"Michael Steele, Who Are You, Really?"

Among those extremely disappointed in Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele is author, columnist, and broadcaster Armstrong Williams, pictured at right.

Check out his latest column in yesterday's Washington Times. It's a very good one.

It's one thing for a politician to have the popular touch, but it's quite another for a leader who takes seriously the task of rebuilding a downtrodden party to go about preening before the paparazzi like a B-list actor on the comeback trail.

There's no doubt newly minted Republican Party Chairman Michael S. Steele is a man who likes to be liked. So much so, in fact, that he insists on being everything to everyone. Sadly, he may end up being nothing to anyone.

The media spotlight he so desperately seeks becomes absolutely useless the minute he forgets his own lines ... and starts reading from the Democratic Party's script, such as recently when he crossed the lines in a GQ article by callously referring to the horror of abortion as "an individual choice."...

Believing himself a man of tempered mettle, he may think he can say just about anything and wriggle out of it if the audience turns against him. And it's true that for far too long Mr. Steele has been allowed to just wing it. It's as if he believes all he has to do is just talk loud and long enough and eventually he'll end up saying the right thing. But in the world of the endless sound bite, one's words can easily be quoted out of context. The odd slip of the tongue ends up being replayed over and over again. We all know Mr. Steele is articulate, but we're beginning to figure out that he can also be quite verbose.

And that verbosity has resulted in a series of gaffes that have damaged Mr. Steele's credibility, primarily because he's always going around apologizing for one thing or another. After a while, however, you run out of excuses for the missed shots and flagrant fouls. At some point your teammates will just stop passing you the ball...

"You didn't have to go much further than the Republican National Convention," CNN host D.L. Hughley argued, "it literally looked like Nazi Germany."

"You're right," responded Mr. Steele, who was then rudely interrupted by fellow guest Chuck D of the rap group Public Enemy.

If Mr. Steele really believes that the Republican Convention looked like Nazi Germany, why did he even bother to show up? Could it be true that he believes he's now the "de facto" leader of the Nazi party?

No one is seriously suggesting that Mr. Steele believes anything of the sort, but his overly accommodating stance in the face of confrontation has undoubtedly led to some rather compromising situations.

All of this leads to the obvious question: Mr. Steele, who are you, really?...

Florida Hospice Chaplains Prohibited from Saying "God" or "Lord" in Public

Yeah, I know.

This sounds like a story just too far-fetched, too dripping in irony, too nutty and nonsensical to be true.

But -- welcome to the radical and absurd intolerance of modern American life -- it is.

U.K. Hospital Scandal: Atrocious and Cruel Treatment; Hundreds of Needless Deaths

Here's the latest socialized medicine development from England. England, mind you. Not some backwater banana republic that doesn't have the means to do better or the cultural history to know better, but Great Britain!

The U.K. Prime Minister is apologizing for the latest National Health Service scandal (a horrible set of scandals actually) stemming from atrocious conditions at Stafford and Cannock Chase hospitals.

Absolutely filthy wards. Patients left to lie hours in their own waste. Patients so thirsty that they drank from their own flower vases when they couldn't get someone to bring them a glass of water. Non-medical staff (i.e., receptionists) doing the initial examinations of patients. Nurses who turned off heart monitors because they didn't understand how to use them. Operations delayed for days. Patients left without food, water and medication. Critically important equipment (i.e., heart defibrillators) out of order.

There was other physical suffering and emotional trauma too.

And, oh yes...senseless deaths. Plenty of them.

A commission's report suggests at least 400 deaths could not be explained, but there are fears that the numbers of patients who needlessly died is closer to 1,200.

But the hospitals sure saved a lot of money. Indeed, they met their target of saving £10 million.

But at what expense? 150 staff positions, equipment and, oh my Lord, all those deaths.

Gordon Brown and Health Secretary Alan Johnson insist that what happened here was unusual and not being repeated in other hospitals. It represented "a breakdown of communication" and "a failure of management."

Sigh.

And American readers, please keep in mind that the Democrat Party and the sitting President wants to bring socialized medicine (aka universal health care) to your shores soon.

