McHenry County Blog

Previously, I have written earlier about pro-abortion (and they really are pro-abortion) Personal PAC's attack on Dan Duffy.

Besides the completely false “Woman in Jail” piece you can see in the above link, I have copies of two other mailings (click to enlarge). (I've missed two others.)

First there is the “Back Alley Stairs” Piece. You can see it below:


Another Personal PAC attack piece can be seen below. They would call is the “Kiss or Tell” piece. Since it came just before Halloween and has "scary" writing, that's how I labeled it.


And Sunday night, while I was getting a positive, if misdirected (because I do not live in the 26th state senate district) robo-call from Gentes, Personal PAC was making calls, too. Only they were probably limited to the 26th District.

Personal PAC pieced together recordings of Duffy's voice and interspersed Duffy's comments with those of another person to damage Duffy still more.

Duffy says the only part of the message that was true was the tag line identifying Personal PAC as having made the phone call.

At $45,243.31, Personal PAC is Gentes' largest contributor outside of Senate President hopeful John Cullerton, who gave $50,000. Contributions started last January and the reported ones go up to last Friday. I assume there will be more reported later. From in-kind contributions which have already been reported, I would not be surprised to see another mailing hit today.

Personal PAC is using its intensive voter identification of women who self-identify themselves as pro-choice and not "pro-choice" to tell “pro-choice” voters that Duffy is pro-life and “not pro-choice” voters that he is pro-choice.

It is an elegant and competently carried out campaign strategy that, in different permentations has worked since 1992, although it often has taken more than one election cycle to pick off an incumbent. (Personal PAC had to do it three times to beat me in 2000.)

You can imagine the confusion among the electorate.

And, a confused electorate is a volatile one.

Duffy is so angry that he is pledging to sue Personal PAC and its director, Terry Cosgrove, regardless of how the election turns out.

Labels: 26th District, Abortion, Bill Gentes, Dan Duffy, Personal PAC, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, Terry Cosgrove

The first (and only) time I saw Cardinal George was shortly after his appointment at a Pro-Life rally in Rosemont. It was clear that the subject was one pretty high on his priority list.

I don't know if he used the words “intrinsic evil” to describe abortion that day, but he does in the letter below.

Now, just in time for the 2008 election season, he has released the following letter, which was forwarded to me by Spring Grove's Sue Serdar. Serdar is chairman of the Pro-Life Victory Committee, a political action committee.

“One cannot favor the legal status quo on abortion and also be working for the common good,” Cardinal George writes.

Wow!

Before you think the letter was written to be released right after John McCain's nomination, look at when it is dated.

September 2nd.

That's between the nomination of Barack Obama and John McCain, so think what you will of its timing.

George points out that the Church does not endorse candidates.

I have added more paragraphing to the letter below to make it easier to read on a computer screen.

Archdiocese of Chicago
Office of the Cardinal
September 2, 2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In the midst of a lengthy political campaign, matters of public policy that are also moral issues sometimes are misrepresented or are presented in a partial or manipulative fashion.

While everyone could be expected to know the Church’s position on the immorality of abortion and the role of law in protecting unborn children, it seems some profess not to know it and others, even in the Church, dispute it.

Since this teaching has recently been falsely presented, the following clarification may be helpful.

The Catholic Church, from its first days, condemned the aborting of unborn children as gravely sinful.

Not only Scripture’s teaching about God’s protection of life in the womb (consider the prophets and the psalms and the Gospel stories about John the Baptist and Jesus himself in Mary’s womb), but also the first century catechism (the Didache or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) said:

“You shall not slay the child by abortions. You shall not kill what is generated.”

The teaching of the Church was clear in a Roman Empire that permitted abortion.

This same teaching has been constantly reiterated in every place and time up to Vatican II, which condemned abortion as a “heinous crime.”

This is true today and will be so tomorrow.

Any other comments, by politicians, professors, pundits or the occasional priest, are erroneous and cannot be proposed in good faith.

This teaching has consequences for those charged with caring for the common good, those who hold public office.

The unborn child, who is alive and is a member of the human family, cannot defend himself or herself.

