Tomorrow is Constitution day.  On Thursday, June 27, 1787, the men gathered in Philadelphia doubted they could give birth to any lasting document, much less a Constitution that would serve as the foundation for the world’s longest lasting representative republic.

For 11 years after the Revolutionary War America operated as 13 separate nations connected by an loose allegiance.  Each state had its own foreign affairs, currency, exchange rates and identity.  Although formally born on July 4, 1776, the United States was shaped as a nation by the work and vision of the 1787-1789 Constitutional Convention.

Recognizing the weakness of the affiliation, our nation’s leaders gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 in an effort to forge a nation.  Five weeks of acrimonious debate with no progress left the delegates frustrated and doubting success.  And then Benjamin Franklin, who to that moment had not spoken, rose from his seat and the hall became silent.  According to delegate Jonathan Dayton, here is what Franklin said:

“The small progress we have made after four or five weeks (in) continual     reasonings with each other - our different sentiments on almost every question, producing as much support as opposition - I think is melancholy proof of the imperfection of Human Understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own wont of political wisdom, since we have been running in search of it.  We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of Republics which have been formed with the seed of their own dissolution now no longer exist.  And we have viewed Modern States all around Europe, but find none of their Constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

In this situation of this Assembly groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, how has it happened, Sir, that he have not thought once of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?  In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection.  Our prayers sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.

To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future….  And have we not forgotten that powerful friend?  or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance.

I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs the affairs of men.  And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?  I firmly believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel.

I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business….”

Our Constitution was approved by the convention and signed on September 17, 1787 and sent to the states to be ratified.  Rhode Island became the final state to ratify the Constitution on May 29, 1790.  Since that time, the US Constitution has shed liberty and hope around the globe.

Tomorrow, (Thursday) on Constitution day, in Pensacola, Florida, a high school principle and his athletic director face criminal charges for praying.  The school was targeted by an ACLU special projects effort to target specific areas of the country for lawsuits designed to remove Christianity from the public square.   The ACLU reserved $100 million to fund their litigation efforts.

They focused on Pace High School in Pensacola.  The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were two students who claimed that several teachers promoted their Christianity in school.  Rather than fight the suit, the District consented to a broad injunction prohibiting prayer at all school sponsored events.

In January of this year, before the order went into effect, a dinner was held at the school to honor contributors to the school’s new field house.  At the dinner, Principle Frank Lay asked Athletic Director Robert Freeman to bless the meal.  No students were present.

The ACLU promptly filed a motion in court for both men to be held in criminal contempt.  They face fines of $5,000 each and six months in jail.  Further, they stand to their pensions which combined represent 70 years of service to public education.

Their trial begins on the day we set aside to honor our Constitution.

Prayer, again, is called for.

Phill

(Both men are represented by The Liberty Council which can be found at www.lc.org)

The ACORN Saga Continues.  (Latest Video after the story)

Video Activist James O’Keefe continues the release of his video investigation of the lawlessness within ACORN. The neighborhood activist organization stood to receive millions of dollars to assist in next year’s census until lawmakers pulled the plug due to O’Keefe’s earlier videos showing ACORN employees in Baltimore and the nation’s capital conspiring to cover up the trafficking of underage foreign girls into the US sex trade.

O’Keefe approached ACORN offices with a hidden camera and a female partner. The female poses as a madame, interested in trafficking more than a dozen underage girls from El Salvador into prostitution. She seeks tax and housing advice and receives much more from ACORN. O’Keefe poses as an aspiring politician who desires to launder the sex trafficking monies into his soon to be announced Congressional campaign. He also receives advice, support and encouragement.

As the videos were released, ACORN feigned shock, fired the employees on the tape and stated that it appeared O’Keefe’s taped had been “altered” to give a false impression. Never mind that the firings seem inconsistent with a claim of “false impression.

The “so what, an extremist right winger has uncovered a few bad apples” defense. The same defense Planned Parenthood has claimed in response to the Lila Rose videos showing Planned Parenthood employees conspiring to evade state laws requiring the reporting of child rape.

