Antiabortion Watch #7 (CA
File Name: 3028.txt
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Msg#: 22321 Date: 01-11-96 22:27
From: In:croth@omnifest.uwm.edu Read: Yes Replied: No
To: Shy David Mark:
Subj: Antiabortion Watch #7 (CA
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
11 January 1996
Opinion and Analysis
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___________A N T I A B O R T I O N W A T C H # 7_____________
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:: LAND OF WHALES AND NUTS
::
::n his annual State of the State message, CA Governor
Pete Wilson pitched an educational voucher plan. Wilson's
scheme would direct tax dollars to religious institutions.
LAND-O'-CHEESE
WI Governor Tommy Thompson and Pete Wilson are both Republicans.
Thompson's tax-bux-for-sky-gods scheme was launched in the Dairy
State in 1995. That already-passed "expanded school choice" law is,
however, currently in limbo until the WI Supreme Court rules on
its constitutionality. Oddsmakers think Thompson will lose.
The "expanded school choice" mess was newsworthy last year
because the legal challenge came just as kids were scheduled
to attend religious schools using tax monies.
CONSTITUTIONAL DEFICIENCY
Constitutional scholars have concluded
that government-dollars-for-churches
arrangements violate separation of church and state.
ECONOMIC DEFICIENCY
Pocketbook-minded Wisconsinites
are concerned that taxpayers would be burdened, for the first
time, with funding religious schools in addition to preexisting
public schools.
UNREPORTED PATTERN: MANUFACTURING CONFLICT
A pattern has emerged across the nation. First, out-of-state rightist
think tanks agitate for "school choice" laws. Second, their public
relations and advertising efforts attempt to pit low-income, inner city,
and African-American citizens against defenders of separation
of church and state.
(That strategy has been somewhat blunted in
SE WI, as Milwaukee's NAACP affiliate sided with WI's ACLU
affiliate against the scheme.)
TWO POSSIBILITIES AHEAD
Rightists in WI are hoping that the WI and US Supreme Courts
will uphold vouchers-for-religious-indoctrination as
constitutional.
If ruled unconstitutional, conservative backers of "choice"
want low-income citizens to direct their anger against
the organizations that challenged the scheme
and away from "choice" leaders who kept quiet--and actively misled
impoverished parents--about the unconstitutional
nature of the arrangement.
WHAT PARENTS WEREN'T TOLD BY PR AND AD PROFESSIONALS
Any competent education professional or attorney understood during
the summer of 1995 that school choice schemes were (and are):
a) certainly disallowed under the WI and US Constitutions
or:
b) likely to be jettisoned by the WI and US Supreme Courts
And, in either case, was:
c) unavoidably going to be held up until the courts
reviewed it
"Truth in advertising" laws, properly, do not apply to
paid political announcements. Nevertheless, Milwaukee's
black community was "dissed" via misleading communications
--on a mass level--by tax-dollars-for-religious-institutions
supporters.
* * *
PEOPLE PISSED AT PETAK'S PETAX
Antiabortion Republican George Petak, a state Senator,
is the target of a recall effort by a nonpartisan group in Racine WI.
The single-issue "No More Petax" Committee was irked by Petak's early
AM flip-flop during the final vote on the Brewers
corporate welfare handout in 1995. Petak was credited with
saving what is known in WI as "the stadium deal." Republicans
have a 17-16 majority in the WI Senate.
In an oral presentation before the WI Supreme Court today,
an opponent of the tax-everyone-to-pay-for-pro-sports bailout said that
the total cost of the scheme "approaches" $1 billion.
* * *
REFUTED: "DA-MEDIA-IS(sic)-ANTI-RELIGION!"
Private sector demographers consider
Milwaukee WI to be an average American city.
What's true for the City of Festivals
is--roughly--true for the United States.
Page 52 of the 1995-96 Greater Milwaukee Christian Business
Directory (3rd annual!) lists five local broadcasters
as "Milwaukee Christian Radio Stations" within a diagram:
(begin excerpt)
WZER-AM 540 khz
WNOV-AM 860 khz
WKSH-AM 1370 khz
WMWK-FM 88.1 mhz
WVCY-FM 107.8 [sic] mhz
(end excerpt)
Far-right WVCY-FM is, in fact, at 107.7 mhz.
* * *
GROWN MAN STILL WEARS BIG SHARK HAT,
MILLIONS IMPRESSED
Antiabortion agitator Karol Wojtyla's alias is John Paul II.
* * *
CLOSING ARGUMENTS END IN FEDERAL
TRIAL
In a Milwaukee-based Federal court, the trial of an
antiabortion activist who allegedly pulled off a 1994 armored
vehicle heist is, as of today, in the hands of the jury.
Authorities allegedy found the following
cache in the man's locked storage
unit: a pistol-style crossbow, swords, a Glock-17
9mm handgun, a .45 caliber handgun, a Colt AR15-A2
semiautomatic rifle, a .22 handgun, ammunition
clips, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and a bulletproof vest.
The defendant's vehicle allegedly contained an AR15 carbine,
several ammunition clips, two hoods, $2100 in cash, and
$17,500 in cashier's checks.
At a 6 September 1995 hearing, an FBI agent alleged that
the suspect told a cooperating witness of a detailed plan to murder,
with the help of armed recruits, a physician. The defendant then
allegedly planned to destroy a clinic with fire
after his commando team administered
first aid to and evacuated nonphysicians.
On 10 January 1996, a taped phone conversation
was played in the courtroom. Purportedly the defendant's voice,
a male was heard saying to an undercover FBI agent "I will never
surrender. They'll have to kill me."
The antiabortion activist is a divorced father. He has two children.
* * *
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM AT WI MONTHLY
Page 18 of the December 1995 issue of the
smart-looking _Milwaukee Magazine_ presented information
about a Marquette University (MU) theology instructor who
made a controversial statement in 1989. According
to journalist James Romanesko, the MU instructor:
(begin excerpt)
once said in court that she condones killing police officers
who escort women to abortion clinics
(end excerpt)
The _Milwaukee Magazine_ piece cited a Planned Parenthood
Federation of America (PPFA) report. That PPFA report said
that the MU theology instructor said:
(begin excerpt)
If a police officer is escorting a woman into an abortion clinic
and somebody were to shoot the police officer...I could not
say that that pro-lifer did something immoral.
(end excerpt)
Romanesko's comprehensive piece added that the
MU instructor's "position has
evolved" (Romanesko's words) since she made the statement.
The instructor "made it in 1989 under duress" (instructor's
words).
MU, a Catholic institution, is the state's largest
private educational entity.
* * *
A C C E S S
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For information about the incompatibility of tax-subsidies-
for-religious-education with the US Constitution, see
Ira Glasser's 1992 hardcover _Visions of Liberty_.
================================================================
For information about _Milwaukee Magazine_ subscriptions,
touch (414) 273-1101 or 1-800-MMAG818.
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(c) 1996 by Chris Roth. All rights reserved.