You'd better hope you stay well.

New Study: 1 in 20 Young Germans is a Neo-Nazi

Here's an ominous sign of our post-Christian times -- about one in twenty 15-year-old German boys is a member of a neo-Nazi group. And that, of course, points to increased racism, crime and social destabilization.

But with Christianity removed from education and public life...with violence glorified in films and video games...with materialist philosophy dominating government and media (inevitably leading to hedonism among the young)...and with liberal courts and inadequate police protection -- is this development all that surprising?

Goodnight, Western civilization. It was nice while it lasted.

A Belated Happy St. Patrick's Day

Given my wife's ancestry, my high regard for C. S. Lewis (born in Belfast, don't you know), and my preference for Irish Breakfast tea, it is really unforgivable that I failed to observe St. Patrick's Day here on Vital Signs Blog. But perhaps I can make up for that inexcusable oversight by bringing you this:

Today's Posts

Waiting for a Bounce?

In Vitro Fertlization: Regulation (Even Understanding) Is Overdue

Webster's Dictionary Now Includes Same-Sex Unions in Definition of "Marriage"

Obama's Post-Evangelical Prayer Circle

Obama Watch: It Ain't Pretty

The Girl Scouts of America: Adrift in a New Age Sea

Waiting for a Bounce?

The economy's hard take-down last year was due almost entirely to a longstanding government policy that forced banks to lend to unworthy borrowers plus missteps in Fed interest-rate policy.

The combination of soaring oil prices, bad mortgages, a collapsing housing market and rising interest rates crushed much of our financial infrastructure, causing mass bankruptcies, layoffs and a financial crisis that hammered economies around the globe.

But now, after months of seemingly nonstop bad news, there are hopeful signs on the horizon...

This editorial from Investor's Business Daily then goes on to list those "hopeful signs." I'm not an economist but this made for some interesting reading. Check it out.

In Vitro Fertlization: Regulation (Even Understanding) Is Overdue

Jill Stanek managed to get an op/ed piece into USA Today. Good move. And with a good article too, dealing with the need (and timely opportunity) for pro-life activists to seek legislative regulation of what Jill calls "the Wild West of women's reproductive care," in vitro fertilization.

For more information on this crucial topic, you might want to check out these previous Vital Signs posts:

In Vitro Fertilization: The Serious Moral Issues That Are Not Being Addressed

Uncomfortable Truths About In Vitro Fertilization

Culling Embryos to Get a Perfect Baby

Does the Pro-Life Movement Care About In Vitro Fertilization?

Ova Freezing as a Lifestyle Choice

In Vitro's Monstrous Secret

Stem Cell Research: Going Behind the Headlines

What Happens to the "Extra" Embryos?

Webster's Dictionary Now Includes Same-Sex Unions in Definition of "Marriage"

It's a classic example of Orwellian strategy. Modify attitudes and behavior by merely manipulating the language. (Hat tip: World Net Daily)

Obama's Post-Evangelical Prayer Circle

Joseph Loconte describes the "evangelical" leaders gathered in by Barack Obama who are either being co-opted (T.D.Jakes, perhaps) or who are, because of their own liberalism, being quite cooperative (Jim Wallis) in creating a religious veneer to Obama's far-reaching socialist schemes. It's troubling, but necessary reading.

When, in the throes of his presidential bid, Barack Obama cast off his controversial pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his campaign advisers began soliciting for more acceptable replacements. There was no shortage of willing applicants. In a provocative essay called "The Inner Ring," C.S. Lewis suggested why that might be so: "I believe that in all men's lives at certain periods . . . one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring, and the terror of being left outside." President Obama has recruited several Christian leaders to join one of the world's most exclusive inner rings, the presidential prayer team.

As reported over the weekend by the New York Times, Obama has carefully cultivated relationships with at least five influential ministers--all described as evangelical "centrists"--for private sessions of prayer and occasional political advice. There is nothing unusual about American presidents seeking spiritual support and counsel. For his part, President Obama has made a point of denouncing the abuse of religion for political gain. Yet given the roster of the anointed, and the Obama record on religion thus far, the temptation to manipulate faith for partisan ends is likely to prove irresistible.

