Videos from Last Week's Heritage Foundation President's Club in Washington

The Heritage Foundation has just posted several videos from last week's President's Club Fall Meeting in Washington. Here are a few of the videos from the event...


Heritage President Ed Feulner
on the state of the Conservative movement



Rep. Mike Pence (Ind.)
on Conservative principles



The dinner address by
the Honorable William J. Bennett

PG County Police Hold Funeral for Abandoned Infant

In the Washington, D.C. metropolitan county of Prince George's County, Md., it is nice (for a change) to see a positive news story regarding its police department. Dealing with one of the most violent counties on the East Coast, the police department finally received some "above the fold" positive press in the Washington Post. The men and women in the PG Police Department exhibited great respect for life, especially for the innocent life of a newborn found in a trash bag.

Honoring 'a Baby No One Loved'
Prince George's Police Hold Funeral for Abandoned Infant

The homicide detectives stood in the cold wind yesterday at a quiet Clinton cemetery to bury an infant they named Maria del Pilar. They were the only mourners.

A month ago, the newborn was found alive in a trash bag in the Takoma Park area. She died later that day, and her mother was charged with murder. No one stepped forward to bury her, so Price George's County police officers gathered yesterday morning to do so themselves.

"This was a baby no one loved. This was a child who did absolutely nothing wrong," said Maj. Daniel Dusseau, head of major crimes for the Prince George's police.

Maria is the third infant whom Prince George's police have named and buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Clinton, a somber ritual that officers say is both cathartic and, they hope, a reminder to parents of what happens when they abandon a baby.

Buried next to Maria are two others: John Caleb Daniels, who was found in a plastic grocery bag in Oxon Hill in 2004, and Maria Grace Daniels, who was found in a plastic bag in a sediment pond in Riverdale Park in 2006.

The children could have been taken to a hospital, a church, a fire station or another safe haven, as allowed under Maryland state law, authorities said. Instead, police investigated their deaths and planned their funerals.

The lead investigator in Maria's case, Detective Nelson Rhone, organized yesterday's service and helped name Baby Jane Doe: Maria, because she was Hispanic, and del Pilar, after the Virgin of El Pilar, who is celebrated in Spain on Oct. 12, the day of the baby's birth and death.

"Every detective wants to close his case and provide some closure for the family. Unfortunately, when there is no family, the only closure we can provide is to the infant," Rhone said.

The funeral was a collaborative effort: The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89 raised money for a headstone, Lee's Funeral Home donated all services and a tiny coffin, Clinton Floral Shop sent a basket of pink carnations and white daisies, and the police chaplain performed the ceremony.
In addition to showing compassion to infants who died within hours of birth, the funerals help detectives cope with the heartbreak of such cases, said Steve Rhoads, the police chaplain. Most people don't realize the strong bond that investigators often form with victims whose deaths they are trying to solve, he said.

"They think that these guys are robots and unfeeling," Rhoads said. "This proves that they are not."

The cases of the first two abandoned babies are unsolved, but police have an arrest in Maria's death because of an anonymous tip. Four days after Maria was found, Prince George's police arrested Wendy Y. Villatoro, 25, who lived in the Takoma Park area. She admitted abandoning the infant, police said, and was charged with second-degree murder. The baby's extended family declined to claim the body.

"These are the kinds of victims your heart just breaks for, because they were completely innocent," said Detective Kelly Rogers, who helped organize a funeral for Maria Grace Daniels, the baby found in Riverdale Park. "Most of us have kids and know that if you just hear somebody yelling 'Mommy' in a crowded store, you turn your head out of instinct. You know something must have been seriously wrong with them or going seriously wrong for them to do this."

Obama's Catholic Backers

Fantastic "op-ed" in yesterday's Washington Times. This is "must reading" for Traditional Catholics who still feel betrayed by the 54% of so-called "Catholics" who voted for Sen. Obama on November 4...

The elections weigh heavily on the hearts of America's Catholic bishops who gathered in Baltimore last week for their annual meeting. Not only do the bishops remain conflicted about how to contend with pro-choice politicians -a topic on their agenda - but they are also conflicted with their own Catholic colleges and professors, who played a vital role in turning the Catholic vote to Barack Obama.

Despite the Catholic bishops' clear disapproval of Mr. Obama's support for abortion rights - including his pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act - which would nullify state restrictions on abortions - many Catholics were persuaded that they could vote for Mr. Obama in good conscience. Exit polls show that he won over self-described Catholics 54 percent to 45 percent, better than the 52-46 split among all Americans. He even made inroads with Mass-attending and white, non-Hispanic Catholics.

For that, Mr. Obama has liberal Catholic professors and Catholic colleges to thank. It was Catholic academics who made the argument for Mr. Obama in the media and in lectures to Catholic audiences. Vocal Obama supporters include Pepperdine law professor Douglas Kmiec, a former dean of the Catholic University of America law school; Boston College theology professor Lisa Sowle Cahill; Duquesne law professor Nicholas Cafardi (former dean of Duquesne's law school); Notre Dame theology professor Cathleen Kaveny; and a St. Peter's College humanities professor, Jesuit Rev. Raymond Schroth.

The argument: that Mr. Obama will do more than John McCain to reduce abortions by fighting poverty, reforming health care and otherwise helping Americans in need. Mr. Cafardi has gone so far as to claim that "we have lost the abortion battle, permanently" and therefore Catholics should not be swayed by Mr. McCain's opposition to Roe v. Wade.

