AlaskaGate is really MediaGate

Concerning the Legislative inquiry into Troopergate, Gov. Sarah Palin has provided emails supporting her contention that at-will (who could be fired for almost any reason) State Employee Walt Monegan was fired for budgetary disagreements, and in Monegan's farewell email he 'suggested the governor had reason to believe she had lost his support, and he urged his former colleagues to communicate better with her.'

Though some Deomcrats are trying to portray Gov. Palin as against a probe, Palin wants the investigation moved to the Personnel Board, mainly because the lead Legislative investigator Hollis French has already indicated bias, by saying publicly that his report would be an October Surprise to the McCain/Palin ticket. French later apologized.

If Troopergate and Monegan's firing really were Political pay-back and not about budgetary differences, why did Gov. Palin offer Monegan the Non-Budgetary job of head of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board?

Considering that Palin has already been accused in the media of banning the Harry Potter books two full years before they were printed, been accused of saying that the Iraq war was God's plan (she did not!), been accused on the cover of US magazine of lying (though the Editor later admitted the headline was about others lying about her!), been called a pig by her opponent, had John Stewart, USA Today and MSNBC lie that she was making rape victims pay for their rape kits (it was previous Governor's plan to bill their insurance companies) townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpenter/2008/09/11/the_palin_rape_kit_myth
and is being censored by Oprah Winfrey on ideological grounds, forgive us conservatives if we find very small comfort in Wingtips boast that if Sarah is innocent of abuse of power she has nothing to fear. She was innocent of all those things above, yet that did not stop the lies and distortion by Mainstream media outlets like USA Today, Time and MSNBC.

[former Wasilla police chief (who's appointment Palin ended) John] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. 'She asked the library how she could go about banning books,' he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. 'The librarian was aghast.' That woman, Mary Ellen Baker [Emmons], couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving 'full support' to the mayor.
- Time article
What Time leaves out is that no specific titles were brought up, no books were ever banned or censored, and Palin said that her inquiries of a Department Head were 'rhetorical and simply part of a policy discussion "about understanding and following administration agendas'.'" Anchorage Daily News via Snopes and Urban Legends

So Time quotes someone with an ax to grind in order to portray Palin in a less favorable light, bringing in the religious trump card, and not simply saying Palin asked 'what if' questions, to use your words. Time ignored the idea that there could be policy reasons for these inquiries, for example how does a taxpayer with a gripe about a city service get his complaint handled. But I guess no one is allowed to question which books are offered in a public library.

Check the Time article, see if they portray Palin as asking what if questions. Then check the USA Today article about the Rape Kit lie. Then check out the US Magazine cover with the headline 'Babies, Lies, Scandal' - don't buy it just read it in the checkout line, and read that the story has nothing about Lies Sarah or or family told, it's just a Media mudslide.

Late Breaking News Primarily Pro-Life

A letter to the editor in the Catholic Free Press by Dr. Paul A. Carpentier yesterday claims that Gardner Democrat Brian Knuutila is in favor of Embryonic Stem Cell Research, ESCR, because it is good for economic development. However according to the MA Family Institute Voters Guide, Knuutila answered that he was against funding this type of research. According to Life Guard PAC Knuuttila was one of the most consistently Pro-Life State Representatives when he served and my search of Knuutila’s 2003-2004 Voting record shows no votes on ESCR, and that he opposed the Democratic Social agenda of gay marriage, sex education that corrupts instead of enlightens and abortion on demand, an agenda his opponent Jennifer Flanagan strongly and completely endorses.

I do not know Dr. Carpentier, but can see he has Pro-Life bona fides, yet I have to question the timing of his Letter to the Editor. In Brian Knuutila I see a candidate who is Pro-Life, and Pro-Family and has the votes to prove it, yet in this critical Life issue of ESCR I have on one side the word of the good Doctor, and on the other side I have Knuutila on record with MA Family Institute as against State Funding of ESCR, and I find no public records, statements, endorsements or public votes on ESCR.

And Knuutila's opponent in Tuesday Democratic Primary is wrong on all the Life and Family Issues. Even if Dr. Carpentier is correct Prudential Judgment is still called for in this matter because the other choice is so completely anti-life.

As I write this I do not know the outcome of the Primary Election, but I fear Dr. Carpentier's Letter to the Editor may have helped the adamantly Pro-Choice, Pro-Same-Sex Marriage, AND Pro-ESCR Jennifer Flanagan defeat Brian Knuuttila for the Senate Seat, further solidifying the Anti-Life, and Anti-family forces on Beacon Hill.

Please vote for Brian Knuutila.

Also in the Democratic Primary in Woburn, Please vote for Pro-Marriage candidate John Dwyer over incumbent Patrick Natale.