The Obama prayer caucus includes Rev. Otis Moss Jr., a veteran of the civil rights movement, and Rev. Jim Wallis, political activist and editor of a left-leaning magazine. Two others, Bishop T.D. Jakes and Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell, black megachurch pastors and successful entrepreneurs, served as occasional spiritual advisors to President George W. Bush. Rev. Joel Hunter, leader of an evangelical megachurch in Florida, made a public break with the Christian Coalition a few years ago. "These are all centrist, social justice guys," Rev. Eugene Rivers, a politically active pastor in Boston, told the Times.

A problem with this characterization, reported with facile approval by Laurie Goodstein of the Times, is that it blinks at political reality. Jim Wallis, for example, has been a fierce and partisan critic of the Bush administration, the Republican party, and religious conservatives. On the eve of the Iraq war, Wallis compared Bush to the Egyptian pharaoh who persecuted the Jews, one of the most despicable characters in the Old Testament. He once attacked the late Catholic thinker, Father Richard John Neuhaus, as a "hired political assassin on behalf of the rich and the powerful." Even a brisk review of his magazine, Sojourners, reveals a political agenda nearly indistinguishable from the Democratic party platform. "It's a politically astute move," says Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. "But calling Jim Wallis a centrist is a lot like calling Jesse Jackson and Pat Roberson centrists...

Consider a few items. The administration plans to open the flood gates of federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research and, in all likelihood, abortion, trampling the moral convictions of millions of ordinary Americans. A revamped faith-based initiative, which would deny the right of charities to consider religious commitment in hiring decisions, threatens to become a protocol for secularization. The president's education proposal throws hundreds of millions of dollars at failing public schools, but rejects vouchers for children from poor families to help them escape these mismanaged monstrosities and attend private religious schools. In short, much of Obama's political vision contradicts the religious ideals of his prayer partners and the constituencies they supposedly represent...

The danger for Obama's inner circle is not only that they'll keep quiet about issues that are contentious. They now face a relentless temptation to rationalize policies that are morally dubious or offensive--to give them a religious veneer--for the sake of continued access to the president. Is Jim Wallis, a professed pro-life evangelical, likely to challenge Obama's pro-choice agenda? So far he has managed to praise the president for "breaking the symbolic cycle" of debate over abortion, whatever that means.

Will T.D. Jakes play the role of prophet if the White House's faith-based initiative treats churches as pawns of the secular state? "Our hope," Jakes wrote after the election, "is in his ability to provide the medicine this nation desperately needs to rise again." That doesn't sound like the same minister who tells his flock to take responsibility for their own lives and put their trust in God. Likewise, in a recent Time magazine interview, Joel Hunter expressed not a whisper of worry about Obama's social vision. "I find it hard to believe that I'm in the inner prayer circle," he gushed. There may be a reason for his inclusion that goes beyond the legitimate need of a political leader for spiritual support. Barack Obama, after all, has made no secret of the fact that he plans to change the anti-God image of his party.

Even men with good intentions, armed with faith, are not immune to the delicious intimacies of power: A short ride in Air Force One could produce more converts than a week of revival meetings. "Of all the passions," explained C.S. Lewis, "the passion for the Inner Ring is the most skillful in making a man who is not yet a very bad man do very bad things."

Obama Watch: It Ain't Pretty

* Barack Obama's first nominee for the federal bench turns out to be a doozy. It is the far-left David Hamilton, a former fund-raiser for the radical activist outfit ACORN...a former leader of the Indiana chapter of the ACLU...a federal district judge who recently invalidated a law requiring the registration of sex offenders...and who also prevented enforcement of an Indiana law that required information and a waiting period before an abortion. Paul Mirengoff, who alerted Power Line readers to this awful choice, concludes, "Not to worry, though, the New York Times calls Hamilton a 'moderate.'"

