Vatican Appeasement of Islam - Pius XII Still Falsely Accused of Holocaust Silence

As I have noted on previous posts, I am a Catholic and have engaged Evangelicals and Fundamentalists in debate for over twenty years.

None of this, though, has stopped me from hammering the Church when they fail, such as their miserable conduct in dealing with pedophile Priests. Although this takes me away from the points that I want to make today, I must note that Clerical Celibacy never had a single thing to do with Priests committing acts of pedophilia. Pedophiles are exactly that - not grown men who were once attracted to adult women. The latter do not engage in sexual acts with children no matter how long they go without any physical intimacy. Pedophiles seek positions of power and trust to gain access to children. They become Boy Scout Leaders, Camp Counselors, Cops, Clergy, etc.

Today I came across a news link in Gates of Vienna that detailed the atrocious amount of appeasement that the Vatican and other Catholic "leaders" have engaged in with Muslims, often enough with some of the worst of these.

A note of caution -  the article concludes with the old and patently False Witness claim that Pope Pius XII was silent and did little or nothing to help the Jews during the Holocaust. This flies in the face of the overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary. Some may be aware of Stalin's rhetorical question "How many Divisions has the Pope?" that he offered in response when his cronies told him that the Catholic Church was opposed to what he was doing. Stalin was basically asking "Well, what can the Pope do about it?". The same point rings true for Pius XII. He could not challenge Hitler as a Statesman of a nation that had much in the way of human and material resources. What he could do, though, was save as many Jews as possible. These acts will be noted after the appeasement part of the post.

The charge aging Pius XII leads me to suspect that some of the information that I quote from the Front Page Mag site  may not be accurate. I did not have time to check the accuracy of all of the claims.

The Catholic Church seems to be locked in a state of denial when it comes to Islam. The leaders of the Church are either complete fooled by some soft words offered by Islamic spokespersons are are complete fools period. They refuse to admit to themselves that they are next on Islam's hit list. Rome, the Seat of the Patriarch of the West, is the last Patriarchal Seat form the early Church that has not fallen to Islamic rule* (Link at bottom). Apparently thinking that Muslims will appreciate the effort, they are all too willing to find scapegoats upon which blame can be placed for Islamic hate and anger. Israel is the easiest target.

Note also that there is clearly no "alliance". It is simply a terribly poor case of judgement, one that blames the victim for the acts of the aggressor.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/giulio-meotti/exposing-the-vatican-islam-alliance/

"Many Catholic groups worldwide already embraced the Palestinian myth. Pax Christi, one of the most famous Catholic organizations, on its website, repeatedly calls the Jewish site [Rachel's Tomb - a particularly Holy Site for Jews. Rachel  was Jacob's favorite wife and Jacob was the Father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel] a “mosque.” Then there is the Bethlehem University of the Holy Land, the only Vatican-run educational institution in the area and whose founding can be traced back to the visit of Pope Paul VI in the holy land in 1964. The Catholic University recently launched a project about the Rachel’s Tomb. The document calls it “a historical religious site for followers of Christianity and Islam,” whose location is “on Palestinian lands.” The Vatican institution seems to ignore that all of Rachel’s Tomb belongs to Area C, which the Oslo Accords gave to Israeli jurisdiction. The very title of the Catholic project, “Rachel: An Alien in her Hometown,” suggests that the tomb is a spot hijacked by the Israelis. The tomb, the Catholic report says, “is also known by Muslims as the Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque.” According to the Vatican university, the Jewish shrines are Arab treasures stolen by the Zionists and the Israelis are no more than invading colonizers.

A few months ago, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, welcomed enthusiastically the agreement reached between Hamas and Fatah, despite both the PLO and Hamas covenants’ call for the use of violence against the Jews. Last September, Patriarch Twal, named by Pope Benedict XVI, was at the White House for a meeting with the American administration — as well as for the purpose to support the PA statehood bid at the UN.

Last January eight Catholic bishops from Europe and North America, including UK Archbishop Patrick Kelly and French Archbishop Michel Dubost, visited Gaza under Hamas control. “I asked prisoners in the largest prison in Europe (in Evry) to pray for you,” Dubost told Gazans. The inference is clear: Palestinians are living in a big prison terrified by Israel. In the same period, Father Manuel Musalam, head of Gaza’s Catholics, met with Hamas leader, Mahmoud al Zahar, and declared that “Christians are not threatened by Muslims” but that everyone faces the same problem, that of Israel’s “humiliation.”

A few weeks earlier, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales offered the Palestinians another piece of powerful propaganda: the comparison with Jesus’ passion. “We are to be freshly attentive to the needs of those who, like Jesus himself, are displaced and in discomfort,” Archbishop Vincent Nichols said during his last Christmas Mass sermon at Westminster Cathedral. “A shadow falls particularly heavily on the town of Bethlehem tonight … We pray for them tonight” It would have been more in keeping with Nicholas’ mission to mention hundreds of Christians losing their lives to Islamic terrorism and oppressed by Palestinian dictatorship.

........ the Catholic Church is adopting a tragic appeasement on Islam. As the brave Andrew Bostom explained, the Vatican embraced “groveling Islamophilia, accompanied by criticism of the U.S. ‘war on terrorism’ as an ‘injustice’ to Muslims, and constant scapegoating of Israel, often expressed with strident animus towards the Jewish State.”

Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who is known for having a pro-Islam position, has been appointed by Pope Benedict as the head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. In a letter addressing his “Dear Muslim friends,” Tauran asked for Islamic help to form an alliance against atheism. The Vatican promoted “Love of God, Love of Neighbor,” the first three-day forum with Islamic leaders. The Pope agreed to meet one of the most dangerous Islamists in the Western world, the grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, Tariq Ramadan – the Swiss scholar who denies Israel’s right to life and who has been banned from entering the US because of his alleged association with extremists.

In the last year the Vatican also built a strong friendship with Iranian authorities and clergy. The Holy See’s course with Iran’s Ahmadinejad began in 2009 at the United Nations, when at the first day of the “Durban II” Conference, the Iranian president made a speech blasting Israel as “totally racist” and referred to the Holocaust as an “ambiguous and dubious question.” When Ahmadinejad began his rant against the Jews, all the European delegates left the conference room. The Vatican delegation didn’t say a word.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, head of the Lebanon’s Catholic Church, then sent his envoy, Father Abdo Abou Kassem, to Teheran for a conference in support of the Palestinian Intifada and of a “Zionist-free middle east.” The conference was attended also by Hezbullah ideologue, Mohammad Raad, and by the Hamas’ leader Meshaal."

OK, enough of that. Now for some real facts about Pius XII and his work for the Jews. That Pope was, during WWII, referred to by none other than the New York Times as the only European leader who was saying or doing anything to help the Jews. Of course the same periodical took the opposite position on the same issue in the 90's. Golda Meir and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem both publicly noted their appreciation for his labors. The latter was quoted as saying "Israel will never forget you".

http://www.catholic.com/documents/how-pius-xii-protected-jews

"Hochhuth’s fictional image of a silent (though active) pope has been transformed by the anti-Catholic rumor mill into the image of a silent and inactive pope—and by some even into an actively pro-Nazi monster. If there were any truth to the charge that Pius XII was silent, the silence would not have been out of moral cowardice in the face of the Nazis, but because the Pope was waging a subversive, clandestine war against them in an attempt to save Jews.

