UPDATE, 5:49p: Katie Walker, communications director for American Life League (which produced the 1987 pro-life Giants' video discussed in the post below) has a great op ed in today's Washington Post, "Tim Tebow, pro-life and what women want."

11:52a: The Washington Post op ed I spotlighted earlier today by former NARAL president Kate Michelman and former Catholics for Choice president Frances Kissling contained a fascinating section worthy of its own post. I had no idea...

Tebow is not the first football star to look into a camera and talk about birth, life and choices. In 1989, Wellington Mara, then the co-owner of the NY Giants, helped produce a 9-minute video featuring members of his 1987 Super Bowl championship team....

I previously blogged on Krista Gesaman's egregiously false Newsweek post on the March for Life here and here.

Due to persistent prodding by dear moderator Carder, I approached Andrew Breitbart's Big Journalism to join forces with it as a blogger and was accepted. My first post, up today, is on the Newsweek flak.

To update, on January 25 Gesaman posted a nonmea culpa:

There has been quite a storm in the conservative blogosphere over my look-ahead post on the Roe v. Wade anniversary rallies from Friday morning. The bloggers seem to think that I intentionally, or ignorantly, conflated pro-choice young feminists, who I predicted would come out in smaller numbers than their older counterparts, with young pro-life activists....

I previously discussed the January 22 Newsweek blog post by Krista Gesaman with this wildly inaccurate title and premise...

Gesaman is getting hammered in the comments section for that, but she made another false statement...

UPDATE, 1/24, 6:50a: Newsbusters' Matthew Balan has written a great post, "Newsweek could have just asked colleagues at WaPo about young pro-life women (with photo essay)."

BTW, the Newsweek author, Krista Gesaman, is getting hammered in the comments section, including one from me.

UPDATE, 1/23, 4:23p: Jack Cashill has a good piece on MSM's biased coverage of the March at the American Thinker.

UPDATE, 1/23, 3:41p: Steve linked to a particularly specious Newsweek blog post about the March for Life entitled:

What garbage! Note the author's post was published at 7:15a, hours before the March actually began. The contents are as bad as the title...

As expected, pro-aborts did not take well to my WorldNetDaily.com column this week, "Top scientist finally admits abortion-breast cancer link."

In "The truth about breast cancer and abortion," RH Reality Check's managing editor Amie Newman relied heavily on one of the researchers publishing the study - to dispute the results of her own study:

According to one of the researchers and authors of the report, Kathi Malone (pictured right), "There are no new findings related to induced abortion in this paper because the results of these women were published previously."...

Dr. Brinton's co-researcher and co-author, Kathi Malone, is clear about what this and all peer-reviewed studies show thus far on the link between abortion and breast cancer: "The weight of scientific evidence to date strongly indicates that abortion doesn't increase the risk of breast cancer."...

Wow, it can't get any more pro-life than this, the new In Touch magazine cover...

The tease, posted on the magazine's website today...

Gallup has released a poll in conjunction with USA Today listing the 2009 political winners and losers.

To start, I have a problem with the choices...

What about listing any number of liberal news hosts to balance against Glenn Beck, like Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, or Keith Olbermann? (And why list Beck in his lesser known role as "radio talk show host"? Not wanting to give Fox any publicity?)

What about the Democrats in Congress?

What about Rep. Alan "Get Sick and Die Quickly" Grayson in contrast to Joe Wilson?

What about former presidential nominee John Edwards much more the sexual cad than Mark Sanford?

And who cares about the Sahalis? Al Gore or Bart Stupak would have been much more interesting choices.

Oh, whatever. Here are the winners and losers. Click all to enlarge....

12/10, 8:15a: There is interesting controversy raging in the comments section of this post on the age of the preborn baby whose ultrasound photo I displayed. On closer inspection, the age listed is likely off, but only by 1-2 weeks at most.

Here are photos of babies aborted at 7 weeks after fertilization from the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform. (The top left coin is a Canadian nickel.)

As you can see, we now know very young, very small babies (5 weeks: size of pea or raisin; 6 weeks: 1/2"; 7 weeks: 3/4") are remarkably developed. I've written CBR to ask if they have any photos of babies aborted at younger ages and will post those if so....

American Life League Communications Director Katie Walker appeared on MSNBC's Morning Meeting today to discuss the topic of public funded abortion in socialized healthcare.

Host Dylan Ratigan had the nerve to accuse pro-lifers of interjecting our ideology into the healthcare debate, which is exactly backward. The man had obviously done no research on the topic, merely bleating pro-abort spin that pro-lifers are attempting to advance the line, when actually we're just trying to hold the line.

Katie did a great job scoring talking points that pro-lifers now represent the majority in America, and there are many more problems with healthcare than abortion. Katie also reoriented the abortion conversation to its foundational point, the personhood of preborns. Too bad Ratigan cut her off before she could respond to his idiotic boast that we are simply ignorant about when life begins, with which no biologist or scientist would concur.

Katie was great...

[HT: AmerLifeLeague on Twitter]

The ironies are layered and rich. Here was the "Quick Fact" headline in the "Research" section of supposed media watchdog, the liberal Media Matters:

And the equally fact-challenged article...

11/24, 10a: St. Michael Society has a post up reviewing MSNBC's history of anti-Catholic bias.

11/23, 10:37p: Read the backstory here.

RI Bishop Thomas Tobin appeared on pro-abort Catholic Chris Matthews' MSNBC show this evening, and it didn't go well.

I applaud the bishop's willingness to enter into enemy territory but was surprised how easily Matthews cornered him.

Perhaps not many people stand a chance when Matthews goes on the warpath (although I'd love to see Scott Klusendorf, Fr. Pavone, Mark Crutcher, or Robert George give that louse a whirl).

Matthews appeared quite agitated from the get-go, unfairly using his bully pulpit to hog the interview and badger Bishop Tobin much like a hostile prosecutor attempting to break someone down a witness on the stand. Matthews even had the gall to try to teach the preacher. I was shocked by Matthews' lack of respect, particularly bearing in mind he's Catholic.

I felt sorry for Bishop Tobin and do think he's a stand-up guy. O'Reilly announced tonight he's coming on his show tomorrow. I hope that interview goes better than this one...

I think the interview got thrown by John F. Kennedy's premise, which was false, an attempt to placate people 50 years ago who were fearful of electing a Catholic president....

It has been 2 days since Newsweek unveiled its obviously sexist cover of Sarah Palin, and, no surprise, liberal feminists remain silent.

While RH Reality Check managed to spot a pro-life website calling Palin "rogue" on the life issue, it missed Newsweek's cover pick of a photo of Palin in running shorts, originally taken for the August 2009 issue of Runner's World magazine.

Incidentally, that photo was featured on RW's back page and was used by Newsweek without permission. (Watch for a lawsuit.) Here's a photo from the same shoot Newsweek passed by. Wonder why...

I know TMZ was sensationalizing a headline to attract attention to the following story today, but in this case "brutal murder" was an honest portrayal of the crime:

MSM had a field day over the weekend with the 4th annual Halloween haunted house presented by The Door Christian Center in Chandler, AZ....

An extended New York Daily News excerpt from my previous post, "Obama's pro-abortion base 'livid,'" makes a good intro to this piece:

But increasingly, noisy factions on the party's most liberal flank - among them gay rights proponents, pro-choice activists and immigration reformers who Obama courted last year - are incensed that their causes have taken a backseat to the White House's all-out push on health care reform.

What to do? Throw off the scent; chase a Fox. The backdrop, according Politico:

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday that the Fox News Channel is "not really a news station" and that much of the programming is "not really news."...

UPDATE, 4:25p: Per YahooNews.com:

Sarah Palin is going to sit down with Oprah Winfrey.... [T]he former governor of AK and Republican vice presidential candidate will appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Monday, Nov. 16....

[T]he interview will be Palin's first about her new book, Going Rogue: An American Life, and it will be the first time Palin and Winfrey will meet.

Palin's book was No. 4 on Amazon.com's best-seller list on Tuesday. It's slated to be released Tuesday, Nov. 17, the day after Palin's interview with Winfrey.

[HT: Administrative assistant Kelli]
_______________

The press release came via email yesterday...

Today the New York Times features a quite fair characterization of pro-life activists and activism on its front page - above the fold. Pro-lifers are portrayed as smart, convicted, and compelling. Oh, sure, I could nitpick. But really, the tone of the story is one of respect for our beliefs: what we do, and why we do it.

What's more, and just as importantly, the NYT Photography, Video, and Visual Journalism online section features a photo exposé of remains of aborted babies. That story, too, is very good. Click to enlarge....

From the Washington Times, this morning, "How rogue conservative filmmakers took down ACORN"...

For the longest time, conservatives were content to sit around and kvetch about the state of the culture, complaining about the ascendancy of Michael Moore and the double standards of the mainstream media when it came to documenting the foibles of the political parties.

With this week's bombshell release of a series of videos implicating employees of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - ACORN, for short - in a willingness to engage in criminal activities, it has become apparent that those on the right are learning to play the game just as fiercely - and effectively - as their counterparts on the left....

From Amanda Carpenter at the Washington Times this morning:

MSNBC anchor Norah O'Donnell suggested a pair of conservative filmmakers who secretly recorded ACORN workers giving them tax advice on how to run a brothel may be guilty of a serious crime during a recent on-air segment about the explosive videos....

Yesterday ABC's Charlie Gibson told Chicago ABC talk radio hosts Don and Roma, "(laugh laugh) I don't even know about it!" - ACORN, that is.

Well, today he does. Or at least his teleprompter fed him enough info to introduce a Jake Tapper World News story tonight on ACORN. Click on graphic below to link to the story...

UPDATE, 2:37p: From Doug Johnson:

One minor correction: The Sun ran essentially the same piece twice, but they were not quite identical. The second iteration was a hair softer on Kathleen Parker. I don't know if this was a deliberate down-toning by PPFA, or, more likely, just some editor making it a little shorter.

On September 10, and again on September 13, the Baltimore Sun published the identical op ed by Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards.

It was the same ole, same ole - none of the current healthcare bills force public or private insurance coverage of abortion.

This is false, but stepping back I've wondered before why Cecile - the president of the United States' largest abortion provider - is apparently cutting off her nose to spite her face. Why is Cecile helping promulgate this untruth? Why instead isn't she throwing a temper tantrum in the Oval Office, screaming, "And why the h-e-double-bamboo-shoots isn't abortion covered?!" There are 3 reasons...

From the Daily Mail, which reported, "Up to two million people marched to the U.S. Capitol today...."

Michelle Malkin reported that liberal "nutroots" claimed the screenshot from a livecam she posted of the Tea Party was photoshopped since the American flag was shown at half-mast. How quickly they forget 9/11, which the government still recognized early on 9/12....

UPDATE, 8/28, 8:30a: Regarding Marvin Olasky's quote in the LAT article comes this explanation from him in an email to Troy Newman, which he gave me permission to repost:

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 7:37 PM, Marvin Olasky wrote:

Troy,

Thanks for your note. The reporter asked questions about Randy. Years ago I told him to his face what I told the reporter. To the best of my recollection, your name did not come up at all in her questioning or my responding.

God be with you,
Marvin

In the Los Angeles Times, today:

Years ago, Randall Terry and Troy Newman were brothers in arms in the struggle against legal abortion....

Don Imus had as his telephone guest Dick Cavett this morning, and the topic immediately turned to Michael Vick. Cavett then made an amazing statement:

To my mind, it's worse to murder animals than to murder human beings.

Listen to the clip here. The comment comes at 2:00.

Here was the complete quote...

I wrote this morning that showing the reality of abortion tosses "pro-choice" platitudes out the window.

Newsweek reporter Sarah Kliff wrote a nice pro-abort puff piece about late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart but in a related piece reported running into emotional trouble when actually watching him commit the dirty deed:

... But I'd never actually seen an abortion; I'd never watched the procedure that activists vehemently defend or deplore.... I wasn't sure I would. I confess I was hesitant to step into Carhart's operating room....

In today's Life Links, Jivin J mentioned the August 15 Newsweek profile on NE late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart.

The pro-abort bent of the piece was obvious from the provocative title, "The abortion evangelist." I can think of no other reason for such verbiage other than to insult and incite pro-life Christians.

Here was the accompanying video. There were no interview questions, just cutting back and forth between pro-aborts (Carhart, staff, and the clip of a Charlie Gibson newscast of George Tiller's death) and pro-life activists. Pro-aborts got 3:34 air time; pro-lifers got 1:17...

Some choice quotes from the article...

Just 3 days ago Associated Press reporter Charles Babington, wrote in a "fact check" piece it is "not yet clear" whether abortion would be subsidized by taxpayers in the nationalized healthcare plan:

CLAIM: Health care revisions would lead to government-funded abortions....

THE FACTS: The proposed bills would not undo the Hyde Amendment, which bars paying for abortions through Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor. But a health care overhaul could create a government-run insurance program, or insurance "exchanges," that would not involve Medicaid and whose abortion guidelines are not yet clear.... Congressional action this fall will determine whether such language is in the final bill.

Doug Johnson of National Right to Life Committee, explained to LifeNews.com the AP fact checker needs a fact checker. (And this isn't the first time Babington has been called out for liberalized reporting.)

