A wonderful Newsmaker Interview on The Lincoln Radio Journal Featuring Lowman Henry interviewing my friend Ian Castaneira. Ian is the de facto legislative director for The Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Constables.
Tag: Politics
Ronald Reagan on the Constitution and Prayer
Mr. President, Don’t Use the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act to Divide Americans
Celebrate the Achievement, Black Leadership Group Says
Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are hitting back against President Barack Obama’s use of the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act to divide Americans from one another and to promote a political agenda.
The Voting Rights Act anniversary is a time for celebration, say Project 21 members, who say it was inappropriate for the President to use his speech noting the occasion to falsely accuse his political rivals of “deliberately making it harder for people to vote” and of intentionally passing “laws that aim at disenfranchising our fellow citizens.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/08/06/remarks-president-voting-rights-act
In fact, the Project 21 members say, efforts to reduce voter fraud protect the votes of eligible voters from being cancelled out by fraudulent votes, and no less a body than the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality, and arguably even the wisdom, of requiring IDs to vote.
http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/07-21.pdf [has upheld]
The President claims identity-based voter fraud flat-out “doesn’t happen” – a claim belied by a consistent stream of voter fraud arrests and convictions nationally. (Websites archiving news stories about voter fraud can be found here and here.)
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/08/06/remarks-president-voting-rights-act [claims]
http://www.electionintegritywatch.com/be-informed/news-stories/ [here]
https://www.rnla.org/votefraud.asp [here]
“President Obama has been in Chicago way too long if he thinks there is no corruption in Chicago or Illinois politics,” said Project 21 founding member Bishop Council Nedd II, Ph.D., Bishop and Rector of St. Alban’s Anglican Church in Pine Grove Mills, PA. Furthermore, Bishop Nedd says, “President Obama is wrong and lying when he claims that too many states are making it too difficult for people to vote. There is no correlation between people being denied the opportunity to vote based on race, and people showing proof of identity as a way of protecting this process and right.”
http://www.nationalcenter.org/bios/P21Speakers_Nedd.html
Indeed, Project 21 members say, the Voting Rights Act was never intended to be used to prohibit commonsense anti-fraud measures.
“The purpose of the Voting Rights Act was to guarantee that all Americans — black or white — living in a given jurisdiction had a say in the selection of elected officials, and thereby influence over the laws and the policies that they are governed by. In other words, the VRA ensured self-government occurred all across the country. The VRA was never about guaranteeing a certain number of seats in the legislature or on the city council,” said Project 21 Co-Chairman Horace Cooper, an attorney and voting rights expert.
http://www.nationalcenter.org/bios/P21Speakers_Cooper.html
“Unfortunately, rather than celebrate these achievements, the White House has chosen to deny these accomplishments and to distort the purposes of the VRA,” Cooper continued. “Focusing more on quotas and racial outcomes, the administration counters the very history and rationale of the VRA. In particular, the President’s singular attack on voter ID, a critical tool for ensuring that bona fide Americans vote in U.S. elections, contradicts the history and consensus regarding the VRA.”
“Maybe President Obama should convene a summit of Americans without valid identification and invite them to the White House for a meeting with him,” added Bishop Nedd, who notes that a lack of ID is actually a humanitarian issue that goes far beyond voting, as IDs are needed to open a bank account, apply for jobs, student loans and/or public assistance, to fly anywhere for job interviews or work, or even to visit the President in the White House. Since the White House is not working to eliminate the need for IDs to participate fully in the economy or to visit our public servants, Bishop Nedd says, the President’s priority should be to make certain every citizen has an ID, not simply to make sure IDs are not needed to vote.
The Project 21 members also wonder why the President seems reluctant to acknowledge that huge progress has been made over the last 50 years.
“In the 50 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act, America has seen a sea-change in attitudes and opportunity for citizens of all races and backgrounds,” said Horace Cooper. “Today blacks and other minorities have unprecedented ballot access that our grandparents could only have dreamed about. We’ve seen the election of the first President of color elected, along with numerous Senators, Governors and Mayors across the land.”
Furthermore, Cooper says, “During the last two election cycles several states set records for black voter participation — often exceeding the turnout levels for the general population in the process.”
Much has changed, says Bishop Nedd. “My grandfather, who was born in Maysville, South Carolina and died in 1964, never cast a vote in an election his entire life. This happened for a variety of reasons, including the fact that he was not permitted to vote, was discouraged from voting, saw the consequences of attempting to vote and, finally, became used to not voting.”
That’s wrong, but it couldn’t happen today. As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, our leaders should join us in celebrating that important fact.
Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org). The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank.