* Oops! Maybe Barack Obama shouldn't get too angry over those AIG bonuses. After all, there might be someone in the MSM (Are you listening, Katie?) who might dare to report that Obama himself (when still a junior Senator) received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions. Indeed, the two biggest Congressional recipients of bonuses from the AIG are two of the cats acting most aggrieved about others getting them: Chris Dodd and Barack Obama. As John Malek said in the note which alerted me to this Right Side Politics story, "This just drips of irony and hypocrisy."

* And while we're on the subject of those AIG bonuses, note this -- Julie Hirschfeld Davis, reporter for the Associated Press no less, writes "Cue the outrage. For months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts. It wasn't until the money was flowing and news was trickling out to the public that official Washington rose up in anger and vowed to yank the money back."

* Ilan Berman in the American Spectator describes the "rookie mistake" made by Barack Obama by sending a secret letter to Dmitry Medvedev, one in which Obama cravenly backpedaled (without getting anything in return) from the Bush administration plans to deploy missile defenses in Eastern Europe. A dumb move. A dangerous move. And, not surprisingly, the Russians have already begun to exploit it.

* The Obama administration, almost giddy in the way it seeks out ways to run counter to the policies of President Bush, announced that Obama will endorse a United Nations declaration calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.

* My, my. When the New York Times' Maureen Dowd starts taking aim at a Democrat, that spells trouble. Just ask Bill Clinton and Al Gore. But yet here she is, Dowd laughing at the way "Team Obama" has mishandled the AIG bonus matter. The gal even starts off with a shot at the President's increasingly-problematic dependence on the TelePrompter.

* And speaking of the TelePrompter, check out this Fox News report (it's getting a bit of play from the MSM too) about how the thing malfunctioned during a joint appearance of the Great Orator and the Irish Prime Minister. Another diplomatic coup for our amateur president

The Girl Scouts of America: Adrift in a New Age Sea

I've brought to your attention before the shift of the Girl Scouts to feminist ideals, Planned Parenthood and new age weirdness. (1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). This transition is alarming and sad...and counter-productive. But yet the leaders of the organization refuse to set things right.

Jane Chastain, once a proud member of the Girl Scout sisterhood but now a promoter of a much healthier alternative club, American Heritage Girls, reviews the ignoble affair in this World Net Daily article.

Wisdom and respect are the normal benefits of the aging process. Not so with the Girl Scouts USA! As the Girl Scouts turn 97 today, there is not much to celebrate. Membership is down. Cookie sales have dwindled, and they are floundering around trying to be relevant.

Yes, the GSUSA is dumping the "dorky" vests and "singalongs" around the campfire (the words of others, not my own) in an effort to be "cool" and "edgy." It's sad, really, like a senior citizen shopping for a bikini and getting a tattoo in an effort to be noticed.

Individual achievement and earning badges are out. Political correctness and self-esteem are in. Girls still will have an opportunity to earn badges – for now – but the emphasis is on the new Journeys programs, which focus on broad themes and encourage "groupthink."...

By the time an "enlightened" Girl Scout reaches the Seniors program, she is encouraged to become an "agent of change" for the global good and an "ambassador" for causes championed by left-leaning women's advocacy groups. Partnerships have been formed with Planned Parenthood, and the Girl Scouts have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with gun control advocates and radical environmental groups.

Moms have traditionally been the backbone of scouting. They have served as mentors and troop leaders, chauffeurs, fundraisers and organizers. Today, moms are being told to take a hike when their daughters become teenagers. Yes, moms are to be replaced at the most critical time in a girl's life with young adults or others judged to be suitably "hip" and trained by groups like the Ashland Institute who will lead their daughters down the garden path toward the New Age...

It now appears that service to this country may also be on the way out with the new emphasis on globalism. Last year at the 51st Girl Scout National Council Session and Convention, the traditional flag ceremony was trashed, as was the playing of our Nation Anthem. Flags of all nations were brought in bunched together to the tune of "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire.

All civic organizations are losing membership with more things competing for our attention and more demands on our time. However, the Girl Scouts, in an effort to keep up with the times, have thrown out their core value system, the very thing that makes scouting a worthwhile endeavor...

