NAR Breaks Political Fundraising, Contribution and Participation Records

Tri-Valley Herald.com

California Youth Authority.

The governor announced Tuesday in Stockton that a special master will oversee reforms in the CYA, criticized by national experts as a Draconian system where until recently youths were routinely locked in cages and often received more drugs than counseling.

The changes were triggered by settlement of a 2003 taxpayer lawsuit in Alameda County in which the parent of a CYA ward protested conditions in the system.

Under the settlement, the state will not only work long-term to increase rehabilitation and make other improvements but also will immediately begin reducing the use of force against wards and work to reduce violence within the institutions, said Richard B. Ulmer Jr., who filed the suit.

As part of his campaign to replace Davis, Schwarzenegger also vowed to:

Roll back a $4 billion a year car-tax hike, which he did his first day in office, bolstering the multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

Call lawmakers back into session and repeal a law that would have given illegal immigrants driver's licenses, which he did.

Overhaul the ailing workers compensation system, which he got through the Legislature as part of his overall campaign to improve California's business climate.

End secrecy in state government. But much of his operation remains shielded from the public, despite agreeing to comply with a request to make public his appointment calendar after passage of a government-sunshine ballot measure.

Streamline state government. He formed a task force to perform a so-called California Performance Review that has pitched a dramatic overhaul of state government. Response has been lukewarm. It faces a test before lawmakers in 2005.

Win a bigger cut of Indian gaming revenues. He's had mixed results and has a long way to go, despite helping to defeat two related ballot initiatives. Lawmakers blocked plans for a mega-casino near Oakland at the close of their 2004 session.

To ban fundraising during the budget process -- something he hasn't accomplished.

To renegotiate public employee contracts -- a matter he's still working on.

In another of his promises, he vowed to get the state budget back under control. He won voter passage of a $15 billion budget deficit bond that helped manage the cash shortfall but failed to solve the imbalance between revenue and spending.

The governor again faces a multibillion-dollar deficit, with cost overruns in Bay Bridge work complicating the situation. Lawmakers blocked his plan to dump the problem in the laps of Bay Area motorists at the close of their session this year.

Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat who will likely run for governor in 2006, is already attacking Schwarzenegger's budget strategy of seeking the easier solutions that dodge tax hikes.

"What he needs to do is live up to promises he made to the people of California and adopt a budget that is balanced, fair and invests in our future," Angelides said.

Among the governor's 2005 goals is promotion of a ballot initiative that would revamp the political boundary-setting process, so legislative seats would not be dominated by one party or the other, as they are now.

He also wants to overhaul Medi-Cal, the government-subsidized health program for the poor; and head off another energy crisis -- the issue that started Davis on the road to recall.

"The governor has "established a trust with Californians," said his spokeswoman, Margita Thompson. "Does he think more needs to be done? Absolutely, and he intends to do more next year."

Wire services contributed to this report.

Contact Sacramento Bureau Chief Steve Geissinger at sgeissinger@angnewspapers.com .

Cybercast News Service cnsnews.com

Specter met with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, other GOP leaders and members of the Judiciary Committee Tuesday and planned to meet with the entire Senate Republican Conference Wednesday morning, to alleviate concerns about whether he would support President Bush's judicial nominees, including those to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Reuters reported that Specter's aides were optimistic following the meetings, but that the senator himself was not taking anything for granted. "I never count any chickens before they hatch," Specter said.

While all of that was happening inside the Senate office buildings Tuesday, pro-life demonstrators were outside, continuing their campaign against Specter, whom they view as unacceptable as Judiciary Committee chairman because of his support for abortion rights. Even if Specter does win the post, the pro-life activists vowed that they would keep dogging the senator and fight for President Bush's conservative judicial selections.

"We will not go silently into the night," said Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition. "We are here, and we are making our voices heard loudly and clearly."

About 20 protestors representing at least eight different religious or pro-life organizations demonstrated outside the Dirksen Senate Office Building, which includes Frist's office.

Specter, no friend of religious conservatives before the current controversy, enraged them just after the Nov. 2 election with comments that many people perceived as a warning to President Bush not to nominate pro-life judges. Specter then backpedaled on the comments, but pro-life activists were not satisfied.

