For Republicans, Rape Is Still Rape

I am a proud Republican, and more than that, a proud Conservative, which I happily type with a capital 'C' in front. I do not support every plank that the party puts forth, nor do I support every politician that takes up the 'Red' banner. And those who get my vote, such as George W. Bush, sometimes only get it because they are better than the lousy liberal alternatives.

I am also a proud father and grandfather of three beautiful daughters and a wonderful granddaughter, the husband of a loving wife, and a brother-in-law, cousin, uncle, nephew, co-worker, neighbor, and friend to many outstanding women.

All that prefaces my position now in full support of a bill (HR3) put forth by New Jersey's outstanding congressman Chris Smith that would essentially end any taxpayer funding of abortions, as well as any tax breaks for health insurance that covers the same.

You see, the usual suspects in the liberal community, from the radical fringe such as MoveOn to the agenda-driven Planned Parenthood to supposedly mainstream Democrats looking to protect their political power, are predictably against this legislative initiative. However, as usual, they don't stop at simply voicing common sense opposition in a debate of ideas. Instead they have stooped to the usual tactics of code words, divisiveness, and misinterpretation.

The tactic chosen to oppose the anti-abortion legislation, or as those of us firmly on the side of right and good choose to call it, the pro-life legislation, is incredibly and intentionally ugly. They have chosen to paint Republicans as somehow supporting, denying, or minimizing the crime of rape.
They are saying that Republicans are trying to "redefine rape", and have actually stated in some forums that to Republicans, rape is no longer rape.

I find that kind of rhetoric, and that's all it is, political and social rhetoric, to be patently offensive. As a man who has all of the above listed women in his life, I can tell you for a fact that to me and all Republicans, rape is rape is rape. I would be wholly sympathetic to and supportive of any woman in my own life who might experience this crime, in fact, a couple of them have experienced it. The same statement of sympathy and support can be said for Representative Smith, Republican leader John Boehner, and every other Republican politician.

This is, of course, not the issue that the legislation relates to at all. The legislation aims to back up with concrete action one of the basic platform items in the party's 'Pledge to America' when it won control of congress in the elections of November 2010. As Boehner has stated "Our members feel very strongly about the sanctity of human life."

A simple reading of the actual legislation easily shows that Republicans indeed have a heart. The first handful of sections, 301-304, state the long-held party position against the murder of innocent babies in the womb as they call for a prohibition on the funding of abortions themselves, for health care plans that cover abortions, on tax benefits relating to abortion, and on federal facilities and employees being used in the killings.

Then section 309 clearly reads that these limitations shall not apply to "situations where the pregnancy occurred because the pregnant female was the subject of an act of forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incense." It further reads that the limitations shall not apply in the case "where the pregnant female suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the pregnant female in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself."

Common sense legislation that respects and allows provisions for women who have been attacked, abused, taken advantage of, or placed in danger while also standing up against the killing of innocent lives simply because someone was irresponsible, lazy, careless, negligent, or just plain-old heartless and uncaring. Once again, and per usual, a simple actual reading of the actual legislation being presented shows the truth for those who are willing to seek it out.

So do not allow yourself to be persuaded by headline-grabbing, blog-clogging, radical lefty propaganda campaigns currently underway. Read the legislation yourself by simply clicking on the title of this article, which is a link to that legislation as actually proposed in it's entirety. Then make your own decision. But make no mistake, we Republicans love and care for the women in our lives, and we will not be "redefining rape" at all. Rape is rape, and it is morally wrong. Just as morally wrong is the murder of innocent children whose only "fault" is one of being an inconvenient burden to an irresponsible parent.

Real American Hero: Brandon Darby

For the past couple of years I have written a semi-regular series of articles here titled "Real American Hero", all of the previous entries of which can be viewed by clicking on that 'label' at the bottom of this original post here at the http://www.mattveasey.com/ website.

Beginning with the very first article whose subject matter was Arizona Senator and former American POW John McCain, each of the entries has highlighted a hero from the American military. These were people who put their lives on the line, and in many instances laid down those lives, for their country. And except for McCain, every one of them was virtually anonymous outside of their own closest inner circle of family and friends.

But it is not just within the military that we can find individuals whose significant contributions have gone mostly unnoticed, and this article is going to begin the process of incorporating some of those civilian stories into the series as well. The story of Brandon Darby, a former radical leftist activist who openly called for the overthrow of the U.S. government turned Real American Hero, is a fitting one with which to begin.

Darby is a good ol' Texas boy who grew up to harbor and cultivate anti-government and anti-establishment feelings. He became an outspoken critic of fellow Texan George W. Bush during his presidency, in particular following Hurrican Katrina. It was in the relief response to the Katrina disaster in Louisiana that Darby began to come to some prominence.