So today AP reporter Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar unequivocally wrote abortion's in there:

Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue....

A law called the Hyde amendment applies the restrictions to Medicaid, forcing states that cover abortion for low-income women to do so with their own money. Separate laws apply the restrictions to the federal employee health plan and military and other programs.

But the health overhaul would create a stream of federal funding not covered by the restrictions.

The AP needs to learn to communicate internally better, scary since it's in the business of communication.

[HT: LifeNews.com]

For only the 2nd time since it began airing in 1999, the controversial animated sitcom Family Guy has had an episode canceled by parent company Fox.

The 1st stifled episode, censored in 2000 but later aired in 2004 and available on DVD, was "When you wish upon a Weinstein," considered anti-Semitic.

Now Fox has censored "Partial terms of endearment," an episode about abortion, storyline unknown.

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane revealed the controversy on July 25 at the comic book convention Comic-Con. According to Monsters and Critics...

UPDATE, 7/28, 7:20a: Doug Johnson of National Right to Life has corroborated my concern about taxpayer funding of federal employees' abortions at CQ Politics.
_______________

CQ Politics' Jonathan Allen was responding to my post last night, "Breaking news: Legislation funding DC abortions includes abortion funding for 8 million federal employees."

Allen continued...

A July 23 article in USA Today entitled, "Abortion fight is 'enduring divide,'" began like this:

During confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, asked whether she believed court rulings on abortion had ended the national controversy.

In a departure from the oblique answers that marked the hearings, Sotomayor paused, then answered bluntly: "No."

The incendiary debate over abortion rights endures and can be jarring, as when abortion opponents interrupted at several points the Senate Judiciary Committee session with Sotomayor. The controversy has boiled up in other ways in the days since then....

LifeSiteNews reported yesterday:

... [W]hile remembered by many as "the most trusted man in America," many of Walter Cronkite's more radical, but lesser known views, would be considered repugnant even to many of his greatest fans.

For instance, up until his death Cronkite served as honorary chair of the Interfaith Alliance, an organization dedicated to countering the influence of conservative Christianity on federal politics....

From the Associated Press, July 14:

Norma McCorvey, 61, of TX, better known as "Jane Roe," began screaming that Sotomayor was "wrong" about abortion during the opening statement of the newest member of the Senate, Al Franken, D-MN....

Capitol Police identified the other three arrested as: Robert James, from VA; Andrew Beacham of IN; and Francis Mahoney of FL. Police did not provide their hometowns....

Sweetness & Light has noted the "suddenly meticulously informative AP," keen on getting the name, rank, and serial number of pro-life protesters at the Sotomayor hearings, when it doesn't bother with such details when covering liberal Code Pink protesters.

Wrote Sweetness & Light:

This stands in stark contrast to the way the AP and the rest of our watchdog media treat radical leftwing protesters, such as Code Pink.

You will never see a news report about a Code Pink demonstration even mention who the disruptors are, let alone that they are members of a small professional group of protesters who do these stunts for a living....

Last week Time magazine ran the headline, "Could abortion coverage sink health-care reform?" This seems to be a growing consensus - among liberals.

By pro-abortion dday at the Hullabaloo blog, July 14:

For the second day in a row, Chris Matthews [of MSNBC's Hardball] ranted about the prospect of a potential public health insurance option covering abortion services, and his lineup of talking heads agreed that this was "the last thing Obama needed" and that Obama was a hypocrite because he met the Pope last week....

UPDATE, 2:35p: Reader Dwain C., writing, "I love a good challenge," has found the cached article! See it on page 2.
_______________

(Click above to enlarge...)

A week ago intern Andy M. reported on an article in AskMen.com entitled, "Dealing With An Unwanted Pregnancy," a how-to guide on getting one's girlfriend to abort. But if you click on the link you'll see it's now gone, and you're sent to the home page.

This is just too bad. Author Isabella Snow (AskMen.com's "sex ed correspondent") gave such helpful advice as...

In November 2008 Animal Planet began airing a reality show Whale Wars.

The premise, according to Wiki:

The program follows Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, as he and his crew aboard the MV Steve Irwin attempt to deter Japanese ships that hunt minke and fin whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary in the name of scientific research. Environmental groups dispute the Japanese claim of research "as a disguise for commercial whaling, which is banned."

So at present, although controversial, the killing is considered legal.

Here's the trailer. You'll see the anti-whaling crew throwing "stink bombs made of glass bottles filled with butyric acid," according to Wiki, at the whalers. They respond by throwing "flashbang devices." Apparently the whalers also fire shots. Watson shouts, "I've been hit!" and shows a hole in his bulletproof vest directly over his heart. That incident has been disputed as staged...

American Life League's new video report, released yesterday, focuses on the ludicrous accusation by pro-aborts and their friends in the media of corporate pro-life responsibility for the shooting of late-term abortionist George Tiller. ALL shows many tv clips to make its point, including one by Keith Olbermann lambasting yours truly.

ALL then turns the tables, exposing liberal media hypocrisy that ignores vast pro-abortion threats and violence.

This is a great report....

Click all photos to enlarge. Per CNN, June 24:

A 14-year-old girl stoops and screams above the body of a Kent State University student killed in 1970 by an OH National Guardsman....

A police chief aims his gun at a Vietcong prisoner's head in 1968, while executing him on a Saigon, Vietnam, street.

And in 1989, an unarmed man in Beijing, China, stands defiantly in front of a column of tanks as they rolled into Tiananmen Square.

These are iconic images, the kinds of shots that changed the way people viewed history as it unfolded. They put human faces on conflicts and became rallying cries for movements, inspiring those who demanded change....

The following is a statement released today by Eileen Smith (pictured right), mother of 22-year-old Laura Hope Smith (pictured below left), who died on the table during a "safe, legal" abortion on September 13, 2007. There's nothing more I can add.

Abortionist Killed: National news
Abortionist Kills Woman: Ignored

Abortionist George Tiller's death brought an outpouring of national media headlines and Congressional condolences to his family by a resolution approved by the US House. Laura Hope Smith's death at the hands of an abortionist was and continues to be ignored, and her mother's effort to bring it to the attention of her senator was stonewalled....

Last night David Letterman apologized again for his bad jokes at the expense of Sarah Palin's 14-year-old daughter Willow and 18-year-old daughter Bristol....

Letterman did not apologize for his sexist "slutty flight attendant" joke against Palin. And actually he only apologized for being misunderstood and incorrectly perceived. I have posted the transcript of his apology on page 2.

Nevertheless, Palin has magnanimously accepted Letterman's apology...

Sarah Palin made strong points in an interview today on The Today Show, speaking with Matt Lauer about several sexist pot shots David Letterman made this week against her and her daughters. She was certainly on the offensive, saying:

Comments such as Letterman's add to the low self-esteem of teens in daughter Bristol's precarious situation - young, unmarried, pregnant.

Comments such as Letterman's add to the allure of adult male sexual predators preying on young girls, no matter whether he was speaking of her 18- or 14-year-old.

Comments such as Letterman's again demonstrate the political double standard of making families of conservatives, particularly women, the brunt of misogynist jokes.

Palin refused to back away from her spokesperson's statement rejecting Letterman's offer to appear on his show, as "it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman," Willow being Palin's 14-year-old. She refused to accept that Letterman was taking jabs at 18-year-old Bristol, not Willow, as he has since stated.

Palin also gave a great laugh line in response to Letterman's "slutty flight attendant" line: "My first thought was, hey, don't disparage flight attendants! They work hard, we love 'em...."

UPDATE, 6/12, 12:45a: Now Amanda Fortini at Salon has jumped on the anti-misogynist Letterman bandwagon, also calling out feminists who avert their eyes when conservative women are the targets. In an overall good piece just out:

If there was any question that a stubborn strain of old-school sexism persists in Obama's America, one has only to look at certain leaders of what the right wing loves to call the "liberal media" but which is sounding and acting, recently, more like the frat-house media.

There, like a virus hiding in the body before, perhaps, staging a comeback, misogyny has found a place to lurk almost undetected, at least by the usually sharp eyes of progressive feminists.

Examine the symptoms of this infection, beginning with David Letterman's comments....

by moderator Carder

Here's a healthy dose of Alfonzo Rachel's righteousness courtesy of PJTV. Rachel states the facts, makes his case, and moves it all right along in one fell swoop of soul. Refreshing.

Click the image to watch.

The Associated Press reported June 7:

The man charged with murdering a high-profile abortion doctor claimed from his jail cell Sunday that similar violence was planned around the nation for as long as the procedure remained legal, a threat that comes days after a federal investigation launched into his possible accomplices.

A Justice Department spokesman said the threat was being taken seriously and additional protection had been ordered for abortion clinics last week....

Scott Roeder called The Associated Press from the Sedgwick County jail, where he's being held on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault in the shooting of Dr. George Tiller one week ago....

Continue to read the Mattew Balan's Newsbusters piece, which further delves into Olbermann's "continuing... theme" of accusing pro-lifers of waging "a religious jihad" that "murder is justified...."

UPDATE, 11:20p: I'm bestowed my honor beginning at 2:00 on the tape...

[HT: reader Janet]
_______________

In a small slew of emails calling me the c-word I read the news that MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named me the "Worst Person in the World!" tonight. Sure enough!

My award comes for supposedly making the supposedly last 2 late-term abortionists in the free world sitting ducks for Tiller copycat killers by posting their addresses and photos of their mills.

Never mind that I didn't actually post the addresses of LeRoy Carhart and Warren Hern (see posts here and here), had I done so it would have been akin to posting the address of President Obama and being accused of making him a target for nutcases.

Libs, get a brain. These guys both advertise on the web. They want people to know where they operate, pardon the pun.

Tomorrow Keith had best make Google the "Worst Search Engine in the World!" for posting a map and directions to Carhart's Abortion & Contraception Clinic of Nebraska and Hern's Boulder Abortion Clinic....

Still no word from Obama or Holder on the Jihadist shooting at an Army recruiting office... no marshalls called to protect facilities. Meanwhile, conservatives are speaking out...

Pro-aborts are continuing to take advantage of late-term abortionist George Tiller's murder to shut pro-life activists up through intimidation or abortion-friendly political force.

Sorry, Cecile. Requests by the largest chain of abortion mills in the U.S. to stop protesting them are wasted.

Remember, there has never been a more pro-abortion president, and both houses of Congress are currently run by pro-aborts. In addition, the White House is stuffed with members of the abortion industry.

The attempts to intimidate are greater than ever....

From the Associated Press, June 2:

Physician LeRoy Carhart wants to continue providing third-term abortions after the brazen slaying of his friend and colleague George Tiller, but the NE doctor doesn't have anywhere to perform them - and he's one of only a handful of providers who will....

Carhart, 67, is one of a handful of remaining doctors in the United States who perform third-trimester abortions....

Ok, blech, let me pause here and say third trimester abortions are never medically necessary....

Today on Newsbusters, Matthew Balan pointed out CNN's pro-abortion bias in an interview between anchor Kiran Chetry and AL abortionist Diane Derzis. Balan wrote...

Kansas Meadowlark has additional information on George Tiller's killer, Scott Roeder, who is more the paranoid unibomber type, as this snapshot of his life 13 years ago reveals:

Scott Roeder is sentenced to 16 months in state prison for parole violations following a 1996 conviction for having bomb components in his car trunk. Roeder, a sovereign citizen and tax protester, violated his parole by not filing tax returns or providing his social security number to his employer.

But a tragedy such as Tiller's murder is despicably a PR dream for pro-aborts, particularly just as we see the majority of Americans turning against them.

I documented in a post yesterday, that on the very day of this man's death a Feministing blogger was considering ways to "turn this terrible tragedy into an opportunity to strengthen the pro-choice movement...."

Newsbusters has a post this morning about pro-abort sites accusing Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, and Beck of being instigators.

Even I stand accused. A couple of (now unpublished) comments this blog has received...

As expected, KS late-term abortionist George Tiller's alleged shooter, Scott Roeder, is a fringe character with a criminal history dating back to at least 1996 for parole violation after being convicted of carrying bomb components in his car.

Every movement has its fringe element, and of course these people do not represent the movement, as intelligent people know. No one views homosexuals as a group of serial killers just because John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer were, for example.

But pro-aborts are in the unique position of condoning and profiting from the murder of innocent children. So it makes complete sense that they would attempt to accuse their adversaries as what they themselves are guilty of: violence. And so they have, for years.

Already we see pro-aborts attempting to exploit Tiller's unfortunate murder to their advantage. Read this, just up on Feministing:

This is all an attempt to put pro-lifers on the defensive and somehow shine as advocates of nonviolence.

How ridiculous. Don't fall for it. Continue to simply state pro-lifers condemn all murder, including George Tiller's, as well as the thousands of children he murdered.

Barack Obama's venture one step beyond unencumbered and taxpayer-funded abortion support to radically support infanticide of abortion survivors was the straw that broke the camel's back for many pro-lifers....

Citizens for a Pro-Life Society has taken out an ad that ran in the Washington Times May 9 and are running in the South Bend Tribune May 10-17.

Notre Dame's student newspaper The Observer refused at the 11th hour to run the add, entitled, "Do it for Jacob," showing the severed hand and foot of an aborted baby....