Good law defends the defenseless. Our present laws permit unborn children to be privately killed.

Laws that place unborn children outside the protection of law destroy both the children killed and the common good, which is the controlling principle of Catholic social teaching.

One cannot favor the legal status quo on abortion and also be working for the common good.

This explains why the abortion issue will not disappear and why it is central to the Church’s teaching on a just social order.

The Church does not endorse candidates for office, but she does teach the principles according to which Catholics should form their social consciences.

The teaching, which covers intrinsic evils such as abortion and many other issues that are matters of prudential judgment, could not be clearer; the practice often falls short because we are all sinners.

There is no room for self-righteousness in Catholic moral teaching.

The Conference of Bishops in this country and the Bishops of Illinois have issued statements about Catholic social teaching and political life. They are available in our parishes.

All of us should keep our country and all the candidates for office in the next election in our prayers.

God bless you and your families.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Chicago

I don't know if it is more than coincidence, but Father James F. Heyd is delivering the homilies this weekend at McHenry's Holy Apostles Church at the corner of the Crystal Lake-McHenry Blacktop and Bull Valley Road. In 2005, Cardinal George gave Father Heyd permission to work full time with Priests for Life. His talk is entitled, "Voting with a Clear Conscience."

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So far, no Chicago secular media have run a story on Cardinal George's statement.

The top image is of an ad used in South Dakota two years ago. The second is of one of Cardinal George. Next you see one of our great-nephews before birth. The clearest in utero picture is from an ABC story on triplets. The announcement of Father James Heyd's appearance in McHenry and all of the photos can be enlarged or played by clicking on them.

Labels: Abortion, Cardinal George, Catholic Church, Pro-Life

Well, not that you can notice in the legislative arena.

But, the platform is being modified a bit.

And, although I don't follow national politics closely, I heard that the pro-life son of former Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey, a pro-lifer who was not allowed to address the 1992 national Democratic Party convention, is going to be permitted to speak this year.

Locally, we have McHenry County Democratic Party coroner candidate Dave Bachmann, who has made no secret of his pro-life views, even showing up at the pro-life political action committee's pig roast.

It must have been intimidating to see the McHenry County Republican Party's elephant float and all the GOP signs out front of Resurrection Center.

And former Republican Dundee Township Republican Central Committee Chairman and GOP Kane County Board member is running as a pro-life Democrat for circuit court judge.

So far, there seems to be a semblance of tolerance for both among local abortion supporting Democrats.

Labels: Abortion, Dave Bachmann, John Noverini, McHenry County Coroner, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life

I know that Jill Stanek used the word “incompetent” on the Sean Hannity show last night in describing Senator Barack Obama's Illinois State Senate voting record on the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act.

Apparently, State Senator Obama voted against the same language that passed the U.S. Senate.

Obama denied that accusation (see Washington Post story) by the National Right to Life Committee, to which Stanek indicated Obama was either not telling the truth “or incompetent.”

Stanek has related in many forums how she held for forty-five minutes an aborted, but still alive Down Syndrome boy abandoned in a laundry room at south suburban Christ Hospital where she was a delivery room nurse.

I think I heard some mention that the hospital denied the even happened earlier in the day. That surprised Stanek. She said something like, “They've never done that before.”

Obama, in turn, has said the NRTL Committee is “lying.”

Labels: Abortion, Barack Obama, Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, Christ Hospital, Jill Stanek

You know that I am a member of the Crystal Lake Kiwanis Club.

It meets twice a month at Colonial Cafe. We often have informative speakers.

Wednesday, a mother and aunt of Down Syndrome children came to explain GiGi's Playhouse, which is opening soon in McHenry. The pamphlet passed out calls it “a Down Syndrome awareness center.”

They were not only informative, they were inspirational.

They came to talk about a new GiGi's Playhouse, which will open in McHenry on Route 31 north of Route 120 the end of April. It just south of McCullom Lake Road.

Johnsburg's Carol Ancel, who is the mother of a Down Syndrome child did most of the talking. She was accompanied by Susan DuBois of Spring Grove. DuBois is the aunt I mentioned.