Today's Posts

Obama & Change

"9 Things the Media Messed Up About the Obama Stem Cell Story"

From the "You Gotta' Be Kidding" Department: President Obama Wants an Exit Strategy from Caring for Our Wounded Veterans

New Study Cuts Through the Global Warming Hype

Rabbi In Charge of Western Wall Tells Pope Benedict Not to Wear His Cross

Behind Those AIG Bonuses, There's Something You Should Be More Angry About

Barack's Bailout Bamboozle

Obama & Change

"9 Things the Media Messed Up About the Obama Stem Cell Story"

Wow.

Josh Brahm, the Director of Education & P.R. for Right to Life of Central California, has put together a very thorough, very enlightening review, "9 Things the Media Messed Up About the Obama Stem Cell Story."

It is an education in itself, covering the details of the issue and why those details are so stubbornly ignored and/or distorted by the MSM. Very good stuff.

(Hat tip: Jivin J at Jivin Jehoshaphat)

From the "You Gotta' Be Kidding" Department: President Obama Wants an Exit Strategy from Caring for Our Wounded Veterans

Commander David K. Rehbein of the American Legion, the nation's largest veterans organization, was part of a meeting yesterday in which Barack Obama presented his proposal to shrug off America's wounded veterans onto private insurance companies.

Huh? The President wants the government to cease caring for the men and women who have been hurt serving their country? Could he really be suggesting that?

Yes, he could. And yes he did.

So it's no wonder that the American Legion Commander was pretty put out after the meeting.

"It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan," said Commander Rehbein. "He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it."

"This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ' to care for him who shall have borne the battle' given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm's way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America's veterans!"

"I only hope the administration will really listen to us then. This matter has far more serious ramifications than the President is imagining."

New Study Cuts Through the Global Warming Hype

Dr. Anastasios Tsonis, credited with the development of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Atmospheric Sciences Group, comments on a new study by UWM which utilizes a complicated math application known as synchronized chaos. Dr. Tsonis (photo at left) points out that the fear of earth's massive meltdown due to global warming just isn't justified by the scientific evidence. Sorry, Al Gore and Barack Obama; but you're dead wrong.

Dr. Tsonis: "In climate, when this happens, the climate state changes. You go from a cooling regime to a warming regime or a warming regime to a cooling regime. This way we were able to explain all the fluctuations in the global temperature trend in the past century. The research team has found the warming trend of the past 30 years has stopped and in fact global temperatures have leveled off since 2001."

But what about Al Gore's frantic claims that humans are responsible for burning up the planet and Barack Obama's plans to use man-made global warming hype as leverage to get his socialist political package accepted? Again; sorry, guys but the evidence just isn't on your side.

Dr. Tsonis: "But if we don't understand what is natural, I don't think we can say much about what the humans are doing. So our interest is to understand -- first the natural variability of climate -- and then take it from there. So we were very excited when we realized a lot of changes in the past century from warmer to cooler and then back to warmer were all natural."

Of course, don't expect to see this story travel too far. Like our Democrat leaders are saying, "Why waste a good crisis?" So, even if hard science knocks man-made global warming into a cocked hat (as it has), the leftist political powers that be and their allies in the mainstream media will continue to ignore altogether such stories as this one (I found it via a local Milwaukee TV station) and instead report yet more of the same scare tactics.

Rabbi In Charge of Western Wall Tells Pope Benedict Not to Wear His Cross

First it was a group of Austrian bishops led by the Archbishop of Vienna that were prohibited from visiting the famed Wailing Wall of Jerusalem because they refused to remove (or hide under their clothing) their crosses. That was in November of 2007. Then in May of last year, a group of Irish clergy representing both Catholic and Protestant churches were barred from visiting the Wall for the same reason.

And now, the fellow responsible for those two affairs, Shmuel Rabinovitch, rabbi of the Western Wall, has warned the Vatican that even Pope Benedict XVI should be prepared to remove the cross he always wears in public if he wants to visit the Wall during his visit to Israel next month.