"The need to refrain from provocative public statements at such delicate moments was fully recognized in Jewish circles. It was in fact the basic rule of all those agencies in wartime Europe who keenly felt the duty to do all that was possible for the victims of Nazi atrocities and in particular for the Jews in proximate danger of deportation to ‘an unknown destination.’ "[9] The negative consequences of speaking out strongly were only too well known.

"In one tragic instance, the Archbishop of Utrecht was warned by the Nazis not to protest the deportation of Dutch Jews. He spoke out anyway and in retaliation the Catholic Jews of Holland were sent to their death. One of them was the Carmelite philosopher, Edith Stein."[10]

While the armchair quarterbacks of anti-Catholic circles may have wished the Pope to issue, in Axis territory and during wartime, ringing, propagandistic statements against the Nazis, the Pope realized that such was not an option if he were actually to save Jewish lives rather than simply mug for the cameras.

The desire to keep a low profile was expressed by the people Pius XII helped. A Jewish couple from Berlin who had been held in concentration camps but escaped to Spain with the help of Pius XII, stated: "None of us wanted the Pope to take an open stand. We were all fugitives, and fugitives do not wish to be pointed at. The Gestapo would have become more excited and would have intensified its inquisitions. If the Pope had protested, Rome would have become the center of attention. It was better that the Pope said nothing. We all shared this opinion at the time, and this is still our conviction today."[11]

While the U.S., Great Britain, and other countries often refused to allow Jewish refugees to immigrate during the war, the Vatican was issuing tens of thousands of false documents to allow Jews to pass secretly as Christians so they could escape the Nazis. What is more, the financial aid Pius XII helped provide the Jews was very real. Lichten, Lapide, and other Jewish chroniclers record those funds as being in the millions of dollars—dollars even more valuable then than they are now.

In late 1943, Mussolini, who had been at odds with the papacy all through his tenure, was removed from power by the Italians, but Hitler, fearing Italy would negotiate a separate peace with the Allies, invaded, took control, and set up Mussolini again as a puppet ruler. It was in this hour, when the Jews of Rome themselves were threatened—those whom the Pope had the most direct ability to help—that Pius XII really showed his mettle.

Joseph Lichten records that on September 27, 1943, one of the Nazi commanders demanded of the Jewish community in Rome payment of one hundred pounds of gold within thirty-six hours or three hundred Jews would be taken prisoner. When the Jewish Community Council was only able to gather only seventy pounds of gold, they turned to the Vatican.

"In his memoirs, the then Chief Rabbi Zolli of Rome writes that he was sent to the Vatican, where arrangements had already been made to receive him as an ‘engineer’ called to survey a construction problem so that the Gestapo on watch at the Vatican would not bar his entry. [This reminds me of the Hebrew midwifes in Egypt who told the Egyptians that the Hebrew women delivered their babies too quickly to kill the male newborns] He was met by the Vatican treasurer and secretary of state, who told him that the Holy Father himself had given orders for the deficit to be filled with gold vessels taken from the Treasury."[12]

Pius XII also took a public stance concerning the Jews of Italy: "The Pope spoke out strongly in their defense with the first mass arrests of Jews in 1943, and L’Osservatore Romano carried an article protesting the internment of Jews and the confiscation of their property. The Fascist press came to call the Vatican paper ‘a mouthpiece of the Jews.’ "[13]

Prior to the Nazi invasion, the Pope had been working hard to get Jews out of Italy by emigration; he now was forced to turn his attention to finding them hiding places. "The Pope sent out the order that religious buildings were to give refuge to Jews, even at the price of great personal sacrifice on the part of their occupants; he released monasteries and convents from the cloister rule forbidding entry into these religious houses to all but a few specified outsiders, so that they could be used as hiding places. Thousands of Jews—the figures run from 4,000 to 7,000—were hidden, fed, clothed, and bedded in the 180 known places of refuge in Vatican City, churches and basilicas, Church administrative buildings, and parish houses. Unknown numbers of Jews were sheltered in Castel Gandolfo, the site of the Pope’s summer residence, private homes, hospitals, and nursing institutions; and the Pope took personal responsibility for the care of the children of Jews deported from Italy."[14]

Rabbi Lapide records that "in Rome we saw a list of 155 convents and monasteries—Italian, French, Spanish, English, American, and also German—mostly extraterritorial property of the Vatican . . . which sheltered throughout the German occupation some 5,000 Jews in Rome. No less than 3,000 Jews found refuge at one time at the Pope’s summer residence at Castel Gandolfo; sixty lived for nine months at the Jesuit Gregorian University, and half a dozen slept in the cellar of the Pontifical Bible Institute."[15]
Notice in particular that the Pope was not merely allowing Jews to be hidden in different church buildings around Rome. He was hiding them in the Vatican itself and in his own summer home, Castel Gandolfo. His success in protecting Italian Jews against the Nazis was remarkable. Lichten records that after the War was over it was determined that only 8,000 Jews were taken from Italy by the Nazis[16] —far less than in other European countries. In June,1944, Pius XII sent a telegram to Admiral Miklos Horthy, the ruler of Hungary, and was able to halt the planned deportation of 800,000 Jews from that country.

The Pope’s efforts did not go unrecognized by Jewish authorities, even during the War. The Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Isaac Herzog, sent the Pope a personal message of thanks on February 28, 1944, in which he said: "The people of Israel will never forget what His Holiness and his illustrious delegates, inspired by the eternal principles of religion which form the very foundations of true civilization, are doing for us unfortunate brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour of our history, which is living proof of divine Providence in this world."[17]

Other Jewish leaders chimed in also. Rabbi Safran of Bucharest, Romania, sent a note of thanks to the papal nuncio on April 7, 1944: "It is not easy for us to find the right words to express the warmth and consolation we experienced because of the concern of the supreme pontiff, who offered a large sum to relieve the sufferings of deported Jews. . . . The Jews of Romania will never forget these facts of historic importance."[18]

The Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, also made a statement of thanks: "What the Vatican did will be indelibly and eternally engraved in our hearts. . . . Priests and even high prelates did things that will forever be an honor to Catholicism."[19]

After the war, Zolli became a Catholic and, to honor the Pope for what he had done for the Jews and the role he had played in Zolli’s conversion, took the name "Eugenio"—the Pope’s given name—as his own baptismal name. Zolli stressed that his conversion was for theological reasons, which was certainly true, but the fact that the Pope had worked so hard on behalf of the Jews no doubt played a role in inspiring him to look at the truths of Christianity.

Lapide writes: "When Zolli accepted baptism in 1945 and adopted Pius’s Christian name of Eugene, most Roman Jews were convinced that his conversion was an act of gratitude for wartime succor to Jewish refugees and, repeated denials not withstanding, many are still of his opinion. Thus, Rabbi Barry Dov Schwartz wrote in the summer issue, 1964, of Conservative Judaism: ‘Many Jews were persuaded to convert after the war, as a sign of gratitude, to that institution which had saved their lives.’ "[20]

In Three Popes and the Jews Lapide estimated the total number of Jews that had been spared as a result of Pius XII’s throwing the Church’s weight into the clandestine struggle to save them. After totaling the numbers of Jews saved in different areas and deducting the numbers saved by other causes, such as the praiseworthy efforts of some European Protestants, "The final number of Jewish lives in whose rescue the Catholic Church had been the instrument is thus at least 700,000 souls, but in all probability it is much closer to . . . 860,000."[21] This is a total larger than all other Jewish relief organizations in Europe, combined, were able to save. Lapide calculated that Pius XII and the Church he headed constituted the most successful Jewish aid organization in all of Europe during the war, dwarfing the Red Cross and all other aid societies.

