Barack Obama. Senior lecturer on (Soviet) Constitution at U of Chicago Law.

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Madame's Nightshirt

Mrs. Peperium

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"I was a constitutional law professor, which means unlike the current president I actually respect the Constitution."

--U. S. Sen. Barack Obama, 2007

 

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From the USSR Constitution, 1977:

ARTICLE 42.  Citizens of the USSR have the right to health protection. This right is ensured by free, qualified medical care provided by state health institutions; by extension of the network of therapeutic and health-building institutions; by the development and improvement of safety and hygiene in industry; by carrying out broad prophylactic measures; by measures to improve the environment; by special care for the health of the rising generation, including prohibition of child labour, excluding the work done by children as part of the school curriculum; and by developing research to prevent and reduce the incidence of disease and ensure citizens a long and active life.

 

President Obama, DNC Event, St. Louis, October 4, 2011:

And, yes, we passed health care reform because no one in America should go bankrupt because somebody in their family gets sick.  (Applause.)

Insurance companies can’t drop your coverage for no good reason.  They won’t be able to deny your coverage because of preexisting conditions.  Think about what that means for families all across America.  Think about what it means for women.

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Birth control --

THE PRESIDENT:  Absolutely.  You’re stealing my line.  (Applause.)  Breast cancer, cervical cancer are no longer preexisting conditions.  No longer can insurance companies discriminate against women just because you guys are the ones who have to give birth.  (Laughter.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Darn right!

THE PRESIDENT:  Darn tooting.  (Laughter.)  They have to cover things like mammograms and contraception as preventive care, no more out-of-pocket costs.  And while it will take a couple of years for all the reforms to fully take place, already we’ve got seniors all across the country who have gotten $250 to help them pay for their prescription drug benefit.  And nearly 1 million young adults already have health insurance because of it -- 1 million more young people.  That’s an incredible achievement.  The Affordable Care Act is working.  (Applause.)

 

ARTICLE 50.  In accordance with the interests of the people and in order to strengthen and develop the socialist system, citizens of the USSR are guaranteed freedom of speech, of the press, and of assembly, meetings, street processions and demonstrations. Exercise of these political freedoms is ensured by putting public buildings, streets and squares at the disposal of the working people and their organisations, by broad dissemination of information, and by the opportunity to use the press, television, and radio.

 

Senator Obama, ABC News, April 11, 2007:

"I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus," Obama told ABC News, "but I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."

"And the notion that somehow it's cute or amusing, or a useful diversion, I think, is something that all of us have to recognize is just not the case. We all have First Amendment rights. And I am a constitutional lawyer and strongly believe in free speech, but as a culture, we really have to do some soul-searching to think about what kind of toxic information are we feeding our kids,"

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ARTICLE 52.  Citizens of the USSR are guaranteed freedom of conscience, that is, the right to profess or not to profess any religion, and to conduct religious worship or atheistic propaganda.  Incitement of hostility or hatred on religious grounds is prohibited. In the USSR, the church is separated from the state, and the school from the church.

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Cardinal Francis George, February 27, 2012:

Cardinal George is warning the HHS contraception/abortifacient mandate will close Catholic hospitals and universities or force them to secularize, a process he calls “a form of theft.”

If the regulation is not rescinded, the Catholic Church will be “despoiled of her institutions,” he said in a column printed on CatholicNewWorld, likening the proposed policies to the restrictive “freedom of worship” allowed in the Soviet Union.

“What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded?” he asked. A faithful ministry must choose between selling itself to a non-Catholic group, paying “exorbitant annual fines” until going bankrupt, breaking its ties to the Church’s “moral and social teachings and the oversight of its ministry by the local bishop,” or closing down.

He urged people to purchase a copy of the Archdiocesan directory “as a souvenir,” pointing to the page containing a list of Catholic hospitals and health care institutions.

“Two Lents from now, unless something changes, that page will be blank.”