As Matthew Vadum tells the story in Town Hall magazine, Darby used $50 of his own money to co-found the group 'Common Ground', a supposed relief agency that was in actuality a far-Left political activist organization that included a number of former Black Panther members. It was during and thanks to his experiences with this group that Darby's social and political viewpoint began to change and mature.

During the process of trying to restore some semblance of order and peace and rebuilding of lives in New Orleans, Darby met and began a relationship with an NOPD commander named Major John Bryson. At first completely distrustful of and at odds with one another, Darby and Bryson began to see as they worked both together and separately for the rebirth of the Crescent City that not only were each not the other's enemies, but they were indeed on the same side.

Then in 2006, Darby undertook a trip to Venezuela as part of a group seeking funding from the Marxist government of Hugo Chavez to keep Common Ground in operation. Chavez had been subverting American influence in the region by funneling discounted fuel oil through Congressman Joseph Kennedy of Massachuessettes, whose TV commercials painted Chavez as a friend to America's poor while portraying President Bush as disinterested at best.

When Darby arrived and began to meet with the Venezuelans it became obvious that helping New Orleans and Americans was the last thing on their minds. What they really wanted was to set up a terrorist network of guerrillas that would operate out of the swamps of Louisiana and begin work towards undermining the American government further.

As Vadum also reports, Darby was further alienated from his original Leftist beliefs when a long time friend from Texas, Riad Hamad, tried to hijack a new relief group that Darby was trying to start called 'Critical Response', which would have sent medics into Middle East and African war zones to help civilians who were caught there in cross-fire exchanges.

When Hamad began to suggest that the medics could be sent to Israel and put on motorcycles or in ambulances that could be fitted with bombs to kill Jews, Darby decided that law enforcement needed to be informed and approached the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force. This was a radical departure for the Lefty radical who previous to his relationship with Major Bryson in New Orleans would never have trusted law enforcement.

Darby was having the epiphany that many intelligent former Leftist and liberals have when they begin to wake up and realize that the world is not some utopian social experiment, but a real place where real people have to live out real lives, and where the worst power ever wielded has come from Marxist, Socialist and Communist governments. Darby began coming to an appreciation for the brilliance of the American system.

Without letting on to any of his many friends among the Leftist community, Darby began to work with the FBI as an informant in matters relating to these threats from Radical Islam and other segments of the violent underground community. It was here that Darby took the actions that completed his transformation from radical to right, from revolutionary to American hero.

At the request of the FBI, Darby infiltrated the Austin (Texas) Affinity Group, which had become allied with other radical organizations to form what had become known as the "RNC Welcoming Committee", a group that planned not to welcome but to completely disrput the Republican National Convention in Minnesota in 2008.

During his infiltration of the group, Darby met with and eventually informed on two individuals, David McKay and Bradley Crowder. These two had manufactured homemade riot shields for use in St. Paul to help radicals block the streets and keep GOP delegates from attending the convention. Their group also gathered gas masks, slingshots, helmets, knee pads, and even manufactured Molotov cocktails. Thanks to the cooperation of Darby, their plots to injure and possibly kill people at the convention were thwarted.

Darby could have continued to follow his original far-left impulses. He could have taken the Chavez regime money and fully funded his own organization and went along with plans to undermine America. He could have fully established his medic network in the Middle East and aided plans for attacks on Israel. He could have justified in his own head that somehow he was using the terrorist and Marxist groups himself to help needy people. Instead, Darby saw what was right. He saw that violence and power and hatred were what these organizations were truly about, not any kind of change in order to help real people. And as he truly compared these foreign groups and governments to his home, he awoke to the beauty of America.

Brandon Darby woke up in time to help save American lives and help keep the American system of peaceful political selection moving forward. As he said to Vadum: "I started to realize how brilliant and miraculous the American system of checks and balances was...that has been working since this nation was founded. I realized just how hard a task that is." He went on to state: "I'm proud of helping people, but I'm ashamed of what I used to believe. Thankfully, I had the honor of serving my country by working undercover with the FBI and participating in efforts to protect the safety and civil rights of others."

Clearly, Brandon Darby now gets it, finally. Having travelled the road of anti-establisment liberal to right-thinking American traditionalist myself, I can fully appreciate much of the journey that Darby has taken. You could have never told me that I would grow to become an American law enforcement officer, just as I'm sure you could not have told Darby that he would ever become an FBI informant. But in his willingness to do the right thing, and in his awakening to a full appreciation of the greatness of his nation, Brandon Darby certainly qualifies as a civilian Real American Hero.

City's Main Problem: Liberals

In the Sunday, February 21st, 2010 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer an article was published at the very top of page two titled "City's main problem: poverty" written by Karen Heller. In the article, Heller proceeds to lay every single ill that befalls the city of Philadelphia - and that's plenty of ills - at the very feat of this fearsome monster known as poverty.

