Sen Levin responds to the banning of documents

Last January I discovered that the US Commission on Civil Rights had removed documents from its website that I had read previously. I should have kept a copy of them because the new management objected to them and removed them from their website. The commission is obviously trying to silence dissent, much of the documents were critical of Bush policies.

I was worried that this action of the commission might become the status quo policy of our federal government and would do more harm to America then good. I continue to be worried that the motive behind it is to place legitimate civil rights concerns under the rug of a Bush bureaucracy not concerned with resolving civil rights issues.

Nothing detrimental to our nation's security is contained in the documents and so they should be made easily available. The sole reason must be that the documents do not agree with the political agenda of the present commission but the issues raised merit attention regardless.

IndyMind article: King George silences dissent


Reply from Senator Levin:

Dear Mr. Lathrop:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the removal of documents from the Civil Rights Commission's website. Your ideas are interesting, and I appreciate hearing from you about them. I will certainly keep your thoughts in mind as these issues come before the Senate.


Sincerely,
Carl Levin

Sister Margaret update

Article published Thursday, April 21, 2005

TOLEDO DIOCESE
Priest named in lawsuit that alleges ritual abuse

By MARK REITER
BLADE STAFF WRITER

A Toledo Roman Catholic diocesan priest charged in the 1980 slaying of a nun was accused yesterday in a civil lawsuit of repeatedly torturing and raping a young girl in ritual abuse ceremonies at a north-side church.

An unidentified woman claims she was the victim of bizarre demonizing ceremonies conducted by the Rev. Gerald Robinson and other clergy nearly 40 years ago in the basement of St. Adalbert Parish on Warsaw Street.

The woman and her husband, who are listed as Survivor Doe and Spouse Doe, respectively, filed the lawsuit in Lucas County Common Pleas Court.

Father Robinson, who is scheduled to go on trial in October for the aggravated murder of Sister Margaret Ann Pahl; Gerald Mazuchowski, a former lay minister; the diocese; St. Adalbert Parish; the Oblates of St. Francis De Sales, Inc., and fifteen "John Does" were named as defendants.

Sister Margaret Ann, 71, was strangled, then stabbed up to 32 times April 5, 1980, in what has been described as a ritualistic slaying in the sacristy of a chapel in the former Mercy Hospital. Father Robinson is free on a $400,000 property bond.

The civil lawsuit filed yesterday was assigned to Judge Ruth Ann Franks.

The couple who filed the suit is seeking in excess of $25,000 in compensatory damages.

The woman said she recognized Father Robinson as being among the men who allegedly molested her from 1968 to 1975 upon the priest's arrest in April, 2004, for the murder of the nun, and the subsequent media attention that was generated by the case, specifically a television broadcast on the investigation that aired April 23, 2004.

"Until that time, she didn't know that one of the abusers was Father Robinson," said Mark A. Davis, a Toledo attorney who filed the lawsuit.

She also claims that she identified Mr. Mazuchowski as an alleged abuser after seeing his photograph as part of an article that was published in The Blade on Feb. 20 that reported on the murder investigation and ritual abuse ceremonies involving church clergy.

Mr. Davis said the newspaper report in which Mr. Mazuchowski's admitted his involvement with the group know as Sisters of Assumed Mary, or SAM, stirred memories of conversations in which she recalled her abusers using names of women.

The woman said the abuse included chanting of Satanic verses, cutting her with a knife as a sacrifice to Satan, drawing an upside-down cross on her abdomen, and forcing her to drink the blood of sacrificed animals, such as a rabbit.

She said the men dressed in nun's clothing and performed the rituals while she was on a table. They restrained her if she tried to leave.

In addition to being raped and molested, the woman also alleges that she was forced to perform sexual acts on the men.

She said the abuse escalated dramatically as the sessions continued ,to the point of including putting lighted matches to her feet and the corner of her eyes.

She said the abuse took place in the basement of the church until 1972 when it was moved to an undisclosed wooded area.

The lawsuit contends that Father Robinson and Mr. Mazuchowski "had a close relationship with Survivor Doe's mother, who also participated in the ceremonies in the woods and was becoming high priestess of Satan."

Mr. Mazuchowski, a retired Toledo Public Schools teacher, denied the allegations made by the woman and claimed in an interview last night he never was intimate with a woman. "That is what makes it so amusing to me. I have never been in any shape or form involved with a woman," he said, adding that he would testify to that if the case would proceed to trial.

Toledo attorney Alan Konop, speaking on behalf of Father Robinson's criminal defense team, read a statement: "We do not believe that the allegations deserve the dignity of a reply."