Mahoney wondered Tuesday whether "we will see the real Arlen Specter if he's [appointed]" chairman.

Troy Newman of Operation Rescue elaborated on Specter's support for abortion rights, claiming that Specter had "met and accepted campaign contributions from abortionists."

Joe Starrs of the American Life League said Republican senators would be failing their own constituencies if they allowed Specter to become Judiciary Committee chair. He added that "pro-lifers would not be taken for granted."

Echoing these sentiments, Chris Slattery, a New York Catholic pro-life activist, said that Specter, as committee chair, would "thwart the president's mandate."

Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council, also indicated that the appointment of Specter "would be a tough burden for Frist to carry," especially considering Frist's possible political plans for 2008.

"If you put Specter through, don't turn to us in four years when you run for president ... and expect us to contribute millions of dollars," Mahoney said.

The conservative groups want a meeting with Frist in the next five to seven days, according to Schenck, but only met with one of Frist's staff aides Tuesday.

Support for Specter seems to be sparse at this point, with neither side of the abortion debate expressing approval. Furthermore, none of the senators on the Judiciary Committee have been willing to state on the record that they support the choice of Specter as committee chair.

Specter does have a supporter in Jude Wanniski, political economist and chairman of Polyconomics, Inc. Wanniski explained the situation to CNSNews.com on Tuesday. "Specter's problem is that he's not in one group all the time, and if you swing back and forth, you wind up becoming an anathema to both sides," he said.

Wanniski recently wrote a memo to Specter's office expressing his support for the senator's bid to head the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"He has the kind of mind and the kind of background ... that will ease the way between these two divided parties and all the contentiousness that exists between the religious right and the liberal left over issues like Roe v. Wade ," Wanniski said, referring to the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. "It's going to be hard to find some other chairman (like that).

"What you have with Specter is someone who has not had a litmus test," Wanniski added, addressing the recent allegation that Specter would use the abortion issue to determine which of the president's judicial nominees to try to push through to the Senate. "He has voted for pro-life justices in the past ... at least three of them."

Conservatives should not brand Specter an extremist, Wanniski claimed. Instead, they should see him as a "man on the margin."

Wanniski also believes the pressure being applied on Specter may actually help him in chairing the Judiciary Committee. "The fact that there's been so much heat put on Specter will make him doubly sensitive to trying to get things worked out in a diplomatic way," he said.

Specter has also come under fire by conservatives for a fundraising letter he sent in 1995 during his bid to win the 1996 Republican presidential nomination. In the letter, which was sent to Republicans sharing Specter's views on abortion, the senator labeled members of the religious right as "extremist" and the "far-right fringe."

But Wanniski indicated that the 1995 letter does not reflect Specter's true ideological nature.

"When you send out fundraising letters, the people who write the letters ... are extreme," Wanniski explained. "Unless you're sharp and you get [people] riled up, they're not going to send you any money. So the letter is an anomaly. Who knows if [Specter] even saw it?"

Local parishes and schools discover that the plight of the Palestinian people has reason to weigh upon us all

ARCHDIOCESE — As the world is deluged on a near-daily basis with new tales of famine, war, political oppression and human rights crises throughout the world, one region has long lingered in the headlines, creating an ennui with many Americans that has pushed concern for the people of this region to the back of the line of those in desperate straits.

But in the end, it may be children who renew in us the urge to work for peace and justice in Palestine.

In recent years an increasing number of parishes have taken an interest in the plight of the Palestinian people — whether Christian or Muslim — and through formal and informal programs have set about to educate themselves about that region. Along the way, they have created lifelong ties.

Since Cincinnati pastor Father Rob Waller took his first trip to the Middle East in the mid-1990s, he has been dedicated to finding ways to introduce his parishioners to the region. He began by leading groups of area Catholics on trips to the Holy Land that would allow them to meet the people not simply visit tourist sites. More recently, he has workedwith the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation to help acquaint local parishes with the work of HCEF. Father Waller’s parish, St. Andrew in Milford, sponsored HCEF’s Fifth International Conference, and St. Andrew parishioner Kristin Woodard has been urging local parishes to host sales of olive wood crafts made by the Palestinian people. This year 22 parishes have committed to the effort (see aidebar).

