Part-Time Pundit

The Pettiness of Politics

Clinton impeachment was retaliation for Nixon, says retiring congressman

Now, I know the terms Republican and Conservative are essentially interchangeable in the MSM, but let’s be frank. The Democrats are crooks. So are the Republicans. But at least the Republicans are my kind of crooks. (That was humor). They occasionally through out a policy that resembles something like conservativism.

Hyde, being honest because he’s leaving admits how petty politicians are. You slight them, they find a way to slight you back. Now Clinton made the job easy by perjuring himself, but that’s not why they went after him. They went after him from revenge making asses of themselves and a mockery of the system. Being a *insert your favorite insult here* doesn’t tend to work out for you so well.

That’s the thing about the fillibusters, and why we should make them do one before getting rid of it. This favor will be returned when they eventually get back in power (and the ebb and flow of politics suggest they will) (for that matter, Republicans running on the platform of decisive leadership and failing to deliver might bode poorly for their future as well).

April 21st, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | National | no comments

Friday Fax - Abortion Doesn’t Lower Maternal Mortality (Duh)

Today’s Friday Fax reports that the UNFPA has gotten the obvious, that women
killing their babies has nothing to do with maternal mortality, certainly not
anything that would LOWER it.

=============================

Friday Fax

April 22, 2005
Volume 8, Number 18

UN Admits that Access to Abortion Not Effective at Reducing Maternal
Mortality

Earlier this month, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
released its annual report on maternal mortality around the world. The
report shows that the most important means of reducing maternal mortality
is the presence of a skilled birth attendant with access to adequate
emergency obstetrical care. The report contradicts UNFPA’s earlier
strategy of focusing on access to contraceptives and legalized abortion as
the main means of reducing maternal mortality.

The report, entitled “Maternal Mortality Update 2004: Delivering Into
Good Hands,” states that some 529,000 women died in 2000 as a result of
complications in pregnancy and childbirth, with 95 percent of deaths
occurring in Africa and Asia. Only 2,500 maternal deaths occurred in
developed countries, where the risk of maternal death is one in 2,800,
compared to one in 16 in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report acknowledges that “almost all maternal mortality is
avoidable,” because “all five of the most life-threatening complications
can be treated by a professional health worker.” Thus, “We know that
efficient emergency interventions for complications are key to saving
women’s lives.”

Dr. George Mulcaire-Jones of Maternal Life International, an
international provider of maternal health care, says that the report
“largely validates what the pro-life community has said all along: that
reducing maternal deaths comes down to the kind of skilled obstetrical
care given women - adequate training and clean, well-supplied birthing
facilities - and has little to do with introducing notions of reproductive
rights.”

Yet the report states that alongside the provision of emergency
obstetric care and birth attendants, UNFPA’s “three-pronged strategy” of
reducing maternal mortality focuses on “contraceptive services to prevent
unwanted pregnancy.” A “rights-based approach” to maternal mortality,
which “promotes the empowerment of women,” continues to “guide the design
and implementation of UNFPA’s maternal mortality policy and programming.”

According to Mulcaire-Jones, UNFPA’s “three-pronged strategy is
flawed at the outset,” because UNFPA channels the bulk of its funding into
contraception. “Contraceptive services should be separated from maternal
health and obstetrical services – both in terms of funding, accounting,
and program implementation. Only in this way will skilled care and safe,
clean and well-supplied health facilities receive the attention and
funding required to meaningfully reduce maternal death.”

Mulcaire-Jones also stated that UNFPA’s “rights-based approach” is
flawed for lack of “universal acknowledgment of the most fundamental right
of all – the right to life . . . UNFPA’s stated policies in support of
abortion immediately create a conflict of rights by negating the right to
life of unborn children.”

Copyright 2005 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute).
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427
New York, New York 10017
Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291
E-mail: c-fam@c-fam.org Website: www.c-fam.org

April 21st, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Friday Fax / Culture & Cosmos | no comments

Hubba Hubba

Columbine Parent Testimony

I didn’t get this til later, but one of the parents of the kids killed at Columbine testified in front of Congress and laid blame not on the NRA. Read it.