Thomas Pletz, an attorney representing the diocese, said he was not aware of the lawsuit, and could not offer a comment.

Air America honkey tonk radio

Any action taken by an employer towards an employee (firing) on April fool's day makes that action (firing) MORE personal then it should be for the employee. Cruel Jokes like this happen at private corporation's all the time but when a "public" company such as a national radio station does this to a "public" figure the "public" receives the cruel joke along with the employee.

In this case the offender is Air America and the offended is the rapper Chuck D a highly recognized entertainer/ social commentator of, for the African American community. Chuck D (black) was fired on April fools day and replaced by Jerry Springer (white) of white trash TV fame. Jerry Springer is the only TV personality to give the Klan a national stage, that says more about Springer then his guests. Dumb-ass television is not defined by the "dumb-asses" that you have on your show, it is defined by the "dumb-ass" who decided to invite them!

Boycott WHITE AIR AMERICA until they racially diversify their station!!!!!!!!!!

Read more at the Cincinnati Black Blog and Counterpunch

Alabama Senate bans gay marriage

From Associated Press

The Senate approved its version of a constitutional amendment that would bar recognition of same-sex marriages with a 37-1 vote Wednesday.

The lone dissenting vote among the Senate's 46 members came from Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston. However, several other legislators seated in the Senate chamber simply did not vote as their names were called.

Ford had been in charge of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee that discussed the constitutional amendment and similar legislation.

"We have one of the strongest bans on gay marriage in the country," Ford said.

That ban, however, is in the statute. Supporters of the constitutional amendment say a single judge's ruling could trump that law and open the state to recognizing same-sex unions from other states.

Ford said the legislation unfairly targets hundreds of thousands of people who spend billions in the state each year. But "people decided they needed an easy target to pick on. At one time it was African-Americans," Ford said. "That's what we're doing today is picking on the gay community.

"We are not brutes, we are not bullies. We can be higher than that."

Ford did not persuade anyone to go along with him.

Others did not vote for the amendment, including Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Hopkins and a pastor.

"We can't legislate to anyone any moral decisions. ... You can't mandate people to subscribe to whatever moral, religious views that we hold," Jackson said. "That's why in the religious community they call it winning converts, not forcing converts."

The House approved a similar ban 96-17 in favor on March 1.

house no voters ( I have tried for hours to discover the names of the no votes. If you learn them please let me know.)

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Black Republican challenges MI Senator

Here in Michigan the Democrats have the vote of the African American community, well thats about all they have left. White blue-collar males left for the Republican party in the Reagan era. Take away the Democratic votes in the large urban areas and the State goes handily to the Republicans. The majority of those urban votes are black votes. So how do you encourage African Americans to vote against the Democrats and win the State for the Republicans, with Black Republicans. Now improve your chances of winning by selecting a man who can't be attacked with a campaign against him, a minister, and you have great possibilities for victory. This minister has just lost his religous integrity by entering the crooked world of politics.



By Kathy Barks Hoffman / Associated Press
LANSING -- Keith Butler said that he prayed hard before deciding he'd enter the Republican race to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

"With all that I have seen, heard and felt in my soul, running for the United States Senate at this time and place in Michigan's history is not a mere opportunity. It is something much more important: a responsibility," he said during an announcement tour that included stops Tuesday in Southfield and Lansing.

The founding pastor and bishop of the 21,000-member nondenominational Word of Faith International Christian Center Church in Southfield hopes to build on his roots in the state GOP and in Detroit politics to pull together a winning coalition against the first-term senator.

He notes that he won more than 100,000 votes during his 1989 election to the Detroit City Council. The former councilman said he doesn't expect to get that many Detroit votes in the 2006 Senate race, but said he could do far better than other Republicans have done in attracting voters in the largely black, Democratic city.

Butler, 49, first unveiled his candidacy Tuesday before hundreds of supporters in Southfield, where he was introduced by state Attorney General Mike Cox. During his afternoon appearance at the Lansing Center, he was introduced by state Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt. Cropsey, who has known Butler since the late 1980s, praised him as a moral and civic leader. "The man is true-blue," Cropsey said. "He's a man of tremendous integrity."

REALITY CHECK: Religious figures lose their integrity when they enter the ugly world of politics


Cropsey criticized Stabenow for blocking President Bush's Michigan nominees to the U.S. Sixth District Court of Appeals and for not doing enough to help Michigan's economy or to get more federal transportation dollars.

"She's hurting our roads, she's hurting our justice system," Cropsey said, adding that Butler "will work with the White House instead of being an obstructionist."