St. Andrew parishioners sponsor students in the Child Sponsorship Program, and several members of St. Andrew church are engaged in planning a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Last year, St. Andrew parish and school sponsored five students and their teacher from Beit Jala, Palestine to live in their homes, worship in their church and attend their school. In addition to building a long-term bridge of solidarity, this sponsorship brought the plight of Palestinian Christians to the front pages of Ohio’s newspapers and led to the development of an on-going Children’s Peace Project at HCEF, noted Father Waller.

St. Andrew parish is a model for partnership in its activities to support the Mother Church because of the active commitments of many of its members, including: Nancy Hemminger, Donna Beebe (school principal), Carol McNeal (parish pastoral council president), the five families from Beit Jala, the five host families from Milford, the parish of St. Andrew and the Holy Land Outreach Committee of St. Andrew, he said.

Carol McNeal’s teenage daughter was so affected by what she learned from the parish that she has single-handedly sponsored a Palestinian student’s Christian education, sending her own money each month to Beit Jala.

Nancy Hemminger is now the chair of the HCEF Children’s Peace Project, the exchange student program. She is writing a handbook for other parishes to use, aid Father Waller.

At Assumption Parish in Mount Healthy, six Palestinian students and their teacher spent part of last month in Cincinnati through this Beacons of Hope Program.

The visit, coordinated by Franciscan Sister Marietta Sharkey, parish DRE, and the support of Bill Walborn, school principal, was life-changing for all involved.

"This is the best thing I’ve ever done," said Sister Marietta. "This is speaking a word of hope! This certainly is the most Franciscan thing I have ever done in trying to bring more peace in the world for these our brothers and sisters who are suffering so much."

Visiting students George, Firas, George, Maryann and Angie were 13 years old; Reneen was 10. They were selected to spend two months in the U.S. through HCEF in the hopes they could give voice to the dreams of Palestinian children, whose lives are filled with checkpoints, bombings, shootings, poverty, religious and ethnic discrimination and numerous other hardships.

At a farewell assembly at Assumption, host families spoke eloquently about the preconceptions they had begun with, which were quickly shattered by the presence of these young people. Political issues in the media have taken on a human face, they explained, and for that reason they can never ignore the issues of that region again.

Firas was eager to talk about his Palestinian home but described the unrest in his country. "It's a hard life," he said. "It's a difficult life. So scary."

On their way to the United States, the six students were stopped at a checkpoint in Tel Aviv, Israel. Firas said the Israeli soldiers singled him out. They took him to a room, made him take off his clothes and searched him. "I'm always scared," he said.

The most vocal of the group, he called the wall separating the Palestinian territories from Israel "the isolating wall." He was referring to the security wall Israel is building. Eventually it will stretch more than 400 miles along the Israeli border and deep into the West Bank.

"Israel has hospitals," he said. "We are not allowed to go to the hospitals. We must stop at many checkpoints." He spoke calmly, matter-of-factly, about the curfew and the soldiers who enforce it. "If you open the door or look from your window, they will kill you without reason," he said.

Yet, despite the turmoil in their homeland, the kids are proud to live in the Holy Land.

"We are so lucky to live in Palestine because this is where Jesus lived!" Angie exclaimed. Her friend, Mariana, Firas ' cousin, agreed. "I can't go from my country," she said. "This is where Jesus was born, where Jesus walked and talked and taught the people." The two girls, who met through their travel to the United States, have become good friends in the last month and a half. When they return to the Palestinian territories, they will not be able to see each because they live on opposite sides of the wall.

Raneen was born in Boston, but her family moved back to the Middle East when she was 2. "We went back to Palestine because my family is there. Palestine is my country," the young girl said.

Many of the Palestinian students talked about their desire to see Jerusalem. Firas explained that there are seven checkpoints to get from where he lives in Beit Sahour to Jerusalem. The soldiers, he said, can tell people to go home at any checkpoint.

Mostly, these youngsters say they just want peace. "I wish to live like any children in the world," Angie said. "I need to live in peace."

Vice principal Suhair Khoury, who is leading the group, wants Palestinian and Israeli officials to sit down to peace talks with the United States and the United Nations.

"We want Palestine and Israel to live side by side," she said. "We have to sit together."

