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

Crystal Lake Knights of Columbus Pro-Life Chairman Phil Weyna has sent the following to his “Brother Knights:”

Culture of Life at the Crossroads

Dear Brother Knights,

Never before in the history of our nation has the Culture of Life been under such imminent threat of extinction.

Next Tuesday, November 4, American citizens will choose, for their President, between a life-long pro-life candidate and an avid pro-abortion candidate. If the pro-abortion candidate wins, one of his stated top priorities will be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, now pending in Congress.

And what is the freedom of Choice Act? It would completely federalize the abortion issue and strike down all state laws from parental notification to the Woman’s Right to Know laws to bans on partial birth abortion to Illinois’ Born Alive bill, declaring them null and void with the stroke of his pen. In effect, the new pro-abortion President would dash our hopes of negating Roe v. Wade through adoption of incremental state laws against certain forms of abortion.

And if that isn’t bad enough, the new pro-abortion President, backed by a cooperative Congress, will appoint as many as four new Supreme Court Judges, undoubtedly with a very liberal bent. This would make it very unlikely that Court action against Roe v. Wade would be successful.

Brother Knights, Pope Benedict XVI, Bishop Doran, Supreme Knight Carl Anderson and our own Pastors have urged us to vote against the Culture of Death. In fact, this is non-negotiable. Please make the correct moral vote next Tuesday.

Phil Weyna, PGK
Pro-Life Chairman

Labels: Crystal Lake, Knights of Columbus, Phil Weyna, Pro-Life

This one says,


It was distributed by the National Right To Life Committee. I found it near the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce Building.

Labels: Bumper Sticker, Message of the Day, National Right To Life Committee, Pro-Life

I try to post a religious message each Sunday.


This one may not seem like one to you until you learn what it's connected to.

It's McHenry's St. Patick's Church.

When I stopped by, Karen and Steve Verr were manning it.

While we talked for a bit, a man came up and asked if this were a “pro-life” booth.

Neither of us could figure out how he could have any doubt, but assured him it was.

He then dropped a $50 bill into a donation box.

Next to the booth the Verrs were at was one promoting 1st Way Pregnancy Support Services.

I noticed signs for offices in both Harvard (815-943-1500) and Johnsburg (815-385-2999).

Labels: 1st Way Pregnancy Support Services, Karen Verr, McHenry, McHenry County Fair, Message of the Day, Pro-Life, St. Patrick's Church, Steve Verr

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

As an occasional feature, McHenry County Blog will reprint various sections of the Platform approved at the recent Republican Convention held in Decatur. Here is the one on right to life.

EMBRACING THE FIRST FREEDOM: THE RIGHT TO LIFE

Recognizing that the rights and needs of children begin at conception, the Republican Party of Illinois embraces the Right to Life of innocent unborn children and supports reform proposals protecting that right and limiting the practice of abortion in Illinois.

We believe that all innocent human life must be respected and safeguarded from conception to natural death; therefore:

• The unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life, which cannot be infringed.

• The Party affirms its support for a human life amendment to the U.S. Constitution and we endorse making clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection applies to unborn children.

• We urge the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

• We affirm our support for the appointment or election of judges at all levels of the judiciary who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of human life.

• The Illinois Republican Party opposes the fostering of utilitarian experiments which sacrifice human embryos in what appears to be a futile search for medical cures. Such experimentation undermines the right to life of every human being and offends the moral conscience of many taxpayers. We embrace the more fruitful – and completely ethical – avenues of research using cord blood, bone marrow and other adult stem cells, and we note the success of adult stem cell research in treating or curing more than 70 diseases, conditions and injuries.

In particular, we call on the Governor and General Assembly to:

• End the taxpayer subsidy for abortion;

• Require a doctor to involve a minor’s parents before aborting her unborn child;

• Outlaw the barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion; and

• Enact the Illinois Born-Alive Infant Protection Act guaranteeing medical assessment and appropriate medical care for babies whose birth is incidental to abortion.

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As I pointed out yesterday, the local pro-life political action committee is holding a pig roast fund raiser on June 20th at Resurrection Center on Country Club Road in Bull Valley. Here's where you can sign up.