This fact continued to be recognized when Pius XII died in 1958. Lapide’s book records the eulogies of a number of Jewish leaders concerning the Pope, and far from agreeing with Jack Chick that he deserved death because of his "war crimes," Jewish leaders praised the man highly:[22]

"We share the grief of the world over the death of His Holiness Pius XII. . . . During the ten years of Nazi terror, when our people passed through the horrors of martyrdom, the Pope raised his voice to condemn the persecutors and to commiserate with their victims" (Golda Meir, Israeli representative to the U.N. and future prime minister of Israel).
"With special gratitude we remember all he has done for the persecuted Jews during one of the darkest periods in their entire history” (Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress).

"More than anyone else, we have had the opportunity to appreciate the great kindness, filled with compassion and magnanimity, that the Pope displayed during the terrible years of persecution and terror" (Elio Toaff, Chief Rabbi of Rome, following Rabbi Zolli’s conversion).

Finally, let us conclude with a quotation from Lapide’s record that was not given at the death of Pius XII, but was given after the War by the most well-known Jewish figure of this century, Albert Einstein: "Only the Catholic Church protested against the Hitlerian onslaught on liberty. Up till then I had not been interested in the Church, but today I feel a great admiration for the Church, which alone has had the courage to struggle for spiritual truth and moral liberty."[23] "


* - On the last remaining freely-held seat of one of the five Patriarchates of the early Church and what Muslims likely want to do with it

http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2011/12/islam-and-christian-patriarchates.html

One last note - Can we imagine what will happen to the artwork in the Sistine Chapel if Rome falls under Islamic domination? If Hagia Sophia was ravaged in 1453, along with the nuns and other women, I expect that the same will happen with Saint Peter's Basilica.

Independence Day Used to Trash the US

While some of us marked the 4th of July with appropriate observances and others at least may have reminded themselves how fortunate they are to be the beneficiaries of the society that grew out of the brave move by the Signers, others took the time to paint the US in as bad a light as possible

http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2012/07/05/why-do-liberals-hate-independence-day-so-much/


" PBS‘ Bill Moyers celebrated America’s birthday by slandering the author of our Declaration of Independence:

[Thomas Jefferson] acknowledged that slavery degraded master and slave alike, but would not give his own slaves their freedom. Their labor kept him financially afloat. Hundreds of slaves, forced like beasts of burden to toil from sunrise to sunset under threat of the lash, enabled him to thrive as a privileged gentleman, to pursue his intellectual interests, and to rise in politics. ' "

Of course we fought an horrific war for which Slavery was a major contributing factor, and Slavery still exists in Muslim-ruled countries in Africa, but those facts mean nothing.


"MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry marked the occasion with a little light talk about slavery, genocide and prison inmates — you know, the usual garbage that passes for “patriotism” among liberals:"
This one is a really wild ride:

This argument would take multiple pages to destroy but the win would be certain enough.

" 'The land on which they formed this Union was stolen. The hands with which they built this nation were enslaved. The women who birthed the citizens of the nation are second class."

Again, anyone who benefits is simply reaping the rewards of Slavery and oppression.

"But all of this is our story. Each of us benefits from the residuals of oppression and each of success harmed by the realities of inequality. This is the imperfect fabric of our nation, at times we`ve torn and stained it, and at other moments, we mend and repair it."

None of what occurred was any good at all - that's why so many others have immigrated here and continue to do so. I mean, she must be right since the rest of the world is so good.

"But it’s ours, all of it. The imperialism, the genocide, the slavery, also the liberation and the hope and the deeply American belief that our best days still lie ahead of us."

...and now for a truly uplifting story about people who must have been wrongfully committed to prison by the presumably racist system but somehow found a way to break the chains of Imperialism.

"Which is why my favorite Independence Day story this week is about a group who are not technically free. A class of 27 inmates, teens and adults, who received their GEDs Tuesday at the correctional facility on Rikers Island. Despite being incarcerated, they hold fast to the optimistic belief that education, hard work and second chances are still the stuff of America. And that they have a right to take part in the dream.' "

Not enough whites must have died while ultimately freeing the slaves to satisfy the Great Philosopher Chris Rock.

"Hollywood “comedian” Chris Rock tweeted out this race-baiting message to his followers yesterday:"

"Happy white peoples independence day the slaves weren‘t free but I’m sure they enjoyed fireworks."

"And Rock wasn’t alone with his scorn. Aaron Sorkin, Don Cheadle and Zach Braff — Obama supporters all — laughed right along with him."

 Michelle Malkin, as one can imagine, was not happy with the admittedly stupid remarks. The link at top has a video of her response.

The very identity of this nation is under a sustained attack. Each one of these people is not only given all sorts of press coverage, but to my knowledge is also eligible to vote.

If we do not address the issue of Leftist thought and its weapons of dis- and malinformation concerning the history of our nation, we will at some point find ourselves with an unavoidable war that will make our then-first Civil War look like a husband and wife arguing about spending money on golf versus lunch with friends.


On July 3rd, the President of the AFL-CIO came up with a list of rights that go as far back as FDR. With an appeal to a so ancient and credible source, how can he be wrong?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/afl-cio-leader-conservatives-dupe-voters-with-freedom/

Is anyone unaware that Social Security is the farthest thing from a "secure retirement income" as it gets?

" 'When politicians on the right talk about the “freedom” to replace Social Security with vouchers, what they really mean is freedom from a secure retirement income. The “freedom” to get vouchers for retraining is actually freedom from unemployment compensation’s safety net when your job is shipped overseas.' "

Yea, Conservatives are not Law and Order guys but want people victimized and trapped in burning buildings waiting in vain for ambulance squads to arrive.

"The “freedom” of cutting local government translates into the freedom from having the help of a cop or a firefighter or EMS tech in your time of greatest need."

Let's redefine Freedom as the absolute and permanent reliance on the Government.

"Let’s call this right-wing “freedom” catch phrase what it really is: a grossly political strategy to dupe the public, which holds the word “freedom” as something sacred."

Again, I consider citing one who strongly admired Mussolini and Uncle Joe to be a airtight argument. Forget those who were influenced by John Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau.

"This Independence Day, I say let’s go back to a truer use of the word “freedom.” Let‘s start with President Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. I would add the freedom to bargain collectively."

Independence Day 2012 - Concern for the Future

I have been fortunate to have grown up in and spent most of my adult life in Morris County, New Jersey. Although many people take it for granted and thus tend to stick to backyard parties and such on the anniversary of our independence (Maybe taking in an appropriate evening of fireworks) Morristown and the surrounding area area is rich in places that provide reminders of the sacrifices that were made so that we could have a Republic based on Liberty and freedom from oppressive government. With the British  firmly control of New York City and therefore able to both threaten the Hudson corridor and move into the southern states, Morristown provided a base that was far enough from the British to be safe from an immediate attack but close enough to shadow or confront them in the event that they dispatched troops from New York to any other theater.