Oh, this is rich. The View's liberal co-host Joy Behar subbed for CNN's Larry King on May 1, interviewing Ann Coulter. The entire interview was a major hoot, but this exchange was the best:

Transcript:

Behar: OK. All right. I want to know if you want to be waterboarded, because Sean Hannity has volunteered to be waterboarded, but I don't see him sticking his head under the faucet yet.

Coulter: Well, for one thing, about half of the male hosts on Fox News have been waterboarded on TV. I've seen worse on Fear Factor. And, no, I don't want to be waterboarded. Do you want to be...

Behar: Are you sure?

Coulter: Do you want to be aborted, because I think you support abortion? In fact, could we abort the terrorists instead of waterboarding them?

Behar: Oh, that was quite a jump. But you know what; Ann's taking your calls tonight.

Coulter: No, it's not.

[HT: Newsbusters via moderator Jasper]

US News & World Report editor and syndicated columnist Bonnie Erbe is tired of Lila Rose.

In an April 27 US News blog post Erbe was not mad at the numerous Planned Parenthoods Lila has caught on tape as having a soft spot for pedophiles.

No, Bonnie the pro-abort was mad at Lila, wanting prosecutors now investigating PP for child rape cover-up to turn their dogs on Lila and investigate her for 'trespassing, fraud... [and] violating state privacy laws."

(In fact, Lila only conducted her PP stings in states allowing video/audiotaping by 1 party without the other's consent.)

Erbe closed by saying that since pro-lifers "will never succeed in banning abortion... why don't they just go away?"

Matthew Balan at NewsBusters.org does a great job dissecting the rest of Bonnie's post chock full of half truths, untruths, and disinformation.

[Photo courtesy of NewsBusters.org]

I think what's going on here is actress Janeane Garofalo is so tired of being called a hypocrite for taking money to appear on the popular conservative tv show, 24, she's now overreacting to prove her liberal bonafides.

You've seen clips on the news, which were bad enough. Here is video of Garofalo's entire interview on Keith Olbermann's MSNBC show on April 16. She comes in at 2:53....

By now I'm used to mindless charges of "racism!" to my dissent against Barack Obama's radical liberalness. But it seems to me Garofalo was trying a little too hard. Whatever. The RIght Scoop reveals another layer of hypocrisy, Garofalo's views of dissent then and now...

UPDATE, 7:30p: I just spoke with Andy Schlafly, who started Conservapedia to counter the liberal spin at Wikipedia. He explained how and why "Culture of Death" was offed:

Wikipedia is run by a mobocracy of liberals who tend pro-abortion, pro-atheism, and pro-socialism. That liberal mob distorts entries and deletes what they don't like. "Culture of Death" is something liberals don't want to admit to.

Someone will nominate an entry for deletion. It will go into a discussion period on a discussion page. The liberal mob will dominate the discussion, unrestrained by any meaningful principles. Then someone who has special status on Wiki, an administator, will delete the entry, and that is how they censor the truth. It is difficult to find a trace of how it happened, and the person who deleted does not have to explain his or her reasoning. The deletion battle has raged again and again with truth telling entries.

Conservapedia has an entry with 156 examples of Wiki bias.
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Astute reader Tom R. noticed Wikipedia deleted "Culture of Death" April 17 (click to enlarge):

At this point "Culture of Life" is still up on Wiki, and "Culture of Death" is still available on Wiktionary. Here's what "Culture of Death" looked like on Wikipedia when it was created in April 2005 (click to enlarge)...

By now most have seen the spurious interview conducted by CNN reporter Susan Roesgen at Chicago's Tea Party April 15, merely a sample of MSM's disdain for mainstream America. But there's more. First watch the segment and then see what happened after CNN stopped rolling the tape.

Also at CNN, homosexual Anderson Cooper led me to learn more way more than I wanted about the insidious world in which he lives. First, look up "teabagging" on an online urban dictionary (WARNING, explicit) and then watch this...

by Carder

Is the religious right throwing in the towel in the fight against immorality? At first glance, a recent article in the UK Telegraph would certainly lead a reader to that conclusion:

America's religious Right has conceded that the election of US President Barack Obama has sealed its defeat in the cultural war with permissiveness and secularism.

Leading evangelicals have admitted that their association with George W. Bush has not only hurt the cause of social conservatives but contributed to the failure of the key objectives of their 30-year struggle....

I saw this interview on Fox the other day and am so glad someone put it on YouTube.

I can't tell you how perfectly I thought our side, Fr. Jonathan Morris and Martha MacCallum, argued against admittedly fallen liberal Catholic Phil Donohue. This was a grand debate where the liberal clock was cleaned.

Fr. Morris employed wonderful skill against Donohue, who threw 9 pieces of mud against the wall to try to move the discussion away from abortion and human embryo experimentation - including Catholic opposition to condoms, a Holocaust denying priest, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Catholic Church's history of anti-semitism, George Bush, the lack of priests and nuns, and dropping church attendance....

All will recall President Abortion mocking Special Olympians on the Jay Leno show as being at bad at bowling as he is.

Then came Sarah Palin, with a future Special Olympian of her own, criticizing Obama for being so calloused.

This is where Raving Theist picked up the story:

... Palin condemned his "degrading remark about our world's most precious and unique people."

This observation was too much for talk show host Bill Maher, who led a panel consisting of Senator Bernie Sanders, actress Kerry Washington and New York Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin in a round of hooting, hand-clapping laughter at Palin's presumed stupidity. Things got a bit uncomfortable, however, when Maher specifically challenged Palin's description of the disabled:

What a cruel man.

[HT: moderator Bethany]

From Christian Newswire this afternoon, by pro-life activist and writer Gingi Edmonds:

Some of you may have seen the major news story of the private plane that crashed into a Montana cemetery, killing 7 children and 7 adults.

But what the news sources fail to mention is... the [cemetery] contains... the Tomb of the Unborn... erected as a dedication to all babies who have died because of abortion.

What else is the mainstream news not telling you? The family who died in the crash near the location of the abortion victim's memorial, is the family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, owner of the largest for-profit abortion chain in the nation....

FRC Action is on fire! It just sent out the following email alert. Here is the link to create an email to send to Matthews. Click to enlarge:

Dan Gilgoff of US News & World Report wrote an insulting piece today, "Octo-Mom as a poster girl for opponents of embryonic stem cell research," a typical example of MSM spinning a story to fit the liberal agenda.

Gilgoff first quoted Americans United for Life prez Charmaine Yoest from a Fox interview to support his contention:

The last time Art and I debated just a few weeks ago we were talking about the octo-mom, where embryos were given the opportunity and they become babies. You have two options here: allow them to develop [to] become babies, or experiment and destroy them.

Yoest's point obviously was embryos grow into born babies if given the chance.

Then Gilgoff quoted me from a recent WND piece...

UPDATE, 3/10, 2:15a: The poll is closed, and there is a new question up. Can't find results of previous CNN daily polls. Anyone?
_______________

CNN is asking the question, "Should embryonic stem cells be used for research?"

Pro-lifers should vote NO now to influence how CNN reports this story. At present we're getting clobbered.

Find poll on right side of CNN's home page, and vote.

Then spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

I thought Ms. already had Helen Thomas?

I previously referred to Chris Matthews' appalling reference last night on Hardball to pro-lifers opposing the Sebelius nomination for HHS Secretary as "terrorists... verbal terrorists." But Matthews' remark deserves its own spot in the sun.

Thanks to NewsBusters for posting the video on Eyeblast...

The story, per Geoffrey Dickens of Newsbusters...

The other day (yesterday?) Jasper posted the title of a new Time magazine piece, "The Catholic crusade against a mythical abortion bill," which was a disgraceful, pathetic attempt by spinner Amy Sullivan to downplay the reality of the Freedom of Choice Act while portraying Catholics as overreactive for launching a fight against FOCA.

There were so many things wrong with the article I didn't know where to begin dissecting it, not the least of which was Sullivan failed to mention until the 10th paragraph that then-candidate Barack Obama stated at a 2007 Planned Parenthood fundraiser that "the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing I'd do."

So I hoped my friend Matthew Balan at Newsbusters would take over and dissect Sullivan's trash. And Balan has come through. Thanks, Matt.

[Photo courtesy of Time]

Bristol Palin, 18-year-old daughter of AK Gov. and former VP candidate Sarah Palin, gave birth to a son December 28. Weighing in at 7-7, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston was born at 5:30a. Father is fiancé Levi Johnston.

MTV News has weighed in on the name choice in a clever piece. I'm not sure why I was mostly not offended by the article on behalf of little Tripp. Perhaps I'm just tired of being offended. Or perhaps it's because the writer took equal shots at his own....

Jasper posted a link to Media Research Center's Best Notable Quotes of 2008, and I just had to peruse them for laughs.

I totally concur with the Quote of the Year by Chris Matthews:

Co-anchor Chris Matthews: "I have to tell you, you know, it's part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My -- I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often."

Co-anchor Keith Olbermann: "Steady."

Matthews: "No, seriously. It's a dramatic event. He speaks about America in a way that has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the feeling we have about our country. And that is an objective assessment."

-- Exchange during MSNBC's coverage of the VA, MD and D.C. primaries, February 12

Ah, so many great ones! Here was a runner-up for the Good Morning Morons award...

Liberals are angry President-elect Barack Obama has chosen conservative evangelical pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. Here's a sample from HuffPo:

Progressive groups are decrying the choice of Rick Warren... as "disappointing" - but it is far more than that. It is an act of spiritual violence against lesbian and gay American citizens and a profound betrayal of the philosophy of inclusion and unity espoused by President-elect Obama.

Big is that Warren supported CA's Proposition 8, specifying marriage to be between one man and one woman.

As a pro-lifer I'm glad Warren is giving the invocation. I don't care what ulterior motives Obama has for inviting Warren, such as trying to appear more of a center than left guy. I'm actually surprised Obama picked Warren. Recall the terrible response Obama gave Warren for The Abortion Question of the campaign. Guess he's not holding a grudge....

Per Fox News yesterday:

... Alan Colmes will relinquish his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year....

Colmes said, "I approached Bill Shine (FNC's Senior VP of Programming) earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network. Although it's bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I'm proud that both Sean (Hannity) and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years."

Colmes will continue to have a presence on FNC as he will serve as a liberal commentator on a variety of... programming, including Foxnews.com's The Strategy Room and continue hosting his radio program, The Alan Colmes Show on... a division of Fox News Radio. He will also begin developing a weekend program.

A couple days ago Kim H. at Feministing wrote a critique of my column last week, which I ignored frankly because it was foolish and not very original.

Silliest of all was Kim's inability to grasp the meaning of my hyperbolic ("a figure of speech that is an exaggeration") use of the terminology "4th trimester" abortions in the 1st paragraph, to describe, as I explained in the 2nd paragraph, Barack Obama's support of "abandoning abortion survivors to die."

Kim had to let me know, "'Tri' means three."

I was disappointed Kim didn't appreciate my creative flair (although I must give credit to Fr. Frank Pavone for 1st coining the "4th trimester" term) but could only comprehend the dimension in front of her, the black and white on the screen.

But now I'm getting heckled by some of Kim's like-nonminded friends who don't understand what I meant either, even though I was kind enough to explain it for crowd densities. For instance, Lauren A. of Michigan Technological University emailed me this morning to wonder, "What, pray tell, is a fourth trimester?"

And then came a not very nice note from Rosie W.-G....

UPDATE, 8:40a: From the Associated Press, yesterday:

The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, opening a national church meeting Monday, said that continued support for abortion rights will undermine any advances in social justice that come from a new president and Congress....

[I]n a later news conference, [Cardinal Francis] George... said bishops' are preparing to lobby the Obama administration on any policies that diverge from Catholic teaching on marriage, abortion and other issues....

Catholic leaders - who run hospitals, adoption agencies and other charities nationwide - are deeply concerned that any changes in state and federal law not interfere with policies in Catholic agencies that reflect church theology.

They'd best be prepared to close doors if Obama attempts to follow through with some of his plans.

I'm feeling very militant these days. We'll just see how pro-life we all are. If we all refuse to blink, we could beat Obama back. He can't enact policies that close hospitals.
_______________

According to the New York Times the U.S. bishops were the real losers in last week's election:

The election revealed how bitter divisions among some Catholics have become, but it also revealed how many others are just shrugging off the bishops' teachings.

Along with the NYT, the Washington Times attributed Obama's win in large part to the Catholic vote. Lots of useful information in this article....

UPDATE, 2:00p: The Center for Reproductive Rights has sent President-elect Obama a 3-page wish list letter. Top priorities: defund abstinence education programs, allow minors over-the-counter access to the morning-after pill, appoint pro-abortion federal judges, push global access to abortion through the UN. [HT: CNSNews.com]
_______________

The Obama campaign announced over the weekend it has "compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone," according to the Washington Post.

Whenever we think of President-elect Obama undoing pro-life policies, reflect back that they were done by President Bush. We shall soon have a better understanding as to just how pro-life he was.

Executive orders and policy changes will be just part of the story. Also track Obama's deadly staff and department appointments in contrast to President Bush's.