As Attorney General of Kansas in 2003, I initiated an investigation into child rape and failure to report child rape. I knew that very few children report there own sexual abuse. Often these children are in co-dependent relationships and are being abused by someone with authority over their lives. This is the very reason for state mandatory reporting laws. The laws require those persons who may have special knowledge of a child’s condition to report sexual abuse. This includes abortion doctors.

In all 50 states, if an underage child is pregnant, the child is a victim of a crime. The crime is generally known as statutory rape.

As I began my investigation approximately 50 underage girls had abortions in Kansas each year. My initial investigation revealed that the state agency responsible for receiving reports of child rape could only demonstrate that it received a handful of reports from abortion clinics. The numbers did not match up.

It took a while to learn this discrepancy as the state agency was under the direction of former Kansas Governor, now US Secretary of Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius. Sebelius opposed the investigation as she her political ambitions had benefited dramatically financially from pro-choice abortion providers George Tiller and Planned Parenthood. If it was demonstrated that Planned Parenthood failed to report child rape, the organization stood to lose over $300 million in annual federal funding. The stakes were large.

I also learned there were strong forces that opposed statutory rape as a crime. Many argued that sexual activity by children and with children can be natural and helpful. This is essentially the claimed findings by Dr. Alfred Kinsey of Indiana University who studied the sexual habits of pedophiles and published his sensational Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948 and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female in 1952. Kinsey’s books were cultural and media sensations. Many of our current cultural assumptions regarding sexuality are based on Kinsey’s findings. So are our laws.

Kinsey concluded that children are sexual from birth and can experience sexual pleasure. Kinsey, in great detail, reported the physical reactions of infants engaged in sexual activity (being abused) by an adult. His primary sources were jailed pedophiles and a man, never identified, who took copious notes while sexually exploiting over 700 children over decades. Kinsey applauded the man’s scientific approach to his note taking. Kinsey then extrapolated his findings across the general population and has become somewhat successful in defining deviancy as normal.

In the wake of Kinsey - US laws protecting children took a dramatic turn. Laws prohibiting incest were weakened. The argument is that ripping up a family rather through prosecution rather than counseling members towards a mutual respect in more harmful.

Sex with a child after all, is only a choice.

And so, as pro-lifers tend to, we say what about the choice of the child?

Mary Calderone the former Medical Director of Planned Parenthood had a ready Kinseian response when she states “it is not that (pedophilia) is a bad thing or a wicked thing, it is just that it should not be a part of life in general, right out there on the sidewalk.” (Pedophilia Steps Into the Daylight, Citizen Magazine, Vol 6. No. 11, Nov. 16, 1992, pp. 6-8).

Calderone went on to state that the primary harm caused by sexual interaction with children, is not caused by the sex, but rather the hysteria of adults who learn of the sexual interaction. (Mary S. Calderone and Eric Johnson, The Family Book About Sexuality, pg. 178 (Harper and Rowe 1981).

This thinking is not rare, it is prevalent. It is this thinking that allows organizations like the ACLU and Center for Reproductive Freedom to argue in legal briefs, with a straight face, that the constitutional privacy right of the child prevents them from reporting child rape.

These organizations, however, know that the American public is still, as they view it, trapped in religious ignorance and dogma and that most Americans believe that sexual interaction with children is morally wrong. Accordingly, they work to change the nature and tone of the debate in order to redefine the issues. In Kansas they had some powerful allies: the editorial and news pages of the handful of Kansas dailies and the cowardice of conservative politicians who did not want to buck the media.

The investigation came to be known as the “kiss and tell” investigation. It was portrayed by media, over and over again, as an effort to prosecute two adolescents who got it on in the backseat of a Toyota. The media spin was so aggressive that at one point a Kansas City Star editorial cartoonist portrayed me as a child molester with my hand up a little girl’s skirt as we sat on a park bench. Millions of Planned Parenthood and George Tiller dollars were spent to reinforce this image.

This succeeded. Despite the fact that the abortions on 10, 11 and 12 year old children continued unabated in Kansas. Also, despite the fact that in the over 700 cases of adults sexually exploiting children in which my office was involved, not one involved two teens getting it on. We only prosecuted instances involving force, deception or when there is a large age deviation - just as the law provided.