Some of Cropsey's criticism was blunted by an announcement Tuesday by Stabenow and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin of Detroit. They say they are continuing their efforts to get more highway dollars for Michigan by introducing a bipartisan bill that would guarantee all states a return of at least 95 cents of every dollar in federal gasoline taxes sent to Washington.

The change would have brought at least $55 million more in federal highway dollars to Michigan this year if in place now, according to a statement by Stabenow and Levin. The state now gets back only about 90 cents of every dollar.

Stabenow, of Lansing, also has said in the past that she objects to the judicial nominations because Republicans blocked two of President Clinton's Michigan nominees to the federal appeals court.

Butler, who planned to continue his campaign swing Wednesday in Flint, Traverse City and Marquette, is the second Republican to formally enter the 2006 race. Troy industrial engineer Bart Baron already has said he will seek the GOP nomination.

Another possible candidate is Jane Abraham, a former Michigan GOP political director who's married to former U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. Jane Abraham said Monday from her home in McLean, Va., that she hasn't made a decision yet.

Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land has been approached about running. But she hasn't made up her mind whether to run for re-election in 2006 or enter the Senate race, spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said.

Massachusetts conservatives go on witch hunt

If you thought everything was cozy in gay friendly Massachusetts think again. There is a witch hunt a' brewin! Massachusetts Supreme Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall and Justices John M. Greaney, Roderick L. Ireland and Judith A. Cowin are being shown the hangman's noose. Their opposition is the ARTICLE 8 ALLIANCE intent on removing the judges with a Bill of Address. I dont know how this solves the problem that homosexuals are everywhere and not changing and not disappearing for the continued future of mankind.

History of the Bill of Address from the Alliance's website:

The bill of address process to remove judges under the Massachusetts Constitution has an interesting history. It has been successfully used six times (twice for two judges at the same time). In addition, three judges resigned after a bill of address process was begun against them. Over the years, one Supreme Judicial Court justice has been removed (1803) and an attempt was made against another (1922).

The last successful removal of a judge was in 1973. The most recent use of the bill of address was in 2001, against Judge Maria I. Lopez. In the Lopez case, a bill of address was filed and sent to the Judiciary Committee but she resigned before hearings commenced.

The bill of address is a two-step process. The legislature (by a majority vote in both houses) must ask the governor to remove the judge. Then the governor and governor's council must officially concur, and the judge is immediately removed.

Most of the bill of address actions are initiated by the legislature, but in one case (1978) the governor initiated it by calling a special session of the legislature. (The judge resigned after the process began.)

During the 1850s the legislature successfully passed a bill of address against the same judge three times. The first two times the governor refused to remove him. So they waited for a new governor, and it was successful the third time.

No reasons for the requested removal need be stated in a bill of address. Research has uncovered the actual reasons to include not only outrageous rulings and actions from the bench, but also extortion, senility, participation in a rebellion, bribery, lying under oath, and other offenses.

Bill of Address Actions in Massachusetts

1787
William Whiting, First Justice of the Court of Common Pleas
and
James Perry, a Bristol County Justice of the Peace
(Both addressed and removed)

1803
Justice Theophilus Bradbury of the Supreme Judicial Court
(Addressed and removed)

1803
Judge Paul Sargent of the Court of Sessions
and
Judge William Vinal of the Court of Common Pleas
(Both judges were addressed and removed)

1855
Judge Edward G. Loring of the Suffolk County Probate Court
(Addressed, but Governor refused to remove)

1856
Judge Edward G. Loring of the Suffolk County Probate Court
(Addressed, but Governor refused to remove)

1858
Judge Edward G. Loring of the Suffolk County Probate Court
(Addressed and removed by new Governor)

1881
Judge Joseph Day of the Barnstable County Probate Court
(Proposed address rejected by legislative committee)

1882
Judge Joseph Day of the Barnstable County Probate Court
(Addressed and removed)

1922
Judge Edward Pierce of the Supreme Judicial Court
(Proposed address rejected by legislative committee)

1952
Judge Ruby
(Resigned before commencement of removal hearings)

1965
Judge Richard K. Gordon of the Third District Court of Essex
(Resigned after petition for address filed)

1972
Judge Vincent Brogna
(Proposed address rejected by legislative committee)

1973
Judge Jerome P. Troy of the Dorchester Municipal Court
(Addressed and removed**)

1978
Judge Robert Bonin, Chief Justice of the Superior Court
(Governor convened special session of legislature to consider address; address approved by legislative committee and Senate; Bonin resigned before consideration by House)

2001
Judge Maria I. Lopez of the Superior Court
(Resigned before commencement of removal hearings)



**The Supreme Judicial Court had disbarred Justice Troy and had enjoined him from performing duties as a judge. But he refused to resign, claiming the court did not have the authority to remove him. So the legislature and governor subsequently removed him through a bill of address.