It may well have been due the proximity of Washington's army (Washington wanted dearly to redeem himself for losing New York City in the early days of the war) that Clinton wavered for so long that, by the time he finally moved to support Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781, it was too late. By then de Grasse has control of the Chesapeake Bay and Rochambeau and Washington had penned in Cornwallis with siege-works.

The Ford mansion (Which served as Washington's headquarters), Jockey Hollow (The location of the Army's encampment), and numerous other still-standing buildings that served as quarters for field-grade officers, Hospitals, etc. for the Continental army have been necessities for my family's 4th of July observations.


Morristown was actually the location for two winter encampments, the one after the Battle of Princeton, and that of 1779-1980. The latter, except for the improvements in camp hygiene and the siting of soldiers huts on drier ground, was far worse than that of the more famous Valley Forge. 1779-1980 saw the worst winter in recorder history for the region, before or after. It was noted at the time that no living person could recall a winter of similar severity. Even what supplies the Financier Robert Morris and his associates in the Continental Congress could scrounge up could not be transported to Jockey Hollow as the snow, which never melted from the first storm until the following Spring, rose to depths of four to six feet (That is not referring to drifts).


Soldiers such as Joseph Plumb Martin went as much as four days without a single mouthful of food. Desertions increased in frequency. Troops mutinied and, in an act that is the greatest threat to a Republic, marched towards Philadelphia with the intent of  adding some bite to their otherwise reasonable demands. Although these were persuaded to return, the second instance of soldiers marching off the threaten the Congress caused Washington to order the execution of the ringleaders. Spring brought little relief. Food and pay (In virtually worthless Continental paper dollars) were not arriving then either. 


This site is good source. It is not overdone and it provides good photos of the encampments:
http://www.owenshistory.info/Powerpoints/06_Revolution/Valley_Forge/Winter%20Encampments.pdf


At that time, Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, had no power to tax. Today, the power to tax has become the power to arbitrarily compel us to do almost anything, has been upheld by our last line of defense - the Supreme Court of the United States. I feel that we should dispense with the proper use of names for court cases and label the Obamacare decision the Roberts Decision.

All four of my grandparents immigrated here in the 20th century, but their descendants integrated into this society from which we have been its beneficiaries. For that I am eternally grateful. Italy is a big mess and  Ireland is run by an EU banker. I would not want any other place for a home for my grandchildren, but I am beginning to run out of confidence in our ability to perform the necessary repairs to our Republic.


I did take my HS Junior son to the Ford Mansion and Jockey Hollow earlier today but did not stay at the Ford Mansion for the annual public reading of the Declaration of Independence. It was a shame as the reading is nicely done in period style, with people breaking in with shouts of "Down with King George!", etc. The truth is that my current despondent mood would not allow it. I could not bring myself to watch people shouting revolutionary slogans who may have every intention of placidly accepting what is happening to the very nation that was being fought for at the time of the Declaration.


Having long been a staunch Unionist and opponent of secession in any way, I often have to ask myself if I am really moving towards the latter position. I find Lincoln to have been an intellectual, ethical, and moral giant. I highly doubt, however that the Rail-Splitter would recognize or approve of our current situation. I have noted in previous posts that there is a world of difference in what justifications for secession the pre-Civil War Southern States had versus those of the Continental Congress and the people of the United States of today.

While the South had no more than concerns that things may wind up  being changed contrary to their wishes, both we and the thirteen colonies have been hit with "a long train of abuses". For us in Particular, I note the following:


Wickard v. Filburn - People can be penalized for growing what they want on their property despite the fact that nobody was harmed and that FDR sickeningly wanted to keep grain prices high when the unemployed were starving.


Kelo v. New London - Forget a right-of way for a road or school, Eminent Domain is allowed for any reason at all. A developer can target your property for seizure in order to build on it and cause the municipality to obtain more tax revenue from the new ratable. The town need not even prove that it is in dire financial straights. They just need to say that they can make more money from the property if it is more built-up.


......and the piece de resistance, the Obamacare ruling that I refer to as the Roberts Decision. Not only can virtually anything be forced down our throats, but the court will help the government's attorneys by arguing for them, provisions that do not exist in the Tax Code of the nation can be counted as taxes, and the Commerce clause is still left open to further abuses. Remember the Commerce Clause from our Constitution? It was written with the intention of, for example, prohibiting one State from taxing the products from another State or those entering neighboring State.

No governmental structure can last forever. The people can lose their virtue*, the government can lose its way or be taken over by elements hostile to the vision of its creators, or the people can be drugged by concepts foreign to those of their nation.

*Note Montesquieu's take on the need for virtue in a Republic or a Democracy. Frugality, morality and love of one's country are mandatory: [7/5/12 - It is a sad irony that those who demonstrate these virtues are mocked and derided today without mercy.]
http://www.constitution.org/cm/sol_05.htm

Republics and Democracies** (What a Democracy actually is - not what some claim it to be), while far better than Leftist, Fascist, Theocratic, Monarchical, or any other governmental structure, also have shelf-lives. I hold that we are facing our expiration date. 

-On Democracies:
**http://thehotgates480bc.blogspot.com/2012/03/marxists-hijack-democracy-pretend-that.html

We are at a point in which, like that of the later Western Roman Empire, citizenship is ( in the words of Colin McEvedy) becoming slavery.

Our hopes lie with individual States that shelter their people from laws such as Obamacare or petition for a constitutional amendment that brings back voter qualifications*** (real ones - not being 18 and a citizen).

If the above are out of the question then free States must declare outright their intent to separate from the Government of the United States. If the countries of the Soviet Union did not collapse along with Politburo, then I have no reason to believe that we cannot do the same and still survive. The new governing body can still cooperate and be on friendly terms with what is left of the old.

No one will mourn the passing of our nation more than I would, but I would rather see it go with honor and reverence than live under a zombified version of the United States animated only by Leftist dogma, class warfare, and soft totalitarianism.

Now, I you will excuse me, my poor dog is as terrified of the fireworks going off now as I am about our future. I had to miss the fireworks tonight as I had to watch my disabled son - I will attend a good display this weekend.

***-From the link on what Democracy is:

"A Democratic system must, if it is going to survive, have some restrictions on who is allowed to vote. It can be a simple property or income tax qualification ( My personal favorites), a proof that one is receiving no government assistance whatsoever, or a past military service requirement. One friend of mine held that anyone who receives any government-cut check, including public employees (He was one of those) should not be allowed to vote as his interests would be in question. A reasonable age requirement that provides for an presumption of some life or work experience is also needed.

What we do know is this - a Democracy that extends the vote to all, regardless of whether or not he or she effectively and tangibly contributes to the society (Or at least does not receive benefits for free) or can demonstrate a past record of appreciable service to it, cannot survive. After a period in which the doling out of free benefits becomes ingrained, the system gets bogged down and begins its inexorable march towards tyranny. This is the "Democracy" that is being celebrated by the Left. What they call Democracy is a system that, far from protecting the rights of citizens, slowly impoverishes and enslaves them while destroying their senses of identity and cultural vigor."

Egypt's President-elect - Free Blind Sheik

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303561504577497053026356034.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

-Your basic fruit of the Arab Spring.

Egypt's President-elect has promised that he will petition the US for the release of the  man behind the 1993 World trade Center bombing.

Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood peers stayed out of the anti- Mubarak fray until its success was reasonably certain but have wasted no time in showing their true colors. As Obama noted, the Muslim Brotherhood is a moderate organization. So moderate are they, in fact, that life in Egypt has become a living hell for Egypt's Christians, the agreement for the supply of  natural gas to Israel has been terminated, Jerusalem has been slated as the seat of the planned restoration of the Caliphate, and so on.

Not content with these, Morsi reached into his hip pocket and pulled out the blaster. Hey, why waste time?

"Egypt's President-elect Mohammed Morsi made a nod to his base in a speech on Friday when he pledged to seek the release of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman from U.S. custody.

Sheik Abdel-Rahman, who is better known as the "blind sheik" is serving a life sentence at a federal penitentiary in North Carolina for his role in planning the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City......

Dozens of bearded Abdel-Rahman supporters, many in religious vestments, have slept outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo in a sit-in that has lasted the better part of a year. A full city block of downtown Cairo is festooned with banners bearing the blind sheik's image—bearded, capped with a red tarboosh and 1960s-era wayfarer sunglasses.

For die-hard devotees, Mr. Morsi has taken up a cause that proves his revolutionary credentials: ousted President Hosni Mubarak did nothing to seek the sheik's release.

"It's wonderful. He did very good mentioning Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman," said Hesham el Ashry, a sheik supporter and a preacher. 'If America wants to be a real friend of the new Egyptian regime, they have to respond to the request of Morsi and release Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman.".......

Sheik Abdel-Rahman was one of the primary leaders of the Egyptian militant group Al Gama'a al Islamiyya. Though the group was accused of masterminding the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Sheik Abdel-Rahman avoided blame and moved to Afghanistan, where he made close associations with Osama bin Laden, the late leader of the militant group al Qaeda.

In 1990, the blind sheik, who lost his eyesight as a result of a childhood illness, moved to New York. He traveled the nation peddling anti-American propaganda to Arab audiences before his conviction in 1995 on charges of "seditious conspiracy" in connection with the Trade Center bombing."

Abdel-Rahman is a bad guy. Morsi apparently sees him as someone to be honored. 

Things are set to get really ugly in the land of the Pharaohs.

No "Merry Month of May" for Christians in Muslim-Majority Countries

-The old song goes "I was strolling through the park one day, in the merry month of May...."


May was far from a good month for Christians in the Islamic world. The mainstream media, as usual, ignored the vast majority of this. When they did report on this subject, they implied that the plight of Christians was mainly due to their support for ousted and maybe soon-to-be ousted autocrats such as Hussein,  Mubarak or Assad. Of course, the impartial press leaves out the fact that the Christians had a thin layer of protection while the strongmen were in power and that this was quickly stripped away in any nation, or rebel-controlled parts thereof. Some of these were already treated on The Hot Gates 480BC.


Firstly, Raymond Ibrahim's list of events that occurred in May alone:

http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11930/muslim-persecution-of-christians-may-2012

"Indonesia saw several church-related attacks:
A mob of 600 Muslims threw bags of urine, stones, and rotten eggs at the congregation of a Protestant church at the start of Ascension Day service, while shouting profanity and threatening to kill the pastor. No arrests were made. The church had applied for a permit to construct its house of worship five years ago. Pressured by local Muslims, the local administration ordered the church to shut down in December 2009, though the Supreme Court recently overruled its decision, saying the church is eligible for a permit. Regardless, local Muslims and officials demand that the church shut down.
Following protests "by hard-line groups including the Islamic Defenders Front," nearly 20 Christian houses of worship were sealed off by authorities on the pretext of "not having permits." Authorities added that only one church may be built in the district in question to accommodate the region's 20,000 Christians.
The Muslim mayor who illegally sealed the beleaguered GKI Yasmin church, forcing congregants to worship in the streets, has agreed to reopen it—but only if a mosque is built next door, to ensure the church stay in line. As well as opposition from the mayor, "the church has faced hostility from local Muslims, who have rallied against them, blocked them from accessing the street where the church is situated and disrupted their outdoor services. It is unlikely that they will suddenly embrace the Christians."

France: Prior to celebrating mass, "four youths, aged 14 to 18, broke into the Church of St. Joseph, beforelaunching handfuls of pebbles at 150 faithful present at the service." They were chased out, though "the parishioners, many of whom are elderly, were greatly shocked by the disrespectful act of the youths of North African origin."

Kashmir: A Catholic church made entirely of wood was partially destroyed after unknown assailants set it on fire. "What happened is not an isolated case," said the president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, and follows the "persecution" of a pastor who baptized Muslims. "With these gestures, the Muslim community is trying to intimidate the Christian minority."

Kuwait: Two months after the Saudi Grand Mufti, in response to a question on whether churches may exist in Kuwait, decreed that all regional churches must be destroyed, villa-churches serving Western foreignersare being targeted. One congregation was evicted without explanation "from a private villa used for worship gatherings for the past seven years"; another villa-church was ordered to "pay an exorbitant fine each month to use a facility it had been renting… Church leaders reportedly decided not to argue and moved out."

Zanzibar: Hundreds of Muslims set two churches on fire and clashed with police during protests against the arrest of senior members of an Islamist movement known as the Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation. Afterwards, the group issued a statement denying any involvement of wrong doing.

Pakistan: Apostasy, Blasphemy, Rape, Forced Conversions, and Oppression
A 20-year-old Christian man was arrested and charged with "blasphemy"—a crime "punishable with life imprisonment"—after vengeful Muslims accused him of burning a Koran soon after a billiard game. The Muslims kept taunting and threatening him, to which the Christian "dared them to do whatever they wanted and walked away." Days later came the accusation and arrest, which caused Muslim riots, creating "panic among Christians" who "left their houses anticipating violence."
Two years ago, after a Muslim man converted to Christianity and told his wife, she abused and exposed him, resulting in his getting severely beaten. "No one was willing to let me live the life I wanted [as a Christian]—they say Islam is not a religion of compulsion, but no one has been able to tell me why Muslims who don't find satisfaction in the religion become liable to be killed." He eventually divorced, escaped, and remarried a Christian woman. Now that his family have again discovered his whereabouts, they have resumed threatening him. According to his wife: "Every other day, we receive threatening phone calls…They are now asking him to abandon us and renounce Christianity, threatening that they will kill me and our child."
A new report indicates that "on average, eight to ten Christians are being forced every month by fanatic Muslims to convert to Islam, mostly in Sindh and Punjab provinces. The victims of forced conversions are often girls from poor backgrounds who are then subjected to harrowing and extremely traumatic ordeals. Most of them are extremely vulnerable and are unable to defend themselves against extremists because their community is deprived, defenseless and marginalized. Christians, who constitute just about two percent of the Pakistani population, are paying a high price for being a part of the minority community." Two such cases from May follow:
In an attempt to force her to drop charges against them for raping her 13-year-old niece, a band of Muslims severely beat a pregnant Christian woman causing her to lose female twins to miscarriage. The rapists came when all male members of the Christian household were out working and beat the women "mercilessly." "They murdered our children, they raped our daughter. We have nothing left with us," lamented an older family member. As usual, police ignored both cases—the raped Christian girl and her beaten family.
A14-year-old Christian girl was abducted and forced to convert to Islam by her uncle who himself earlier converted. Pakistani police refuse to liberate her, saying she converted of her own free will. According to her father: "After converting, my brother is conspiring against our family and kidnapped Mary with deception."
The investigation into the murder of the nation's only cabinet-level Christian, Shahbaz Bhatti, has become mired amid suspicions of a possible cover-up. Lax investigations, a series of freed suspects, and lack of coordination across law enforcement organizations have stalled the case following the March 2, 2011 slaying of the federal minister for Minority Affairs, who was an outspoken critic of, and targeted by, those who support Pakistan's "blasphemy" laws.Christians are being threatened and abused for trying to save their community's graveyard which they owned since 1947. Despite failing to produce any proof, a retired Muslim official who claims he "recently discovered" that the land really belongs to him has already built a boundary wall, reducing the graveyard to less than a third of its original size, and turned the seized land over to agricultural use. Police failed to respond, as usual.