Please vote for pro-marriage Rep. William Lantigua (D-Lawrence)
Vote marriage supporter incumbent Rep. Mike Rush (D-West Roxbury) over NARAL pro-abortion darling Pamela Julian. Vote Rep. Paul Donato (D-Medford)

Otherwise vote for Republicans Jeff Beatty for Senate, Nathan Beck for Congress in W. Massachusetts, Ron Cherninsky for State Rep in Southbridge/Charlton, Kevin Kuros in Webster/Uxbridge, Stephen Comtois in Charlton/Brookfields, please vote for Kurt Hayes, Paul Avela, vote Sandi Martinez for the State Senate in the 3rd Middlesex District, Steven Levy in Hudson/Middlesex and Worcester state Senate, Jeff Perry on the Cape, Lou Evangelidis in Holden, Mike Franco for Gov. Council in E.Longmeadow, Arthur Vigeant in 4th Middlesex Marlborough.

Primary election Tuesday Sept. 16

Opinion: Massachusetts elections – the Pro-Life Party is the Republican Party.

If you vote in the MA Primary Sept. 16th, the action is on the Democratic side, so please consider voting for Ed O’Reilly over Senator John Kerry. Please vote for Brian Knuutila (D Gardner) Brian has a primary contest against a pro-abortion Democratic candidate in the Democratic Primary on Tuesday, September 16th. We are asking all voters in Gardner, Leominster, Fitchburg, Lancaster, Lunenburg, Townsend, Sterling, Ashby, Westminster, Bolton, and Clinton: Precincts 1&2, to make a special effort to go to the polls and vote pro-life on Tuesday, September 16th. VOTING INSTRUCTIONS: If you are a Republican, you must go to your town clerk by August 26th, 2008, and change to un-enrolled or Democrat in order to vote in the Democratic Primary. If you are already an un-enrolled voter (no party), just ask for a Democrat ballot when you go to your September polling place. You will automatically go back to no party (un-enrolled) after the Primary.
Please vote for Wayne Matewsky over incumbent Steven ["Stat"] Smith

Independent Clare Freda is running for Representative.

Otherwise vote for Republicans Jeff Beatty for Senate, Nathan Beck for Congress in W. Massachusetts, Ron Cherninsky for State Rep in Southbridge/Charlton, Kevin Kuros in Webster/Uxbridge, Stephen Comtois in Charlton/Brookfields, Kurt Hayes, Paul Avela, Sandi Martinez for the State Senate in the 3rd Middlesex District, Steven Levy in Hudson/Middlesex and Worcester state Senate, Jeff Perry on the Cape, Lou Evangelidis in Holden, Mike Franco for Gov. Council in E.Longmeadow,

Please also attempt to be tireless in mentioning these Pro-Life candidates and also please consider donating your time or treasure to this is eminently a worthwhile cause of re-building a Culture of Life.

What's at stake this fall: "I predict that the outcome of the presidential election will depend not on the economy, not on the Iraq war, not on the price of gasoline or the issue of national health insurance, but on the issue of the right to abortion." - Abortion advocate and former mayor of New York City, Ed Koch.

Media Watch

It's no surprise the Main Stream Media dislike Gov. Sarah Palin, but do they really need to keep tripping over themselves to obsfucate, distort and lie about her?

The MSM do not like Palin because she is a strong woman who ran a company, was a mayor, and has been a Governor for 2 years, is a mother of 5 children, is Pro-Life, and does not fit their ideal of what a woman should be. The MSM and Obama’s web site have started a campaign of distortion, such as:
- Sarah Palin banned the Harry Potter books from Alaska schools in 1996 – but the first Harry Potter book was not published until 1998!
- Us magazine cover headline under picture of Gov. Palin holding here 5 month old son Trig – "Babies, Lies, Scandal". When pressed Us Editor said the story did not claim Gov Palin told any lies, but that others had lied about her!
- MSNBC is claiming that a video of Sarah shows she said the Iraq War is "God’s plan", when she said to pray that our leaders follow God’s plan. In the video Sarah asks people to pray for the soldiers, who are sent to Afghanistan and Iraq, and who are trying to do what is right, and that we pray for our leaders so that what they do when they lead us, that when they commit our young men and women to war, that those leaders follow God’s plan and not their own.
"Pray for our military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country, that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending them out on a task that is from God, that's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan. So bless them with your prayers, your prayers of protection over our soldiers."

- After Sarah made her self deprecating joke at the convention last week – “What’s the difference between a Hockey mom and Pit Bull – Lipstick”, this week Obama said in reference “You can’t put lipstick on a Pig – but it’s still a pig.” How Chivalrous!

Don’t believe the mainstream media hype, in November vote a Pro-Life, corruption-fighting reformer who wants to lower our tax burdens and appoint Supreme Court Judges who follow the Law without making up “rights” not remotely found in the Constitution.

Austin Ruse: God and Me and the Drunken Homosexual

God and Me and the Drunken Homosexual
By Austin Ruse

When I was younger and single and living in New York I used to spend a good part of my time in the evening drinking big fat scotches, smoking cigarettes, and reading books at various saloons on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

I did not go to bars to make friends or to talk to strangers. I was the reader. The other regulars knew that and respected it. Sometimes strangers would try to engage me in conversation. They always wanted to know what I was reading. Biographies and Catholicism mostly. And they wanted to know why I was reading in a bar. Because I like to. I was the master of the mini-syllabic brush-off.

