this year.

Although the petition was rejected in August, the decision has been appealed.  In addition, TDT has continued to denounce Guanajuato's pro-life constitutional amendment, as well as that of other Mexican states.

In a new report recently published on the front page of its website, the organization complains about recent state constitutional amendments passed to protect the right to life from the moment of conception.

The report notes that Mexico's federal government is seeking to provide abortions to rape victims, and laments the fact that the regulation allowing the deadly procedure (NOM 046) is not being enforced in states that have a right to life amendment.

"The implementation of the Official Mexican Norm 046-SSA2-200519 regulates the provision of medical services to women who are victims of sexual violence and includes the lines that health care institutions must follow to provide interruption of pregnancy services when this [the pregnancy] is the result of a rape.  The implementation of the Norm has been impeded now that reforms in the constitutions of 12 federal entities have been produced, [which protect the unborn in their local constitutions," the report states on page 10 (page 11 of PDF version).

Citing the example of the state of Guanajuato's pro-life constitutional amendment, the report goes on to complain that, "Already before the constitutional reform women who are victims of rape have been denied even information about the possibility of the legal interruption of pregnancy; some women who have come to public hospitals with sceptic abortions have been charged, investigated, and sanctioned, violating the right to confidentiality.  There are even women imprisoned for 'homocide for reasons of family relationship in offense against her child in gestation'" (page 11, page 12 of PDF version).

TDT received $40,000 from the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP or "D&P), which is the Canadian bishops' international aid organization, during the 2007-2008 budget year.

Although CCODP declared in March that it was temporarily suspending the group's funding pending a review, along with four others, it then issued a report claiming that the groups were not promoting abortion. CCODP was contacted today and messages left a few times for CCODP Media Contact François Gloutnay who LifeSiteNews was told was in the office, but the calls were not returned.

CCCB communications representative, Francois Garneau told LifeSiteNews today that she was not aware if All Rights for Everyone was still being funded by the bishops Development and Peace organization. Garneau dircted LSN to D&P for the information.

Regarding the CCCB response to the new information about All Rights for Everyone, which was read to her, Garneau offered, "At this point it is an on-going investigation." She added, "This is not something that was brought to our attention sooner" (LSN learned of it only a few days ago) but, she stated, "It will be discussed and of course Development and Peace will present their report at the bishops' plenary at which point they will be able to find out more."

Garneau was asked if her comment about an "on-going investigation" meant that there was more investigation taking place beyond that of the original group with two bishops which submitted its final report some time ago. She reponded, "that is my understanding, yes."

As LifeSiteNews has reported previously, TDT has publicly endorsed the Mexico City abortion law, which not only permits abortions during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy without restriction, but also finances them.  It also sports an "agenda" that includes the legalization of abortion in rape cases. One of TDT's member groups is "Catholics for the Right to Decide" (Católicos por el Derecho a Decidir), an organization falsely claiming to be Catholic that promotes the legalization of abortion throughout Latin America.

Moreover, the leader of Mexico's National Pro-Life Committee (Comité Nacional Provida), Jorge Serrano Limón, told LifeSiteNews in an interview in March that he knows the group to be pro-abortion.

Although the organization removed its pro-abortion material from its website temporarily in May of this year, all of the material seems to have been restored to the site. 

However, despite the public pro-abortion stance of the organization, the president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), Archbishop James Weisgerber, has continued to deny that TDT and other groups funded by the bishops are pro-abortion.

As LifeSiteNews and other news agencies have extensively documented, the CCODP is funding at least dozens of pro-abortion organizations in various countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia.  Despite open statements by the groups in interviews, photographs of their facilities, and documents published on their own websites promoting abortion, CCODP and Weisberger continue to deny the evidence.