"Jesus is our life in Palestine. He's walking with us and walking with me," Firas declared. "We just need you to pray."

Members of Congress have told him that the U.S. supports Israel, he recounted. "Sometimes, saying ‘no’ to Israel is helping them to see it should end," he said. There is also a double standard in place: "Why liberate Iraq when the plight of the Palestinians has been accepted for more than 50 years?"

He fears that change will only come "when Israeli forces grow sick of being the persecutors, the occupiers, and when the military pilots rise up and say they won’t bomb Gaza anymore."

Interestingly, Father Salayta makes the point that the Palestinian people do not benefit from the suicide bombings carried out by extremists: Israel does, because it gives them justification for their actions.

He points with pride to the ecumenical successes of the Latin Patriarchate schools in the Middle East. "We have Christians and Muslims in school together," he said. In the Palestinian territories there are 18,000 students in 40 schools and half of them are Muslim. Father Salayta does lament the fact that there are far too many days when the youngsters cannot travel to their schools because of restrictions and curfews on Palestinians.

He himself has experienced difficulty traveling through checkpoints, where one Israeli soldier once fired his gun in the air over the priest’s head to frighten him. Priests have been expelled from Israel, and some of the visas of seminarians have expired but the government won’t renew them. One priest’s mother died waiting in line at a checkpoint, and early last year, the Latin Patriarch himself was prevented from leaving the country.

"They don’t want him to speak," Father Salayta said. "And any effort he makes to do so often backfires on us. They don’t want anyone working on behalf of Palestine."

As a result of the lack of access to medical care, the unemployment, the violence and the obstacles to education, many Palestinians who can find ways to leave the region do so. "In the last three years, we have lost about 300 Christian families from Bethlehem," he said.

Father Salayta received support from Cincinnati Archbishop Daniel E., Pilarczyk to push for the sale of olive wood crafts locally and to make parishes aware of the opportunities through HCEF for sponsorship and assistance. Detroit, Washington, D.C., Sioux Falls, Los Angeles, Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta and San Antonio are among the other dioceses opening their doors to the work of HCEF.

The child sponsorship program program requires that a teacher, a class, a school, family or individual commits to sponsoring a child’s education in the Latin Patriarchate schools. The cost is $25 per month.

The Beacons of Hope program pairs American Christian schools with their counterparts in the Holy Land.†The objective is to develop a sense of Christian solidarity between the children. In the Beacons of Hope, the American children integrate this effort into their religion classes as a vehicle to exercise both spiritual and corporal works of mercy. For the children in the Holy Land, this program represents a vehicle to reach out in hope, to tell their story of their difficult situations, and to come to sense the hand of God extended to them through their counterparts in America.

Father Salayta also invites clergy to "travel to the Holy Land and witness what has happened." Last January he escorted a group of U.S. bishops on such a trip. He is always willing to organize pilgrimages for people willing to make the trip and assures them "it’s very safe." Developing parish-to-parish and Christian-to-Christian relationships is the best way to make the Christian world understand its obligation to Palestine, he said.

For more information on the work of HCEF, see their website at

www.hcef.org. He suggests that local pastors contact Father Rob Waller for his insight into the agency’s work.

HCEF’s sixth annual conference held last month in Washington used the theme "Holy Land Christians, Rooted in Bonds of Peace," to celebrate the foundation's growth in a six-year-period from an organization investing $160,000 to support the Holy Land Christians to one providing $2 million in services this year.

The conference also marked the first time that the heads of the four main Christian churches in Jerusalem came together for an event in the United States.

"We work together all the time in Jerusalem," said Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem. But he said it was the first time he and Episcopal Bishop Riah H. Abu El-Assal, Lutheran Bishop Munib A. Younan and Archimandrite Innokentios, personal representative of Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irineos of Jerusalem, had been at the same U.S. event. The four religious leaders urged U.S. Christians to build bridges of solidarity between Arab and Western Christians, to bring consolation to both the Israelis and the Palestinians and to give good counsel to our nation's administration in order to act for the benefit of both peoples.

"At the first Pentecost, Arabs from 17 areas were present; the Americans weren't there," Bishop El-Assal said. "But you came (to this conference) and you're the most powerful, and to those which more has been given, much is expected."