Only this morning Operation Rescue outted Burtram Odenheimer, M.D. as "one of the physicians currently providing the second signature for patients of abortionist George Tiller that is required before they may receive post-viability abortions."

Continued the OR press release...

Odenheimer, a neurologist who is board certified in psychiatry, secretly sees Tiller's late-term patients at his office at the Wichita Clinic, a non-abortion medical center located at 3311 E. Murdock in Wichita.

KS law requires that an unaffiliated physician must concur with the abortionist that a post-viability abortion is necessary to prevent "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function" of the mother. Tiller currently uses the mental health loophole supposedly implied in the law as an excuse to abort late-term babies up until the day before birth....

Operation Rescue has plans to launch protests at the Wichita Clinic and sponsor prayer walks in Odenheimer's exclusive neighborhood, located near 21st Street and Webb Road.

OR encouraged readers to contact the Odenheimer and the Wichita Clinic.

By this afternoon, the Wichita Clinic had issued a press release denying it knew Odenheimer and another unnamed physician were helping Tiller and offering that "[b]oth physicians have volunteered to discontinue providing these services effective immediately."

Just goes to show abortion is radioactive to legitimate medical practitioners. Wichita Clinic is owned by the 160 doctors in its practice and is in 11 locations. My guess is Odemheimer is also now radioactive.

Great job, Troy Newman and OR.

[Photo courtesy of OR]

The Los Angeles Times already considers it one of "10 magazine covers that shook the world."

Don't know about that, but the July 21 New Yorker magazine cover is certainly the talk of the town today, along with over 1k news stories.

Obviously satirical, it features a cariacture of Barack Obama dressed as a Muslim with Michelle dressed in military garb carrying an AK-47. In the background is a photo of Osama bin Laden with an American flag burning in the fireplace.

Most are wound just a little too tight about the cover. Only Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune put it in context as "quite within the normal realms of journalism... just lampooning all the crazy ignorance out there," as quoted by CBS....

I say the only thing missing in the cartoon is a dismembered baby in one corner and a dying preemie in another.

Only that wouldn't be satire.

I just attended a US Senate forum on the status of President Bush's judicial nominees, held by 8 Republican senators: Alexander (TN), Allard (CO), Cornyn (TX), Dole (NC), Grassley (IA), Kyl (AZ), McConnell (KY, Senate minority leader), and Specter (PA, ranking member of Judiciary Committee). That's a lot of senators.

C-SPAN3 covered the hearing, of which I was unaware until I arrived, or I would have given you the heads up.

The purpose of the hearing was to dispel the so-called "Thurman Rule" excuse Democrats have lately been touting to halt the confirmation process, reiterate the emergency situation in many district courts, and underscore the erosion of the rule of law when there is such a critical shortage of judges....

I could list numbers and percentages of confirmed judges in previous administrations compared to this one but will suffice it to say, quoting Sen. Grassley, "This snail's pace is unprecedented."

Added Sen. McConnell, "The facts are indisputable. The current president has been treated dramatically worse - dramatically worse - than any president in the last 30 years."

A member of the Congressional Research Service gave a short history of the so-called Thurman Rule, answering whether there really is one. (Answer: No.) I've excerpted his statement below for those wanting a short primer.

[Photo courtesy of CSPAN3]

Statement by Denis Steven Rutkus
Specialist on the Federal Judiciary, Government and Finance Division
Congressional Research Service

Judicial Nominees Forum
Senate Republican Conference
United States Senate
July 14, 2008

Excerpt:

The Thurmond Rule has been expressed in various ways, differing, for instance, as to precisely when in the year the slowdown occurs. Nevertheless, almost all Senators who have cited it have characterized it as an established practice according to which, at some point in the presidential election year, the Judiciary Committee and the Senate no longer act on judicial nominations....

It is important to keep in mind that there is no written Senate or Judiciary Committee rule concerning judicial nominations in a presidential election year.

Some Senate Democrats assert that the Thurmond Rule dates back to July 1980, when Senator Thurmond reportedly urged Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party's presidential candidate, to call on Senate Republicans to block further confirmation of President Jimmy Carter's judicial nominations.

Conversely, some Republican Senators reject the existence of a Thurmond Rule in the Senate, as well as the notion that Senator Thurmond in 1980 supported blocking judicial nominations. In short, the debate over whether there is, or has ever been, a Thurmond Rule appears to arise largely out of different meanings attached to the events involving Senator Thurmond in 1980.

A review of CRS of the public record of congressional and press sources for relevant events in 1980 revealed the following: According to brief media accounts of the 1980 Republican National Convention, presidential nominee Ronald Reagan agreed, at the urging of Senator Thurmond, to call on Senate Republicans to block all presidential nominations by President Jimmy Carter until after the November 4 elections....

Following the 1980 Republican Convention, however, the Judiciary Committee processed district and circuit court nominations, although not all of those referred to the committee. This occurred without Senator Thurmond alluding to any call to block President Carter's appointments. The Judiciary Committee continued to hold hearings and report judicial nominations during August and September.... The Senate in turn, in September, confirmed 12 judicial nominations - 11 district, one circuit.....

CRS found that the final dates for Senate action on court of appeals nominations occurred earliest in the three most recently completed presidential election years - those of 1996, 2000, and 2004. Whereas the Senate confirmed courts of appeals nominees after July in four consecutive presidential election years - from 1980 to 1992, the Senate in the three subsequent presidential election years - 1996, 200, and 2004 - confirmed no court of appeals nominees after July.