Contact information for respectful communications to any Canadian bishop

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
2500 Don Reid Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1H 2J2
E-mail: cecc@cccb.ca
Phone: (613) 241-9461
Fax: (613) 241-9048

Previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

Hundreds of Thousands in Canadian Lent Collection Money Funding Pro-Abortion Groups in Mexico

Mexican Pro-Life Leader Confirms: Groups Funded by Development and Peace are Pro-Abortion

Group Funded by Development and Peace Supports Mexico City's Abortion on Demand Law

All of LifeSiteNews' coverage of the Development and Peace scandal

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African Bishops at Synod Again Forcefully Warn of Destructive Ideologies Imposed by West

Ideologies pushed through "reproductive health centres" under guise of "aid work"

By Hilary White, LSN Rome correspondent

ROME, October 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Warnings against the incursions of Western anti-family and population control ideologies continue to be sounded at the end of the first week of the Vatican’s ongoing Synod of African bishops in Rome.

Yesterday morning, Buti Joseph Tlhagale, Archbishop of Johannesburg and president of the bishops’ conference of South Africa, warned that the "moral values embedded in the diverse African cultures", are "threatened by the new global ethic which aggressively seeks to persuade African governments and communities to accept new and different meanings of concepts of family, marriage and human sexuality".

Tlhagale said that the "cultures of Africa are under heavy strain from liberalism, secularism and from lobbyists who squat at the United Nations".

"Africa faces a second wave of colonization both subtle and ruthless at the same time."

Pope Benedict had commented during his homily at the inaugural Mass of the Synod that the first world is "exporting its spiritual toxic waste" to Africa and other developing areas. Ennio Cardinal Antonelli, the President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, expanding on this comment at Thursday morning’s session, told the bishops that one of these poisons is "so-called ‘gender theory,’ which heavily disguised, is starting to infiltrate associations, governments and even some ecclesial environments in the African continent".

Antonelli took up the subject raised earlier by Archbishop Robert Sarah, the Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and former head of the Conakry diocese in Guinea. Sarah had described gender theory as a "lethal ideology" that was alien to African culture and was the philosophy underlying the legislative dismantling of the natural family.

The cardinal warned that "agents of various international institutions and organizations" use "real problems" such as the injustice and violence suffered by women, infant mortality, malnutrition and famine, and "propose solutions based on the values of equality, health and liberty." But, he said, these "sacrosanct concepts" are "rendered ambiguous by the new anthropological meanings that are given to them".

Under the terms of the new definitions, "equality of people no longer just means equal dignity and access to fundamental human rights; but also the irrelevance of the natural differences between men and women, the uniformity of all individuals, as though they were sexually undifferentiated".

This results, he said, in the idea of the legitimacy of all "sexual orientations and behaviour," heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, transsexual or "polymorphous".

Where Sarah had referred to the ideology only in general terms, Antonelli specified that it is being promoted through "reproductive health centres" many of which are sponsored by international NGOs under the guise of "aid work" in Africa. He also pointed to "international TV programmes broadcast via satellite".

The theme has been taken up in several interventions in the last few days. At this morning’s session, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, Archbishop of Lagos in in Nigeria said that family life in Africa is "disintegrating through divorce, unfaithfulness and Western ideologies that are incompatible" with African cultural values.

Archbishop Orlando Beltran Quevedo of Cotabato in the Philippines, in his intervention today, listed "population control," as equal to the evils of "dictatorial regimes," the trafficking of women and children, poverty and the destruction of the environment afflicting both Africa and Asia. The Philippines is among the highest priority nations for international NGOs attempting to impose artificial contraception, abortion and sterilisation as a means of controlling population growth in the developing world.

On Wednesday, Fulgence Muteba Mugalu, Bishop of Kilwa-Kasenga in the Democratic Republic of Congo, hit out at media biases that, he said, create an environment "polluted by manipulation, political propaganda and non-edifying entertainment". This environment, he said, is one "marked by the imperialism of foreign media who propose themselves by imposing themselves".

Philippe Ouedraogo, Archbishop of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, rejected the Western world’s association of abortion, euthanasia and sexual libertinism with freedom. "Our African human and religious communities, on a whole, reject the legal practices of many otherwise Christian western countries, such as abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriages, euthanasia."

"They respect the promotion of values relating to family and life."

Archbishop Ouedraogo also singled out the media as a means of spreading these foreign concepts. "More and more," he said, "certain radio and television and internet sites, all of them held by economic power and interests, deliberately broadcast programs that try to impose Western society’s one thought.

