One of JFK's little sisters, Eunice Shriver was the wife of Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps and McGovern's running mate on the 1972 Democratic national ticket. Eunice is best known for her role in the establishment of the celebrated sports games of handicapped individuals, known as the Special Olympics, inspired in part by Eunice's big sister Rosemary. (Some authorities believe that Rosemary was mildly retarded, despite the fact she could do arithmetic and write letters; others believe that Rosemary was mentally ill and merely slower than her exceptionally intelligent siblings.) Eunice Shriver, mother-in-law to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, husband to former NBC News journalist Maria Shriver, was also a prominent champion of children's health and, unlike her famous little brother US Senator Ted Kennedy, a rare passionate voice for the human rights of unborn children in the Democratic Party.
We conservatives are admirers of Eunice Shriver's outstanding feminist leadership and accomplishments in making a positive difference in the lives of children and personally challenged individuals, all too often lost, forgotten and politically powerless in our society. Let us never forget her example of what is possible for individuals to do for the common good, given their rights and responsibilities under our nation's Constitution.
Congratulations to SCOTUS Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor
As I watched Justice Sotomayor's nationally televised swearing-in last Saturday, I reflected on the pride my former Latino schoolmates, friends, and students in Texas must have felt on this occasion. No matter what differences I may have regarding Justice Sotomayor's judicial philosophy and past decisions, I am encouraged by the fact we have reached a point in history where Latinos, a vibrant and increasingly important community in the American melting pot, now have a voice at the upper echelon of our national government; I firmly believe that God creates talented individuals across all races and ethnicities, and we must honor merit wherever it may be found. I expect Justice Sotomayor will exercise her new responsibilities with due professional care and consistent with the nation's finest legal traditions; I fully expect Justice Sotomayor's historic confirmation to the Supreme Court to be just the first of many high-profile national leadership roles for Latinos, including, perhaps, I hope within my lifetime, the office of the President of the United States.
Pelosi/Hoyer Attack on Americans Angry at Health Care "Reform" Is Un-American
Liberal Democrats just don't get it. They are talking about an unprecedented intervention in the private health care system, by all accounts highly popular with most policy-holding Americans, all on the dubious case of building a federal bureaucracy to accommodate a small percentage of uninsured people, whom cannot be denied emergency, at a time of sharply diminished federal revenues and bloated federal deficits with related inflationary concerns. Liberals are wildly inconsistent, of course; food is a necessity of life, and some people go hungry, but we don't argue that the answer to the problem of hunger is government-managed supermarkets. We look at solutions not requiring an undue federal footprint, including foodstamps. Seniors are rightly worried that Draconian cuts to Medicare funding will affect the quality of their health care; others have justifiable concerns that the taxpayer will essentially subsidize any "public option", creating unfair competition and de facto a Trojan horse ultimately resulting a single-payer system. Health care providers are worried about how the system will suddenly absorb millions of new insured patients given already overutilized medical personnel.
Polls have made it very clear that the reform is in serious trouble, with some now showing net opposition to Obama's and Congress' ill-defined, convoluted proposals. Obama's approval numbers have sharply declined during the period he's been pushing his "reform". Unsurprisingly, liberals consider the protests of opponents to an unconscionable expansion of governmental incompetence to be "less equal" than similarly impassioned protests with it comes to their own special interest groups, including anti-war, labor union, community activist and civil rights protesters. As the morally self-righteous Speaker Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer hypocritically assert in Monday's USA Today:
It is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway...to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue...These disruptions are...simply un-American.Pelosi and Hoyer, as typically condescending liberals, think that the First Amendment exists solely for the benefit of their political cronies and causes, and they believe that they have a right to dictate the nature and extent of opposition to their Trojan horse proposals, political spin and propaganda.
Conservatives do not fear legitimate debate over health care issues--but there is no legitimate bipartisan consensus in a convoluted health care proposal almost no ordinary American citizen can read or understand--one that Obama had constantly demanded for a vote before the Congressional August recess. We are talking about liberals trying to ram through the Congress a partisan proposal, reflecting their own political agenda. We've already been there, done that. It was called the so-called stimulus bill where unrealistic unemployment outcomes and an Obamaian false sense of urgency and fear were similarly used. The American people deserve better.
