The World According to Oatney

Real Men of Genius

Labels: Humor

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 11:47 PM 1 comments

VATICAN: Democrats Are "Party of Death"

I have long believed that Catholics who insist on voting for pro-abortion Democrats may be risking their immortal soul, and since they are aware of the Democrats' support of aborticide, may be bringing upon themselves the torments of Hell. This is not a view to be taken lightly or spread widely without some statement which might back it. The head of the Apostolic Signatura seems to think the immortal souls of so-called "pro-choice" Democrats might be in a bit of trouble:

Archbishop Raymond Burke, who was named prefect of the Vatican’s Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature in June, told the Italian Catholic newspaper Avvenire that the U.S. Democratic Party risked “transforming itself definitively into a party of death for its decisions on bioethical issues.” He then attacked two of the party’s most high profile Catholics — vice presidential candidate Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — for misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.

He said Biden and Pelosi, “while presenting themselves as good Catholics, have presented Church doctrine on abortion in a false and tendentious way.”

Pelosi drew U.S. bishops’ scorn for saying in a television interview last month that the Church itself had long debated when human life begins. Biden is a practicing Catholic who also supports abortion rights and analysts have said he could help woo wavering Catholics into Obama’s fold. Both argue that they cannot impose their religious views on others.

Burke said pro-life Democrats were “rare” and that it saddened him that the party that helped “our immigrant parents and grandparents” prosper in America had changed so much over the years.

Burke made headlines as archbishop of St. Louis for his public attacks on public figures who strayed from Catholic teaching. He suggested during the 2004 presidential campaign that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, a Catholic, should be denied communion because of his views on abortion. Several bishops said at the time they would not give him communion and the media staked out churches where he attended Mass to see if he received it.

“Lately, I’ve noticed that other bishops are coming to this position,” Burke told Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian bishops’ conference.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, wrote a letter in 2004 to American bishops restating the Church position that a priest must refuse to distribute communion to a Catholic politician who supported abortion rights. But Burke lamented that the letter was never distributed.

This is the highest judicial official in the Church except the Pope talking.

Over and over, those of us who strive to be faithful to the Church's teaching on the sanctity of human life have said that it is simply unacceptable to vote for a candidate who supports abortion. So-called Catholics try to come up with every excuse in the book why they should continue in the error and heresy of supporting candidates and a political party which support the murder of unborn children.

There is no excuse...either you are willing to obey Holy Mother Church and respect her teaching, or you are not really a Catholic at all.

Labels: Aborticide, Democrats, Faith, Holy Mother Church, Presidential Election

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 9:51 PM 2 comments

Vice Presidential Debate Special

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE

FROM LAST NIGHT :David Oatney and Adam Graham co-host a joint episode of The Truth and Hope Report and Oatney On the Air to cover the Vice Presidential Debate. Election Stealing in Ohio is also discussed. Warner Todd Huston is the guest.

Labels: Democrats, Presidential Election, Radio show, Republican Party

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 7:02 PM 0 comments

House Passes Bailout (Sick Feeling)

The House of Representatives passed a revised version of the economic bailout bill by a disgustingly wide margin this afternoon. It was suspected that they might do so, and in so doing abandon the very principles that many members of Congress-Democrats and Republicans alike-swore that they were upholding on Monday. Among the notions abandoned were transparency, responsibility, fairness, and basic capitalism.

To their credit, a majority of the Republican Caucus (108) still voted no. Among the heroes of the day in both parties were several Tennesseans, including our own Congressman David Davis, our neighboring Congressman Jimmy Duncan, and 4th District Democratic Congressman Lincoln Davis. Even former Tennessee quarterback Heath Shuler, the freshman Democrat from Western North Carolina, joined the ranks of those voting no to the bailout for a second time. This go-round, however, that wasn't nearly enough, with 91 Republicans voting along with the Democrats-including the leadership team.

While it may be that the American people will forget in time that their Representatives of both parties sold their principles short today, it ought to be those who voted yes who shoulder the political responsibility if and when this wretched scheme fails.

Labels: Congress, Elections, Presidential Election

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 3:35 PM 1 comments

Ohio Election Being Stolen

Barack Obama's supporters in Ohio have managed to rig up an unprecedented month-long early voting period in order to maximize the amount of votes that Barack Obama might receive there. The Obama camp isn't missing a beat, of course-they are doing everything they can to cart every voter that they perceive as one of their own to the polls.

"But Oatney," you say, "it is just early voting, what's the big deal?"

Having voted in Ohio elections before and being quite familiar with laws, rules, and customs as they relate to voting in Ohio, I can tell you that early voting as we understand it in Tennessee is something completely new in Ohio. Sure, you could request an absentee ballot, and even cast one early at your county Board of Elections. However, to do this you had to either send a written request for an absentee ballot and recieve it by mail, or you had to go to the Board of Elections with some rudamentary "proof" that you could not be present on Election Day to cast your ballot. Election law has since been changed since I voted in Ohio to allow anyone to request an absentee ballot without giving a reason, and this opened the door for early voting in Ohio.