So here's a first look at the leaked list. Note the changes are ALWAYS about money....

A McCain supporter who took a cue from Jerry Seinfeld's Soup Nazi, refused treats this Halloween to children of Obama supporters...

Gotta say that had I determined to politicize Halloween, I would have just handed out McCain literature with treats, not withheld treats from innocent children.

That said, Obama is all for killing children before they ever see their first Halloween, so why are his supporters wound up about an anti-Obama supporter denying their born kids a little candy?

[HT: proofreader Laura Loo]

Read editorial in its entirety on page 2.

This is off topic, but I'm blogging on it because I was there.

The Los Angeles Times' refusal to cough up a damaging video of Barack Obama kabbitzing with PLO friend Rashid Khalidi should come as no surprise.

The LAT/Chicago Tribune sisterhood has been aiding and abetting Obama for years.

Jack Ryan

In 2004 Republican Jack Ryan ran against Barack Obama for US Senate.

Ryan was divorced from actress Jeri Ryan of Star Trek: Voyager and Boston Public fame. Their divorce records were sealed, as requested by both. They shared a young autistic son who they were trying to protect.

Obama's chief strategist, David Axelrod, interned for the Chicago Tribune in college and then worked there in "a high-profile job as the lead political reporter," according to the New York Times, from 1977-84....

UDPATE, 10/31, 11a: No surprise, YouTube pulled the Koppie ad, even though it aired on network television. It is available here now for viewing and embedding.

About the airing the Koppie campaign reported:

It aired about 6:29pm, set off and apart from the other billion political ads with, "The following commercial may not be suitable for children."... Chad needs to recover a few hundred more to get him out of the hole for this ad, but he's already eyeing a Monday ad on the Today Show ($1000). Ellen is only $510. If there's more $, he'll buy more ads.

Donate here.
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UPDATE, 10/30, 7:30a: The campaign notified me that due to a technical glitch, Koppie's ad didn't run on NBC last night but will run tonight.
_______________

October 29: A campaign ad for IL Constitution Party US Senate candidate Chad Koppie that contains graphic images of aborted babies is scheduled to air 1x tonight during Chicago NBC News 6p hour, right before Barack Obama's 30 minute pitch...

A campaign spokeswoman told me stations are required by law to run federal candidates' ads, and this appears so. According to FactCheck.org...

An October 27 comment (#25) on the pro-Hillary blog HillBuzz has been making the blogospheric rounds. I understand Rush even read it yesterday.

The scenarios presented seem plausible, creepy, even scary. About the disclosure that people are paid to demoralize on blogs, Stanek moderators can attest I've suspected this here for some time, which is why we've been banning more lately.

The following is quite a read. The dynamics of this presidential campaign can't be explained as pure politics. There's something seriously crazy about it. This information would help account for some of its surrealness....

I blogged in July on the movie, Hype:The Obama Effect, which includes an interview with me on Barack Obama's opposition to Born Alive.

Reported the Associated Press yesterday:

Readers of OH's 3 largest newspapers, along with papers in FL and NV, are finding an anti-Barack Obama DVD in editions this week.

Citizens United, a conservative advocacy group based in Washington, plans to release a 95-minute film in the five swing-state publications to highlight Obama's record on abortion rights, foreign policy and his past associations.... The group said it planned to spend more than $1 million to distribute about 1.25 million copies of Hype: The Obama Effect....

By Elaine Lafferty in The Daily Beast, a great read from an authentic feminist on her experience with the VP wannabe, October 27:

It's difficult not to froth when one reads, as I did again and again this week, doubts about Sarah Palin's "intelligence," coming especially from women such as PBS's Bonnie Erbe, who, as near as I recall, has not herself heretofore been burdened with the Susan Sontag of Journalism moniker.

As Fred Barnes - God help me, I'm agreeing with Fred Barnes - suggests in the Weekly Standard, these high toned and authoritative dismissals come from people who have never met or spoken with Sarah Palin. Those who know her, love her or hate her, offer no such criticism. They know what I know, and I learned it from spending just a little time traveling on the cramped campaign plane this week: Sarah Palin is very smart.

Here's a disturbing and blatantly false ad by HowMuchTime.org ("a group that NPR says 'shares leadership and an address with NARAL Pro-Choice New York'", according to Wendy Long at NRO), supposedly depicting shaken and crying post-abortive women getting their mug shots taken after being arrested in the wake of a McCain-Palin win and the overturn of Roe v. Wade....

The ad is supposedly set to run in 6 supposed "swing states": CO, MO, OH, OR, PA, and WI, as well as SD because of its abortion ban initiative. The press release doesn't indicate a dollar amount being spent, usually meaning "not much." The biggest splash usually hoped for in that case is free media upon an ad's announcement.

Wendy Long rebuts the ad here.

Also read AUL's Clarke Forsythe's article, "Why the states did Not prosecute women for abortion before Roe v. Wade."

I don't have anything to add except this is typical lying and fear-mongering from abortion proponents, and why should anyone be surprised?

The problem, as usual, is that MSM should be anticipated to pick up this sound bite with no questions asked, and it will eventually make its way accepted into the American conversation on abortion. Our side must aggressively meet this head on with facts.

Ever since I held a baby with Down syndrome until he died, I've had a special place in my heart for these special people. So this MSNBC newscast of Sarah Palin's special fans choked me up...

The LA Times blog considers this broadcast evidence news coverage of Palin is fair and balanced, so we're apparently paranoid whiners for complaining otherwise.

[HT: Hot Air via moderator Carder]

Americans United for Life has written an open letter to CBS News' Bob Schieffer, who is moderating tonight's debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. AUL is calling on Schieffer to address an important topic ignored in both previous debates: abortion.

To that end, AUL has submitted excellent questions for Schieffer's consideration:

While each candidate's position on Roe v. Wade is well known, it remains unknown what restrictions on abortion each candidate would support in order to achieve the widely agreed upon goal of reducing abortion. And that is the question I encourage you to ask: What restrictions on abortion would you support in order to achieve the widely agreed upon goal of reducing the number of abortions in our country?

Possible follow up questions include:

A recent study by Dr. Michael New (University of Alabama) found that parental involvement laws reduce abortion by 13-31%. Do you support the right of parents to be involved in the medical decisions of their minor daughters when abortion is being considered?

Do you support taxpayer funding for elective abortions?

Do you support laws that mandate abortion clinics meet minimum health and safety standards commonly applied to other types of medical practices?

Do you support laws requiring abortions be performed by licensed physicians?

What questions would you ask?

I would ask:

Do you support laws allowing a doctor who has aborted a baby to be the only practitioner assessing that baby for viability if s/he survives?

On October 10, the National Right to Life Committee announced the ABC Radio Network had refused to run the audio version of the following anti-Obama ad during the Sean Hannity radio show.

NRLC reported ABC emailed that the ad, "while supporting aspects of a Pro-Life position, weighs more heavily toward electioneering." Well duh. It is indeed an electioneering ad, paid for by NRLC's Political Action Committee, the function of which is to electioneer, allowed under federal law.

So today LifeNews.com reported that ABC Chicago is refusing to air the ad below, by Caring Outreach...

Here's a bizarre one.

Attempting to make smarty Sarah Palin look dumb, liberal blogger Gawker posted fake SAT scores and high school grades forged from pro-lifer Dawn Eden's SAT scoresheet.

Read all about it at The Dawn Patrol.

A commenter on The Straight Dope found Dawn's original and wrote:

[T]he scanned copies are at exactly the same angle, not perfectly square with the scanner's edge. The "blocked out" bits for both copies are identical: look at the "telephone number" space, for example. The remaining dot clutter is absolutely identical in both images. The dates are identical, except that "85" was changed to "82". Interesting that the "report date" of both tests would be March 23rd; in 1985, the date on the real results form, that was a Saturday, which is a typical day for SAT testing. In 1982, the date on Palin's photoshopped form, March 23rd was a Tuesday. And the real form has the same 5-3-3-1-2-3 that appears on the altered form, in precisely the same spots in the boxes.

I'm reminded of the forged documents swallowed whole by Dan Rather disparaging George Bush's National Guard record.

Liberals clearly can't let their candidates win on their own merits. But they need to find another felonious method. Forgery clearly isn't their strong suit.

MSM has a persistent problem calling abortion survivors babies, as evidenced in the title and verbiage of the Miami Herald article below on this week's funeral for Hialeah, FL, abortion survivor Shanice Osbourne. See my previous posts on those plans here and here.

The MH reporter, Elinor Brecher, also tried to portray Shanice's live birth as iffy. It was not, and this is not the ongoing question here. The question is whether to prosecute Shanice's death as murder....

By Rich Noyes and Matthew Balan of the Media Research Center, today:

Two of the 3 presidential debates have now passed without either candidate being asked about abortion, an issue that nearly four out of ten voters said was "very important" to them, according to an August Pew survey. What makes the abortion issue especially salient this campaign year is Barack Obama's extremely liberal record - which may also explain why the big broadcast networks have practically avoided the subject.

TV reporters barely mentioned Obama's pro-abortion stance during the primaries - from the launch of his candidacy in January 2007 through the end of the primaries in June 2008, just 6 out of 1,289 network evening news stories about Obama (0.46%) mentioned his position on abortion; none discussed it in any detail. It was thus unusual when ABC's Terry Moran pointed out, in a February 25, 2008, story on World News, that Obama was "considered a reliable liberal Democratic vote in IL... opposing efforts to ban so-called 'partial birth abortions.'"...

For the 2nd time pro-lifers have introduced an initiative to ban abortion in SD. The 2006 initiative lost 56-44%. Exit polls showed it would have won had it included exceptions.

The 2008 ban includes tightly scripted exceptions. In a poll conducted September 18, it was winning with likely voters 49-41%....

From the New York Times, September 21:

After a lawsuit from a Christian anti-abortion group, Google is allowing religious organizations to take out ads using the keyword "abortion," a rare case of the search giant admitting it was wrong.

The group, which wanted to advertise because the House of Commons was considering a bill involving abortion issues, filed a lawsuit against Google in April, saying the company was discriminating on religious grounds....

In the past, Google would not sell the "abortion" keyword to religious groups, but did sell it to other groups, including secular groups, doctors offering abortions and resource sites like Our Bodies, Ourselves....

Google reviewed its policy, and announced last Wednesday it had reached a settlement with the Christian Institute. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but Google immediately began allowing ads linked to abortion from religious groups as long as they were determined to be factual, and not graphic or emotional ads.... The change in policy applies worldwide.

I cannot even keep up with all the articles and news shows reporting on BornAliveTruth.org, Barack Obama's opposition to the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act, our Gianna ad, and Obama's anti-Gianna ad.

Here are some:

From BornAliveTruth.org:

You are invited to attend an emergency conference call this Tuesday evening, September 23, at 9:30 PM Eastern (6:30 PM Pacific) to hear abortion survivor Gianna Jessen and nurse Jill Stanek expose the shocking truth about how Barack Obama voted 4 times as an IL State Senator to deny lifesaving medical help to infants who were born alive after a failed abortion.

Jill is the nurse who discovered that these helpless babies were being left to die in the dirty utility room along with the trash, and testified before Barack Obama to tell her story.

Gianna is the amazing and beautiful woman who herself survived an abortion 31 years ago.

Barack Obama now has the audacity to deceptively deny his own voting record and is personally attacking Gianna and trying to smear her credibility!

Please register for this urgent conference call (that will also be simulcast on the web) to hear the truth directly from these two courageous women and to help Gianna defend herself from Obama's cowardly personal attacks.

Spread the word and ask all of your friends to join this vital discussion as well. Gianna urgently needs your help, and people need to know the truth about Barack Obama.

Please join us Tuesday evening at 9:30 PM Eastern, 8:30 PM Central, 7:30 PM Mountain, 6:30 PM Pacific.

Register to participate in this important event here:

Yesterday the New York Times covered BornAliveTruth.org for the 2nd day in a row, this time on its blog:

Battles over abortion rights can often seem Orwellian, but never more so than in the competition for the Catholic vote in this presidential election....

The traditional movement seeking to end abortion rights is not standing down either. A group called BornAliveTruth.org is spending more than $350,000 to run a commercial in OH and NM featuring an abortion survivor and accusing Mr. Obama of voting against a measure to protect the lives of fetuses that somehow live through the procedure. (The Obama campaign disputes the characterization of the vote, which took place in the IL legislature.)

Yes, we must always make sure to include Obama's disproven disclaimer.

And I'm not sure what "Orwellian" means in the context of that first sentence. Perhaps someone can explain.

Here is Barack Obama's incredulous, sarcastic response to the entire world - including his own audience of friendlies yesterday - who immediately connected his "lipstick on a pig" comment to Sarah Palin's best line in her veep acceptance speech, "What is the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick."

Again, by denying the undeniable, Obama only digs his hole deeper.

Tonight on Larry King will be a discussion of the women's vote now that Sarah Palin is in the race.

Featured will be pro-lifers MN Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Bush advisor Karen Hughes, and pro-aborts Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards and Huffington Post editor Hilary Rosen.

Lots of juicy tidbits in this New York Times article today - after the eye-rolling use of the word "bold" in the 1st paragraph. Only the NYT would consider it "bold" to front 2 liberal commentators as objective news reporters:

MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel's coverage of the election....