My spiritual director at that time was an Opus Dei priest named Father Bob Connor. In Direction, we discussed my evenings out and Father Bob told me that God speaks to you in the people He puts right in front of you. He said the bar situation was an ideal one for the apostolate, bringing others closer to God. He said I had to talk to the strangers. In fact he said, "The next person who speaks to you, you have to engage."

Shortly thereafter I was in Washington D.C., sitting at the bar of a place called Daily Grill, tucking into a nice tasty scotch, and reading a book about Church history or some such Catholic thing.

I heard him before I saw him. Homer Simpson said, "I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my homosexuals flaming." Let's just say the guy lurching loudly and drunkenly into view was a Homer-sexual, and he was coming my way. My blood ran cold. Could this be the person that God Himself is putting right in front of me? Surely not. There are open seats other than the one right next to me. Surely, he won't take that one. Surely he won't.

"What are you reading?" he practically screamed. I closed my book and turned to face him. "It’s a book about Catholicism," I said quietly, and off we went.

I guess I was emboldened by the Holy Spirit because I went almost immediately to the heart of the matter. When he told me he was Catholic I asked him when was the last time he had been to confession and Mass. He said it had been years. I asked if it was because of his homosexuality, something that had not really been established in our conversation. He said, yes but that he and his "lover" had not had sex in years. He said that was the way in homosexual relationships. Really emboldened by the Holy Spirit I said, "I bet you masturbate a lot, though" and he said "yes."

Maybe the guy would have talked about my book. Maybe he would have wanted to argue about Catholicism. But there was something inside him right then. It was part Confession but also a yearning to hear. Like most homosexuals, he lives in this world that constantly affirms him in his homosexuality and tells him how brave it is. Maybe he welcomed someone who would not affirm him, but rather affirm that other thing, the gnawing guilt that is always with him.

"You know, that’s a sin, too."

"I know."

"Well you'll have to cut that out; go to Confession and go to Mass."

"But the priest would laugh at me if I went to Confession."

Imagine that. He did not resist the suggestion. He didn’t deny Confession at all. Not even a little bit. He wanted to go but he thought the priest would laugh at him, that maybe he couldn’t be forgiven.

"I promise you here and now that the priest will not laugh at you." How can you convince someone of this? By force of sincerity, I think. I practically begged the guy to believe me. "The priest will rejoice."

What I remember most of that evening now many years ago was a little mantra I kept reciting to him: "Go to Confession. Go to Mass. Go to Confession. Go to Mass." I still believe in the power of those two sentences to burrow down into his psyche and lie there dormant until in a dark moment they fight their way to his consciousness and maybe make all the difference.

This went on for a long while and it was time to go. As I got up to leave, I dug into my pocket and handed him my rosary which he took with emotional gratitude. I don’t know what happened to the guy. I never saw him again.

One day I'll know, at the General Judgment. At that glorious moment, we will learn everything. We will learn the terrible ramifications of our sinning; how our sins reverberated out and harmed others, who and how much and how our sins harmed the Body of Christ. We will also learn the reach of our acts of kindness and charity. We will also learn about our omissions, about all those people the Holy Spirit presented to us and what happened to them because we resisted. For me there will be plenty of those. But I will also learn what happened to that guy whom a good spiritual director emboldened me to engage.

Culture of Death, exposed.

St. Paul's Cathedral in Worcester, MA will host author and speaker Wesley J. Smith, author of Culture of Death - The Assault on Medical Ethics in America

Smith comes to his Pro-Life views from a secular (very secular – think Ralph Nadar) perspective.

In the Cenacle on Wednesday, September 17th at 7PM.


“Among the more disturbing of such calls I have received was from John Campbell, whose teenage son, Christopher, had been unconscious for three weeks because of brain damage sustained in a auto accident…when he developed a 105-degree fever…Campbell asked the nurses to cool his fever. They replied that first they needed a doctor’s orders. Campbell asked them to obtain it, but Christopher’s physician was out of town and the on-call doctor said no…Campbell desperately tried to reach the on-call doctor himself, but the physician refused to take Campbell’s phone calls…Christopher’s condition worsened steadily, his fever rising…to 107.6 degrees. Finally, the nurses – caught between a desperate father’s pleas and a doctors steadfast refusal to treat – insisted that the on-call doctor take Campbell’s call.
Campbell demanded that his son’s fever be treated immediately. The doctor refused. When Campbell grew more insistent, the doctor actually laughed. The boy was unconscious. His life was effectively over. What was the point?
…Today, [Christopher] lives at home with his parents where he is learning to walk with assistance. When not in rehabilitation Christopher works at a local youth center where he feeds animals and counsels at-risk teenagers. Christopher is very glad to be alive
From Culture of Death – the Assault on Medical Ethics in America by Wesley J. Smith, p.1