Further, simple experience and rational thought led you to this type of investigation. Typically, when a child is stranger raped the police are called by the parents long before the abortion if abortion is the result. When police are not called, it often means that the perpetrator is a family member or someone with control over the child. The abortion is a means of eliminating the evidence of the rape.

Abortion clinics do not have trained investigators. In fact, most of their “counselors” are not trained counselors. Abortion clinics do not have the means to determine who the father of the child is or whether the child is under duress. The child is generally not in the presence of a medical doctor during their time at a clinic.

It is very easy for the rapist to threaten the child into silence about the abuse. Cases have popped up around the nation of rapists leading their victims by the hand to abortion clinics and the clinics refused or failed to report the activity and the abuse continues.

In Cincinnati a young girl was led by the hand to a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic by her rapist. No one did anything and the rapes continued. She is now suing and in the lawsuit her attorneys uncovered a hand written Planned Parenthood policy regarding underage sexual activity. It reads “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

This artful sidestepping of our laws designed to protect children has also reached the halls of justice. In Kansas, the Kansas Supreme Court turned the investigation into illegal late-term abortion, child rape and failure to report child rape into a judicial nightmare of delays, ever evolving new rules and obstacles.

In six years of investigation, the Supreme Court allowed numerous lawsuits and appeals by the abortion clinics. So many in fact, that in the six years of investigation only one investigative subpoena was honored. Only 1 in six years. Yet, despite this, four separate judges reviewed the evidence from that one subpoena and concluded, independently and on each review, that there was probable cause to believe that either Planned Parenthood or George Tiller committed crimes.

None of the charges, however, have ever come to trial. None. Again, radical and novel court action has prevented this. Most recently, the Kansas Supreme Court, without notice and without citing any legal justification, ordered the key witness in the Planned Parenthood case not to testify. They simply silenced the witness.

And so we witness the result of a post-modern relativistic world. When there are no rules there are no laws. When there are no truths, words lose their meaning. Laws are words. They have no force of power unless the truth reflected in the words resides in the heart of a people. And when truth is dead, law is dead.

The abortion industry is capable of taking a newly formed human being, birthing that child in a breach birth until only the tip of its skull remains in the birth canal, stabbing the child in the back of the skull and removing its brain - partial birth abortion. This they celebrate as “choice.” When such distortions are possible, the law becomes changeable and malleable. Words lose their meaning.

I still remember how stunned I was when I learned that George Tiller, in 1995, interpreted “healthy twins” to be a “severe fetal anomaly” justifying a late-term abortion under Kansas law at the time. Dr. Tiller reasoned that having twins was an “anomaly” and that this could have a “severe” economic impact on the family.

But now it makes sense to me. There is no law without truth and without law there is not any protection for the vulnerable.

James O’Keefe has given you a video peek of the world without law, a world that I have lived in for the past six years. It is an ugly place. It is a picture of things to come. The reality, however, is that in this time of myopic vision and ultimate distraction we fail to realize it is a world that we, by our silent consent, are helping to create.

(read more about the Kinsey/Planned Parenthood connection here).

O’Keefe’s Latest Work

Fox News Commentator Glenn Beck tallied media coverage of the coverage of the latest ACORN coverage and as Gomer used to say, “well, surprise, surprise.”  It turns out that MSM failed to give the scandal due coverage.

Beck’s Analysis below -

Follow Phill on twitter to receive breaking news alerts and information on columns explaining issues of the day by clicking here.

Video of ACORN Workers Covering Up Child Sex Trafficking Should Stun - But Not Surprise.

Video follows this story…

The continued release of hidden video showing organizations that receive government monies (ACORN received $53,000,000 this year and Planned Parenthood over 300,000,000) conspiring to cover up child rape is not surprising.  What should stun and anger Americans, however, is the allowance of such conduct by a government that either does not want to go toe to toe with powerful interests or actually wants to partner with those interests.

For six years as Attorney General and as a District Attorney I attempted to investigate criminal failure to report child rape.  The investigation, however, touched politically connected and powerful players in Kansas, Dr. George Tiller and Planned Parenthood.  The ability of the abortion providers to shape public opinion through paid media and friendly news editors combined with political pull in the Governor’s office and Kansas courts to prevent evidence relating to underage abortions from ever being obtained and used in court.  Kansas abortionists each year, on average, provide abortion services to 75 children 14 years of age and younger.