April 21st, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | National | no comments

Problems Continue in Sudan

UN Sudan Situation Report April 17, 2005

I haven’t written much about this lately, but the problems still exists out there. Civilians are still be denied access to humanitarian assitance and there are still problems out there. Further, two bordering countries, Ethopia and Eritrea appear to be entrenching for war and have mobilized their people accordingly. The UN is calling for more troops and asking the government in Khartoum to stop the militia violence.

April 21st, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | International | no comments

Berkeley Laptop Thief Scared? - Sorry Prof was Full of Crap

Berkeley laptop thief is scared out of his wits by professor

I might buy the FBI looks into things referred to it by the NIH. But US Marshalls investigating things for the FTC? I think not. Here are the major responsibilities of the US Marshall Service, nothing comes close to playing clean-up for other federal agencies.

This is simply a professor trying to scare the living daylights out of the thief to get them to come forward. If he had the student as close as he says he does, they wouldn’t need to make an announcement in class. They’d be making an arrest instead.

April 21st, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Humor | no comments

Conservative Professors at U of I

I went to a talk last night, well an open forum, “National Security v. Individual Freedom” by Illinois Campus Deliberations (a great idea I think, by the way. To join their mailing list send email to abogdan2@uiuc.edu). There were 4 panelists: Prof. Mark Leff, Prof. Steven Beckett, Tom Mackaman (Look at the very bottom), and Billy Joe Mills.

The first thing that struck me about this talk is that there were 2 professors, 1 graduate student, and one undergrad. Why is it they can’t find one conservative professor to see on these discussions (and that’s not a dig into Billy who does well at these things, but we should have to resort to getting undergrads from the College Republicans to go up against faculty in discussing ideas). Well, I heard the answer. There are some conservative professors on this campus, they are just tired of going up there and debating wackos. Prof. Leff, the man who brought you the failed Union of Professional Employees who thinks that the Patriot Act is horrible on par with internment also thinks that academic employees (some of which get tenure like professors, and others are just academic staff like me) who get 5 weeks vacataion and 5 weeks vacatoin and, for that matter, employees who are fired with cause (albeit there are exceptions for cases where the person really needs to be removed) can get up to 12 months notice before they actually have to leave. This is not a hostile working environment. There is no where you can get 10 paid weeks off a year. Certainly none that will give you a year notice that you are going to be laid off.

Steven Beckett is a leftie, but reasonable. He had some fair skepticism.

Tom Mackaman ran for the state legislature as a Socialist trying to stop the Iraq war. Being that the state legislature has nothing to do with federal military activities, I think this speaks for itself.

Leff and Mackaman suggested that the term “enemy combatants” was made up by the Bush administration to not give Geneva Conventions privileges and it has never before been used or even considered. Article 4 of the Geneva Conventions determines who is a Prisoner of War. Guess what? Bush is right. Al Queda didn’t carry arms openly nor wear distinctive insigna nor have any respect for the laws and customs of war. Mercenaries are also not covered by the Geneva Conventions.

Mackaman seems to think that distribution of wealth in the US is without precedent. Might I suggest he look at Honduras where 17 families own EVERYTHING. Or how about Dark to Middle Ages when the King owned everything. Sure, there is an unequal distribution of wealth, but I don’t care about being a billionaire. I care about being able to feed and shelter my family and that opportunity is most prevalent in the United States.

The point where I left was when someone in the audience suggested Al Queda was made up by Bush to rescind the Constitution or something crazy like that.

I can see what conservatives don’t participate in these things.

April 21st, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | University of Illinois | one comment

A Quote About the University of Illinois

In discussions with others about CITES the central campus computing and telecommunications organization on campus, and widely despised as such I said this:

“The problem is not that CITES exists, the problems is that some of them act like !@#$%ing gangsters.”

April 21st, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | University of Illinois | no comments