He blamed the western media’ "racket" for attempting to drive a wedge between African Catholics and the Pope during his visit to Africa last March, calling it "a pathetic example of this".

"Certain programs aimed at French-speaking listeners, European as well as African, wanted to make them believe that some African priests and religious studying or in mission in Rome or elsewhere in Europe, survived by begging and prostitution, abandoned by the Vatican and the religious congregations."

"Evidently, a coalition was trying to reach a clear but shameful objective, by distracting the Africans to stop them from listening to the Holy Father’s words on the problems of injustice, violence and their causes."

The Synod of African bishops continues until October 24.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Gender Theory a "Lethal Ideology" Alien to African Culture African Prelate tells Synod

 

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Deluge of Pro-Life Protest after Chicago Bubble Zone Law Passes

Mayor's Telephone System Overloaded with Negative Response

By Kathleen Gilbert

CHICAGO, Illinois, October 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) -  Within hours after a Chicago ordinance muzzling abortion mill sidewalk counseling passed the City Council Wednesday, hundreds and perhaps thousands of pro-lifers began pushing back against the ordinance, flooding the city government with phone calls against what they call an egregious violation of free speech rights.

Mayor Richard Daley's office has received so many calls over the controversial measure that attempts to reach the mayor by telephone are being immediately transferred to an automated system registering callers' approval or disapproval on the bill.

The Disorderly Conduct Ordinance amendment, introduced by Chicago Alderman Vi Daley on September 9, prohibits pro-life protesters within 50 feet of an abortion mill from approaching within 8 feet of visitors without their consent.  Violators of the new law, to go into effect November 17, could be fined up to $500.  

The move was greeted heartily by Planned Parenthood of Illinois, who personally lobbied in its favor, saying it balanced "the need to protect patient and staff safety while preserving the freedom of speech."

But pro-life Chicagoans say it would put an effective end to the visible 40 Days for Life campaign in the city.  Even the ACLU - known for championing the "right" to abortion over the rights of the unborn - weighed in against the bill as a clear threat to First Amendment rights.

"Eight feet is a very large buffer for a city like Chicago," said Eric Scheidler of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League 

Scheidler told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that the ordinance "will actually be devastating to sidewalk counselling in the city" because of the high level of congestion, and sidewalks too narrow to abide by the law "without being driven out of any kind of opportunity to witness to the value of life."

Sources within the city government confirmed that "the phones have been ringing off the hook" with calls opposing to the ordinance, according to Scheidler.  

"They even had to set up an automated system, so that's a pretty good sign that people are really calling in," he said.  He also noted that, judging by the crowd that rallied before the City Council Wednesday, "an overwhelming majority" of the feedback was in opposition to the ordinance.

Scheidler noted that the bill's wording was dangerously vague, as it failed to specify what constituted enough "consent" from a visitor to allow a pro-lifer to approach without paying the penalty.

"It would have a tremendously chilling effect not only in its practical application," he said, "but in the fear that it raises amongst pro-life witnesses: that they may be breaching this confusing law - a fifty foot zone within which there is an 8 foot zone - and it may cause people to stay away simply out of fear."

He said the Pro-Life Action league planned to continue fighting against the ordinance with a legal brief to the mayor pointing out its unconstitutionality, amid other efforts.  While Daley does not need to sign the law, Scheidler said Daley has the power to veto the bill by executive order even after it goes into effect.  

Mayor Daley has yet to respond to the outpouring of opposition.

To respectfully contact Mayor Richard Daley: 312-744-3300

For more information: Pro-Life Action http://www.prolifeaction.org

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Bursting the Bubble: Pro-life Advocates Fight Chicago Law Aimed to Kill 40 Days for Life Vigil

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Obama School Appointee Admired Ardent Promoter of Child Molestation

by James Tillman

WASHINGTON, DC, October 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Kevin Jennings, the Obama administration's "safe schools czar," is a professed admirer of Harry Hay, radical homosexual rights activist and ardent promoter of pedophilia.