Harry Reid's fireside chat

On the anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt's death, Senator Harry Reid chose to hold a fireside chat with two residents of Virginia about Social Security. This fireside chat is available as an audio or video download here. You can also sign a petition against President Bush's Social Security swindle of the century.

Same sex ban coming to Texas House

The State Affairs Committee of the Texas House of Representatives voted to send a bill to the house banning same-sex marriage. An ammendment to ban civil unions was rejected. The sole no vote was cast by Democrat, Rep. Jessica Farrar. Two other Democrats were absent from the committee.

From the Houston Chronicle:

The vote took Farrar by surprise, coming just minutes into the early-morning meeting.

"I was disappointed that we weren't more deliberate in this. It was just political," said Farrar, D-Houston.

Farrar said she had hoped to hear testimony from the Texas attorney general's office about whether a court challenge of the constitutional amendment is expected and how much the state might have to spend to fight such a lawsuit.

"I believe that no matter how you feel about the homosexuals or the 'practices,' as Chisum says, I think it writes discrimination into the constitution," Farrar said.

Justice for Sister Margaret Ann Pahl

Catholic Sister Margaret of Toledo, Ohio was murdered in 1980 and her killer has not been determined and brought to justice. Catholic Father Gerald Robinson is the prime suspect.

Google news search

Articles

4/21 Priest named in lawsuit that alleges ritual abuse
3/6 Secret archives at heart of dispute; group says files hold key to abuse
3/2 Polygraph didn't lie, officials say
3/1 Priest failed 1st lie detector test
2/26 Nun death probe data to be released
2/25 Judge keeps documents sealed
2/20 Dark allegations arise amid probe of nun's slaying
1/29 1980 SLAYING OF NUN-Accused priest has new judge, trial date

Catholic Church: Sanctuary for criminals

Imagine a corporation and imagine that the boss of the corporation learns that his employees are raping the children of the company’s customers. Continue to imagine that the boss does not take disciplinary action against the employees. Instead of terminating the employees and cooperating with the police investigating the matter, the boss instead conceals the actions of the employees and moves them from company location to company location.

The sheltered employees continue to rape the children of the company’s customers and the boss continues to avoid accountability for the employee’s actions. The boss then decides to launch a public relations campaign to convince customers that there is no wrong doing within the company. Loyal customers attack less then loyal customers for questioning the integrity of the company.

Now imagine that the founder of the corporation, who is without the faults of the boss and has worked tirelessly to construct a reputable company, has died. The corporation decides not to take disciplinary action against the boss or the employees; it decides instead to support the management decisions of the boss to avoid accountability and thus loses its integrity as a corporation of good works.

The founder was a man of integrity as agreed by everyone who knew him. But the corporation decides to promote the boss and give him a role of spokesman for the corporation. Replacing a man of integrity with a man without integrity does in no way benefit the corporation that had something but lost it, integrity. A man that loses his integrity can not gain the integrity of the man who had it by simply associating himself with the other man. The corporation does not help itself also by following this illusion.

Cardinal Law's Role in Rome Sparks Outrage in U.S.
By Greg Frost

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Vatican's decision to let Cardinal Bernard Law lead a funeral Mass for Pope John Paul in Rome has prompted outrage back home, where the ousted Boston archbishop is seen as a symbol of a pedophile priest scandal.

Victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergymen were particularly harsh in their reaction, saying the decision to give Law a prominent role in the pomp and circumstance surrounding the pope's death came as a slap in the face.

"I find it personally very insulting and one more instance of how the Roman Catholic hierarchy protects and promotes even the most egregious among them," said Ann Hagan Webb, a regional coordinator of the group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests.

"He (Law) protected priests at the expense of children over and over and over again, and this symbolically says: 'We don't care about these children; we'd rather honor him,"' Hagan Webb, a clergy abuse victim herself, told Reuters.

Law resigned as archbishop of Boston in 2002 after court documents showed that he and other leaders of the Boston church shuttled known pedophiles from parish to parish without informing worshipers.

The scandal spread to other dioceses across the United States, prompting a drop in donations as attendance fell off at weekly Mass.

The Archdiocese of Boston has since agreed to pay more than $86 million to settle legal claims filed by hundreds of people who said they were abused by priests.

IN PUBLIC EYE AGAIN

For a time after he left Boston, Law took up residence near Washington, D.C., and dropped out of the public eye. He later moved to Rome, where he was named archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, a role that allows him to lead the funeral mass. He is also eligible to help choose a new pope.