Under the country's most partisan Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, not only is early voting welcomed in Ohio, but the early voting period began September 30. This is unheard of, because in times not too long past absentee ballots weren't even sent out until at least 30 days prior to an election.

I don't favor disenfranchising anyone and yes, I believe everyone should have the opportunity to vote if they choose. If these changes help bring about greater participation, so be it. However, there are rules and laws that must be abided by when voting, and in the Land of Brunner, Democratic ballots should be counted even if we stretch the rules by allowing not only early voting, but voting before many voters are fully informed. Meanwhile, Brunner and her Democratic allies want every vote to be counted-except Republican votes:

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has a reputation as the most partisan state official in Ohio. And she works hard to earn it. The Democrat's latest stunt rejected absentee ballots for thousands of Republicans.

Brunner sent a memo telling county election officials to reject those applications for absentee ballots if the box was not checked. "Failure to check the box leaves both the applicant and the board of elections without verification that the applicant is a 'qualified elector'," she wrote.

But that's contrary to state law and Brunner doesn't have the authority, according to the lawsuit and an opinion from Hamilton County's Republican Prosecutor Joe Deters.

There is nothing in the law about checking a box to verify a qualified voter. The voter's signature is enough, because that's what is checked to send ballots, said Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Greg Hartmann, who ran against Brunner in 2006 and is now county chairman for the McCain-Palin campaign. "It's just bald partisanship," he said. "She's trying to disqualify likely McCain voters."

Brunner said, "While state law does not require a check box, the McCain-Palin campaign designed its form to require that voters check a box to affirmatively state they are qualified electors."

So Brunner wants to abide by a campaign mailer, and not the laws of the State of Ohio? No wonder Barack Obama said "it helps that in Ohio we've got Democrats in charge of the machines." The same Democrats who have been known to vote the dearly departed in Toledo and Cleveland in years gone by? How comforting!

I was always given the impression that the Democratic Party wanted people to vote. I understand now-they just want their people to vote.

My last Ohio election was one that I knew would be my last-I knew that I was coming to Tennessee because my wife wanted to come home, but I wanted to cast my vote in one last election in Ohio. That election was November of 2004...

I don't think I will ever forget that day because we lived right down the street from the Westwood Library in Cincinnati where we voted. The lines were a mile long, but a lady we went to church with at St. Catharine of Siena was a poll worker and she saw Nicole and myself coming, walker and all, and we got to buck the line. Nicole and I also had the day off that day, and after voting we went out to a very nice lunch.

I was a registered Republican when I lived in Ohio. A study of my voting history would have revealed that I never once cast a Democratic ballot in any primary there at any time-ever. Nicole, however, chose not to register a party because she knew she would return to Tennessee, and she preferred not to participate in Ohio primaries. Under Ohio law, she was in the books as independent or having no party affiliation-and after lunch the calls began. People from the Kerry campaign kept calling and calling asking if she had voted, did she need a ride to the polls? Yes, she would kindly respond, she had voted, she did not need a ride. My name was on the same precinct role as hers was, and I appeared just above her. If anyone had needed a ride, it would have been me. I have a disability, and might have needed to be driven to the polling place. I never got a call from anyone asking if I needed a ride. Why? Next to my name on the role was a parenthesis: (R). The last time someone called, Nicole tersely said "yes, I have voted, and I voted for Bush."

The Ohio Democratic Party is and always has been one of the most corrupt party political organizations in the nation. It is run by the worst sort of scoundrels and socio-political lowlifes who care nothing about breaking the law so long as they can somehow benefit from it. Since I have a number of Democratic friends in Ohio, I always tried to look to these good people as hope that somehow the Ohio Democrats, while not reforming their political ideas, might come to embrace fair and free elections-a concept that has been alien to the Ohio Democratic Party for much of the last century.

With Ms. Brunner, what we see in Ohio is not a free election, but a Soviet-style fix. One where, to quote the comedian Yakov Smirnoff: "We have secret ballots too-they are secret from us."

Labels: Democrats, Presidential Election

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 2:41 PM 6 comments

They're From the Government, and They're Here To Help

In spite of an overwhelming public reaction against the Wall Street bailout plan, coupled with increasing evidence that the public is not as frightened of an economic collapse as either the President or the pit traders, Democratic Leadership in the House and Senate are going to try for round two:

Adding to the pressure on Congress to act were some of the nation's biggest corporations, including Verizon Communications Inc., Microsoft Corp. and General Electric Co. GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt is actively lobbying politicians and finance officials in Washington to complete the financial-rescue bill, said a company spokesman. To back up his message, Mr. Immelt directed his staff to compile evidence of the "negative ripple effects" throughout America from the crisis on Wall Street, including information on what is happening to customers and employees in all 50 states.