That experiment appears to be over.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that... David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night...

The change... is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel's perceived shift to the political left....

On ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos yesterday, Barack Obama tried to backpeddle on his now infamous "above my pay grade" response to Rick Warren's question, "At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?"...

Last night during his Republican National Convention speech, Fred Thompson skewered Barack Obama for his opposition to IL's Born Alive Infants Protection Act:

We don't need a president who thinks protecting the unborn or the newborn baby is above his pay grade.

Afterward, MSNBC's Chris Matthews engaged in a lengthy discussion on that point with Republican NM Congresswoman Heather Wilson.

Keith Olbermann couldn't help but jump in to carry water for Obama by misstating that Obama opposed Born Alive because there was already a law in place, which was false. Here's the video:

Read reasons why Olbermann's rationale of Obama's vote this was flat out false on page 2.

In fact, MSNBC reporters slanted their GOP abortion coverage last night, obsessing about the pro-life platform and politicians when last week at the Democrat Convention they totally ignored the radical abortion positions of the party and politicians, most notably Obama, who supports infanticide if it would otherwise interfere with abortion. From the Media Research Center's report...

Wall Street Journal, August 29:

... Others on the right say it's sexist to suggest a woman can't raise a family and work - or seek high political office, or serve as commander in chief, if the need arises. "She's more the example of the modern woman than the Gloria Steinems of days past," said Jill Stanek, a conservative blogger popular with the pro-life community. "She can handle it."

At the Pepsi Center yesterday, I heard chatter is growing louder that McCain will pick Lieberman as his running mate. I just checked with a couple of DailyKos bloggers and they agreed the rumor "is getting serious".

The Committee for Justice blog reported this morning:

Amid press reports of John McCain notifying his running mate and Joe Lieberman rebuffing a request by Karl Rove to withdraw his name from VP consideration, RealClearPolitics concludes that "a lot of Republicans are nervous" that Lieberman is McCain's pick. Republicans are concerned about Lieberman's pro-choice stance and his weak record on judges. Since the abortion issue is almost entirely in the hands of the courts, Sen. Lieberman, if selected, could likely deflect much of the inevitable conservative criticism by making the following three pledges regarding judicial appointments...

by Chuck Asay...

by Eric Allie...

Many here have helped Phill Kline financially in his primary race against Steve Howe for Johnson County, KS, District Attorney. The election is one week from today!

Kline, of course, is the stalwart trying against all odds to enforce KS's late-term and underage abortion laws.

There is still time to financially help.

Meanwhile, some have been asking for a fundraising update. Financial reports were just submitted, and here's the status today from the Associated Press...

Archie will love this attention. It may give his blog a much needed traffic bump.

Again, here's what I actually wrote.

What the heck. I'm in a sharing mood today. Below is one of the more amusing samples of malignments I receive. It appears Alex considers me both a witch and a witch killer. And this line was... well... indescribable in unmalignable terms: "What part of having an abortion means that the woman believes her child is unworthy of birth?"...

The National Right to Life Committee held its annual convention July 3-5 near DC. Most of its workshops were tightly controlled retreads led by centralized players, a real waste of the talents, ideas, thoughts, and accomplishments of state and local affiliates. (The inestimable question: Control at what cost?)

But its 2 keynote speakers, Fred Thompson and Karl Rove, scored points and made the news. MSM accentuated the negatives they said about Obama while burying McCain's positives.

This I don't necessarily mind. Given McCain's baggage as well as reticence thus far to make a public case for himself and against Obama on the pro-life issue, our motivator in 2008 will have to be hate, not love. And all the better to garner the independent vote if mainstream articles lead off with examples of Obama's radical abortion support.

Read ABC News, New York Times, and LifeNews.com coverage of the Rove speech.

Also read The New Republic's take on the convention, along with The Carpetbagger Report and Politico, which included a couple good lines by Thompson...

Following up on a story from April (read previous posts here and here), from the Associated Press, June 20:

Indianapolis - Police arrested a man early Friday for allegedly shooting a pregnant bank teller during a robbery, causing her to lose her twins.

Detectives charged Brian Kendrick, 29, with attempted murder, two counts of killing a fetus and robbery....

Starting tomorrow night with NBC and MSNBC during the KY and OR primary coverage, a Democrat feminist group called Clinton Supporters Count Too plans to show its boycott muscle....

I know how these things work. Planned Parenthood et al have obviously hired an expensive and influential public relations firm to pitch 2 story lines to MSM, with great success I might add:

Abstinence education is responsible for every STD, case of HIV/AIDs, and unwanted pregnancy in the world.

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, aborting women will be shackled.

On the latter point, a May 2 New York Times editorial killed 2 birds with 1 stone cold lying editorial. It began by advancing evidentially challenged, faceless innuendo...

From Amanda Marcotte at RH Reality Check yesterday:

It has been awhile since I used the word "hate" to describe my feelings toward another person, 5th grade perhaps? I'm not sure I can remember how to debate adolescently....

Yesterday John McCain took Q&A at Villanova University, during a Hardball with Chris Matthews taping. VU is PA's oldest and largest Catholic university, so it's probably no great news that students applauded when McCain said, "respect and cherishing of the right of the unborn is one of the fundamental principles of my party," although it sure was nice.

Interesting was the exchange between MSNBC's Dan Abrams and Matthews afterward. They drew from this - and considered it big news, almost astounding - that McCain unequivocably will not choose a pro-abort running mate...

I just watched Barack Obama give his speech about Rev. Jeremiah Wright's racism and anti-Americanism.

It was a great speech on racism - choked me up in spots - but it did not respond to how Obama sat in a church for 20 years and, so he says, remained unaware of Wright's radical racism and unpatriotism.

In fact, either on purpose or by osmosis, Obama appears to have been negatively impacted by Wright's teaching. All the pieces fit: Obama's refusal to place hand over heart during the National Anthem, his decision not to wear a patriotic pin, and his wife's "first time I'm proud of my country" line. We are to believe these actions were in no way connected to Wright?

I have been a member of my church for 20 years, just like Obama. It is simply incredible to purport ignorance of a long-standing pastor's beliefs, particularly a mentor. I travel, so I am not at my church on a weekly basis. But I still know what my pastor thinks and says.

I have attended a service at Obama's church....

Blogger Huckabeespot picked up yesterday on a same day CBS News article portraying Obama as a "midrange issues" politician. Wrote Huckabeespot:

Among many other pieces of evidence that [article author Brian] Montopoli presents for his position is the following:

Obama has been criticized for not taking a stand early in his career on some hot-button issues, including abortion: He voted "present" on abortion questions seven out of 14 times in the state Senate, including once when the issue was a statewide ban on so-called partial-birth abortion.

This makes it appear that Obama's record on abortion is centrist and that he did not try to stop the law banning partial birth abortions....

[But] Obama's record on abortion is much much worse than this would suggest....

The news yesterday was all about Bill Clinton's outburst against pro-lifers at a campaign stop in Steubenville, OH, February 18.

I agree with Tom at American Papist that...

Most of the attention, I'm sure, has to do with the ongoing prurient interest that folks have in watching Bill Clinton embarrass himself, but I'm sure the subject matter is also gaining a share of the attention.

... if only by osmosis.

Our message went out on every video clip.

Thank goodness David Vogel and friend had the wherewithal to turn their signs toward the audience - and camera.

Also, terminology "choice" or "pro-choice" was never used. Clinton called us "pro-life" twice and said the words "murder" and "abortion" in context together.

Even some newscasters called us "pro-life." View just one example here....

by Bob Gorrell for the Creator's Syndidate...

by Steve Kelley for the Times Biscayne...

By Jasper

Tim Graham from NewsBusters summarized the poor news coverage of the March for Life, which drew well over 100,000 people:

ABC, CBS, and NBC had absolutely nothing on the March, and absolutely nothing on the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. By contrast, Fox News Channel at least had a fair-and-balanced report on the March on Tuesday night's Special Report with Brit Hume....

From Population Research Institute, what MSM won't tell you about the March for Life:

Just received a call from Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life, the group that secretly videotaped late-term abortionist Alberto Hodari's speech at Wayne State University November 9.

I profiled a clip from that video here.

Kristan said Fox Cable News' Hannity & Colmes will be profiling Hodari on its show tonight, based on that video. Excellent.

Earlier today I linked to a My Fox Colorado story on pro-lifers protesting at the home of Ed Kubly of Big R Construction, a subcontractor who is helping build the Denver Planned Parenthood abortion mill.

There was a little snippet in that video of a neighbor who was angry not at Kubly for helping construct an abortuary but at protesters for showing what happens in an abortuary.

Well, My Fox Colorado also posted an uncensored clip of the guy ranting, with reporter John Romero clearly egging the guy on. He encouraged the foment about the pro-life protesters by asking, "Little extreme?" Then he planted, "Ruined your Saturday..." to throw on some timber. Click on image to view the link, which contains foul language, not that pro-life activists haven't heard it all before:

Yesterday the Topeka Capital Journal dropped a bombshell with lurid details of an affair KS Attorney General Paul Morrison carried on from September 2005 to September 2007 - just a couple months ago - with a woman named Linda Carter, not just a subordinate but also a staffer in nemesis Phill Kline's office.

Morrison was the Republican Johnson County District Attorney when he switched parties to run against then-AG Phill Kline last year, and won. In an ironic twist, Republicans then appointed Kline to complete Morrison's DA term. All the while, Linda Carter worked for both men at the JoCo DA's office.

Carter quit her job November 30 and has filed sexual harrassment charges against Morrison.

Carter alleges in a signed statement that Morrison tried to get her to illegally spy on Kline's activities re: his fight to charge Planned Parenthood with illegal minor and late-term abortions. According to the TC-J....

[Also see page 2 for pro-family ad Morrison's family made during the AG campaign.]

While IL state senator, Barack Obama voted "present" on a partial birth abortion ban, parental notification, and a package of 3 Born Alive Infant Protection bills, for which political heat has since forever risen, thank goodness.

Yesterday the Chicago Tribune discussed Hillary's latest jab at Obama:

She also raised a new front on the issue of Obama's use of "present" votes -- rather than "yes" and "no" votes -- on legislation when he was in the Illinois Senate, including on measures that dealt with Republican-led efforts to restrict abortion rights.

"A president can't vote present. A president can't pick and choose which challenges he or she will face," Clinton said. "Instead of looking for political cover or taking a pass, we need a president who will take a stand and stand there and do whatever is necessary for their country."

Obama has defended his "present" votes on abortion-related bills in the Illinois legislature, contending it was part of a strategy fashioned with abortion-rights advocates to help give some Illinois Senate Democrats political cover and to avoid looking harsh by casting "no" votes that would create a re-election risk....

A new Des Moines Register poll, conducted November 25-28 of 500 likely Iowa GOP Iowa caucus participants and 500 likely Iowa Democrat caucus participants, now exactly one month away, showed new presidential candidate leaders for both parties:

Democrat strategist Susan Estrich says Huckabee's rise is due to GOP weakness. I wouldn't be sure how that translates had I not read Robert Novak's column last week, which I'll excerpt next....

HT: reader Sara; cartoon credit: Chuck Asay, Townhall.com, November 28]

Thanks to bloggers, CNN was quickly exposed as leaning its YouTube Republican presidential candidate debate left by choosing Democrat-affiliated questioners and questions.

The retired gay general asking the "gays in the military" question has been much discussed. We now know he's a Hillary worker on the homosexual issue.

Other ringers have been noted, including Journey from Arlington, TX, who it turned out was an Edwards supporter.

The question is whether CNN purposefully chose these people are simply failed to research their backgrounds. Most pundits think the latter.

But I'm finding it harder to believe that of 5,000 submissions, Anderson Cooper and CNN picked Journey's question blindly. Hers was on abortion....

I'm quoted today in the Los Angeles Times on National Right to Life's impending endorsement of Fred Thompson for president....

The Guttmacher Institute states up to 1.2 million illegal abortions were committed a year in the U.S. before abortion were legalized.

This was demonstrated to be a wildly inflated number when about the same number of abortions went on to be committed legally every year. Logic says that with the ease of finding legal abortionists and fear removed, that figure should have at least doubled, if not tripled or quadrupled, or maybe more.

Well, abortion proponents decided to stick with the 1 million figure when pushing legalized abortion in Mexico City earlier this year. If it worked once, they thought, it could work again. And it did. They were successful.

But Newsbusters has busted the abortion embellishers and their willing accomplice, the Los Angeles Times....

In the words of the Tribune's Swamp blogger, televangelist Pat Robertson's endorsement of Rudy Giuliani yesterday was "straight out weird."

I've never thought much of Robertson one way or the other. As an evangelical I considered him a slightly embarrassing uncle I endured for the sake of the family. Whatever impact he had was before my time, but I respected him for whatever that was.

This morning I complimented the British press, and this evening I must say they're crackers.

On November 3 London's Telegraph published "The most influential US conservatives."

And topping the list of 100?

Rudy Giuliani.

That's right. Crazy.

Here's their top 20....

A couple in West Chester, OH, is under fire for a Halloween yard display neighbors think goes too far.

I don't know why a barbequed baby would defy the sensibilities of a pro-abort.

