Free Republic

Among the several organizations using the term “common good” within the ranks of Catholic activism these days there are some who attempt to argue that when people like me emphasize that every procured abortion is intrinsically evil and can never further the Common Good, we are engaging in “a single issue” politics. They argue that this insistence fails to take into account other important elements of Catholic Social thought. I disagree and insist instead that it is the firm foundation for all that other Catholic Social thought. Some of these folks write me in response to my articles. I tell...

Cardinal George Corrects the Catholic Vote Debate Posted on September 06, 2008, 9:12 AM | Deal W. Hudson The most important statement from a Catholic bishop of the present political season was published a few days ago by Francis Cardinal George of Chicago. In essence, Cardinal George stated it was a violation of Catholic teaching to evoke the common good in politics without advocating legal protection of yet-to-be-born children. Several "Catholic" political organizations (Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United) have come into existence since 2004 using the "common good" as their guiding principle. Here is what...

My Friends, I am often asked why I want to be President of the United States. And my answer is that I believe in the greatness of this nation as a beacon of goodwill throughout the world. I believe each and every one of us has a duty to serve a cause greater than our own self-interest. I’ve spent my life in service to my country, and I’ve spent my life putting my country first. When I was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam from 1967 to 1973, I was given the option to come home early...

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said. From this story: WASHINGTON (AFP) — Barack Obama set his sights on November's general election Saturday as he campaigned in Oregon, where he hopes to declare victory in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.Obama has said Tuesday's primaries in Oregon and Kentucky could mark the end of his drawn-out battle with rival Hillary Clinton, and his campaign pressed home that message by...

Another new wrinkle from Hillary Clinton today: she wants a presidential summit on gun control. That came up in the Q-and-A session of her stop in De Pere, after a woman asked about dealing with shootings such as the Northern Illinois University carnage. Clinton started with the line she rolled out a couple days ago about recognizing that there is “no conflict” between letting lawful gunowners have weapons and keeping guns out of the hands of bad guys and the mentally ill. She went on to propose a solution to coming up with a solution for the problem — kind...

The heart of the matter Our theme for today comes from George W Bush: “Freedom is the desire of every human heart.” When the president uses the phrase, he’s invariably applying it to various benighted parts of the Muslim world. There would seem to be quite a bit of evidence to suggest that freedom is not the principal desire of every human heart in, say, Gaza or Waziristan. But why start there? If you look in, say, Brussels or London or New Orleans, do you come away with the overwhelming impression that “freedom is the desire of every human heart”?...

Illegal Immigration: Amnesty for the Sake of the ‘Common Good’ Is No Good by Matt Carrothers June 18, 2007 Many words have been typed, speeches made and talk radio monologues delivered questioning the reasons behind President Bush’s passionate pleas for awarding amnesty to tens of millions of illegal aliens. In a Washington Post editorial last week, Bush’s former speechwriter Michael Gerson provided compelling clues about the president’s guiding ideology on the issue. Gerson’s lament that Americans would dare criticize Bush for abdicating his constitutional duty to enforce our laws should rightfully offend the millions of conservatives who have supported their...

Last week, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee released a draft of their tax plan that would raise the highest income tax rate by 4.3 percentage points to 39.3 percent immediately. And because the proposal doesn't extend the Bush tax cuts, the highest income tax rate would rise to the neighborhood of 44 percent after 2010; this would lift the top federal income tax rate higher than it was even under Bill Clinton, says the Wall Street Journal. Moreover, families with incomes between $250,000 and $500,000, the "marginal" tax rate paid on the next dollar of earned income...

Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has unveiled her economic vision. Should she be given the power to implement it, we can say goodbye to the prosperity and opportunity we have enjoyed since the Reagan years. In a speech at Manchester School of Technology in New Hampshire, Mrs. Clinton said it's time to replace President Bush's "ownership society," which she called an "on your own" society, with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity. Mrs. Clinton said she prefers a "we're all in it together" society: "I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can...