Budget of the city shows 62% goes to fighting crime and social needs? Poverty is the culprit. Michelle Obama visits Philly to campaign against obesity because too many parents shove McDonald's down their kids throats? Poverty. Teachers are overworked? Poverty. School violence is tolerated? Poverty. Health rate is poor, kids don't take education seriously? Poverty.

The problem, not with the city but with Heller's article, is that she simply cries "poverty" at every opportunity, making the typical liberal mistake of never seeing the forest for the trees. The problem you see is not some general epidemic of poverty, it is an epidemic of liberalism.

That's right, little kids go without food because of the political philosophy and ideology of liberalism. Little kids get fat in some cases because of the exact same ideology. Kids don't stay in school, don't want to stay in school let alone advance further, because of it. Violence is greatly increased because of it, and health problems are magnified because of it.

But where Heller stops, I am going to plow on. She says that poverty is the problem and then makes only a couple of small general comments as to how to deal with the situation. The answer to her view of poverty as the problem is "the city must reduce the poverty rate in order to succeed."

Fine enough principle on it's own that I won't argue with it. Among the many symptoms of entrenched liberalism is more widespread poverty than need exist. So how to reduce that poverty rate? Her answers are to "attract new residents to revitalize neighborhoods" and "moving families..to self-sufficiency and security." She also states correctly that Philly needs to address it's dismal educational system.

What the obviously liberal herself Heller has basically written is what is known as a 'fluff' piece. It is full of statements and commentary that will have her co-workers at the Philadelphia Inquirer, one of the single most liberal newspapers in a country full of them, patting her on the back. It will have her friends and family saying things like "right on, Kar, you got that right. Good job!" It will make her feel better.

But it will have done nothing at all to address the problem, because the real problem has not even been identified in her piece. The city's main problem: liberals.

For decades now, liberal Democrats have been increasingly in charge of the city of Philadelphia. They have been the decision makers, the unchallenged and all-powerful ideologues whose programs, ideas, and policies have taken the city in the direction that it has gone - straight down.

Here are just a few of the things that Philadelphia does not need to be doing. It does not need to spend a dime on a homeless shelter. It does not need to spend a dime on feeding a hungry person. It does not need to indoctrinate students in the classroom in it's liberal ideology. It does not need to allow students who refuse to behave to continue in school. It does not need to provide free health care to anyone.

Wow, what an uncaring, unfeeling, insensitive, inhuman I must be in order to believe all of those things, right? Wrong, Mr. and Ms. Liberalism. My belief is not that man must stand by and watch the suffering of the inevitable folks who will fall between the cracks of opportunity do to reasons beyond their control, such as a physical or mental handicap or some sudden disaster. My belief is that it is not the city of Philadelphia's responsibility to address those issues.

When given the opportunity, mankind will respond charitably to his fellow man. The story has been told of a locality in Texas back in 1887 where a couple of consecutive seasons of drought had left the farmers in bad shape and facing poverty. The local government put out the call to Washington for some emergency subsidies for the farmers.

The plight of the poor farmers was passed by a misty-eyed congress before being vetoed by President Grover Cleveland (pictured). In one of the single greatest acts by any American President of all-time, Cleveland defended his veto in the exact same manner that must be embraced by Philadelphians today. Let me quote exactly a couple of key paragraphs of his veto speech:

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the general government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. A prevalent tendency to disregard the limited mission of this power and duty should, I think, be steadfastly resisted, to the end that the lesson should be constantly enforced that, though the people support the government, the government should not support the people."

"The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."

So President Grove Cleveland literally said what the liberal Democrats of Philadelphia and all over the country have no ability to say. He said what every parent learns is one of the single most valuable words that they must early on begin to say to their children. He said the very thing that many of us need to begin to say to ourselves. He simply said "No".

But he didn't just say that "no" to win some political battle, he said that "no" because frankly it was the right thing to say. What was the result of his decision? Dead farmers? Far from it. As he rightly predicted, the call went out around the nation for private donations to help the farmers. This call resulted in the appropriation of ten times the money that had been requested from congress. And not a dime of forced expense on the general American public, not a single tax levied.

Karen Heller is wrong. She has pointed at a symptom rather than the real problem. The problem is not poverty, it is liberalism. Philadelphia needs to have the strength to begin finally to say "no" to the Democratic Party as it is now constituted. It needs to begin to say "no" to the nanny state that has led to our inevitable and continued decline. If we don't have the strength to say "no", if leaders do not emerge who will stand up and then be supported in saying that "no", then Philadelphia will never, ever recover it's former greatness.