Dhimmitude

[General Abuse, Debasement, and Suppression of non-Muslims as "Tolerated" Citizens]

Egypt: A court verdict that was criticized by many human rights groups as "unbelievable" and "extremely harsh" towards Christians was decided according to religion: all twelve Christians were convicted to life imprisonment, while all eight Muslims—including some who torched nearly 60 Christian homes—were acquitted, all to thunderous cries of "Allahu Akbar!" in the courtroom. Another Muslim judge in Upper Egypt dismissed all charges against a group of Muslims who terrorized a Christian man and his family for over a year, culminating with their cutting off his ear in a knife attack while trying to force him to convert after they "falsely accused him" of having an affair with a Muslim woman. And a new report describes the plight of Coptic girls: "hundreds of Christian girls … have been abducted, forced to convert to Islam, and forced into marriage in Egypt. These incidents are often accompanied by acts of violence, including rape, beatings, and other forms of physical and mental abuse."

Eritrea: Activists taking part in a protest outside the Eritrean embassy in London revealed that "Some 2,000 to 3,000 Christians are currently detained in Eritrea without charge or trial… Several Christians are known to have died in notorious prison camps" and "thousands of Eritreans flee their country every year," some falling "into the hands of abusive traffickers, and are held hostage in torture camps in the Sinai Desert pending payment of exorbitant ransoms, or the forcible removal of organs."

Ethiopia: A Christian man accused of "desecrating the Koran" spent two years in prison, where he was abused, pressured to convert to Islam, and left paralyzed. Now returning home, he has found that his two young children have been abducted by local Muslims: "My life is ruined—I have lost my house, my children, my health. I am now homeless, and I am limping."

Greece: Abet Hasman, the deputy mayor of Patras who recently passed away, left a message to be revealed only in his obituary—that, though born to Muslim parents in Jordan, he was "secretly baptized" a Christian (demonstrating how some Muslims who convert to Christianity, knowing the consequences of apostasy, opt for secrecy).

Indonesia: A predominantly Christian neighborhood was attacked for several days by "unidentified persons" who set fire to homes and cars. Dozens of Christian families fled their homes, "many fear[ing] the involvement of Islamic extremist groups."

Iran: A prominent house church pastor remains behind bars, even as his family expresses concerns that he may die from continued abuse and beatings, leading to internal bleeding and other ailments; authorities refuse to give him medical treatment. Also, the attorney of Youssef Nadarkhani—the imprisoned Christian pastor who awaits execution for apostasy—was himself "convicted for his work defending human rights and is expected to begin serving his nine-year sentence in the near future." Meanwhile, in a letter attributed to him, the imprisoned pastor wrote: "I have surrendered myself to God's will...[and I] consider it as the day of exam and trial of my faith...[so that I may] prove my loyalty and sincerity to God."

Jordan: After the Jordanian Dubai Islamic Bank decreed that all females must wear the hijab, the Islamic veil, or be terminated, all female employees who refused to wear the hijab—mostly Christians, including one Christian woman who worked there for 27 years—were fired. There are suspicions that this new policy was set to target and terminate the Christian employees, since it is they who are most likely to reject the hijab.

Lebanon: A 24-year-old woman, the daughter of a Shiite cleric, who was "physically and psychologicallytortured by her father for converting to Christianity three years ago," managed to escape and then got baptized by a Christian priest—who was abducted and interrogated to disclose the whereabouts of the renegade woman. In connection, Muslim assailants fired gunshots at the house of another priest and at a church. This "is part of an escalating pattern of violence against local Catholics," in the words of the region's prelate.

Macedonia: After some Muslims were arrested in connection to a "series of murders of Christians," thousands of fellow Muslims demonstrated after Friday prayers, shouting slogans like "death to Christians" and calling for "jihad."

Mali: Ever since the government was overthrown in a coup, "the church in Mali faces being eradicated," especially in the north "where rebels want to establish an independent Islamist state and drive Christians out… there have been house to house searches for Christians who might be in hiding, church and Christian property has been looted or destroyed, and people tortured into revealing any Christian relatives."

Nigeria: Muslim gunmen set fire to a home in a Christian village and then opened fire on all who tried to escape the inferno, killing at least seven and wounding many others, in just one of dozens of attacks on Christians.

Sudan: Without reason, security officials closed down regional offices of the Sudan Council of Churches and a much needed church clinic for the poor; staff members were arrested and taken to an undisclosed location: "Their families are living in agony due to the uncertainty of their fate."

Syria: Jihadi gunmen evicted all the families of a Christian region, "taking over all the homes of the village, occupying the church and turning it to their base."

Uzbekistan: Police raided a Protestant house church meeting, claiming "that a bomb was in the home." No bomb was found, only Christian literature which was confiscated. Subsequently, 14 members of the unregistered church were heavily fined—the equivalent of 10-60 times a monthly salary—for an "unsanctioned meeting in a private home." Between February and April, 28 Protestants were fined and four were warned for the offence, with three Baptists also being fined for not declaring their personal Bibles while crossing the border from Kazakhstan into Uzbekistan. Fines and warnings were accompanied by the confiscation of religious literature."


There is more in the above-linked post.

Also from Mr. Ibrahim - an example of how the Christians are implicitly blamed for bringing this carnage and oppression upon themselves. This post concerns a report by Robert Fisk, a Middle East correspondent from the UK. It is a sad fact that Great Britain also expended tremendous efforts, including sending their own men to war (The Crimean War), in support of the Christian-oppressing Ottomans to prevent Russia from gaining too much strength. Russia had been making considerable gains in the Black Sea and the liberation of Constantinople was not an impossible outcome.The "Great Game", however, required that Christian nations do whatever they could to maintain the balance of power, including assisting Islamic states:


http://www.raymondibrahim.com/11933/robert-fisk-demonizes-mideast-persecuted

"In a recent article, Fisk goes out of his way to demonize the abused Christian minorities of the Middle East for supporting those secularist leaders most likely to preserve their freedoms and dignity. For instance, after portraying the Middle East's "old guard" in the worst possible terms, he complains that "Ahmed Shafiq, the Mubarak loyalist, has the support of the Christian Copts, and Assad has the support of the Syrian Christians. The Christians support the dictators. Not much of a line, is it?"

In Fisk's way of thinking, Christians of Egypt and Syria are unpatriotic freedom-haters because they support secularists, whereas the Sharia-pushing Islamists are patriotic freedom-lovers for not.

"Not much of a line, is it?"—especially from someone who supposedly lives and travels in the Middle East and is deemed an authority on the region. Completely missing from his narrative is why Christians are supporting Shafiq and Assad: because the alternatives, the Islamists, have been making their lives a living hell.

