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…because if you don’t you get egg on your face.

“Money from our loyal donors should not be used for this purpose,” Chairman Michael Steele said in a statement. “I don’t know why this policy existed in the past, but it will not exist under my administration. Consider this issue settled.”

Steele has told the committee’s director of administration to opt out of coverage for elective abortion in the policy it uses from Cigna.

Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna, and two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.

The Left is rightly having a field day with it.

Ironically I’ll wager that any person who wanted an abortion at the RNC likely didn’t know it was there. This is why you always read the stuff you get. I’m sure this will be changed as conservative reaction is rightly negative, but there is a very interesting post at Macsmind:

First, I sell insurance for Cigna. It’s not true. There is NO opt out if you don’t want “elective abortion coverage”, the plan is what it is and contains what it contains. It’s a “universal coverage”. The issue is whether or not you would use it.

We know that only liberals do.

Secondly those anonymous employees – who could be fired for even discussing the specifics of any plan, and I will find out who they are, don’t know what they are talking about.

Most insurance plans have some type of “elective abortion” coverage when the mother’s life is in danger, except for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida – which covers NO abortions for any reason. By the way it’s the plan most Democrats carry in South Florida.

One could not expect the RNC to offer no insurance at all, and having such insurance isn’t any indication of disqualification of position on abortion. I’m against breast implants but my plans pays for one.

Now that’s a question of fact, is there a rider you can get to exclude this coverage or not? He actually works for the company selling insurance so I presume he would know. That needs to be discovered. I’ll have to keep an eye on his blog.

If I’m Michael Steele I say that this demonstrates what happens if you don’t “read the bill”. Joe Scarborough just said he is dying to interview Steele, when asked if I was Steele I’d say the following:

“Well Joe that’s right and there is egg on our face for not reading the policy. It’s a great example of what happens when you don’t read a legal document carefully. Imagine how many times that is going to repeated if a health care bill passes that nobody has actually read? How many Americans are going to expect one thing but not find another because their elective representatives didn’t decide to read a 1000 plus page bill that they passed.”

Lemonade baby, Lemonade!

…is running scared from his Bishop decided not to meet with him today:

Kennedy said he was “not going to dignify with an answer” Tobin’s assertions that he could not be a good Catholic and support abortion rights, adding that he found it “very disconcerting” that Tobin won’t agree to keep discussions of his faith private, the Providence Journal reported Wednesday.

The Bishop however is not at a loss for words:

What makes Kennedy think he’s Catholic? “Your baptism as an infant? Your family ties? Your cultural heritage?”

Being Catholic involves much more, he said, including acceptance of essential church teachings on matters of faith and morals, belonging to a parish community, weekly attendance at Mass and regular reception of the sacraments.

And support for abortion rights is not in the same category of those who struggle with sins of anger, pride, greed, impurity or dishonesty and then fail, the bishop declared.

“Your rejection of the Church’s teaching on abortion falls into a different category — it’s a deliberate and obstinate act of the will, a conscious decision that you’ve reaffirmed on many occasions.

“Sorry, you can’t chalk it up to ‘an imperfect humanity.’ Your position is unacceptable to the Church and scandalous to many of our members. It absolutely diminishes your communion with the church….

“I write these words not to embarrass you or to judge the state of your conscience or soul. That’s ultimately between you and God.

“But your description of your relationship with the Church is now a matter of public record and it needs to be challenged. I invite you, as your bishop and brother in Christ, to enter into a sincere process of discernment, conversion and repentance. It’s not too late to repair your relationship with the church, redeem your public image and emerge as an authentic ‘profile in courage,’ especially by defending the sanctity of human life for all people, including unborn children.”

The full letter is here.

Kennedy might not recognize it but he is much luckier than Ted. He has a bishop who is willing to call him out publicly in an attempt to save his soul. The Bishop knows that he will be be pilloried nationally because of it, yet the soul of this man was a prize worth fighting for. Tobin his a profile in courage. It looks like we can’t say the same about Kennedy.

If Kennedy wants to profess himself as a Catholic Pol then he needs to get himself right with the church. If he doesn’t want to I’m sure the media will celebrate him as they did Ted and he will be respected by them for the rest of his life…

…after that he’s on his own.

A: Why calling on them to act Catholic of course.

Glenn Reynolds notes this is foolish but it is not unexpected. The blogger escaped from Communist Cuba:

Ave Maria is my second “ prom­ised land.” When my family and I freed ourselves from the grip of the Communists in Cuba and arrived in the promised land of the United States, we left behind years of per­secution, political imprisonment, executions, and hunger. But most of all we left behind the inhuman practice of silencing dissent— si­lencing our ability to speak the truth of the injustices we suffered. Free speech, and the ability to express dissent is what separates civilized societies from uncivilized ones. It is what my father was im­prisoned for — and many mem­bers of my family gave up their lives for, as devout Roman Catho­lics.

Her Full Critique is in four parts the other three are here.

Read them. They might shock you, but after my experience with Anna Maria College it didn’t shock me. (I’ve talked to quite a few students there and I’ve yet to meet one who doesn’t have the impression that I did although there is at least one promising sign.)

So the banning of her as a reporter is no shock:

America’s oldest Catholic newspaper, The Wanderer, assigned me to cover Ave Maria. Of the articles I have written for The Wanderer, only four have been about Ave Maria University. Yet, the University, of which Nick Healy is the President, banned me from Tom Golisano’s press conference on November 5th, and from the entire campus– allegedly for being disruptive at a public meeting held by the town’s Stewardship Committee. Stewardship Committee meetings have nothing to do with Ave Maria University.

The hubris and lack of credibility in that excuse of President Healy is evident.

Ave Maria University’s heavy handedness in not only banning me from the press conference, but also from the entire campus with County Sheriff deputies, shows how frightened they are of conservative and pro-life Catholics learning who “Tom” Golisano is—a man who ran for governor three times on a pro-choice platform and gave $1 million last year for Barack Obama’s coronation in Denver.

For our friends in the Cafeteria two quick quotes:

Let’s begin with Luke 9:26

Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

And finish with 2 Timothy 2:12

if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us.

The Lure of the world is a dangerous thing lets pray Ave Maria decides to resist it.

Is NY-23 still in play?

Posted: November 12, 2009 by datechguy in elections, opinion/news
Tags: , ,

On election night I wrote this:

I think Hoffman’s concession is premature but that’s his decision to make not mine.

Now it looks like I might have been righter than I thought:

Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman, 66,698 to 63,672, according to the latest unofficial results from the state Board of Elections.

In Oswego County, where Hoffman was reported to lead by only 500 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted election night, inspectors found Hoffman actually won by 1,748 votes — 12,748 to 11,000.

The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed, said John Conklin, communications director for the state Board of Elections.

Under a new law in New York that extended deadlines, military and overseas ballots received by this coming Monday (and postmarked by Nov. 2) will be counted. Standard absentee ballots had to be returned this past Monday.

Conklin said the state sent a letter to the House Clerk last week explaining that no winner had been determined in the 23rd District, and therefore the state had not certified the election. But the letter noted that Owens still led by about 3,000 votes, and that the special election was not contested — two factors that legally allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to swear in Owens on Friday.

You mean initial reports might have been incorrect?
It would be an interesting sight if the result changes, we will shortly see. If so the media are going to have their heads spinning.