Law resurfaced in American media this week following the pope's death, granting a lengthy interview to ABC News and being photographed at numerous public events.

"From the moment Law appeared on ABC, we have received an overwhelming number of e-mails and phone calls, for the most part from people very much upset by Law's visibility," said Suzanne Morse of the Catholic laity group Voice of the Faithful, which grew out of the scandal.

The Rev. Walter Cuenin, a Newton, Massachusetts, priest who was a critic of Law before the prelate resigned in 2002, said that for many Boston-area Catholics seeing Law play a public role in Rome has reopened old wounds.

"All the priests (who were accused of abuse) are off the job, so some Catholics feel that Law should be retired and not serving on active duty in Rome," Cuenin told Reuters. "And this week seeing him has brought it all back."

However, Cuenin also said given Law's position at the basilica in Rome, it made sense that the Vatican would choose him to lead one of the nine funereal masses for the pope.

"On that particular decision I don't think it's intended to make a statement but it's more that it would be logical to have one of those Masses there.

The Vatican announced Thursday that Law would preside over one of the nine funeral Masses for the pope.

Law was chosen because his church is one of the four major basilicas in Rome. The archpriest is the senior figure in a cathedral or basilica and is responsible for how it is run, so his appointment to this task follows protocol.

The nine-day cycle began with the Pope's funeral in St. Peter's Basilica.

As a cardinal under 80, the former Boston archbishop will also enter the conclave to elect a new pope that begins on April 18.

Connecticut shows a little kindness to gays

The state Senate Yesterday approved a bill that would make Connecticut the first state, absent court pressure, to recognize civil unions between same-sex couples.

Senators voted 27-9 in favor of the legislation, which proponents say will likely clear the House of Representatives. Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell has not taken a stand on the bill, but has said she supports the concept of civil unions.

An effort failed to amend the bill to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Rell said she would prefer the marriage definition was in the legislation, but would not say she would veto the bill if it weren't.

Kansas says HELL NO TO FAG MARRIAGES

From the Boston Globe:

Voters in Kansas overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment today to ban same-sex couples from marrying or entering into civil unions.

With more than half of the precincts reporting, 276,876 votes, or 69 percent, were cast in favor of a constitutional amendment, with 121,836 votes, or 31 percent, opposed.

The Knights of Columbus, the nation's largest lay organization for Roman Catholics, donated $100,000 to supporters of the Kansas amendment, giving them a 4-to-1 fund-raising advantage.

and elsewhere:

A conservative public policy group, Concerned Women for America, hailed Kansas voters for standing up to "unrestrained judges."

[ed. Now we know where to find women who prefer restraining]

Robert Knight, director of CWA's Culture & Family Institute, said Americans are "waking up to the fact that gay marriage is not about tolerance, but about mandating businesses to support homosexuality, and schools to teach children that there is no longer any right or wrong sexual relationship and that marriage itself is meaningless."

and every homosexual disappeared from our world and no one talked about fags again and everyone who thought they were right in this world lived happily ever after....... the end

Bush visits Episcopal church

Today President Bush attended St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington DC. You could read a lot out of his decision to attend a Catholic church on Saturday (out with the old) to pay his respect to the pope, then attend an Episcopal church on Sunday (in with the new). Bush Sr. was an Episcopalian then became a Methodist and Bush jr. needed more disciplining for his drunkeness and so he was "born again" (out with the dissension and in with the arrogant authority).

Now the Episcopal church has helped Bush's image by the choice of Rev. Luis Leon's vestments. Doesn't his clerical garb remind you of the Ku Klux Klan?- President Bush's supporters.

Minnesota State House bans same sex marriage

The Minnesota State House banned same sex marriage yesterday by a vote of 77-56 in favor. Inclusion into the State's constution will come after it wins approval from voters in 2006.

Debate excerpt:

House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, D-St. Paul, called the House floor vote "the politics of distraction," saying Minnesota marriages are not in crisis but education and other services are.

Rep. Karen Clark, D-Minneapolis, a lesbian lawmaker, strenuously attacked the proposed amendment as threatening benefits for gays and lesbians.

She asked Rep. Dan Severson, R-Sauk Rapids, House bill author, how her long term, loving relationship was so damaging as to require a constitutional amendment. "What is threatening you?" she asked.

Rep. Michael Paymar, D-St. Paul, said the proposed amendment was disuniting to the state and meanspirited. "Today I have to say I'm ashamed of this body," he said.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, argued that the proposed amendment was clear.

"It's not taking away the right of gays and lesbians to marry", he argued. "They just can't marry someone of the same sex", said Emmer. "I have more respect than you know for everybody's way of life," Emmer told Clark (D).

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