Ancel explained that the Down's kids “learn to read pretty early.”

The pamphlet tells of a “FREE Learn to Read” program. It points out that research shows that “children with Down Syndrome learn to read differently.”

She and DuBois would like to help develop more such opportunities.

Because they “mimic kids around them,” the two are planning to open a place where Down's kids can play with normal kids their own age.

“You try to stop the segregation of disabilities,” Ancel said.

Their goal is ambitious. They are talking birth to adulthood.

As they learn, “they are so much happier to do it with a group,” Ancel said, so another reason for the intermingling with other children their age.

Ancel pointed out something I didn't realize: some of the young people “have drivers' licenses.”

Some “have kiosk businesses.”

“When you get a diagnosis, you get nothing but (negative input),” she said.

Ancel said the group was seeking legislation to require those making diagnoses “to give accurate information.”

“80 to 90% of prenatal diagnoses are aborted,” she continued.



I must admit that brought me up short.

“If you have a kid with Down Syndrome, (people should be saying) 'You're so lucky!'”

GiGi's Playhouse is designed for more than “just the emotional support; it's the practical support.”

The two women got know what a GiGi's Playhouse is all about at the Hoffman Estates' location.

They concluded that it was “easier to start one yourself than to take (kids all the way) to Hoffman Estates.”

Besides the planned one in McHenry, another will soon open in Chicago and one is in the planning stages in Westmont, we were told. Another is already open in Plainfield.

As Ancel described it, this is a Moms' Effort. It's an all-volunteer effort.

“If the parents, don't participate and volunteer, we won't last long,” she added.

And McHenry County “Moms” and others like Aunt Susan are ready to open a GiGi's Playhouse in McHenry on April 26th.

Hey, that's the end of this month.

“It's in a positive, uplifting, the sky's the limit type of program,” Ancel explained.

An anonymous donor has donated use of the building, which is next to a liquor store at 1720 N. Richmond Road, behind Applebee's.

Activities will be scheduled, rather than run continuously.

On the last Saturday of the month the Playhouse will be open from noon to 3. Here's the invitation.

It says,


So, bring your kidlings, regardless of age and regardless of whether they have Down Syndrome.

The group's slogan is




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Carol Ancel is the woman in the pictures. The map shows where GiGi's Playhouse is located in McHenry.

Labels: Abortion, Carol Ancel, Crystal Lake Kiwanis, Gigi's Playhouse, Kiwanis, Susan DuBois

A tried and true approach to soften the harsh stand of the most radical pro-abortion politicians has been to be an advocate for adoption.

Jim Edgar did it. Adoption was Brenda’s pet cause.

Now 8th congressional district U.S. Representative Melissa Bean is following a similar path.

Bean proposed an annual $2,000 tax credit (that would be subtracted from the bottom line of one’s tax bill, I believe) for families who adopt children 9 and older.

There is already a one-time $11,390 tax credit, according to the Waukegan News-Sun article by Judy Masterson.

Nothing wrong with the proposal.

Something like the Illinois law to allow women to take a newborn to a firehouse, no questions asked.

But, it certainly fits the template for those who are supported by NARAL, Personal PAC and Emily’s List.

Vote against legislation to protect unborn babies, but promote adoption.

Labels: 8th Congressional District, Abortion, Adoption, Melissa Bean

8th congressional district Republican primary candidate to challenge Melissa Bean has issued another press release. It’s about

• abortion and


• defense of marriage.

You can read the position papers about those two topics by clicking on the words describing them.

Ken Arnold Releases Campaign’s “Family Values” Positions and Detail Prescriptions

Gurnee, IL: Republican congressional candidate in the 8th District, Ken Arnold, today released two “white paper solutions” outlining his creative prescriptions in how to support traditional family values. Mr. Arnold, in releasing these initiatives, calls the nuclear family and traditional family values “the bedrock of any prospering society and democracy”.

His first detailed “white paper solution” deals with the issue of abortion and how the country can handle this issue in a truly “American compromise” which also respects the States’ rights concept of Federalism as outlined within the United States Constitution.