In remarks given October 25, 1997 at the Grace Church School in New York City, Kevin Jennings said that one "of the people that's always inspired me is Harry Hay, who started the first ongoing gay rights groups in America."

He continued: "Everybody thought Harry Hay was crazy in 1948, and they knew something about him which he apparently did not-they were right, he was crazy. You are all crazy. We are all crazy. All of us who are thinking this way are crazy, because you know what? Sane people keep the world the same [sh*tty] old way it is now."

The reasons people thought Harry Hay to be crazy may be gleaned from some of Harry Hay's remarks at events associated with or run by NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association.  The professed end of NAMBLA is, according to their website, "to end the extreme oppression of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships."  They oppose age-of-consent laws so that pedophilia would become accepted and legal.

In his remarks on February 22, 1983, at New York University, Harry Hay accounts his statutory rape, at fourteen years of age, by a homosexual man twenty-five years old.  He thanks this man for the experience, saying that the boy he was at fourteen "needed to know best of all what only another gay man could show him and tell him."

Furthermore, this is apparently an experience he recommends for many children, as his remarks make very clear: "Because if the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world.   And they would be welcoming this, and welcoming the opportunity for young gay kids to have the kind of experience that they would need."

Harry Hay made similar comments in San Francisco, October 7, 1984, during a public forum on the topic "Man/Boy Love and Sexual Liberation."  Among his comments is this remark: "I think that the twelve-year-old, thirteen-year-old boy approaching puberty knows very well that there are things about himself that he needs to find out, that he needs to discover, and he wants very much to reach out and find someone who will give this to him."

Nor did Kevin Jenning's hero think that the accusation of child molestation often hurled at NAMBLA carried much weight.  As he remarked on June 24, 1994, in the former Stonewall Inn on Sheridan Square in New York, insofar "as child molestation is concerned, the most common form is the sexual coercion by which gay and lesbian children are bedeviled into hetero identities and behaviors.  And this is practiced daily by the whole national and international hetero community - parents, family, teachers, preachers, doctors, lawyers, and Indian chiefs, not to overlook U.S. senators and pooh-bah media."

Harry Hay was a radical among "gay rights" activists, opposing those homosexuals who acted like heterosexuals as "assimilationists" who did not fully live out what it is to be homosexual.  "We pulled ugly green frog skin of heterosexual conformity over us, and that's how we got through school with a full set of teeth," Hay once explained. "We know how to live through their eyes. We can always play their games, but are we denying ourselves by doing this. If you're going to carry the skin of conformity over you, you are going to suppress the beautiful prince or princess within you."

In his remarks at Grace School Church, Kevin Jennings closed his speech by invoking the memory of Harry Hay.  He asked his audience to "think how much can change in one lifetime if in Harry Hay's one very short life, he saw change from not even one person willing to join him to a million people willing to travel to Washington to join him. You can see the same change happen in your lifetime if you believe you can."

When the White House press secretary was asked if Obama was unconcerned about Jennings' praise for Harry Hay, he said that he had nothing to say at the moment.

Kevin Jennings, an openly homosexual, past high-school teacher, has been at the center of other controversies.  He was the founder of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN).  GLSEN, according to their website, "envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression."  In the notorious "Fistgate" scandal, GLSEN held an event in which young teens were told how to perform dangerous homosexual activities.  Many have accused GLSEN of attempting to saturate schools with homosexual propaganda.

See related LSN reports:

Obama's "Safe Schools" Czar Dreamed of "Promoting Homosexuality" to Schoolchildren

Foul-Mouthed Homosexual Activist and Anti-Christian Bigot Appointed to Obama Administration

Obama's Homosexual "Safe School Czar" Tells God "Screw You, Buddy" in Memoir

Sex, Lies & Power Exposed: Obama "Safe Schools Czar" Admits to Ignoring Continued Homosexual Statutory Rape of Student

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Supreme Court Takes up Case of War Memorial Cross in Mojave Desert

"The ACLU hates crosses as much as vampires hate crosses or the daylight," says Richard Thompson, of ACLJ

By Patrick B. Craine

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The ACLU's effort to remove the 75-year-old War Memorial Cross from California's Mojave desert has landed the case in the United States Supreme Court.  On Wednesday the Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments in the case of Salazar v. Buono.