RSVP:	Yes No Maybe

A copy of the report of the Pro-Life Victory PAC is filed with the State Board of Elections and the McHenry County Clerk's Office, and is available for purchase from the State Board of Elections and the McHenry County Clerk's Office, Woodstock, IL. You can also view it at the State Board of Elections web site.

The couple wearing the pro-life tee shirts attended the Decatur convention. The sergeants-at-arms did not make them take off their presumably non-pre-approved signs.

Labels: Illinois Republican Convention, Illinois Republican Party, Illinois Republican Platform, Pro-Life, Republican State Platform, Right to Life

$50 bucks a person or $75 per couple.

Hey.

It's a fund raiser.

Here's where you can sign up.

RSVP:	Yes No Maybe

I already have.

It's at Resurrection Center in Bull Valley.

Also called Compass Ridge Conference Center for you secular types.

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A copy of the report of the Pro-Life Victory PAC is filed with the State Board of Elections and the McHenry County Clerk's Office, and is available for purchase from the State Board of Elections and the McHenry County Clerk's Office, Woodstock, IL. You can also view it at the State Board of Elections web site.

Labels: Compass Ridge Conference Center., Message of the Day, Pro-Life, Pro-Live Victory PAC, Ressurection Center

The following press release has been received from 14th congressional district Republican primary candidate Chris Lauzen:

Lauzen Earns Endorsements from Pro-Life Leaders

(North Aurora) During this Christmas season, while we celebrate the birth of our baby Jesus, Senator Chris Lauzen has been endorsed by pro-life activists and organizations. Those supporting Lauzen include

• Sandy Rios, Former President of Concerned Women of America;
  
  
• Karen Hayes, Pro-Family Activist;


• Arlene Sawicki, Pro-Life/Pro-Family Activist;


• Paul Caprio, Director of Family-PAC Federal;


• Ralph Rivera, Illinois Citizens for Life Federal PAC; and


• Irene Napier, Illinois Federation for Right to Life PAC.

Lauzen’s pro-life efforts as an Illinois Senator have been recognized on several occasions. He was awarded Illinois Family Institute Leadership Award, Family PAC Legislator of the Year Award, and Illinois Federation for Right to Life Pro-life Voice Award.

Lauzen successfully sponsored the Ban on Partial Birth Abortion in the Illinois Senate in 1997, although it was eventually struck down by the U.S. Supreme court in 2000 when the Nebraska ban was nullified. He is also in favor of Parental Notification and currently sponsors legislation that would require abortion clinics to have at least the same regulatory standards as ambulatory out-patient procedure centers.

Top left is State Senator Chris Lauzen and his wife Sarah at his 900-person Porky Picnic this summer. The two women on the right are WYLL-FM radio talk show host and McHenry County Right to Life leader Irene Napier. Paul Caprio, whose political action committee sponsors an annual cruise (2006 and 2007) on Lake Michigan and the Chicago River, is the man on the left.

Labels: 14th Congressional District, Arlene Sawicki, Chris Lauzen, Irene Napier, Paul Caprio, Pro-Life, Ralph Rivera, Sany Rios

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

After filling up with gas at the station that was called “State Gas” when I first started driving back in the late 1950’s, I drove home past the old St. Thomas Catholic Church.

There were several pro-life bumper stickers on cars and vans parking around the park where the Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce has its building.

Here’s one of them:


If you want one of these, click on the image and you can see the price and address.

Labels: Bumper Sticker, Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce, Message of the Day, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, St. Thomas Catholic Church, State Gas Station

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

Another message I found at State Senator Chris Lauzen’s Porky Picnic.

There were so many.

This one was on a woman in the main tent.

Her hair was so long I had to ask her to hold it up so I could capture the message.

It says,

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

I found this message of the day on the Family PAC cruise last Thursday night.

Just as we were leaving, I saw this cap on Pro-Life Action League’s Joe Schidler’s head.

You know I had to take a picture.

It says,

Labels: Hat, Joe Schidler, Message of the Day, Pro-Life, Pro-Life Action League

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

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