Friday 29th March 2024

Home » World News » Currently Reading:

Western Conservative Conference Tackles Issues In Phoenix

February 27, 2014 World News No Comments

By Dexter Duggan

2/23/14

Written for Arizona Daily Independent

Western Conservative Conference tackles issues in Phoenix

     Topics at the Western Conservative Conference for political activists in downtown Phoenix included warnings of potential financial ruin for the United States, political strategizing, Obamacare, media, gun ownership and immigration.

     About 450 people from Arizona and out of state attended speeches and panels at the Phoenix Convention Center on Feb. 22. A “roast” of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio occurred later that evening, with about 650 people registered.

     Starting the day, U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon (R.-Ariz.), the conference chairman, pointed to the nation’s dangerously high $17.5 trillion debt, a figure that doesn’t even take into account huge additional liabilities.

     “Please, folks, don’t shy away from this fight” to save the nation, Salmon said. “It’s real, it’s real… But we’ve got to fight for everything we’ve got,” just like the founding patriots.

      Salmon said the Republican-majority U.S. House has passed 40 jobs bills to help the nation, but Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid, to prevent action, keeps them gathering dust on his desk.

     Conference keynoter Herman Cain, a successful businessman and candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, said the nation’s real unemployment rate is between 12 percent and 13 percent – not the economic recovery that’s being asserted, he said.

     Cain said the unemployment figure was “fudged” in 2012 to bring it below eight percent to make Barack Obama look better in his re-election campaign, and has continued to be “fudged” lower.

     “If the unemployment rate is 6.6 percent, I am Santa Claus from the North Pole,” said Cain, a former deputy chairman and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

     After the Congressional Budget Office recently said Obamacare will result in significant job losses, Cain said, administration officials and Democratic politicians denied this. “Stupid and gullible people are running America. Stay informed,” Cain said.

     Beginning his talk shortly before 10 a.m., Cain quickly cited the U.S. Declaration of Independence as asserting the right of the people to alter or abolish government when it becomes destructive of their inalienable rights.

     “We’re not divided based on color,” the black conservative told the applauding audience. “I’m here. You’re here. Where’s the division?”

     The Obama administration, Cain continued, has divided the nation between the political class and the working class. And, he said, the political class — which he described as “the ruling class” — is not only Democrats but also some Republicans.

     “Yes, we’re gonna get scarred and marred… Get up and shake off the dust and get back in the arena,” said Cain, who also is a national talk-radio host heard in the Phoenix area on KFNX (1100 AM).

     Cain concluded to a standing ovation: “The working class matters. Let’s make some noise and take back America.”

     U.S. Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), former treasurer of Maricopa County, warned that the latest estimate of U.S. debt and underfunded liabilities is $205 trillion, while the entire wealth of the world may be $185 trillion.

     “You have an obligation to save this republic,” Schweikert told a morning general session of the conference. “…We can save this country,” but he wasn’t sure how much longer that would be possible when the political left controls both the presidency and U.S. Senate.

     Republican activists may prefer to go to meetings to debate the Constitution, Schweikert said, but for the next few months it’s important to get out and walk the neighborhoods, looking for independent voters to establish rapport with.

     He told of an instance when some local Republicans debated among themselves for four hours while 15 Democrats in Ahwatukee got out their water bottles and walked the neighborhoods. Which group, Schweikert asked, had more effect on the elections?

     However, he added, Democrats face a problem now because of political burdens like Obamacare.

     Because he rides elevators in Washington, D.C., Schweikert said, he overhears conversations among Democrats who “are absolutely panic-stricken because the public is finding out” what a massive failure they are. Democrats are looking for some way to divert voters’ attention, he said.

     Tea Party activist and commentator Scottie Nell Hughes told the morning general session that “the only group that [liberals] refuse to help … they even refuse to acknowledge, is the conservative woman…

     “In the mind of the modern American liberal,” Hughes continued, the only reason women cling to their Bibles and guns is because some man told them to.

     There’s a tough fight coming up, she said. If people think Barack Obama is bad for the nation, they “haven’t seen anything yet” if Hillary Clinton is elected president in 2016.

     Mrs. Clinton wants to open U.S. borders, choose people’s doctors for them, and protect unsafe abortion clinics, Hughes said, warning of a future Clinton administration with far-left New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as attorney general, and current Atty. Gen. Eric Holder as a Supreme Court justice.    

     During a panel on Obamacare, participant Eric Novack, M.D., said the national medical program demonstrates the politicization of health care.

     “Whoever can lobby the best, whoever can make the best pitch” to Congress, will get their interests covered, Novack said.

     He urged that people give illustrations on a personal level, not using big analogies, to show Obamacare’s negatives.