In publications ranging from Newsweek to the National Catholic Reporter, the professors openly attacked several bishops for proclaiming Catholic teaching that the right to life - including legal protections for innocent human beings - is a priority over other serious issues like the economy and health care. Mr. Kmiec accused the bishops of "low partisanship" for urging Catholics to vote in conformity to their faith. Mrs. Cahill blamed the church's shepherds for "damaging [the] rich Catholic faith tradition" and Notre Dame theologian Rev. Richard McBrien laments a "dearth of pastoral leadership" among bishops appointed by the late Pope John Paul II.

Throughout the campaign, several Catholic colleges and universities - including Mount Mercy College and St. Ambrose University in Iowa, St. Louis University in Missouri and Villanova University in Pennsylvania - hosted political rallies and stump speeches on their campuses. At St. Peter's College in New Jersey, nearly 3,000 people rallying for Mr. Obama were serenaded by a children's choir from a nearby Catholic school. An election-eve rally at Xavier University in Cincinnati featured performers Mary J. Blige, Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter and Sean "Diddy" Combs urging votes for Mr. Obama.

Nine members of Mr. Obama's Catholic National Advisory Committee were professors at Catholic colleges, and their peers were generous donors to Obama's campaign. Professors at the Jesuits' Georgetown University were ranked seventh among all U.S. colleges and universities in donations to the Obama campaign, totaling $179,000, according to an October analysis by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

So, why the enthusiasm for Mr. Obama on Catholic campuses? "[W]hile most Catholic pro-life groups, bloggers and some media outlets skew to both the theological and political right," explains columnist John Allen in the National Catholic Reporter, "a substantial share of the Catholic academy, in tandem with other media outlets and a galaxy of peace-and-justice activists, leans to the political and theological left." Left-leaning academics are nothing new to the United States, but on Catholic campuses their activism can become opposition to the religious truths which Catholic educators are expected to teach and respect.

Sociologist Anne Hendershott documents the decline of the Catholic academy in her forthcoming book "Status Envy," and a new national survey by the Center for the Study of Catholic Higher Education (www.CatholicHigherEd.org) drives the point home. Theological dissent, contempt for the bishops and the Vatican, capitulation to the "Sexual Revolution," and imitation of elite universities and their glorification of academic freedom and cafeteria-style curricula produce graduates from Catholic colleges that are far less committed to the moral, social and political values of their predecessors.

But they do share, it seems, the values of Mr. Obama and American pop culture - so much so that pundits have begun to question whether the "Catholic vote" truly exists any more, as the majority of Catholic voters seem to follow social trends. Only a faithful minority adheres to the teachings of the Catholic bishops.

Dissent in the pews is something the Catholic Church has wrestled with for centuries, long before the 2008 elections. The more contemporary challenge is fidelity among Catholic educators and the apparent consequences when professors are in open conflict with the bishops.

Patrick J. Reilly is president and founder of the Cardinal Newman Society.

Fantastic Comic

Big Three Invade Washington Looking for Handouts

GM, Ford, and Chrysler are coming to get their "piece of the pie". You didn't think it would stop with the financial market did you???

Fantastic analysis from my friends at The Heritage Foundation:

Both the House and the Senate are set to gavel back into session this week, and both chambers’ first order of business will be a proposed bailout for Detroit’s Big Three: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) will introduce legislation to carve out $25 billion for Detroit from the $700 billion Wall Street bailout passed last month. This is on top of the $25 billion Congress already gave Detroit this past September.

Oh, and the auto unions have already told Congress they will ask for another $15 billion next year. If you’re beginning to notice a pattern here, you’re not alone. If Congress goes through with this auto bailout, it will not be the first nor last time Detroit will be coming to Washington with its hand out. It will simply become the way the auto industry is run.

There is no doubt U.S. auto manufacturers are in real trouble. Each company posted large losses in the third quarter, with General Motors and Ford reporting losses between $2 billion and $3 billion. But while all auto manufacturers have suffered a downturn in sales, Toyota still managed to come out in the black this past quarter. The problem is not an inherently troubled industry.

The problem is that Detroit’s automakers are trapped in a business model designed for another era. Union contracts force the Big Three to pay their workers an average of $30 more per hour than competitors like Toyota. The Big Three have to keep 15,710 independent dealerships happy nationwide, compared to only 4,000 for all their Japanese competitors. Finally, the Big Three are saddled with billions in annual “legacy costs” that go to more than 800,000 retirees and pay for enormous amounts of facilities they will probably never use again.

The policy question facing Washington is how best to facilitate the changes Detroit must make to survive. The left wants to run everything through Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wants to choose what types of cars the automakers can build and craft a centralized plan to “assure the long-term viability of the industry.” Frank wants a “very tough oversight board” that could “veto ventures” new management wants to pursue. Detroit will never go through the necessary changes with Congress in charge. The types of changes needed will be painful and unpopular, and it is difficult to imagine politicians allowing them, never mind insisting on them.

There is an alternative. And it’s right there in the U.S. Constitution: bankruptcy. Since the founding of our country, the bankruptcy process has been an essential part of the nation’s commercial fabric. Bankruptcy is not the end of the road; it is, rather, a new beginning. The reorga­nization process provides unique flexibility to unlock the fundamentally sound productive capa­bilities of a faltering business by freeing it of many obstacles to success, such as unviable contracts, crushing debt and poor management. Reorganiza­tion is the right tonic for businesses like the Big Three that need to adjust quickly to new economic realities but are, at their cores, sound, productive and potentially profitable.

The fight over how the Big Three should be reformed will be an early test for the incoming liberal majority. The auto industry is hardly the only sector of the economy that is facing difficult choices. How Washington deals with Detroit will set a precedent for other businesses. As Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) told “Meet the Press” this weekend: “This is just a beginning of corporate welfare in a big, big way.”