In short, the Thurmond Rule is self-serving myth with no basis in fact.

On June 11 CBS News moved pro-abortion KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to the top of the list of Barack Obama's prospective running mates.

Pro-lifers await the day, as a Kansas City Star editorial columnist surprisingly got right on July 10. Recall Planned Parenthood bestowed its Maggie Award to the KCS in 2006 "for editorials supporting reproductive justice, family planning, and the right to confidential health care." So KCS is no friend, making this candid assessment of an Obama-Sebelius ticket remarkable....

Sebelius has used the power of her office to waylay criminal investigations of infamous late-term abortionist George Tiller as well as Planned Parenthood.

Could the ironic consequence of Sebelius' love of abortion and abortionists be that she is passed by as a VP pick by the most pro-abortion presidential candidate in history? Or that a combined ticket strengthens the odds that abortion brings them both down?

Here's Shelley's piece:

Google "Kathleen Sebelius" these days and you'll find a steady stream of analysis weighing the pros and cons of the KS governor as Barack Obama's potential running mate.

Pro: She's a successful blue governor in a red state.

Con: Her fireside rebuttal to President Bush's State of the Union speech this year sent the nation into a snooze.

Pro: She's female.

Con: Maybe too female. Some pundits are worried that she and Obama might look too much like a couple.

Overall, the national media are taking the prospect of an Obama-Sebelius ticket seriously, and Obama has done nothing to discourage the notion.

"I love Kathleen Sebelius," he said recently. "I think she is as talented a public official as there is right now."

Most analyses peg the KS Democrat an accomplished public servant who would bring minimal baggage to the campaign.

But the safe pick is a dangerous assumption.

There are two kinds of political baggage. One is the kind the candidate packs herself. In that regard Sebelius travels light.

Then there's the baggage your enemies dump on you. And for that, Sebelius' adversaries in the anti-abortion camp are fully loaded.

Go back to your Google search and, along with Sebelius' name, type in the word "abortion."

Here you'll find a different kind of analysis.

"A vice president for abortion," is the headline on a widely circulated column. An Internet site that describes itself as "dedicated to issues of culture, life and family" labels Sebelius as "the most extreme pro-abortion Catholic governor."

These accusations are at best overblown and at worst blatantly false. They stem from frustration at Sebelius' refusal to cooperate with right-wing groups and legislators who want to use unconstitutional measures to limit abortions and shut down a Wichita clinic that performs late-term abortions.

It would be nice to dismiss these allegations as the rantings of a few extremists. Polls show only a sliver of the electorate is preoccupied enough with abortion to use it as the sole basis of a voting decision.

But in the glare of a presidential race, Sebelius' problems with the anti-abortion movement have the potential to blow up into a huge distraction.

Catholic networks have been spreading the word for months via Internet sites and newsletters that Sebelius is "anti-life." They illustrate their case with photos of the governor, at a reception, standing alongside George Tiller, the physician who performs later-term abortions in Wichita.

If other conservative groups with church connections pick up on that kind of coverage, it's not difficult to imagine a scenario in which a vote against an Obama-Sebelius ticket is portrayed as a religious obligation.

We saw a similar situation in Missouri, with the 2006 campaign to grant scientists in the state the freedom to practice all forms of stem-cell research permitted under federal law.

Early polls showed overwhelming support for a constitutional amendment protecting medical research. But conservative religious groups opposed the measure, and professional manipulators moved into the state with a dizzying barrage of spin and lies. (Millions of vulnerable women will be exploited for their reproductive eggs! Remember that one?)

The constitutional amendment passed by a hair, but the campaign was a case study in what happens when a political issue gets twisted into a religious crusade.

Who knows? Maybe Obama's team and the national Democratic Party would be skilled enough to keep the focus on Sebelius as a moderate, pragmatic governor who stood up for clean air when her administration denied permits for construction of coal-fired energy plants in western KS last year.

Maybe Sebelius isn't as serious a vice-presidential prospect as some of the pundits make her out to be.

But that business of the Kansas governor as a safe pick? It's risky.

[Photo of Sebelius and late-term abortionist George Tiller and wife, courtesy of Operation Rescue, was taken at a reception the guv hosted for Tiller at her mansion last year]

Featured as a 2008 Human Rights Watch Film Festival Official Selection and a 2008 British Academy of Film and Television Arts award winner for Best Current Affairs program, "China's Stolen Children," will be shown tonight on HBO as part of its Documentary Film Series.

Scheduled for 9p EST tonight with an 85 minute run time. Narrated by Ben Kingsley. Check full schedule of all showings here. Watch video clip here. Read the synopsis here. Here's a synopsis of the synopsis...

China is being swept by an epidemic of child kidnapping with as many as 70,000 children a year being snatched and sold on the black market.

This alarming trend is a direct result of China's one-child policy, initiated in 1979 to curb the country's exploding population.

Shot undercover in China, this film explores the epidemic through the eyes of a couple desperately searching for their stolen son, a detective committed to tracking down stolen children, a boy who was abducted and later rescued 800 miles from his home, and a trafficker willing to broker a deal to sell a young couple's only child.

[HT: Joseph Farah via Robert King]