Among other concepts, it calls for waiting periods as well as mandatory and objective counseling sessions -- with a checkoff list that women sign certifying all topics were covered at the end of their counseling sessions.

Mr. Arnold’s second initiative he calls his “Defense of Marriage Initiative”.

This original and creative analysis paper touches upon the historical groundings of traditional marriage and points out some little known, and quite relevant problems should States start to recognize such unions of other than one man and one woman. The paper then goes on to prescribe an initiative which takes other States’ residents out of the picture of any particular State potentially granting marriages to gay couples.

Ken Arnold states:

“Today, the residents of one State DO have a definite interest in the marital laws of another State regarding little known employee benefit, Federal tax, and other matters. They can be negatively affected by what happens in that other State. My initiative would solve this problem, and dilemma, and allow each State to determine this question as they so choose without hurting the resident citizens of any other State in the Union.”

These two “white paper solutions” join fourteen others already posted upon Ken Arnold’s campaign website of www.ArnoldforCongress.com under the “Creative Solutions” part of his campaign’s website.

Mr. Arnold promises the citizens of the 8th District that he will unveil “twenty-four and more” such innovations before the February 5th Primary Election. And it seems he is well on his way in doing so with now being 2/3rds of the way to his promised goal.

For more information, or to donate to his campaign, citizens may either log onto his website at www.ArnoldforCongress.com or call the campaign at 847-207-1167.

Labels: 8th Congressional District, Abortion, Defense of Marriage, Ken Arnold, Melissa Bean

Less than a month ago, 16th congressional district Congressman Don Manzullo helped frustrate some leftwingers on Capitol Hill.

How did a member of the minority party manage to do this?

“So why, then, did the atmosphere feel more like a crisis-pregnancy center than a pro-choice hearing?” as Ann wrote on Feministing.com.

She answers her own question like this:

“…Maybe because, frustratingly, 18 of the 20 committee members with a 100-percent rating from NARAL didn't bother to show up…”

“NARAL,” in case you don’t follow pro-abortion organizations, stands for National Abortion Rights Action League.

Can’t get much more openly pro-abortion than that, can one?

Here’s some more of a very long article about last Wednesday’s hearing (I’ve added paragraphing to make it easier to read.):

“Most of the members who took time to attend the hearing were anti-choice Republicans who support Bush's policy of denying women and girls in developing nations access to family planning resources.

“Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen lauded the Gag Rule as an effort to ‘protect the human rights of all.’

“Rep. Steve Chabot told the committee that his birthday is the day Roe v. Wade was decided, so the Gag Rule issue hits him especially hard. (Not as hard as it hits women in Africa, I'd wager…)

“Rep. Donald Manzullo talked about the crisis-pregnancy center he and his wife opened in his home district in Illinois.

“And Rep. Chris Smith went so far as to put ultrasound images up on the screens on either end of the room and draw our attention to ‘the child kicking, catapulting in the womb.’

“It was all I could do to keep from retching.”

That’s as mainstream as it got.

Labels: Abortion, Chris Smith, Don Manzullo, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, NARAL, Pro-Life, Steve Chabot

Here’s one of the catchier pro-life tee shirts that I have seen.

It came from the same source as other recent pro-life tee shirts. State Senator Chris Lauzen’s Porky Picnic.

Worn by a young teenager, this one says,


I think you’ll have to admit that this message makes one stop and think.

Labels: Abortion, Chris Lauzen, Message of the Day, Pro-Life

Ever wonder if folks who are “liberal” in one area of public policy are “liberal” in others?

There was a letter about abortion in the Northwest Herald on July 19th with all kinds of comments underneath.

Crystal Lake’s Susan Mickle may have come too close to the truth for comfort in this paragraph:

” The majority of feminists today have forgotten their roots. The original feminists were pro-life.”

District 300 resident Nancy Zettler has fully established credentials as a tax hiker.

I don’t know many tax hikers who are conservatives.

In her comments under Mickle’s letter, Zettler shows her pro-abortion colors.