     At a panel about attacks being launched against the Tea Party, the topic arose of whether to start another political party.

     Jennifer Burke, national outreach director of TheTeaParty.net, said this would be the wrong direction to take.

     “Progressive Marxists took [the Democratic Party] over. They didn’t start a Progressive Marxist Party,” she said. “… On the left, they’re out-and-about proud… All we’re asking the Republican Party do is adhere to their own platform.”

     Bringing the GOP back to its principles “isn’t an overnight victory we’re going to win,” she said, but the Marxists didn’t take over the Democrats overnight, either.

     Burke said that if people went back and read their father’s Democratic Party platform from a few decades ago, it sounds pretty conservative.

     Tea Party activist Darla Dawald said she tells liberals that they, too, need to take back their party from those who’ve taken it over.

     At a luncheon featuring speakers on the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms, U.S. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said, “If we lose this battle, it’s really our children who lose.”

     Franks noted various 20th Century tyrannies that disarmed their populaces then rounded up the unwanted to exterminate them, including the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Communist China, Turkey and Cambodia.

     Politicians can have armed guards to protect them, Franks said, but little children’s schools have only a sign, “No guns allowed.”

     At a panel on media bias, Brian Calle, opinion editor at the Orange County, Calif., Register, said “perspective segregation” is occurring, where left- and right-wingers each watch only their own opinion sites.

     This doesn’t allow one side to persuade the other of the correctness of its views, he said.

     Calle said he asked one of the classes he taught at Cal State Fullerton where the students got their news. The response was social media and blogs. And did they think it was accurate? No.

     At a panel on immigration, former Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce said U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said that as bad as Obamacare is, it can be fixed or mostly fixed; but if “amnesty” is passed into law for 20 million or 30 million illegal aliens, it never can be fixed.

     Arizona Republican state Rep. Steve Smith told of a rewarding experience he had with a legal Latino resident, who wasn’t a U.S. citizen, as the Latino graciously helped him fix his vehicle.

     Although the Latino originally said he favored “amnesty” when Smith asked his views on the matter, he changed his mind as Smith pointed out the negatives of unrestricted immigration upon people living in the U.S. Smith said the Latino, Hugo, never thought about these facts before, but ended up telling Smith, “Build a fence and keep them out.”

     Another panelist, Steve Bucci, of the Heritage Foundation think tank, said, “Please, please, please reject the false choice the federal government is trying to sell you right now” that the only alternative to the Senate’s complex Obamacare-style immigration bill is to do nothing.

     The U.S. is pro-immigration, but the answer doesn’t start with “amnesty,” Bucci said, going on to warn that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers are being disciplined if they enforce border laws.

     The U.S. needs both high-tech workers and seasonal agricultural workers, he said, but the agricultural workers have to go back home when their job is done.

        #     #

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

Abortion Advocates No Longer Consider It “A Necessary Evil,” They Celebrate Killing Babies

Last week, Kamala Harris became the first vice president in U.S. history to make a public visit to an abortion clinic. Though the Democratic party’s support for abortion is nothing new, Harris’ Planned Parenthood appearance does illustrate how that support has become a flagrant celebration of abortion as a public and personal good, essential to both “freedom” and to “healthcare.” At the appearance, Harris proclaimed,  It is only right and fair that people have access…Continue Reading

Wisconsin Supreme Court says Catholic charity group cannot claim religious tax exemption

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a major Catholic charity group’s activities were not “primarily” religious under state law, stripping the group of a key tax break and ordering it to pay into the state unemployment system. Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) last year argued that the state had improperly removed its designation as a religious organization.  The charity filed a lawsuit after the state said it did not qualify to be considered as an organization…Continue Reading

Walgreens and CVS Will Start Selling Abortion Pills That Kill Babies

The two largest pharmacies in America will start selling abortion pills this month that end the lives of unborn children by starting them to death. Walgreens and CVS will both sell the abortion pills despite the fact that they kill a developing human being and have killed at least dozens of women and injured tens of thousands more. They plan to initially roll out abortion drug sales in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke announces novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for ‘crises of our age’

VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Raymond Cardinal Burke has announced the start of a global, nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, calling on Catholics to beseech Mary’s intercession on the Church and the world in the face of the “crises of our age.” In a new endeavour published online over the weekend, Cardinal Burke announced a novena beginning in March, and culminating on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

Texas attorney general targets Catholic nonprofit, alleges it facilitates illegal immigration

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2024 / 21:15 pm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut down a Catholic nonprofit organization in El Paso based on allegations that the group may be facilitating illegal immigration, harboring immigrants who entered the country illegally, and engaging in human smuggling.  Paxton filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Annunciation House, which has operated in the state for nearly 50 years. The lawsuit asks the District Court of El Paso…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)