The rabbi apparently believes the Wall is something exclusive to Judaism. That's very unfortunate. For what the Western Wall (the only extent structure from ancient Jerusalem) should also represent is the link between Christianity and its Jewish roots.

Christianity embraces the Old Testament with its revelation of God's Law, His gracious treatment of Israel, His purpose that Israel serve as His megaphone to all nations, and His eternal plan to bring forth from the seed of Adam and Eve (through King David) a Messiah/Savior Whose sacrifice on the cross would be to atone for the sins of all people -- Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free.

It is sadly ironic. For the cross that so offends rabbi Rabinovitch is not only the most precious symbol of Christianity; it is also the Hope of Israel.

Behind Those AIG Bonuses, There's Something You Should Be More Angry About

What should tick you off a lot more than AIG paying that $165 million in bonuses (contractually obligated, by the way) should be 1) the government's abject failure to properly regulate AIG in the first place and 2) the socialist power grab it represents, a move which undermines our economy and endangers our political liberties.

Below are just a couple of the illuminating paragraphs from today's Wall Street Journal editorial on the matter. But go ahead and read the whole thing right here.

...Given that the government has never defined "systemic risk," we're also starting to wonder exactly which system American taxpayers are paying to protect. It's not capitalism, in which risk-takers suffer the consequences of bad decisions. And in some cases it's not even American. The U.S. government is now in the business of distributing foreign aid to offshore financiers, laundered through a once-great American company.

The politicians also prefer to talk about AIG's latest bonus payments because they deflect attention from Washington's failure to supervise AIG. The Beltway crowd has been selling the story that AIG failed because it operated in a shadowy unregulated world and cleverly exploited gaps among Washington overseers. Said President Obama yesterday, "This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed." That's true, but Washington doesn't want you to know that various arms of government approved, enabled and encouraged AIG's disastrous bet on the U.S. housing market...

Barack's Bailout Bamboozle

As described yesterday, the public is waking up to just how badly organized was Barack's bailout bamboozle. And the ringing of that alarm continues today from rather unexpected quarters. For instance, here's Michael D. Shear and Paul Kane in the Washington Post:

President Obama's apparent inability to block executive bonuses at insurance giant AIG has dealt a sharp blow to his young administration and is threatening to derail both public and congressional support for his ambitious political agenda.

Politicians in both parties flocked to express outrage over $165 million in bonuses paid out to executives at the company, demanding answers from the president and swamping yesterday's rollout of his efforts to spark lending to small businesses.

The populist anger at the executives who ran their firms into the ground is increasingly blowing back on Obama, whom aides yesterday described as having little recourse in the face of legal contracts that guaranteed those bonuses.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, peppered with questions about why the president had not done more to block the bonuses at a company that has received $170 billion in taxpayer funds, struggled for an answer yesterday afternoon...

The Obama administration was already facing a skeptical public and members of Congress critical of the huge sums of money the government has allocated to shoring up the devastated financial system.

News of the latest AIG bonuses only compounded the political problems that the huge expenditures pose for the president. The administration has tried to manage the public anger by expressing empathy with the outrage over the large outlays to financial firms, while explaining that they are necessary to stabilize the economy.

Earlier this month, the administration added to the bailout money needed to keep AIG functioning, saying failure of the company would be disastrous for the larger economy. And the administration is all but certain to return to Congress for hundreds of billions of dollars more to aid the financial system.

But the bonus issue, in particular, is hounding Obama as he pursues his larger goals, in part because of the president's own repeated declarations of outrage -- offered again yesterday -- aimed especially at the firms that are feeding at the public trough...

But reports about the latest AIG bonuses quickly undermined whatever political capital Obama has earned with his past efforts.

Over the weekend, White House officials expressed outrage at the bonuses paid out by AIG but said there was nothing they could do to stop them. After news of the bonuses dominated news coverage for two days, the administration took a newly aggressive stance.

Asked why the administration is attempting to claw back the bonuses now but did not do more to block the payments earlier this month when it was authorizing the latest $30 billion in new loans to the struggling insurer, Gibbs was unresponsive...