Signs and Wonders: A 'lesson about honest government' in Detroit

Kwame creamed. The judge threw the book at former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kirkpatrick yesterday, sentencing him to 28 years in prison for corruption. “That way of business is over,” U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds said as she handed down the sentence. “We’re done. We’re moving forward.” According to the Detroit Free Press, “She also stressed that Kilpatrick’s misdeeds taught Detroiters a lesson about honest government.” Not just Detroiters, we can hope, but the rest of the country. The forces—including corruption—that led Detroit into the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in American history are forces at work in many American cities. Almost every major city in America is controlled by Democrats, usually with little viable Republican opposition. Most big-city newspapers have Democratic/liberal sympathies. That’s a toxic combination. Accountability is minimal and corruption is often the result. Edmunds said at the sentencing hearing, “We’re demanding transparency and accountability in our government. If there has been corruption in the past, there will be corruption no more.” But that’s unlikely to happen as long as a single political party, and a fawning media, are in control.

Now, that’s ironic. Russian authorities say they found drugs on board a Greenpeace ship and added those charges to others they say give them the right to seize the icebreaker “Arctic Sunrise.” Greenpeace officials deny charges the ship carried illegal drugs. But what caught my attention was a statement from the Greenpeace lawyer who said the 30 activists detained by the Russians are enduring “inhuman conditions.” That is, of course, an ironic statement coming from a group whose pantheism allows little differences between the treatment of humans and animals.

Messin’ with Texas. Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis became a darling of pro-abortion forces when she filibustered against a pro-life bill before the Texas legislature. Glowing profiles of her have appeared in both local and national magazines, and on that media wave, she announced her bid for the Texas governor’s chair. But it’s important to note that Davis lost her fight to block a bill that banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and now she’s getting stomped in the money race. Liberals consider her an attractive candidate to be for, but conservatives are finding her a great candidate to run against. So far, she has raised only about $1 million for her campaign. Her likely Republican opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, has raised $25 million.

Briefly noted. National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) presented its 2013 Faith & Freedom Award to Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., last week. NRB annually presents the Faith & Freedom Award to what it calls “a stalwart defender of religious liberty.”