Here's the news story:

[HT: WorldNetDaily via friend Arlene; photo credit: WLWT]

The first red flag you'll note re: this Denver NBC affiliate's coverage yesterday (click to video link) of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains' ambitious plan to build PP's new largest abortion mill in the U.S., at 50,000 sq. ft., is there are only two talking heads in the picture: a news anchor and one interviewee, a PP proponent. Hello, balance?

The interviewee is Denver Post business columnist Al Lewis, who had no business writing a pro-abortion opinion piece under the guise of reporting on the Weitz Company, hired by PP to build the mill....

Fox News will show a documentary on abortion this Saturday:

Fox News cameras went inside an operating room as a 20-year-old student underwent an abortion, as part of a documentary titled "Facing Reality, Choice," that will air Saturday, Oct. 27, at 9 p.m. ET on Fox News Channel....

I wrote the other day on the Democrats' shameless exploitation of brain-damaged, 12-year-old Graeme Frost to read their September 29 weekly radio address promoting their SCHIP expansion plan.

In the statement prepared for him, Frost insinuated he would not have received the help he needed after a presidential veto of the new Democrat plan, which was false.

Now the New York Times reported October 9 the Frost family is coming under fire for having too much means to qualify for SCHIP. Nancy Pelosi managed to exploit the boy again by hiding behind him to avoid fire....

Were he a columnist in WWII, Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune would have demanded that all Japanese-Americans pledge not to bomb any ships at sea.

That's the equivalent of his insulting October 2 post, "Will abortion protesters be as good as their lawsuit claims they are?"

After writing about the libel suit pro-lifers filed against Planned Parenthood and Steve Trombley, Zorn wrote....

Warning: Clicking on any links in this post will take you to gross-out humor complete with expletives.

Watch tonight's opening episode of season 2 of Comedy Central's Sarah Silverman show, "as Sarah looks back on her three abortions," which she made just to get a rise from people like me to the delight of anti-establishment rebels without a cause across America. Here's the trailer:

I never heard of Silverman before today but figured from that trailer her humor was the mindless gutter type that gets a laugh simply for swearing and discussing bodily functions. This was confirmed by watching the intro for season 1....

Chicago Tribune columnist Dennis Byrne had two columns out today, one in the Trib and one at RealClearPolitics.com.

The topics of both were the same: the deceptive practices of Planned Parenthood Aurora, but the columns went different directions. In the RCP piece, Byrne took on fellow Tribune columnist Eric Zorn for his September 20 piece, which we discussed, "In defense of Planned Parenthood's deceptions in Aurora: Sometimes the only way to get fairness will make your foes cry foul."

I don't know if the Trib disallows columnists from publicly jousting one another on its pages, or if Byrne just thought better of it. But here's what he said about Zorn's column in RCP. The last two paragraphs were particularly inspired....

I was pleasantly surprised news organizations covering the Aurora Planned Parenthood protest Saturday approximated our numbers accurately, calling it "huge" even. Good photo in the Daily Herald.

But there were other signs of bias. Sometimes it is subtle, but it's usually there.

Chicago Tribune:

... Efforts to shutter the clinic continued with an abortion protest Aug. 16 that drew 400 abortion opponents... and a few dozen abortion-rights proponents....

Why are we "abortion opponents" and they "abortion-rights proponents"? The word "rights" codifies their position....

The Wichita Eagle has an editorial today calling on late-term abortionist George Tiller's new judge, Tony Powell, to recuse himself from the high profile case against Tiller.

Tiller is charged with 19 misdemeanor counts for violating a KS law mandating that an abortionist get a second opinion as to the necessity of a late-term abortion from a doctor s/he has no financial ties to.

Wichita Eagle editors found it "startling that presiding Criminal Court Judge Greg Waller last week assigned Powell to this case in the first place, given the potential conflict of interest."

It turns out Powell is a staunch pro-lifer and former legislator who helped write the law Tiller is charged with, which is actually funny. But who would better understand its intent?

But Wichita Eagle editors had nothing to say about "potential conflict of interest" when Waller himself was assigned to the case, and it was revealed last week that two of Tiller's attorneys endorsed Waller's reelection in 1998, and one of those attorneys contributed to Waller's '98 and '06 campaigns.

Reader Sarah from the UK sent me a link to a 1983 PBS Frontline episode entitled, "Abortion Clinic." I was previously unaware of it (am I alone?) and viewed it Saturday, finding it deeply disturbing yet remarkable. It has not been far from the front of my mind since. I'm angry all over again. Abortion is so incredibly vile.

"Abortion Clinic" won the Emmy in 1983 for Outstanding Background/Analysis of a Single Current Story.

Frontline made "Abortion Clinic" available online for its 20th anniversary in 2003, saying, "Two decades later, it remains one of the most powerful stories Frontline has ever told."

"Abortion Clinic" was filmed in Chester, PA, a small industrial town south of Philadelphia that had a 30% unemployment rate at the time, according to Frontline.

The mill is the Reproductive Health and Counseling Center, located then in the former library of Crozer Seminary. (Crozer was an American Baptist Church school, a pro-abortion demonination, which explains the sale approval. Noteworthy is that Martin Luther King, Jr., graduated from Crozer.)

Made 24 years ago, "Abortion Clinic" is not something I think could be filmed today. Clincs have clammed up, as have pregnant mothers, as has the mainstream media.

There are six chapters to this episode, all which I recommend viewing.

What you will see in this segment is the abortion of Barbara - everything but the blood and guts. It was distressing to know I was watching a child being killed. It was distressing to juxtapose the mother's obvious emotional trauma with pro-aborts who deny abortion is psychologically damaging. The sound of the suction machine was even distressing.

Click on the photo below. Moderator Bethany has kindly created a link:

The next video clip is of Helen's abortion, this one complete with some blood and guts. Note the assistant keeps the suction cannister covered while in the room. Note the fleeting glimpse of complete little body parts.

Crotchety, 86-year-old liberal journalist Helen Thomas is completely undeserving of her front row seat in the White House press room. Some elders don't deserve respect. She recently spoke at a Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa fundraiser.

Reported Lynda Waddington of Helen's speech at RH (Reproductive Health) Reality Check today:

"It seems the present conservative [U.S. Supreme] Court is targeting Roe v. Wade and there's not much you can do about it unless Congress is willing to deal with these touchy subjects," she said. "Without pressure, I doubt they will."...

Thomas also admits that when she was originally told the conservatives' plans for the court, she didn't fully understand the implications.

"People were saying during the [Ronald] Reagan administration that this was about the Supreme Court," she said. "I wasn't sure at that time what they meant. But the truth is that the court is their one last resort to push their agenda. It is their one last resort to prevail."...

"Let's return to the true ideals of the Bill of Rights," she said. "The issue is not the right to live. The issue is the kind of life. The issue is freedom without government or outside interference."

We're pushing our agenda through the courts?

The issue is not the right to life but the kind of life? What goes around comes around, Helen. In that circle of life, you're a little too close to a time when you're going to be as helpless as those preborns you advocate killing. And by "kind of life," you must mean one's caregiver?

The New York Times reported July 17 that while the number of baby boomer elderly people is increasing, "the number of doctors trained in geriatric medicine is declining." Wonder why.

The first question elderly people seeking medical treatment should be asked is if they are pro-life or pro-choice. If they answer the latter, they should be moved to the back of the line.

[Hat tip: Reader jasper; photo of Helen's nameplate from front row center of the new White House news room was taken by me last week.]

I previously blogged about two recently released movies with strong pro-life plots. Both female leads in Waitress and Knocked Up encountered crisis pregnancies and soundly rejected abortion.

In the Washington Post this past Sunday, columnist Ann Hornaday incredibly blamed this on Hollywood - for being afraid of controversy? Please.

Of course, this is false. These days Hollywood enjoys poking controversial sticks in America's face, badgering us from Brokeback Mountain to Iwo Jima.

But Hornaday theorized that on the topic of abortion, Hollywood has wilted....

"Pro-choice." Blah blah.

The Left's reintroduction of legislation called the Fairness Doctrine is another of their blatant attempts to squelch choice, this time by forcing liberal doctrine on Americans, payback for the failure of Air America, someone said.

This would affect the Internet, as Adam Thierer from the City Journal explained:

Scarcity-obsessed Dennis Kucinich has recently introduced plans in Congress to revive the Fairness Doctrine, which once let government regulators police the airwaves to ensure a balancing of viewpoints, however that's defined. A new Fairness Doctrine would affect most directly opinion-based talk radio, a medium that just happens to be dominated by conservatives. If a station wanted to run William Bennett's show under such a regime, they might now have to broadcast a left-wing alternative, too, even if it had poor ratings, which generally has been the case with liberal talk....

The following left-wing cartoons ran in mainstream media (MSM) newspapers like the Washington Post or Tribune Media this past week.

What do they all have in common?

For starters, every single one omits the word "embryonic" when describing the stem cell legislation President Bush vetoed June 20.

Oversight? Absolutely not, particularly since in his very speech vetoing taxpayer-funded embryo destruction the President announced he had issued an executive order enhancing federal support of adult pluripotent stem cells (same pliable attribute as embryonic).

Many of these cartoons contain outright lies, such as #3, which says Bush would veto "any" stem cell research; or #4 and #6, which show Bush denying stem cell help to spinal cord injury or sick people in general.

In fact, adult stem cells have successfully treated at least 73 assorted cancers, auto-immune disorders like Type I Diabetes, immunodeficiencies, anemias/blood deficiencies, wounds, metabolic disorders, and these disease types: heart, liver, bladder, eye, neural degenerative (including Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries, and stroke).

Treatments from embyo destruction research? 0.

In fact, the Bush administration has provided over $3 billion tax dollars for ethical adult stem cell research, and $130 illion for research on embryos that had already been destroyed before 2001.

These cartoons provide a "Where's Waldo" of hidden and not so hidden misinformation. What more do you see?

(See five more cartoons on page 2.)

The July issue of Glamour magazine features a story about 28-year-old Erin Zammett, a Glamour staffer who decided to get pregnant despite the fact she has a form of leukemia so serious as to be often fatal until recently.

Erin knew in advance she would have to go off her cancer med during pregnancy, which compounded the controversy of her decision. She is due with a boy Sept. 1.

Erin got hate mail when she wrote in Glamour last summer of her decision to get pregnant.

Stop for a sec before reading on. From whom do you think Erin got that hate mail, pro-lifers or pro-aborts?

Big hint. Here is the email Erin received that she said "got to me the most."

"Frankly, it disturbs me that you value your own life, and your husband's commitment, so little that you would risk everything so that your eggs may be fertilized. How selfish."

Frankly, that sounds like a certain commenter on our blog. Say it ain't so?

Kudos to Glamour, a decidedly pro-abortion publication, for letting Erin freely tell her story.

Liberal editorial staff must have had a difficult time not striking such lines as, "I started eating for two," and "I'm very attached to the baby these days. Feeling him move is amazing, and I could stare at the sonogram pictures for hours."

Then again, this is a wanted baby, so it's ok to acknowledge him as a person, right?

The story is not yet available online, but you can access Erin's blog.

[Photo, courtesy of Erin's blog, is of her and her husband Nick.]

From the AP yesterday:

City Council Rescinds 'Pro-Choice' Declaration

[The] Philadelphia City Council overturned a week-old declaration that Philadelphia is a "pro-choice city."

The council adopted a resolution last week saying Philadelphia supports "women's reproductive rights and freedom" and defends "the right to choose a legal and safe abortion as a final but critical option for women." That passed by a 9-8 margin.

Five council members switched their vote at Thursday's meeting and rescinded the symbolic declaration with a 13-4 vote.

Councilman Frank Rizzo, a Republican, sponsored the resolution to rescind, calling the whole situation an embarrassment.

"I think that we should stay away from issues like this that cause division in our city," Rizzo said.

Citizen reported the culprit behind the blondell moment:

The resolution was introduced by Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown at the request of Planned Parenthood, which helped her craft the document.

Philadelphia would have been the largest U.S. jurisdiction to adopt such a resolution, joining the California cities of West Hollywood, Berkeley and Santa Cruz.

Paul McCartney has always been my favorite Beatle. Who knew John Lennon, posthumously, would compete?

Yoko Ono, though... stiill crazy after all these years.

In a BBC interview earlier this week, Ono revealed a surprisingly burqa'd attitude when she said she would have aborted son Sean had John not wanted the "burden" (although if more women were honest, they would concur).

Flash forward, and Yoko said John would have escaped murder had he not insisted on going home to see Sean, then five, rather than go to dinner.

I'm glad, of course, Ono didn't abort, but is she now trying to bury Sean psychologically? The article:

John Lennon stopped wife Yoko Ono from aborting their only son Sean.

Ono was unsure if she should keep the unborn child because it was conceived shortly after the couple were reunited after splitting up for 18 months in the early 70s.

She told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs: "I know it sounds strange now but I thought, well, I should let John decide whether to keep it or not.

"We'd just got back together and I became pregnant very soon, and I didn't know if it was the right moment to have a child because maybe he didn't want it. I didn't want to burden him with something he didn't want.

"He said, 'Of course we are going to keep it', and he was really upset with my remark."