Fisk's biased narrative is, of course, not original to him, but rather originates with his friends—the Islamists. Soon after the first presidential elections in Egypt, many Islamists bemoaned Shafiq's good showing, laying the blame directly on Egypt's Christian Copts, who reportedly came out in large numbers voting for the secular candidates. Tarek al-Zomor, a prominent figure of the Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the terrorist organization that slaughtered some 60 European tourists, including several of Fisk's countrymen, during the Luxor Massacre, "demanded an apology from the Copts" for voting for Shafiq, threatening that "this was a fatal error."

Others, like Abu Ismail, the Salafi presidential candidate who was disqualified, expressed "great disappointment" in "our Coptic brethren," saying that "I do not understand why the Copts so adamantly voted for Ahmed Shafiq," portraying it as some sort of conspiracy between the Copts, the old regime, and even Israel: "Exactly what relationship and benefit do the Copts have with the old regime"?

The uncritical Fisk follows suit and asks the same questions, portraying the Mideast's Christians as unpatriotic.

Missing from the Islamists'—and Fisk's—narrative is the fact that Christians are under attack by Islamists, especially in Egypt and Syria, where Christian women and children and regularly abducted, molested, and forced to convert; where churches and monasteries are regularly attacked; where blasphemy laws imprison or kill and calls for jizya are back—in short, where Christians are persecuted (see entries for Egypt and Syria in my monthly "Muslim Persecution of Christians" for an idea). Moreover, the ultimate goal of Fisk's supposedly "freedom-loving Islamists—the enforcement of a decidedly anti-freedom Sharia law—will naturally spell disaster for Christians, since this draconian law code emphatically condemns non-Muslim "infidels" to dhimmistatus—barely-tolerated, second-class "citizens" of the Islamic state.

Back in the real world, the reaction to Islamist complaints that Copts are not voting for them has been one of amazement. As one Coptic activist put it: "Did they [complaining Islamists] really expect a Christian to choose a president to represent him from those who cut off the ear of a Christian, blocked the railways inobjection to the appointment of a Christian governor in Qena, burn down several churches and who are diligently working to write a Constitution which undermines the rights of Christians?"

Even Egyptian Muslim writer Khaled Montasser, in an article titled "The Muslim Brotherhood Asks Why Christians Fear Them?!" explained that the Brotherhood's own official documents and fatwas decree several anti-Christian measures, including the destruction of churches and the prevention of burying Christian "infidels" near Muslim graves—hence why Christians are not voting for Islamists.

As for Syria, since the uprising, "opposition forces"—that is, Islamists—have been attacking Christians and churches, including through "kidnappings and gruesome murders." None of this happened before the uprising and under Assad's secular rule. As an earlier report put it, "Should Assad fall, it is feared that Syria could go the way of Iraq post-Saddam Hussein. Saddam, like Assad, restrained the influence of militant Islamists, but after his fall they were free to wreak havoc on the Christian community; hundreds of thousands of Christians were consequently forced to flee the violence."

Should the "opposition" get their way and topple the Assad regime, the same brutal pattern experienced byIraq's Christian minorities—who have been liked to, and killed off like, dogs, to the point of nearing extinction—will come to Syria, where a preacher recently urged Muslims to "tear apart, chop up and feed" Christians who support Assad "to the dogs......"

There also is more in the post "Fisk demonizes Christians" in the middle of this post.

The most bizarre part is that many of the Islamists affect incomprehension about the concerns and fears of Christians. The Islamists truly pretend that they have no idea as to why Christians are terrified of the prospects for their future in their own countries.

Chavez' Venezuela - Human Rights Council Candidate

- Talk about the fox guarding the hen-house.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/06/28/escaped-high-profile-prisoner-speaks-out-against-venezuela-bid-to-join-un-human/

Chavez, a daring of the Left, has created a police state that should be a regular target of the UN Human Rights Council. Instead, Venezuela hopes to obtain a seat of that body.

I recall his earlier days when he forced a law to be made in which the freedom of the press was guaranteed, as long as the respective media organizations reported "the truth". That in and of itself should have been enough to make everyone realize that he was a buffoon as well as a dangerous man.

His Presidency has been marked by atrocious bullying of political opponents, class warfare incited by himself, forced nationalizations of companies, arbitrary jailing of many individuals, and effective shutting off of media groups (By forbidding renewal of broadcasting licenses) that did not walk the chalk line that he drew.

-The last two were added so that the reader knows that I am still writing about Chavez, not Obama. The latter has not taken those steps....yet. 

But, as I have said to my kids when, after telling them to refrain from doing something (such as throwing the ball in the house) and being told in response that they were not, "You were thinking about it".

The mainstream media curiously left out this story:

"Escaped former Venezuela prisoner Eligio Cedeño addressed the United Nations Thursday to oppose Hugo Chávez's bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Cedeño, a banker who was jailed for more than two years for providing financial support to Venezuela's opposition, spoke to the U.N. about the Chávez government's poor human rights record.

"Venezuela is a nation with a profound human rights crisis," Cedeño said. "Judicial independence is non-existent, with judges publicly declaring loyalty oaths to the president and chanting his praises at the Supreme Court."

Cedeño was imprisoned in 2007 without trial. He was declared a victim of arbitrary detention by the U.N. Human Rights Council, according to U.N. Watch. He was released by Venezuelan Judge Maria Lourdes Afiuni, who quickly came under fire by the Chávez regime after her ruling.

"That same day, she [Afiuni] was arrested and the next day Venezuela's president went on television calling her a 'bandit' and giving orders to the attorney general and to the president of the Supreme Court to apply the maximum penalty of 30 years of prison," Cedeño said.
Afiuni remains under house arrest despite no trial. She is reportedly battling cancer.

"I am only one victim, Judge Afiuni is another. Let's not forget that millions of Venezuelans are targets of a government that does not respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Cedeño told the U.N.

Cedeño's testimony is part of an international campaign to fight Venezuela's bid to join the U.N.'s top human rights body. The General Assembly is expected to vote on Venezuela's membership this fall.

Cedeño told FoxNews.com he will continue to speak out against Chávez's campaign to join the U.N. Human Rights Council."

-Check out what Human Rights Watch has to say about the goofball in Caracas. Note that even their report is carefully worded, probably to avoid appearing to be too harsh.

http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2012/world-report-2012-venezuela

"The weakening of Venezuela’s democratic system of checks and balances under President Hugo Chávez has contributed to a precarious human rights situation. Without judicial checks on its actions, the government has systematically undermined the right to free expression, workers’ freedom of association, and the ability of human rights groups to protect rights.

Weeks before the new National Assembly—with a substantial opposition composition—took office in January 2011, Chávez’s supporters in the legislature adopted several laws that increased the government’s ability to undercut rights.

Police abuses and impunity remain a grave problem. Prison conditions are deplorable, and fatality rates high due to inmate violence.

Judicial Independence

In 2004 Chávez and his legislative allies conducted a political takeover of the Supreme Court, filling it with government supporters and creating new measures that make it possible to purge justices from the court. In December 2010 the outgoing legislators from Chávez’s political party modified the timeline so they could make appointments before leaving office: they appointed 9 permanent justices and 32 stand-ins, including several allies. Since 2004, the court has largely abdicated its role as a check on executive power, failing to protect fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution.