What the big corporations really want in this case is corporate welfare of sorts. Verizon, Microsoft, and GE are afraid that the lack of a bailout could mean that their stocks, and the market ratings that go with them, will tank if there is no bailout. Should that happen, it might force some of these companies to sell off what is left of their public offerings and essentially be taken over by third parties. These companies and others would like to avoid that fate, so they want Congress to save them, warning of the most dire end-of-the-world scenarios if the legislative body and the American people do not acquiesce.

Those of us who are opposed to the bailout should not think ourselves victorious, even though the country's new exercise in pseudo-fascist economic interventionism failed in the House on Monday. No one should operate under the illusion that Congress will not pass a bailout bill, and that the final product will be almost as repulsive as the legislation that went down to defeat on Monday. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will likely try to frame the latest version of the "crap sandwich' as something substantially different from Monday. Instead, what is likely to be rammed through both Houses of Congress will be Monday's bill with additional FDIC insurance for consumers. Hence, the crap on the sandwich will still be excrement, but it will have a lovely botanical odor.

The American people sent a critical message to Congress on Monday, however-they've had enough. Legislators in Congress are praying that the American people have short attention spans. What is most disturbing is that our presidential candidates aren't saying much about the bailout-perhaps because neither see the wrong in what this country is about to do.

No one has answered the ultimate question, and on the rare occasion that it is raised the matter is often avoided: What shall we do if this scheme should fail?

Labels: Conservatism, Democrats, Economy, Elections, Presidential Election, Republican Party

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 12:15 PM 1 comments

The Electoral Map This Week: Obama's Move

The electoral map this week takes a shift in favor of Barack Obama that seems to mirror the national polls:
<p><strong>><a href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/electoral-college/'>Electoral College Prediction Map</a></strong> - Predict the winner of the general election. Use the map to experiment with winning combinations of states. Save your prediction and send it to friends.</p>

Michigan has gone from being a toss-up to being back into Obama's column in the wake of public reaction in that State to the first presidential debate. Further, a significant polling call has to be made in the State of New Hampshire. While internal State polling there still suggests that the race is extremely tight there and that New Hampshire could return to toss-up status before November, there is clearly a trend there as Obama continues to maintain a very slight lead in every poll taken. As a result, New Hampshire should be put into the Democratic column for now.

This is a significant development on the map, because it gives Barack Obama 264 electoral votes. There are only three toss-up States this week; Colorado, Nevada, and Virginia. John McCain has to carry all three of these to win. If Obama carries Virginia, he wins regardless of the outcome in Colorado and Nevada. If McCain carries Virginia and Nevada, but Obama carries Colorado, he still gets 273 electoral votes and wins the election. If John McCain carries Virginia and Colorado, but Obama carries Nevada, the contest ends in an electoral tie of 269-269, and (probably) gets thrown into the House of Representatives.

NOTE: The electoral map was moved from its usual day on Monday to today because of coverage of the bailout vote in the House.

Labels: Presidential Election

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 12:03 PM 5 comments

The Possible Salvation of American Capitalism

The bailout of financial markets backed by the Democratic majority in Congress and by the Bush Administration failed in the House less than an hour ago by a vote of 205-228. The partisan breakdown showed Democrats leaning in favor of the bill, with 140 Democrats voting in favor. However, 95 Democrats voted against the legislation, and along with 133 Republican "No" votes, that bloc was significant enough to kill the proposal.

Members of Congress from both parties reported House switchboards lighting up all morning on Monday with complaints and demands from angry constituents, most of which were imploring members to vote against the bailout. Several House members reported to television media outlets that public outrage had as much impact on the final outcome of the vote as persuasion from fellow House members.

Republican leaders in the House blamed a wildly partisan floor speech by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) in which she blamed the Bush Administration for both the financial crisis and the bailout that she and the House and Senate Democrats helped negotiate with the White House as part of the reason for the measure going down to defeat. The rejection of the measure in the House could be viewed as a no-confidence vote among House Republicans on the tenure of House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio. Boehner had supported the bailout after first calling it a "crap sandwich," while an overwhelming majority of the Republican Caucus in the House voted against it. Boehner's future as Republican Leader after the November General Election is now a matter of serious speculation among the GOP rank-and-file.

The Dow is down at this hour -584.06.

House Republicans may have saved American capitalism today.

Labels: Congress, Conservatism, Democrats, Economy, Presidential Election, Republican Party

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 3:00 PM 6 comments

Now Thank We All Our God

The great world-renowned organist Diane Bish plays one of my favorite hymns-Now Thank We All Our God.


It was the closing hymn at Mass this morning.

Labels: Faith, Music

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 11:14 PM 2 comments