Ono, who married Lennon in 1969, gave birth to Sean in 1975.

Lennon took a five-year career break to help raise Sean and virtually stopped playing the guitar and creating music.

Lennon, who was murdered by crazed fan Mark Chapman in New York in December 1980, was desperate to get home to see Sean on the night of his death.

Ono, 74, revealed: "I said, 'Shall we go out and have dinner before we go home.' John was saying he wanted to go home before Sean went to sleep. He was concerned about that. This is the last thing he said, that he wanted to see Sean."

A short Rolling Stone piece yesterday on Fred Thompson's pro-life conversion demonstrated clearly how men use abortion to exploit women. Rolling stones gather no pebbles, as we know.

Most interesting is the author - a man, of course - made a "red-blooded" irresponsible male assumption that Thompson could only have changed his view on abortion for one reason: His own male sexual appetite is now being fed without fear of consequences.

The author made no apologies for his assumption. In fact, he considered abortion an option for unmarried men that "needs to stay 'on the table,'" pardon the disgusting pun:

Once a Pro-Choice Skirt Chaser, Now Standard Bearer of the Religious Right?

"Abortions should be legal in all circumstances as long as the procedure is completed within the first trimester of the pregnancy." - A survey question to which Thompson checked yes in 1994.

"I do not believe abortion should be criminalized." - Fred Thompson in 1996

"I was single for a long time, and, yep, I chased a lot of women. And a lot of women chased me. And those that chased me tended to catch me." - Thompson earlier this year describing his 1985-2002 bachelorhood.

Here's the deal about "Hollywood Fred" Thompson.

It's the same deal for most red-blooded American men who routinely bed down with women they're not married to. Like bombing Iran, abortion is never a first, second, or even fifth choice. But it is an option that needs to stay "on the table."

When Fred was sleeping around, abortion was not the government's business.

Now that he's re-married with a new batch of young kids he's changed his tune, as seen in this FoxNews interview with Chris Wallace:

WALLACE: Abortion?

THOMPSON: Pro-life.

WALLACE: Do you want to overturn Roe vs. Wade?

THOMPSON: I think Roe vs. Wade was bad law and bad medical science.... I think it was wrong.

It's easy to be "pro-life" when you're a settled father and family man. It's another thing altogether to oppose abortion in absolute terms when you're a Hollywood actor playing the field and you face the prospect of unintentionally bringing a child into the world with your latest conquest.

Not everyone wants to live out their own personal Knocked Up script. When it was relevant to him, Fred Thompson respected that choice.

~ Tim Dickinson

There's no doubt the author means "choice" as in "male choice."

In response to a 1:40 video contest challenge to make a video under 1:30 on the topic of social unrest by a guy named SeanBedLam, of whom I was not hip enough to be previously aware, in came this June 6 entry from Elaina43:

Elaina43 really wants to win. She even submitted a video plea on June 8 requesting a big a** favor of us to vote for her video. She was excited that Sean commended her video, saying, "This is a fantastically good video and I'm in love with it."

I agree. The reasons Elaina listed for legalized abortion were fabulous. In fact, I wrote Elaina this morning recommending she take her video off of embed mode on YouTube so bloggers could publicize it. I'm happy to report she has done so.

Here were Elaina's arguments:

1. Preborn babies should be killed to avoid placing them in uncertain adoptive homes.

2. Preborn babies of poor and uninsured mothers should be killed.

3. Abortion minded mothers would make bad parents anyway.

4. Preborn babies whose mothers are atheists should be aborted.

5. Preborn babies have no souls anyway.

Great points, Elaina43! Great last line! Vote for Elaina43! Vote here by July 4!

I wrote a column May 9 about pro-abort Rosie O'Donnell's disengenuous vow May 1 to stop sparring with conservative co-host on The View, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, because Hasselbeck was pregnant.

I reported two days ago O'Donnell broke her vow. Big surprise.

That very day, O'Donnell and Hasselbeck got into a major disagreement on the air, after which it was reported O'Donnell immediately quit the show three weeks before her contract expired.

I have seen news clips of the joust and thought it looked somewhat serious, perhaps a little theatrical. I thought Elisabeth pushed bully Rosie back well.

But I just watched the entire 10 minute segment on YouTube, and in context you see it was very serious. Hasselbeck really got to O'Donnell, which isn't clear from the clips. Watch O'Donnell's face at the end.

On Rosie's blog you get more of an insight to what she's thinking. I can't believe her feelings are hurt. She has made incredible accusations about 9/11, the Iraq War, President Bush, the Supreme Court, and the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, to name just some, and apparently is offended by two-way conversations about them.

I'm shocked, too, that the person to whom Rosie condescended got the best of her. It must be the hormones of pregnancy. They're empowering, you know.

Reader SH sent this Reuters/ABC News article, astutely noting that while the headline read, "Woman jailed for trying to steal fetus from womb," she was charged with "aggravated assault on an unborn child."

Both mother and fetus survived the attack. The fetus became a child and was placed for adoption, as previously planned.

See also, "Left says proof of Right's takeover: media uses 'unborn child' over 'fetus'."

My heart leapt when I read the accusation by Political Research Associates, a group "devoted to the study and documentation of right wing political movements in the United States," and which consults for "groups... organizing to oppose campaigns undertaken by the radical right," in the May 20 Somerville News:

"The Christian right is so common now people don't realize the degree to which it has become part of our thinking about the way things should be done," [PRA co-founder and ACLU member Chip Berlet] said.

The parlance of the anti-choice movement, for example, has become institutionalized in Boston's newspaper of record. "Unborn child is now used by the Boston Globe instead of fetus," [senior researcher Pat] Chamberlain said.

My, such paranoia about a perfectly legitimate term.

However, a check of the Boston Globe revealed it has used "fetus" in articles 2,548 times dating back to 1979, when its archives listing began, and "unborn child" only 1,160 times. A check to see whether PRA's fear is a recent development showed BG has used "fetus" 39 times in 2007 and "unborn child" 33 times. So, maybe so?

No, it appears BG may only use the term "unborn child" when "fetus" would sound ridiculous:

Julia Roberts plans to save money by dressing her unborn child in hand-me-downs and charity shop clothes. (May 4, 2007)

If you want to know if your marriage will work or what to name your unborn child and are looking for an alternative to laying out the tarot cards, reading the tea leaves, or heading to a psychic.... (April 27, 2007)

A man tried to hire someone to kill his unborn child after learning his ex-girlfriend was pregnant and about to give birth.... [Charles] Young indicated he wanted his ex-girlfriend injured in such a way that the unborn child would die, the sheriff said.... (Oct. 13, 2006)

Ridiculous is what PRA is if it thinks MSM is coming anywhere close to treating our topic with objectivity.

And PRA apparently needs researchers who don't panic and lose their wits when reading "unborn child."

[The April 27 photo of Roberts, pregnant with her third fetus, is courtesy of People.]

MSNBC reported May 13 on surgery conducted in 2006 on a preborn baby 5 months old who was discovered to have a killer tumor growing in his chest.

This story was similar to that of Baby Samuel, which we discussed at length as it related to a recent House episode here, here, here, and here.

From the MSNBC story:

Dr. Darrell Cass: It's high-stakes surgery. It's the only thing we do where you have to go through a normal patient to get to a fetus - another patient that's dying.

My first question is: I wonder how pro-aborts can explain that the fetus was a "patient"?

As quoted from News Busters:

Brian Williams set up the May 11 NBC Nightly News story from David Gregory:

"Now to the big political story of the week, having to do with the leading GOP candidate for the President's job. Most Americans believe a woman has a right to an abortion. Most Republicans do not. Rudy Giuliani is running as a Republican with a pro-abortion rights record which he tried to explain again today."

vs.

[Hat tip: reader jasper]

Last night on Hannity and Colmes there was this interesting exchange between Alan Colmes and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney:

COLMES: The abortion issue keeps coming up. And you were pro-Roe vs. Wade upholding it as governor of Massachusetts. You said just a couple of years ago you had a change of heart about abortion. What happened. Because you later said that a botched abortion in your family had you wanting to uphold Roe vs. Wade.

You then said a couple of years ago you had a change of heart. Can you help us understand what specifically IT was that made you change your view on that?

ROMNEY: First, what I found interesting is, had I been pro-life and then changed to pro-choice, no one would ask the question....

Last week liberal bloggers, paranoid that their mouthpieces were getting mushmouth, complained (like here, here, and here) MSM didn't give enough attention to the Austin abortion mill bombing that never happened.

This week a liberal is complaining that MSM isn't amenable to pro-abortion cartoons lately either:

Editorial artists who dare to draw cartoons and comics espousing abortion rights can face difficulty getting published. The disturbing track record offers more evidence of a rightward lurch by the U.S. media. The shift became apparent after Republicans won Congress in 1994. The boot-licking increased when George W. Bush took office and it only intensified after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Whether recent Democratic victories significantly embolden the mainstream press remains to be seen.

M.G. Lord, formerly editorial cartoonist at Newsday, is not optimistic. She recalls that editors at the New York paper discouraged her from addressing religious issues, including abortion, which, she admits, is "so complicated that it does not lend itself to simple graphic messages."

Sorry, Ms. Lord. Untrue. There are indeed simple graphic messages that uncomplicate abortion real fast. They're just not funny.

Michael Clancy, the photographer who snapped the photo in 1999 of Baby Samuel Armas reaching out of his mother's uterus to hold the finger of his surgeon, attended a pregnancy care center banquet last month, where he and Samuel's mother Julie spoke.

Wrote Michael in an email to me, "It was a God moment when at the end of her presentation, Samuel, at seven years old, climbed the stairs and took his place beside her at the podium. A standing ovation ensued and it was one of several times that night I more than teared up, I cried."

Here is a photo of Samuel and Michael, taken in March 2007.

See previous House blog posts here, here, here, and here.

During our conversations (here, here, and here) about an April 3 House MD episode about House's apparent pro-life conversion after a preborn baby grasped his hand during surgery, a dispute arose whether the real photo the storyline was obviously based on was honest.

Well, the photographer who took that picture, Michael Clancy, added a comment early this morning to my first House post to set the record straight. I'm reposting it on page two.

The UK's Guardian Unlimited story yesterday began with this intriguing teaser:

Broadcaster and critic Miranda Sawyer was confident in her liberal, feminist, pro-choice views. Then she had a baby, and watched her beloved grandmother die. On a remarkable journey across America, she had to question her beliefs.

Sawyer made a documentary about abortion in the U.S. that will air April 11 in Britain. Bottom line: Sawyer is still pro-abortion. But clearly conflicted, she has dialed down what she considers acceptable. Given that, she had interesting observations....

We previously discussed last week's House episode featuring surgery on a preborn baby here and here. The the video clip of the pertinent section of the show has been put on YouTube:

[Hat tip: Fran]

We are not the only ones discussing Tuesday's episode of House M.D.. Other pro-life blogs are, too. Check here and here.

Here is an excerpt from The Greybook Institute blog, which delves into the pro-life aspect of the plot. (I've lifted all photos from GI, too.):

On Tuesday night, April 3, 2007, one of the most remarkably cogent pro-life drama presentations was broadcast in a most unlikely venue, Fox Network's otherwise utterly amoral doctor show, House.

The powerfully emotional episode, entitled Fetal Position, was amazing in its in-depth handling of the abortion debate and went so far as to reenact a now famous photograph used widely in pro-life circles depicting a tiny pre-born baby's hand grasping the finger of a surgeon performing an in utero operation....

In an episode drawn in part from the photo seen round the world, an episode of Fox's t.v. show House M.D. last night featured surgery of a preborn baby who grasped his surgeon's hand. The show centered on the topic of abortion, with the sanctity of life winning.

You can read a detailed recap of the episode here, but reader Jeff provided a less technical and more compressed synopsis....

Love the title KaiserNetwork.org, a group that supports abortion, gave its blurb this morning about pregnancy care centers reaching out to black women in urban areas: "NPR program features discussion on antiabortion groups targeting blacks in urban communities."

"Targeting"? Let's get this straight. PRCs want to save black children and educate and support their mothers, and this is "targeting"?

Meanwhile, according to Alan Guttmacher, Planned Parenthood's research unit...

I'm sorry to report the Associated Press's liberal bias is progressing to schizophrenia. Its slanted story today against Justice For All's graphic exhibit on a college campus was preceded by this shocking headline: "Pro-life exhibit sparks discussion at Auburn."

What, "Pro-life"?

Or perhaps the AP was attempting to tease, because after raising hopes it dashed all fairness to the rocks.

Unless I told you, you would never know exactly what it was about JFA's display that made pro-aborts mad, other than its dimensions, a "20-by-30-foot tri-fold." But the AP certainly let you know pro-aborts were mad. The only photo accompanying the story was of them:

And the only quoted response to the display was by them:

After seeing the exhibit, seniors Shannon Symuleski and Lauren Bahr made signs and T-shirts supporting a woman's right to abortion and joined abortion advocates on the lawn Tuesday.

"We found it offensive and thought something should be said," Symuleski said.

Here is one of the panels that was so offensive:

Sorry about the small photo. I'm not savvy enough to figure out how to convert pdf to jpg. (Thanks in advance to anyone who can tell me how.)