Zettler complains that more men would favor abortion if they had to take care of the babies.

She should talk to some upper class women and men in high school, as I did when I was running for state representative.

It is the guys who are most favorably inclined toward abortion.

Does that surprise anyone?

The guys know they will be stuck with child support, if the child is born.

Zettler relates passing a petition at a pro-life rally asking people to sign-up “to volunteer to adopt an unwanted child.”

Anyone who has adopted a child would recognize this as a disingenuous stunt.

And, yes, my 10-year old on is adopted.

Labels: Abortion, Adoption, Nancy Zettler, Pro-Life, Susan Mickle

Thanks to Family PAC's Paul Caprio for alerting me to the vote taken on the rollback attempt on parental notice prior to a girl's getting an abortion.

As I wrote earlier, I think the existing language is weak. In fact, I voted against it when it passed, outlining ten ways to avoid telling your parents before getting an abortion, if that House Bill 955 passed.

But this vote was a test between current pro- and anti-abortion forces in Illinois and pro-abortion Personal PAC and its allies lost.

State representatives having constituents in McHenry County split 3-2.

Republican Mark Beaubien of Barrington Hills and Democrat Jack Franks of Bull Valley voted in favor of the weaker notification standards. Republican Mike Tryon stood in support of current law by voting, "No."

Caprio said that Family-Pac had initiated 33,000 grassroots calls to parents in eleven districts where House members were undecided prior to the vote.

And McHenry County Right To Life leader Irene Napier was certainly involved in stimulating calls in several districts.

“I understand that the pro-abortion lobby is threatening to launch a $250,000 campaign against members who voted with parents against HB317" Caprio continued. "

"Such a campaign of intimidation and misinformation against members will be met by Family-Pac with a massive grassroots response by parents:

Bring it on.”

The bill was sponsored by Chicago Democrat John Fritchey.

You can enlarge the roll call by clicking on it.

Labels: Abortion, Jack Franks, Mark Beaubien, McHenry County, Mike Tryon, Parental Notice

Articles two days in a row on a national issue. First gun control and now abortion.

That’s got to be a new record for McHenry County Blog.

Don’t worry, it won’t happen often.

It’s just when I compared the rantings by Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg with what the Tribune’s Steve Chapman had to say Sunday, the interpretations were so great that I thought them worth noting.

Steinberg spends less space in his piece.

Comparing what Congress did to try to keep Terri Schiavo from being slowly starved to death and killed by dehydration, Steinberg says the Supreme Court has “popped up between the legs of the women of America and waved away any doctors who might want to perform certain late term abortions” which he says are “rare,” but “grisly.”

“…right-to-Lifers..(ha)ve lost trying to convince America to ban abortion, so instead they are nibbling away at the edges, on issues that give most decent folk pause, such as this procedure.”

I would not that such an incremental approach in the 1800’s was the way abortion was banned.

Chapman notes the problem that the decision presents abortion advocates:

It’s that it treats the fetus as more than a disposable inconvenience—as a living entity entitled to a measure of respect and protection. One you take that step, there is no telling where it might lead.

And let me share Chapman’s part describing the procedure itself:

The court cited one nurse’s account of this procedure:

The doctor, she said, “delivered the baby’s body and arms—everything but the hear.”

At that point, she said,

”The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his little feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors in the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out…The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening, and sucked the baby’s brains out."

The striking fact about the debate here is not that some people are appalled and revolted by what is done in these instances, but that some people are not. They don’t flinch from the violence visited on well-developer fetuses in the name of reproductive freedom. Any abortion, in their eyes, is a justifiable abortion.

Chapman then takes on the “health of the mother” bugaboo.

He hasn’t room to point out that the provision is not in Roe v. Wade, but in Doe v. Bolton, a companion decision handed down the same day. The exceptions for health is so broad that it includes, as the second, long ignored case states, not only physical risks,

“but all factors—physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age—relevant to )her) well-being.”

As Chapman points out,

”The exception cancels the rule.”

To abortion rights groups like Personal PAC, the group whose candidate Rosemary Kurtz took me out of the Illinois House, as Chapman says without citing any specific group,

”any limit on ‘the right to choose’ is intolerable..."