Ban Federal Funding for Planned Parenthood, Say Members of the Black Leadership Network Project 21
S. 1881, Senator Joni Ernst’s Bill to Do Exactly That, to be Voted on Shortly
Washington, DC – Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are joining calls for passage of S. 1881, a bill to prohibit federal funding of Planned Parenthood,” sponsored by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA).
The legislation, which would ban federal grants and Medicaid reimbursement payments to Planned Parenthood, but keep overall funding levels for womens’ health care services the same, will be voted upon in the U.S. Senate at approximately 5:30 PM on Monday, August 3.(1)
Project 21 members say:
* Dr. Day Gardner: It is mind-boggling that American taxpayers are forced to pay more than $500 million to Planned Parenthood
“Planned Parenthood is a billion-dollar-a-year organization that makes most of its blood money by killing children by way of abortion. It is mind-boggling that American taxpayers are ‘forced’ to pay more than $500 million to an organization that kills unborn children in the most gruesome and brutal ways possible, and then deals in selling their lungs, heart and liver and other body parts for profit.
“What does Planned Parenthood do with the money? There is the obvious, of course: Planned Parenthood’s CEO makes more than half a million dollars a year. They also pay high salaries to abortionists who fly from abortion mill to abortion mill, killing children.
“You may have heard that Planned Parenthood does ‘cancer screenings.’
What that means is the same type of breast exam that every woman can do herself at home. They do not do mammograms.
“They also say their funding provides for contraception, treatment and tests for sexually transmitted diseases, and other women’s health services. First of all, what are ‘other women’s health services’? Secondly, aren’t all those things supposed to be covered by ObamaCare?” – Dr. Day Gardner, Project 21 member, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union and an executive member of the Washington, D.C.-based National Clergy Council.
* Joe R. Hicks: Why is this heinous organization still being subsidized by federal tax dollars?
“Only heartless or hopelessly ideologically-blinded leftist political partisans were unaffected by the horrific video clips of Planned Parenthood operatives coldly discussing the lurid details of dismembered aborted babies. However, the question must now be – why is this heinous organization still being subsidized by federal tax dollars? Planned Parenthood, a billion-dollar so-called ‘non-profit,’ performs 300,000 abortions each and every week, yet describes itself as a ‘women’s health care group.’ Are they really? They claim to provide valuable health services, like mammograms, yet is has been discovered that they do no such thing. They ‘refer’ women to health clinics that do provide this service. Planned Parenthood argues that ‘research,’ performed on crushed and dismembered aborted babies, has advanced stem cell cures, yet cannot provide independent data to show this is the case. What’s clear is that they perform abortions, subsidized by tax dollars. Congress must act now.” – Mr. Joe R. Hicks, Project 21 member and vice president of Community Advocates, Inc. in Los Angeles.
* Bishop Council Nedd: If there’s a constitutional right to a lifestyle, why isn’t there a constitutional right to life?
“Last week, a friend of mine who is a bishop and constitutional lawyer, remarked, ‘If there’s a constitutional right to a lifestyle, why isn’t there a constitutional right to life?’ So, the question in my mind is, why are the taxpayers subsidizing the murder of innocents in violation of the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution?
“Planned Parenthood received $500 million in taxpayer dollars last year. If we are now so enlightened that the courts are now signing off on protecting lifestyles, protecting lives would theoretically give the courts more lifestyles to protect. However, it is sadly still the case that the lives that the courts are abandoning to the social engineering of the elite and enlightened are the least of those among us. To protect the most vulnerable, Congress should pass a law that bars Medicaid from reimbursing its clinics for patient visits.” – Bishop Council Nedd II, founding member of Project 21, rector of St. Alban’s Anglican Church in Pine Grove Mills, PA and author of the books Does America Hate God? Faith Under Fire (2015) and The Final Four: A Scriptural Journey Through Advent (2013).
* Stacy Washington: There are 666 Planned Parenthoods and 9,069 federally-funded Community Health Centers. Women don’t need Planned Parenthood.
“The defense of Planned Parenthood by the media and politicians is disheartening. New videos released this week by the Center for Medical Progress provide evidence that doctors and executives working for Planned Parenthood may have committed gruesome crimes that make Dr. Gosnell’s clinic of horrors look tame. Each new video reveals more damning information including video of the Chief Medical Director of the Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood negotiating for the sale of baby body parts. This comes right on the heels of news that the Alliance Defense Fund has filed a criminal complaint after learning that a 13-year-old girl was brought in for an abortion by her rapist/sexual predator and Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood performed the abortion but didn’t report the abuse. Criminal. $528 million dollars of taxpayer funds are sent to Planned Parenthood on a yearly basis. Another $612 million dollars of taxpayer funds earmarked for ‘reproductive health services’ go to USAID for abortions abroad.