The 8-foot cross is a memorial of World War I first erected in 1934 by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) to remember fallen service members, and is now part of a federal preserve. 

When Buddhists attempted to erect a shrine near the cross in 1999, the National Parks Service (NPS) impeded them and, further, declared their intention to remove the cross.  The same year, they decided it did not qualify for the National Register of Historic Places because it is used for religious purposes and because it has been replaced several times during the course of its history.

In response, Congress acted to maintain the cross, beginning with legislation in December 2000 that prohibited government funds from being used to remove the cross, and in 2002, designating it a national war memorial.  Their efforts culminated in a September 2003 land exchange that transferred its ownership from the Parks Service to the VFW.

The case began with a complaint from Frank Buono, former NPS employee in Mojave National Preserve, who alleged that the use of a religious symbol as a national war memorial was offensive and violated the separation of church and state.

The cross has been boarded up following a 2002 U.S. District Court decision.  In 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal agreed with the district court, and now the fate of the cross awaits the decision of the Supreme Court.

The ACLU argued on Wednesday that the land transfer does not address what they consider to be a violation of the Establishment Clause, the part of the First Amendment which guarantees the separation of church and state.  They insist that under the current setup the government is still endorsing one particular religion over others.

"The cross is unquestionably a sectarian religious symbol, and as a congressionally designated national memorial - one of only 49 national memorials in the country - it would convey the message that the military values the sacrifices of Christian war dead over those of service members from other faith traditions," said Peter Eliasberg, managing attorney for the ACLU of Southern California.

The ACLU's case is being challenged by numerous parties interested in preserving religious freedom.

"This display is not only appropriate but constitutional as well and we are hopeful that the Supreme Court will reach that conclusion," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), who submitted an amicus brief representing 15 members of Congress.  "Simply being 'offended' is not enough to create a constitutional showdown."

In their brief, the ACLJ maintain that this challenge has no place in federal court, and that people who are offended by government speech or displays should not be permitted to use the Establishment Clause to seek relief in federal court.

The Thomas More Law Center has also filed a amicus brief along with the Individual Rights Foundation.  "The ACLU hates crosses as much as vampires hate crosses or the daylight," says Richard Thompson, the President and Chief Counsel for the Law Center.  "Despite their claims to the contrary, this case is part of the ACLU's national agenda to incrementally remove every cross on public land.  Their guiding principle is 'out of sight out of mind.'  The Court's ruling in this case will impact crosses in thousands of memorials nationwide." 

In another amicus brief, Liberty Counsel (LC) urges the Supreme Court to adopt new measures for applying the First Amendment.  A display should be permitted, they argue, that "comports with history", and that "does not objectively coerce participation in a religious exercise or activity."

"Passive displays like the World War I Memorial, the Ten Commandments, Nativity scenes, or statements like the National Motto do not force anyone to participate in a religious exercise and, thus, do not establish religion," argues LC founder Matthew Staver.  "This case reveals the extremism of the ACLU. For 75 years this cross in the Mojave Desert did not disturb anyone. It stood as a memorial to the heroes of World War I. Removing this memorial would be an insult to our war veterans. Doing so under the guise of the First Amendment is an insult to the Framers of the Constitution."

The Supreme Court is expected to take several months to make their decision.

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Two Men Plead Guilty to Murder of Woman Who Refused to Have Abortion

Killing of unborn child not prosecuted because fetus not recognized in Canadian Law

By Patrick B. Craine

WINNIPEG, Manitoba, October 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The murderers of a pregnant woman plead guilty in Winnipeg yesterday and were sentenced today.  While two murders occurred, only the killing of the mother was prosecuted because Canadian law does not recognize the humanity of an unborn baby.

Nathaniel Mark Plourde, 21, plead guilty to first-degree murder yesterday in the 2007 death of Roxanne Fernando, 24.  Jose Manuel Toruno, 21, plead guilty to second-degree murder.  The guilty pleas, lodged as a high-profile jury-trial was set to begin, came as a surprise.