In 2011 Supreme Court President Luisa Estella Morales declared that laws in Venezuela “respond to an ideological purpose,” while Justice Fernando Torre Alba stated that courts “must severely … sanction behaviors or cases that undermine the construction of [Bolivarian] socialism.”

Individual judges may face reprisals if they rule against government interests. In December 2009 Judge María Lourdes Afiuni was detained on the day she authorized the conditional release of Eligio Cedeño, a banker accused of corruption. Afiuni was following a recommendation by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions, given that Cedeño had been in pre-trial detention for almost three years, although Venezuelan law prescribes a two-year limit. The day after her arrest, Chávez publicly branded Afiuni a “bandit” who should receive the maximum 30 years in prison. Accused of corruption, abuse of authority, and “favoring evasion of justice,” her case is pending before a judge who has stated publicly: “I would never betray my Commander because I take the Revolution in my blood…”
Judge Afiuni was held in pre-trial detention in deplorable conditions in a violent prison for over a year, and remains under house arrest. Three UN human rights special rapporteurs and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights have denounced her arrest and called for her release.
Legislating by Decree

In December 2010 the outgoing National Assembly passed an enabling law that granted Chávez broad powers to legislate by decree on a wide range of issues for 18 months. The law’s vague provisions could directly impact the exercise of rights by, for example, allowing the president to determine which penalties can be imposed when someone commits a crime. As of November 2011 Chávez had adopted over 20 legislative decrees, including one reinstating crimes previously derogated by the legislature. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of this decree, which criminalized several banking practices, arguing that economic crimes are “crimes against humanity” and could not be decriminalized.

Freedom of Media

Venezuela enjoys a vibrant public debate in which anti-government and pro-government media criticize and defend the president. However, the government has discriminated against media that air political opponents’ views, strengthened the state’s ability to limit free speech and created powerful incentives for government critics to self-censor.

Laws contributing to a climate of self-censorship include the 2005 amendments to the criminal code extending the scope of desacato laws that criminalize disrespect of high government officials, and a broadcasting statute allowing arbitrary suspension of channels for the vaguely defined offense of “incitement.” In December 2010 the National Assembly extended the scope of this statute to include the internet. It also amended the telecommunications law, granting the government power to suspend or revoke concessions to private outlets if it is “convenient for the interests of the nation” or demanded by public order and security.
The government has abused its control of broadcasting frequencies to punish radio and television stations with overtly critical programming. In 2009 the government broadcasting authority CONATEL closed 32 radio stations and reported that over 200 others were under review, without providing a list of the stations being investigated. Several stations have since limited their critical programming. In November 2011 CONATEL suspended several radio stations while it investigated them, but no additional stations had been closed at this writing.
RCTV, Venezuela’s most popular critical television station, was pulled from public airwaves in 2007. RCTV International, the cable channel that replaced it, was removed from cable broadcasting in 2010 after CONATEL ordered that cable providers suspend transmitting channels that it had not certified as “international” channels. RCTV’s lawyers say CONATEL has rejected RCTV’s requests to obtain this certification, and the channel remains unable to transmit in Venezuela.

CONATEL has opened seven administrative investigations against Globovisión—the only TV channel available without cable critical of the government—that could lead to the station’s suspension or revocation of its license. In October 2011 CONATEL fined Globovisión US$2.1 million for allegedly violating the broadcasting statute when it aired images of a June prison riot. The other six cases have yet to be resolved; some have been pending for over a year.

In 2010 the government adopted vague norms that expand its power to limit access to almost any information it holds, including creating a Center for Situational Studies of the Nation with broad powers to limit public dissemination of “information, facts or circumstance[s]” it deems confidential.

Prosecuting Government Critics

Several prominent critics of Chávez’s government have been targeted for criminal prosecution in recent years. The courts’ lack of independence reduced the chances of them receiving a fair trial.

In July 2011 Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, a former governor of Zulia state and member of an opposition political party, was sentenced to two years in prison for criticizing the Chávez administration on TV. Álvarez Paz was convicted of disseminating false information for saying that Chávez was not a democrat and that “Venezuela has turned into a center of operations that facilitates the business of drug-trafficking.” Álvarez Paz is serving his sentence on conditional liberty but cannot leave the country without judicial authorization.

Guillermo Zuloaga, president of Globovisión, remains under criminal investigation for allegedly disseminating false information and for offending the president. At a public meeting in March 2010, Zuloaga accused Chávez of ordering the shooting of demonstrators during the 2002 coup. In a June televised speech, Chávez expressed outrage that Zuloaga was still free. A week later police arrived at Zuloaga’s house to arrest him and his son for alleged irregularities in their car sales business, an investigation their lawyers said had been stalled for months. The two men, who were not at home, subsequently fled the country.

In March 2011 Rubén González, secretary general of the Ferrominera Orinoco Union, was sentenced to over seven years in prison for organizing and participating in a strike with 2,000 workers in Guyana to protest a government-owned company’s failure to comply with a collective bargaining agreement. González was convicted for incitement to commit crimes, restricting freedom to work, and violating the prohibition to enter security zones. Not only was the prosecution of González criticized by the International Labour Organization and Venezuelan unions, but it was also denounced by pro-government labor leaders in Venezuela. Upon appeal, the Supreme Court ordered another judge to re-try González. The case against González, who was released on conditional liberty, remained pending at this writing.

Human Rights Defenders

Chávez’s government has aggressively sought to discredit human rights defenders. In June Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami accused Humberto Prado of the Venezuelan Observatory of Prisons of “destabilizing the prison system” and having been “an accomplice in the massacre of inmates” in the past. After several official media outlets discredited Prado, he received multiple death threats and left Venezuela for two months.

In July 2010 the Supreme Court ruled that “obtaining financial resources, either directly or indirectly, from foreign states with the intent of using them against the Republic, [and] the interest of the people [could constitute] treason.” That same month members of Chávez’s political party filed a criminal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office, alleging that several local human rights NGOs had committed treason by receiving funding from foreign donors. Over 30 NGOs are currently under investigation, according to local media.

In December 2010 the National Assembly adopted two laws that, if applied to human rights organizations, could severely undermine their ability to work independently. The “Law for the Defense of Political Sovereignty and National Self Determination” blocks NGOS that “defend political rights” or “monitor the performance of public bodies” from receiving international funding. It also imposes stiff fines on organizations that invite foreigners who express opinions that offend institutions or undermine national sovereignty. The “Organic Law on Social Control”—which regulates the work of organizations and individuals that have an impact on “general or collective interests”—states that individuals must follow the law’s socialist principles and values: those who violate the law may face civil, administrative, or criminal sanctions.
Police Abuses

Violent crime is rampant in Venezuela, where extrajudicial killings by security agents remain a problem. The minister of the interior and justice has estimated that police commit one of every five crimes. According to the most recent official statistics, law enforcement agents allegedly killed 7,998 people between January 2000 and the first third of 2009.

Impunity for human rights violations remains the norm. In 2010, prosecutors charged individuals allegedly responsible for abuses in less than 3 percent of cases investigated.

In April 2008 Chávez’s administration issued a decree that established a new national police force and enacted measures to promote non-abusive policing proposed by a commission comprised of government and NGO representatives. At this writing there had been no independent evaluation of the new police force’s performance."