…even if it is barbaric.

Labels: Abortion, Neil Steinberg, Partial Birth Abortion, Personal PAC, Rosemary Kurtz, Steve Chapman, tz

Those who have been reading McHenry County Blog may be able to guess the reasons I think that Republican challenger David McSweeney lost to Congresswoman Melissa Bean.

There are two main reasons:

1. McSweeney’s gender. After watching how women run against men in this part of Illinois since I ran for McHenry County Treasurer in 1966, I have concluded that when a woman runs against a man that the woman gets about a 5-percentage point lead just for being a woman.

Why?

Maybe because most of the politicians convicted in Illinois since the 1960’s have been men, not women. Maybe you have a better explanation.

Republicans could not afford to concede those 5-percentage points.

2. The second reason is that McSweeney refused to go on the attack on the abortion issue. A candidate can’t sit still while his opponent relentlessly beats him up.

Yet that’s what McSweeney did as Bean ran week after week after week of ads putting a negative spin on his position on abortion.

Now, how could McSweeney have gone on the offensive?

Simple.

Get permission to run the ultra sound footage that was on the air in the abortion referendum in South Dakota. (You can find the ad here.) Have a woman outlining Melissa Bean’s position on abortion. Define her with a living, moving baby in a mommy’s tummy.

Here’s something that could be said (which I am sure can be improved upon):

Melissa Bean is so radical that she thinks this little girl’s mother should be able to abort her…even now.

If you think this baby should fear death, vote for Melissa Bean. That’s the choice Bean stands for.

There is a third element that I think, but do not know, did not happen. I don’t believe that McSweeney put together a volunteer corps that equaled Bean’s. It’s so much easier to let the postman be one’s precinct volunteer than it is to recruit volunteers.

What do you think of this analysis?

Labels: 8th Congressional District, Abortion, David McSweeney, Melissa Bean, Pro-Life

Not the Marlborough Man, although that might be appropriate since my father was a cigarette smoker who died of lung cancer (even though he had stopped for almost 10 years).

This is Cal Skinner, my father, in the early 1940’s.

Today is the day that Addie Watling Skinner gave birth to my father 90 years ago. I suppose that my grandfather Roy Skinner had some role to play that day.

My grandmother was running a little corner store in Wilmington. When she got pregnant the second time, she told me that her girl friends advised that she get an abortion. They told her she could not run the store and take care of my father's older brother George, plus another child.

We’re talking late 1915, early 1916, here.

I learned that when I interviewed my grandmother at age 95 in the late 1980's.

At one point, she asked,

What do you think about abortion?

Out of office, but still in my more or less pro-choice days, I stumbled out this answer:

I don’t know, Grandmom. What do you think?

"Well, I hope you’re against it, because you wouldn’t be here, if I had followed my girl friends’ advice."

That certainly caught my attention.

When Dad was on his deathbed, I asked if he had anything that he would have done differently, if he could do it again.

That’s where this picture comes in. Before my grandparents sold their Eastern Shore of Maryland farm, my grandfather was unable to work it for a couple of years.

My father drove up each weekend to do the farming. My guess is that this photograph was taken during this period in the early Forties when I was a small child. I see this sled is carrying a plow. It looks like the plow that is in our back yard.

Dad’s answer:

I would have spent more time with you during your first years, instead of working the farm every weekend.

So, the messages I derive are at least three-fold:

(1) Spend more time with your children so you don’t have the same regret my father had,

(2) Your family may have some familial memories that have political implications and

(3) Look how far this country has come in the last 60 years.

Here is a picture of Dad and me at the December, 1988, meeting of the McHenry County Board. Dad signed himself out of the hospital so he could come home to vote for Ann Hughes for County Board Chairman. With his vote, she won. (There does seem to be a family resemblence, especially, in the Skinner nose.)

At least, some 45 years later, Dad had wheels.

Labels: Abortion, Addie Watling Skinner, Ann Hughes, Cal Skinner Sr, Maryland, Mule, Roy Skinner