So specific answers start with stopping funding social welfare programs cold. If we are to spend any money on a social program, I would make it on an on-going publicity campaign with billboards, TV and radio ads, all positively encouraging people to make good choices in their lives, to stay in school, to turn away from drugs and drink, to go to church, to become or remain sexually responsible, and to keep their families intact.

I would do whatever is necessary to turn our schools around. That would first happen with security. Difficult decisions need to be made to eliminate the unrepentant criminals who commit assaults, robberies, and drug dealing on our school grounds, no matter their age. Expulsion for the absolute worst cases, transfer to disciplinary schools for those who may simply need a period of behavior modification before possibly returning to the general student population.

The second thing that needs to happen is that curriculum needs to be addressed. Philadelphia school children need to be taught the fundamentals of education as the primary goal of our school. Math, science, reading, writing, and wait for it - civics. They need to learn and understand our history as a nation, the good and the bad with an emphasis on the incredible good that America has been and done since it's founding.

Next I would empower teachers to take charge of their classrooms again, having their backs when they need it in controlling the room and maintaining that control. I would also ensure that those teachers are allowed and encouraged to emphasize their role as educators, not social workers and not substitute parents. But at the same time, I would not tolerate the small number of teachers who simply will not or do not enthusiastically do their jobs. Out on their cans, union or no.

Where violence and other crime occurs on the streets, deal with it. Support our law enforcement officers and officials in any way possible. Zero tolerance. Let's face it, some sections of the city are simply out of control, and you cannot begin to rebuild them and, as Heller says "attract new residents" without gaining that control and maintaining it.

Arrest criminals, put them in jail, if they get out, put them back in. If we are unwilling to fight this fight on a daily basis, to win this war over time, and spend what it takes to at least keep up with it year after year, then we will lose. Any alleged 'war on crime' or 'war on drugs' will never end. But we need to fight it every hour of every day. Just as with the teachers, if some cops don't know professional limits and abuse their power, out on their cans. The good ones will be happy to see them go.

Finally, emphasize parental and familial responsibility in public. From the stump speeches of politicians to the teaching in our classrooms to our public service announcements and community outreach, strengthening and maintaining our families and the responsibility level of parents has got to become paramount.

You can never force someone to become a good parent. But you can tap them on the shoulder and let them know that it is just as easy to hand their kid a celery stick as it is a cupcake. It is just as far a walk to the supermarket for some soup, vegetables, fruit as it is to McDonald's for some fries and a Big Mac. Obesity is not the result of poverty, it is in most cases the result of bad decisions.

Those same bad decisions are the reasons for the vast majority of other childhood problems, many of which in a large portion of Philadelphia's communities lies directly at the feet of non-existent or irresponsible fathers. Men need to begin to take their familial responsibilities seriously. Women need to respect themselves more and develop more of a sense of self-worth. Most of this comes from your own strong family situation.

The city needs to find a way to encourage it's residents to return to church, return to the basic values and teachings that God gave all of mankind in the Bible. The long-held liberal notion of a "separation of church and state" is a crock. In fact, America has shown that it has been our embracing of Judeo-Christian values that has separated us from other nations and governments in history. We need to return to that root strength, not run from it, and we need to embrace and advertise that resource, not hold it at arms length.

Liberals will see my ideas resulting in armies of homeless people, drug addicts, and student truants roaming the streets, exploding the crime rates, and only adding to the problems of Philadelphia. They have cried this cry for decades, and their own answers have proven both soft and ineffective, as anyone with a spine could have predicted. It is time we began to walk a hard, straight line here in Philadelphia.

While we slice social programs and increase law and quality of life enforcement measures we need to also decrease the Philadelphia tax burden. We need to drastically overhaul our overall tax policies with the stated goal of making the city of Philadelphia the single most attractive place in the entire nation for a business to locate itself. We then need to aggressively market that new-found status and begin to bring business, and thus jobs, back into Philadelphia.

Lower taxes and increasing the quality of life here in the city. These are the things that will accomplish what Heller calls for. They will never, ever be accomplished by appropriating more money from Philadelphia's already overburdened tax payers, or from the already overburdened Commonwealth, or from the already over-socialized federal government.

These general ideas that I have put forward today go far beyond what the simplistic approach and siren's call made by Heller and the Inquirer. There is zero chance that my ideas would ever be supported by Philadelphia's talking head politicians or it's liberal media, so the only way that such a change would be possible would be for some distinctly charismatic and articulate individual to step forward and lead Philadelphia in this direction.

I guess in short what Philadelphia really needs is an effective alternative to the liberal Democratic Party that has ruled the crumbling roost for this last half century. It needs an effective, strong, threatening, alternative, conservative Republican Party to emerge and become a realistic challenger. That has to start from the grass roots, but it also needs an effective leadership with an uncompromising alternative vision that is a true alternative to the city's main problem: liberals.