“Americans have had enough of the excuses and whitewashing of what increasingly looks like an organized crime syndicate hell-bent on selling human baby parts for cash.
“There are 666 Planned Parenthoods in operation, with some states only having only one. In contrast there are 9,069 federally funded Community Health Centers that provide identical services excepting abortion operating in all 50 states. Women don’t need Planned Parenthood; it does not deserve federal funding.” – Mrs. Stacy Washington, Project 21 member and radio talk show host on KFTK in St. Louis.
Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank.
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The Law Should Not Treat Bill Cosby Differently Simply Because He Gave a Speech
Members of Black Leadership Group Say U.S. District Court Judge Was Wrong to Release Transcript of Deposition in a Cosby Civil Case Explicitly Because Cosby Gave a 2005 Speech in Telling Young Black Parents to do a Better Job Raising Their Children
WASHINGTON, DC — Members of the Project 21 black conservative leadership network are weighing in following news that documents in a civil case related to allegations that Bill Cosby molested a Temple University employee were made public by a U.S. district court judge specifically because Dr. Cosby has publicly criticized the way many black parents rear their children.
“I’m talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was two?” Cosby famously said in 2005 in what has become known as the “Pound Cake” speech. “Where were you when he was twelve? Where were you when he was eighteen, and how come you don’t know he had a pistol? And where is his father, and why don’t you know where he is? And why doesn’t the father show up to talk to this boy?”
“50 percent drop out rate, I’m telling you, and people in jail, and women having children by five, six different men,” Cosby continued in 2005. “Under what excuse, I want somebody to love me, and as soon as you have it, you forget to parent. Grandmother, mother, and great grandmother in the same room, raising children, and the child knows nothing about love or respect of any one of the three of them. All this child knows is ‘gimme, gimme, gimme.’ These people want to buy the friendship of a child… and the child couldn’t care less. Those of us sitting out here who have gone on to some college or whatever we’ve done, we still fear our parents. And these people are not parenting. They’re buying things for the kid. $500 sneakers, for what? They won’t buy or spend $250 on Hooked on Phonics.”
Project 21 members say the law should not treat Cosby differently because he gave that speech.
“Bill Cosby should be vilified and, if possible, prosecuted if he used Quaaludes and perhaps other drugs to facilitate rape,” said Project 21 member Deroy Murdock, a New York-based columnist. “His decades-long reputation as a popular entertainer should not shield him from the consequences of his actions.”
“But Cosby’s role as a ‘public moralist’ with views on ‘childrearing, family life, education, and crime,’ as U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno described him, should have played no role in Robreno’s recent decision to publicize Cosby’s deposition in an alleged sexual-molestation case,” Murdock added. “This transcript should have stayed sealed or been unsealed solely for legal reasons, not due to Cosby’s beliefs about any issue beyond this case. Americans should be free to express themselves without fearing that their views will be used later to justify breaching confidential documents in what resembles political score settling by federal judges.”
“This ruling is appalling,” said Horace Cooper, an attorney, former counsel to a U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader, and co-chairman of Project 21. “A decision to unseal documents is a weighty one and should only occur under exceptional circumstances – circumstances that have nothing to do with the popularity (or lack thereof) of one of the litigating parties.”
“My father was born in to a very different world than the one I live in today. He was a black Roman Catholic who was born in 1925 in Sumter, SC. He also spent 20 years as a policeman. As a youth he repeatedly saw the rights and privileges of individuals blatantly and furtively ignored. One of the lessons he drummed into me and my brothers was the importance of knowing the law and the rules so than no one can take advantage of you,” said the Most Rev. Council Nedd II, PhD, DHum, Bishop and Rector, St. Alban’s Anglican Church, Pine Grove Mills, PA.
“What we have seen over the last year is Bill Cosby repeatedly attacked and tried in the media. Without commenting on the allegations against Dr. Cosby, or the credibility of the accusers, based on the fact that none of the accusers, seen on the variety of news and talk shows, saw fit to push for criminal charges when the events occurred, tells me that they made a personal and calculated decision to live with whatever transpired. To me it seems opportunistic to seek media headlines now.”
“What the judge did in this case is as morally reprehensible as SCOTUS deciding to ignore the constitution on the gay marriage issue. The judge releasing those sealed documents is pandering to the media, akin to Justice Robert’s decision in the Obamacare ruling, and Charleston County Magistrate James Gosnell, Jr.’s very odd speech at the arraignment of Dylann Roof,” Bishop Nedd added.
Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org).
– 30 –
Council Nedd II 