Today's Nuze ----- Wednesday - May 30, 2007DID I HAPPEN TO MENTION THAT THERE WAS A WAR ON INDIVIDUALISM? "Fascist ethics begin ... with the acknowledgment that it is not the individual who confers a meaning upon society, but it is, instead, the existence of a human society which determines the human character of the individual. According to Fascism, a true, a great spiritual life cannot take place unless the State has risen to a position of pre-eminence in the world of man. The curtailment of liberty thus becomes justified at once, and this need of rising the State to its...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) -- Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton outlined a broad economic vision Tuesday, saying it's time to replace an "on your own" society with one based on shared responsibility and prosperity. The Democratic senator said what the Bush administration touts as an "ownership society" really is an "on your own" society that has widened the gap between rich and poor. "I prefer a 'we're all in it together' society," she said. "I believe our government can once again work for all Americans. It can promote the great American tradition of opportunity for all and special privileges for none."...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Hours after President Hugo Chavez shut down Venezuela's main opposition broadcaster, his government demanded an investigation of news network Globovision on Monday for allegedly inciting an assassination attempt on the leftist leader. Chavez took Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, off the air at midnight on Sunday and replaced it with a state-run channel to promote his socialist programs. The move sparked international condemnation and accusations from the opposition that he was undermining democracy in the OPEC nation. Protests over the closure of RCTV, Venezuela's oldest private channel, simmered in several Venezuelan cities on Monday. In some locations,...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened Thursday to nationalize the country's largest steel company and private banks unless they make national interests a priority. In a nationally televised speech, the leftist president said he would nationalize steel maker Sidor if it continued to sell its products abroad instead of selling them to domestic industries, particularly in the oil sector.He also announced plans for a law to force the private banking sector to give top priority to the financing of domestic companies.If the banks flout the law, he warned, "they should leave."The outspoken champion of "21st century socialism" and leader of the...

Taxpayers rushing to complete their 1040s before the April 17 tax deadline may stop to wonder: What are these steep federal taxes going for? Washington will spend $24,106 per household in 2007 the highest total since World War II, and an inflation-adjusted $4,000 more than in 2001. The federal government will collect $21,992 per household in taxes. The remaining $2,114 represents this year's budget deficit per household, which, along with all prior government debt, will be dumped in the laps of our children. Washington will spend this $24,106 per household as follows: c Social Security/Medicare: $8,301. The 15.3 percent payroll...

The folks at Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) seem quite pleased over the '06 election results! The following appears on the home page of their website: "New Times Require Fresh Politics and Flexible Tactics by Sam Webb, National Chair, 03/30/2007 Main report to the National Committee, CPUSA March 24, 2007 The main focus of this report is the new terrain of struggle. How could it be otherwise? So much is happening, so much is changing, so much is different – these are new times! The Nov. 7, 2006, election was a people's victory. It was a stunning blow to the Bush...

Young conservatives in DC apparently like intellectual stimulation in a lecture format, but then again the free beer might have been on more than a few minds. Last Wednesday night, more than 80 young conservative intellectuals crowded into a back room of The Brickskeller on 22nd St, NW to listen to a professor talk about vocation, to eat and drink, and to meet their peers and colleagues. It was the first meeting of “Conservatism on Tap” presented by the ISI (Intercollegiate Studies Institute) Young Alumni group of DC founded by Princeton graduate Evan Baehr. The event was a success, with...

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is renovating and enlarging her Whitehaven mansion in Washington, D.C. so she can host even larger fundraisers - in the property Democrats already refer to as "the White-House-in-waiting." She is gutting and remodeling the first floor of the home and adding a 1,000-square-foot room on the back, reports the New York Post. The improvements, which are expected to cost $1 million, include a new raised terrace that will overlook a quarter-acre of perfectly manicured gardens when the work is finished in Feb. 2006. "A lot of this is social one-upmanship," political scientist Larry Sabato told...

White picket warfare Friday, August 19, 2005 TARIQ ZEHAWI / THE RECORDHayden Mobbs, 5, rounding the bases in his Ramsey yard. Officials say the family's fence is too high and too close to the street. Cars, cement mixers and landscaping trucks thunder by Hayden Mobbs as he whacks a baseball and scurries around the bases - kept safe from the traffic by a white picket fence that borders the front yard of his Ramsey home.The 5-year-old is oblivious to his parents' $6,000 headache - the very same fence that protects Hayden and his 3-year-old brother Ian from running absent-mindedly into...

It is precisely Hillary’s penchant for witch hunts and enemy lists, as revealed, for instance, in the Filegate and Travelgate scandals, which disqualify her from high office, Klein argues. Unfortunately, that same Machiavellian ruthlessness may well carry her to victory in 2008...

Senator Hillary Clinton's office is actively trying to discourage interviewers from giving TV time to Ed Klein, author of the controversial bestseller "The Truth About Hillary," Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz confirmed on Sunday. "A spokesman for Senator Clinton told me that when news organizations call, they do make the argument, why give this guy airtime," Kurtz said, while hosting CNN's "Reliable Sources." Kurtz's comment is the first by a mainstream journalist acknowledging that Sen. Clinton is actively trying to suppress Klein's book in a campaign first reported by NewsMax Monday morning. After being booked on numerous TV Shows,...