The court has described the murder as a "callous, well-planned execution."  On February 15th, 2007, only weeks after Fernando had discovered she was pregnant, Plourde lured her into his car under the pretext of celebrating Valentine's Day.  Fernando brought her chocolates and a teddy bear as gifts.

Plourde was assisted in the brutal murder that took place later by Toruno and an unnamed 17-year-old youth who plead guilty to first-degree murder last year, receiving the maximum youth sentence of six years prison and four years parole. 

Plourde was given a life sentence today with the mandatory minimum 25-year imprisonment.  The minimum for Toruno was life with 10 years in prison, but the judge agreed to the Crown's request for a minimum of 15 years, saying that he deserved every minute.

While Plourde's lawyer, Roberta Campbell, contended otherwise yesterday, Crown attorney Brent Davidson explained at the youth's sentencing last year that the murder followed Fernando's refusal to have an abortion.  He said Plourde pressured her to abort the baby, and she agreed at first, but then had a "change of heart."

"It would be the fetus that would drive the planned and deliberate killing of Ms. Fernando," he said.

While the U.S. and other countries have laws that protect unborn children in such crimes, Canada does not recognize any rights for unborn babies.

Conservative MP Leon Benoit put forward a private members bill in 2006 attempting to make it an additional offence to injure or kill an unborn child on top of the existing offence against the mother.  The bill was quashed before reaching the floor.

Later that year, the National Post revealed that then-Justice Minister Vic Toews had been warned in an unsigned note that "Any change to the definition of a 'human being' in the Criminal Code could have the effect of criminalizing abortion. ... The government has no plans to propose any reforms in this area of the law."

Conservative MP Ken Epp then put forward a second bill at the end of 2007, which the Conservative Party killed in the summer of 2008, promising a weak alternative that would simply add the unborn child's death to a list of 'aggravating factors'.

"We've heard criticisms from across the country, including representatives from the medical community, that Mr. Epp's bill as presently drafted could be interpreted as instilling fetal rights," said current Justice Minister Rob Nicholson in August 2008.  "Let me be clear, our government will not reopen the debate on abortion."

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Two Murders of Pregnant Canadian Women Renew Calls for Unborn Victims' Legislation

The Abortion Politics of the Conservative Party of Canada

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ACORN, With no Expertise in Firefighting, Receives Money to Fight Fires

Many state fire departments said to really need the money

by James Tillman

Washington, DC, October 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - ACORN, the famously corrupt and fraud-ridden community organizing group, has received nearly a million dollars in Homeland Security funds to help fight fires in Louisiana.

The grant was only three of such grants issued to the state and made up almost 80% percent of the firefighting money earmarked for Louisiana.  Several other agencies had applied for the money but lost to ACORN, although the left wing agency has no clear background in fire prevention.  The news comes as fire departments across the nation are struggling to make ends meet.

Charles Flynn, chief of a fire department about 24 miles north of New Orleans, says that ACORN possesses no fire safety or fire prevention expertise and that many smaller and bigger departments really need the money.  His department wished to purchase smoke alarms for low-income families after a fire killed four children.

Sen. David Vitter sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urging that she rescind this grant.  "ACORN's continued contempt for state and federal laws," he said, "has placed their entire organization under a cloud of serious scrutiny, and this grant should be rescinded and awarded to a more deserving group of first responders."

He continued: "I am familiar with many fire departments in Louisiana that are in dire need of funds for many worthwhile programs, and I'm sure that this is the case throughout the country.  These firefighters that put their lives on the line for the safety of their communities deserve a full explanation of this award."

"Again, I request that you immediately rescind this funding to a group that has a long and clear history of abusing federal dollars and reward these monies to a more deserving group of first responders. Thank you for your time and attention."

ACORN responded with a written statement that blasted Vitter but did not explain how ACORN planned to use the money.

This is the second year ACORN has been awarded the fire prevention and safety grant.  In the 2007 fiscal year, ACORN received $450,484 out of Louisiana's $859,596 share.