The limited records that were eventually obtained provided significant evidence of criminal conduct.  Reviews of the evidence by three separate judges on each instance found probable cause to believe that either Dr. Tiller or Planned Parenthood committed crimes.  Yet not one of the substantive charges supported by the records has ever reached open court.

The Kansas Supreme Court is still delaying the prosecution of Planned Parenthood by ordering a key witness to the crimes allegedly committed by Planned Parenthood into silence.  The Court, without citing any case law authority, statute or constitutional provision and without notice to myself as the prosecutor, simply issued an order for the witness to no longer speak - even if subpoenaed.  An act that prompted former Federal Judge and Fox Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano to state that the Justices should be impeached.

I had to appeal the Supreme Court’s order to the Supreme Court.  That appeal is over 9 months old and the Court still can’t figure out if it will set aside or uphold its own order.

The Kansas Supreme Court is appointed by the Governor without any confirmation process.  The majority of the current court was appointed by former Governor, now Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius - the former Executive Director of the Kansas Trial Lawyer’s Association that President Obama wants to implement “tort reform.”  Sebelius’s political efforts benefited to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars from Planned Parenthood and George Tiller.  The member of the Supreme Court that writes most opinions dealing with abortion is Justice Carol Beier, a former lawyer with the pro-reproductive rights (abortion) National Woman’s Law Center.

And now we see another politically connected player working overtime to assist in preventing us from knowing if children are being sexually exploited.  In stunning video, employees of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) of Baltimore are taped providing advice to a woman who has announced she intends to traffic 13 underage girls into the sex trade in Baltimore.  The ACORN tax adviser instructs the woman to list only 3 of the children being smuggled in as dependents so she can claim the tax deduction while not raising the concern of federal authorities by claiming 13 dependents.

The ACORN employees also tell her how she can hide the money and launder it into her boyfriend’s political campaign.  No concern is evident for the children.

The hidden video, a project of video activist James O’Keefe, is a must watch and follows this story.  It demonstrates ACORN’s willingness to exploit children, assist in the violation of federal law in order to forward ACORN’s interests.  ACORN actually instructs the woman to shield her illegal activity on her tax return by declaring herself a “performing artist” since “sex and dancing are both art.”

Yet this attitude, unfortunately is not unusual.  There is a strong belief in segments of our population that underage sexual interaction is natural and only results in harm if a disease or unplanned pregnancy results.  In other words, the issue only involves biology and does not have spiritual or emotional components.  And so, we teach the plumbing.  Because we cannot agree that sexuality involves anything more than that - genetic and biological predispositions and urges.

We live in a post-Kinsean world, where the conclusions of Indiana Sexologist Alfred Kinsey rule perception and often public policy.  Kinsey concluded that children are sexual from birth and that children can derive a healthy pleasure from sexual stimulation.

This type of thinking led Mary Calderone, a past Medical Director for Planned Parenthood to write that “it is not that (pedophilia) is a bad thing or a wicked thing, it is just that it should not be a part of life in general, right out there on the sidewalk.”  (Pedophilia Steps Into the Daylight, Citizen Magazine, Vol 6. No. 11, Nov. 16, 1992, pp. 6-8).

Calderone went on to state that the primary harm caused by sexual interaction with children, is not caused by the sex, but rather the hysteria of adults who learn of the sexual interaction. (Mary S. Calderone and Eric Johnson, The Family Book About Sexuality, pg. 178 (Harper and Rowe 1981).

(You can read more about the Kinsey/Planned Parenthood/Child Rape connection here.)

It is this type of thinking that leads Planned Parenthood to develop teaching curriculum that involves Jr. High School students donning “drunk glasses” so that they can learn to place a condom on a banana while feeling drunk.