The Obama administration’s rhetorical shift from supporting “freedom of religion” to “freedom of worship” paralleled an earlier shift in Russia, he said.

“Freedom of worship was guaranteed in the Constitution of the former Soviet Union,” Cardinal George said. “You could go to church, if you could find one. The church, however, could do nothing except conduct religious rites in places of worship—no schools, religious publications, health care institutions, organized charity, ministry for justice and the works of mercy that flow naturally from a living faith. All of these were co-opted by the government. We fought a long Cold War to defeat that vision of society.”

“The State is making itself into a church,” he stated.

Earlier this month, he wrote in a brief online reflection, “The laws that used to protect us are now being used to weaken and destroy us, and this quite deliberately.”

He sounded a similar alarm about the mandate, condemned by every Catholic bishop, saying its “long-term effect is that the Catholic Church will be stripped of the institutions that are her instruments for public service.”

“That’s not the country I was born in,” he said.  

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 "We are five days from fundamentally transforming the United States of America,"

-- Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama, October, 2008.

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Huzzah! We've finally found a promise Obama has kept.

 

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Comments

[George Pal]

It's long confounded me that the gaggle of American bishops well acquainted with the notion of 'occasion of sin' could be so blind to the notion of 'occasion of power'. For eighty years they have collaborated with the federal government in nearly every one of its power grabs made under the guise of social - security, justice, fairness, distribution, etc. Now it's come to bite them. Good.

The Catholic Church in America, after having conducted itself for eighty years in the certainty the world had no edge from which to fall seems suddenly to have been made aware of the existence of steep slippery slopes down which to slide. Well, better late than too late. One can only hope and pray this grim fairy tale has a happy ending such as - and the frog kicked the prelate turning him into a courageous prince (of the Church).

[Crackie]

I can well understand how George Pal would say of the Catholic bishops "Now it's come to bite them. Good." The problem is, of course, that you can think of the bishops as trustees or fiduciaries who are responsible for their flock--Catholics and others supportive of the Church who have contributed over generations to build up Catholic institutions such as schools, hospitals and charitable agencies of every kind. The Leviathan State will, if the Obama administration is not stopped, wipe out the efforts of millions of people over generations dating back before the founding of this country. This goes far beyond the current set of American bishops--the tragedy for this country would be immense. I pray that this cup may pass.

[Lord Cardigan, the emperior of newby galactics]

Aough,

that was cute blog, before
Alinsky came.

please, start with william Blake poetry.

Regards.

[George Pal]

Crackie,

I should very much like to stop the Obama administration but I am certain that one episcopal encyclical read from the pulpit one Sunday will not do. I should very much like to see the Bishops light a fire under the Church, its parishioners, and all Christians. As kindling, I should like one such encyclical a week, to be read from the pulpit from Sunday next until the end of the year. I should like the letters make it known that, though Christianity is a religion of peace, it is militant in its defense of life, morality, and for Catholics, Catholic teaching. I should like the letters read and taught to students in Catholic parish schools. I should like the letters translated and posted on the internet for Catholics all over the world.

The very first letter, if I might suggest, might consist of the responsibility of Catholic public office holders and Catholics having public influence to uphold Catholic teaching or cease calling themselves Catholic if they will not. Such public officials (take note Madame Speaker Pelosi) and influence peddlers should receive personal letters from the Church making it known they may speak, act, and vote in defense of Catholic teaching or in defense of Catholic sinners but in choosing the latter they risk excommunication. The second and numerous other letters would not touch but would hammer on the abomination that is abortion.

Within a month or two I should expect it will have dawned on the Obama administration they had kicked one too many hornets nests, this last with hornets in it.

What I should like is what Mrs P, in response to one of my recent comments, called a showdown. If not now... then too late.

[Mrs. P]

Fear not -I've been working on a post precisely about this George!

[Crackie]

George, I agree in every respect. The bishops will do much, much less than you suggest. But they may nevertheless make President Obama regret starting this war on the Catholic Church.