A large amount of corruption and fraud in ACORN has come to light recently.  A recent series of videos made by undercover journalists feature ACORN employees giving advice regarding how to run a prostitution ring with 13-year old sex slaves from El Salvador.  They also give advice regarding how one may evade income tax when doing so.  ACORN is currently suing the journalists who uncovered this corruption.

ACORN is also infamous for fraudulent and illegal voter drives: for instance, over 1,700 voter registrations submitted by ACORN employees were rejected as fraudulent in Washington.  ACORN is connected with voter fraud in at least 12 other states, and a high-ranking member of ACORN has been accused of embezzlement of at least a million dollars.

The House has voted recently to deny all federal funds to ACORN.  The fire-fighting grant was awarded before Congress signaled that it intended to cut off all ACORN funding.  FEMA has said that it has not yet distributed the money to ACORN.

ACORN is also connected with Barack Obama.  Obama has worked for a legally separate but practically identical institution, Project Vote.  ACORN has admitted that Obama was a guest speaker at two of their training sessions; according to some there was direct coordination between the Obama campaign and ACORN.

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French Culture Minister Denies Participation in Sex Tourism: Says "Young Boys" were Really Adult Prostitutes

By Hilary White

PARIS, October 9, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The French Minister of Culture has said that during his trips to Thailand to cruise the "slave markets" and brothels for boys for paid sexual encounters, the boys in question were not minors but "youths" and that homosexuals call all men "boys".

Frédéric Mitterrand, the openly homosexual nephew of former French president François Mitterrand, is belatedly facing public disgrace after having admitted in an autobiographical book published in 2005, "I got into the habit of paying for boys ... The profusion of young, very attractive and immediately available boys put me in a state of desire that I no longer needed to restrain or hide."

Mitterand, 62, has since claimed that despite his description of them as "young boys" in the book, he went to Thailand to have sex with adult prostitutes, men his own age, something that is legal in France.

After a growing storm of criticism, culminating in calls for his resignation, Mitterand appeared on the evening news saying, "I absolutely condemn sex tourism, which is a disgrace, I condemn paedophilia, in which I have never participated in any way".

"The book is in no way an apology for sex tourism, even if one chapter is a journey through that hell, with all the fascination that hell can inspire," he said.

Members of the Sarkozy inner circle have begun defending Mitterand. Senior presidential aide, Henri Guaino, said on France 2 television this week that the controversy was "pathetic" and that there was no need for Mitterrand to leave the government.

Guaino said, "When there is a controversy as pathetic as this, with so much delay, I don't think there should be such drastic consequences."

His autobiography, La mauvaise vie (The Bad Life) was a critically acclaimed bestseller at the time of its publication, with Mitterand, a TV presenter at the time, being praised for his "honesty". Although the book is four years old, it came to the international limelight when its author leapt to the defence of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who has been on the run from US authorities since the 1970s after he admitted to having raped a 13 year-old girl.

Polanski has been widely defended by the Hollywood elites since he was arrested in Switzerland in September and faces extradition proceedings. Polanski, a French citizen, has been under the protection of limited French extradition laws since he fled the US in 1977. The left-leaning Mitterand has had only a short career as a politician being a staple of French media as an actor, screenwriter, television presenter, writer, producer and director. Mitterand had called Polanski's arrest in Switzerland "terrible".

In his book, Mitterand wrote, "I got into the habit of paying for boys... All these rituals of the market for youths, the slave market excite me enormously."

"One could judge this abominable spectacle from a moral standpoint but it pleases me beyond the reasonable."

The far- right Front National has launched an online petition to call for Mitterand's resignation after party leader Marine Le Pen read extracts from the book on television on Monday.

The Socialist opposition party said yesterday that it was appalled that an abusive paedophile was serving as a cabinet minister. The Daily Telegraph quoted Benoît Hamon, a senior Socialist saying, "I find it shocking that a man can justify sex tourism under the cover of a literary account."

Mitterrand responded on Tuesday saying he was "flabbergasted" that the Socialists had attacked him. "If the National Front drag me through the mud then it is an honour for me.

"If a leftist politician drags me through the mud then it is a humiliation for him."

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