It is also this philosophy that motivated the Center for Reproductive Freedom to file a lawsuit seeking a federal court ruling that the constitutional right of privacy for a child prevents the abortion clinics from reporting the rape of that child.  Never mind that the rapist violated the child’s privacy.  A Federal District Judge in Wichita, Kansas agreed with the Center but he was swiftly reversed by the 10th Circuit which then remanded the case for trial before that Judge.  He ruled again, in favor of the Center and I again appealed the case.  The new Kansas Attorney General, elected with millions of abortion money support, dismissed the appeal.  The 10th Circuit would have reversed the District Judge again if the appeal had been forwarded.

Meanwhile, many Americans wring their hands hesitant to proclaim wrong is wrong.  After all, standing for such truth may be perceived as being intolerant.

And so we are in danger of this becoming the “character” of America where it is easy to overlook the weak, elderly, exploited and unborn when there are elections to be won and power to be gained.

Phill Kline

President Obama: “Change is the Only Moral Choice Available.”

The President spoke eloquently and forcibly for the need for “reform.” He generally outlined some proposals that Americans have supported. His address, however, failed in that it runs counter-intuitive. As my grandmother used to say, “it all comes out in the wash.”

The President’s proposal cannot provide universal coverage, prevent rationing of care, guarantee continuous coverage and not add a single penny to the deficit. No proposal can.

The President claims this is possible while expanding government’s role because government will now root out waste and abuse in its existing Medicaid/Medicare program. The President and the majority political party believe that Americans are so frightened and so dependent that they will buy this false promise. Frighteningly, they may be right.

Policies and actions develop trends which unguided and over time dramatically expand government. The President’s admission regarding Medicaid “waste” is recognition of this truth. Those who benefit directly dollar for dollar from a government program will fight tooth and nail to preserve that program. Those who pay the bill, do not do so directly, and consequently, do not have a directly vested interest in restraining the growth of a program. The problem is exacerbated when we incur debt. Those who will pay are not born yet. The Congressional Budget Office projects tremendous out-year deficits from the President’s plan, but these unborn who will foot the bill do not have a political action committee. (This is also probably why the plan does allow, despite the President’s claims otherwise, for taxpayers dollars for abortion.)

Furthermore, major business and industry long ago traded free market principles for a seat at the policy negotiation table. Business rarely fights on principle but rather for short term return on investment. Wall Street rules. CEO’s, therefore, would trade the free market for a targeted tax break or bailout for their business. Such special government action requires relationship with policymakers, something not fostered by generally opposing government interference. This is why drug companies now support the President, they negotiated -the President agreed not to challenge their pricing and the drug companies gave a small savings in return so the President would have a talking point. An act candidate Obama criticized when President Bush cut the same kind of deal.

In short, programs that are managed and designed without “ideology,” something the President criticized, incrementally grow. With all of the wheeling dealing and mid-term elections there is simply no room for uncomfortable vision - or ideology.

Yet, even the President cannot avoid those sticky truths that make ideology necessary - such as if you remove the responsibility for paying for a service from the consumer of the service costs will get out of control. Keeping consumers in the loop places a downward pressure on costs fostering free market innovation and creativity - just look at computers, electronics and communications services. Further, all of these decisions - I’ll choose this widget over that one due to price or quality- are done in liberty - without government coercion or “encouragement.”

And so the President must try to “control costs” in the existing and new government programs he is proposing. Here is where his ideology is in full view. In the name of “competition” the President will “encourage” (force) Americans and American businesses to buy health insurance. In the name of “best practices” government expert panels will “encourage” (force) changes in health care practices for seniors. And in the name of “competition” government, which writes the rules (and unlike business can force people to give it money), will compete with private business.

If the President wants to “encourage” conduct he should run a public information campaign. Pass a new law of over 1,000 pages that creates more than 50 new federal agency panels dealing with everything from end of life decisions to medical best practices in a little more heavy-handed than “encouragement.”

The President was eloquently and moving in his closing statements, however, the statements were also revealing. The President does not believe that the government is an actor in the health care discussion, but rather that government is the only moral actor on the scene. And this deeply held “moral” motivation in the heart of a man proposing changes in 15% of our nation’s economy should be deeply concerning to all.

FYI - The reference to “400″ years at the end of the clip refers to the founding of Jamestown in Virginia in 1607.