The entire exhibit can be viewed here: http://jfaweb.org/exhibit.html

The Onion has written a satirical piece on how abortion could be written into a t.v. sitcom. The fictitious CBS show is Same Difference, and in an upcoming episode:

... star Kirsten Sumner's character, Trish O'Connell, the sharp-tongued but beautiful wife of portly Chicago bread-truck driver Greg O'Connell, played by Carl Hubbard, will reveal to her husband she was pregnant and had an abortion without his knowledge. Trish's revelation comprises the secondary, or "B," story of the episode, in which Greg eats a meatball sandwich against his wife's wishes.

The abortion story line had to be written into the show, said fictitious producers, because in real life Sumner had a late term abortion after the show had already acknowledged her pregnancy....

I read that a movie released March 9 called The Ultimate Gift has been dissed by MSM reviewers because it contains an anti-abortion message. So my daughter (home from college on spring break) and I went to see it this afternoon.

Plot: "When his wealthy grandfather dies, trust fund baby Jason Stevens anticipates a big inheritance. Instead, his grandfather has devised a crash course on life: 12 tasks (or "gifts") designed to challenge Jason in improbable ways, sending him on a journey of self-discovery and forcing him to determine what is most important in life: money or happiness." ~ Fox Family Films

Trailer:

Stars: James Garner, Brian Dennehy, Lee Meriwether, and young Abigail Breslin (who made this movie before attaining fame in Little Miss Sunshine); Washington Post: "well-acted by a first rate cast."

The movie contains one pro-life line: After a single mom and love interest tells Jason she got pregnant in college, she says, "Emily... she's the best decision I ever made."

That's it. For that The Ultimate Gift earned these complaints by reviewers....

I'm glad someone has addressed the LA Times' recent biased pro-Planned-Parenthood-anti-pregancy-care-centers-anti-abortion/breast-cancer-link article, and very well.

Vote now on AOL on its poll question whether you would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned.

[hat tip: reader Marilyn]

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Cindy Richards must surely be considered as much an embarrassment to the anti-life movement as Cindy Sheehan is to the anti-war movement.  Richards does her side no favors.

Reason #1: Richards uses Valentines Day as a hook to promote abortion in her column today, tacky to say the least....

Read Reasons 2-4 on page 2.

You would have a difficult time figuring out Barack Obama supports infanticide by the Associated Press story yesterday entitled, "Obama Record May Be Gold Mine For Critics."

Each of five times the AP referred to Obama's votes as state Senator to allow infanticide to continue in Illinois, it softened the blow to make it unintelligible to the fetus on the street. Yes, the AP's use of "fetus" in its story was as incorrect and ridiculous as that.

Any dictionary defines "fetus" as "an unborn or unhatched vertebrate... a developing human from usually three months after conception to birth."

And it's not as if the English language isn't rich with terminology to properly describe the human after birth - neonate, newborn, baby, infant, or child, to name five.

But the AP couldn't admit abortion has extended to killing born children in the U.S.:

[Obama] voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive....

One vote that especially riled abortion opponents involved restrictions on a type of abortion where the fetus sometimes survives, occasionally for hours. The restrictions, which never became law, included requiring the presence of a second doctor to care for the fetus....

Abortion opponents see Obama's vote on medical care for aborted fetuses as a refusal to protect the helpless. Some have even accused him of supporting infanticide....

Obama - who joined several other Democrats in voting "present" in 2001 and "no" the next year - argued the legislation was worded in a way that unconstitutionally threatened a woman's right to abortion by defining the fetus as a child.

Such a ridiculous claim, one that the World Health Organization in 1950, the United Nations in 1955, and the U.S. Congress and president in 2002 all fell for when adapting identical language to define nonfetushood.

But not Obama or the AP, both smarter than the rest of the world, modernday Renaissance fetuses.

[Photo credit: AP]

Liberal Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg wrote a fasinating column yesterday, after stumbling on two of Pro-Life Action League's graphic signs displays in downtown Chicago during the course of one depressing day. Last paragraph:

That's the problem with the whole conflict. There's no balance. On one side you've got guys like Joe Scheidler, practically a biblical figure, John Brown holding a staff and spreading his arms over bleeding Kansas. On the other, you have bland rationality under the by-definition indecisive banner of "choice" (hmmm, which one, let's see ...) afraid to give their names and lacking anywhere near the passion their opponents possess. It hardly seems a fair fight.

Read entire column on page 2.

The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn has challenged me to a blog duel regarding his piece, "Women in prison - a 'partial-birth' abortion issue for the left?"

Eric is excited to have found a wedge issue that might outdo the pro-life movement's foremost wedge issue, partial birth abortion, which he admits is "grisly" and "repulse[s] even many who favor abortion rights," although he supports it.

Eric based his piece on an April 9 New York Times piece entitled "Pro-Life Nation."

Writer Jack Hitt traveled to El Salvador, where abortion is illegal and aborting mothers are prosecuted, and arranged clandestine meetings with frightened women and the back alley (although noble) hacks how aborted them.

The reason for such a piece is clear: to frighten U.S. women that soon "forensic vagina inspectors," as they are called in El Salvador, will come pounding on their doors if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Pounced Eric....

Gotta the story headline in today's Sunday Times out of London: "US states join abortion revolt to bring back ban."

Regarding the Herald News' rejection of Right to Life of Will County's pro-life ads three weeks ago, Steve Vanisko of Joliet's Herald News copied me on the following email he wrote to ABC yesterday:

After re-examining the ads that were submitted by Will County Right To Life, The Herald News has decided that the ads will be allowed to run should this group decide to do so. For the record, the original decision to not run them was mine and at no point did I state that the ads were “too graphic”. If that was stated by a representative of this newspaper, it was done so in error.

I e-mailed Jill Stanek Sunday afternoon and left a message with the local contact before 9:00am this morning requesting that they contact me. The purpose of this contact was to inform them of my decision.

Steve Vanisko
Advertising Director
The Herald News

Several pro-lifers also forwarded me the same note they received from Mr. Vanisko in response to their emails to the newspaper.

I appreciate that Mr. Vanisko changed his mind on the matter. However, I do not appreciate his questioning the fact that his subordinate did relay to us that he/the advertising department originally rejected our ads because they considered them "too graphic." Our " local contact" with the newspaper wrote down what the ad rep said verbatim, including also, "We have to be careful."

Nevertheless, this is a victory for the pro-life movement, demonstrating increasing influence with MSM. Thanks to all news organizations and bloggers who publicized the censorship and to all pro-lifers who emailed the newspaper.

In the end, I must also thank the Herald News. Whereas Right to Life of Will County would have paid hundreds of dollars for our ad to be seen by only thousands of people, we ended up paying zero dollars, and the ad was seen by millions of people.

I must also commend the Herald News for posting a letter to the editor from me yesterday on another pro-life topic, thereby demonstrating good will.

FYI, I have been invited on The Laura Ingraham Show at 11:15 EST today to discuss the ad flap.

Update: Due to breaking news, I've been bumped to tomorrow, about 10:30 a.m.

Update, 2/14: Follow-up email from Steve Vanisko, posted with his permission:

Jill,

I just read the latest news on your site and felt compelled to clarify one item.

My point in indicating that I never stated that the ads were "too graphic" was to emphasize that I (that's me, the one who made the decision) never said (or even implied) that were the case. I simply told my rep yes to two ads and no to three of them--with no other comment. When this newspaper declines and ad, it is done so with no explanation. That is the policy that has been established so comments like "too graphic" don't take on a life form like they did in this instance.

My sales rep apparently used the "too graphic" phrase in her conversation with [name of RTL of Will Co. contact]. Her other comment about being careful was inappropriate as well. Due to this error, these words were inaccurately portrayed as the official stance of this newspaper. Of all that happened, the fallout from her decision to expound on this decision is what troubles me most. Given our poor handling of this situation, I talked to [name of contact] yesterday and asked her to deal with me directly in the future.

Steve

Yesterday CNS News picked up on my blog post about The Herald News refusing to run Right to Life of Will County's ads featuring ultrasound pictures. The paper stated the ads were "too graphic."

Last night Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume picked up the story, and Fox News is still covering the story today....

Update: Janet Folger will interview me about this on her Faith2Action radio show this afternoon at 2:30p EST.

Hat tip: Tim from ProLifeBlogs.com

Link to CNS News story: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200602\CUL20060209a.html

Link to LifeNews.com story: http://www.lifenews.com/state1399.html

Link to censored ads: http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2006/02/whats_wrong_wit_1.html

On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a local newspaper refused to run any of the three following ads to be paid for by Will County Right to Life in Illinois. The newspaper's ad department stated they were too "graphic." Since when are ultrasounds "graphic"? In fact, these ultrasound photos are beautiful. Parents proudly display them on their refrigerators, for goodness sakes.

What's wrong with these pictures? Why is the mainstream media censoring the truth about preborn babies?

From AUL: "On Tuesday November 8 at 9pm ET,
PBS’s Frontline series will present a documentary
chronicling the 13-year effort in Mississippi to reduce
abortion by passing common-sense laws such as
parental involvement and informed consent."

The title of the program is, "The last abortion clinic."

Read PBS's description of the program.

Read World Magazine's review of program.

Read Focus on the Family's review.

Order a PBS video or dvd of the program.

An op ed writer in yesterday's TimesHerald.com justified the need to continue aborting due to the fiscal drain these children would otherwise cause us. They would be financial burdens to our taxes, insurance, and foster care system, so the writer postulates.

She does spin one point I say great to:

If legally-recognized "life" begins at conception, there will be serious economic ramifications. Currently, dependent exemptions on taxes are only permitted for children that are alive outside the womb. But if life starts at conception, so too should "dependent" status.

However, she glaringly overlooks our dried-up Social Security system, precisely so because the payers have been killed by abortion.

She also overlooks the growing crisis of young medical workers to care for the old, fat-cat pro-aborts. Etc., etc., etc.

Dr. Allan Carlson of the Howard Center estimated last year that the cumulative lost income of 45 million aborted children is nearly $4 trillion. He estimated the lost net Social Security income will be $118 billion in 2010. See page 2 to access his paper, including endnotes.

United Press International's August 10 story on the "emotional controversy concerning stem cell research" left out the reason for the emotional controversy concerning stem cell research: Embryos. Only when absolutely forced to explain does the UPI mention embryos in its story, on page 2:

I'm shocked that I'm still shocked. Just when you think you've seen the depths of human depravity....

The August 9 Associated Press article, "Chinese Artist Defends Fetus Artwork," explained:

A Chinese artist who grafted the head of a human fetus onto the body of a bird has defended his work as art after a Swiss museum withdrew the piece from an exhibit.

What kind of museum would allow such "art" in the first place? But the curator of Bern Art Museum in Switzerland only removed it "because museum directors didn't want the controversy surrounding it to overshadow the rest of the 'Mahjong' exhibit...."

There was a strangely positive aside in this grossly surreal article. The AP appropriately called pro-lifers who are monitoring China's forced abortion policy "human rights groups," which I've not known MSM to call us before. Is MSM admitting that aborted babies are human?

Hat tip: Reader Laura.

The chairman of Angus Reid Consultants, based in Vancouver, Canada, states the company's mission is "dedicated to understanding public opinion and consumer attitudes in North America and around the world."

I would suggest the company work a little harder on understanding before proclaiming what we think.

On Saturday, AR released a rambling report entitled, "Americans Remain Split Over Abortion." Its first paragraph stated:

The topic of pregnancy termination remains very divisive in the United States, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 52 per cent of respondents describe themselves as Pro-Choice, while 41 per cent say they are Pro-Life.

That was the end of AR's take of how America feels about abortion. But an analyzation of the Rasmussen poll itself tells a different story, indicating that in reality we are not "divisive" about abortion but really "schizophrenic":

Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters say they are pro-choice while 41% are pro-life....

Fifty-two percent (52%) of voters say that abortion is morally wrong most of the time. Thirty-six percent (36%) disagree.

Fifty-three percent (53%) believe it is too easy to get an abortion in America. Just 18% believe it is too hard, while 22% say "about right." Among pro-choice voters, 27% say too easy, 31% too hard, and 33% about right.

So, in reality, the majority of Americans think abortion is wrong and should be made more difficult to commit.

Other BIG NEWS in the Rasmussen poll that ties in to the Supreme Court debate:

Thirty-two percent (32%) say that overturning Roe vs. Wade would make abortion illegal. Forty-seven percent (47%) say it would be up to individual states to set their own laws.

Thirty-nine percent (39%) of American voters say it would be best for the Supreme Court to establish rules governing abortion. Fort-seven percent (47%) would prefer rules established by the state legislatures.

So, according to this poll, only one-third of voters still buy the lie that overturning Roe v. Wade would make abortion illegal, and more Americans than not wouldn't mind if Roe v. Wade were overturned and the abortion decision returned to the states.

The Chicago Tribune ran a story on June 20 focused on the incredibly important point: How does the morning after pill work, i.e., is it an abortifacient?

The story had many refreshingly correct components, properly laying out the science of the debate. I was particularly pleased when it pointed out that pro-abortion medical organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say pregnancy does not begin until implantation, which completely undermines their assertion that the morning after pill does not kill a baby.

The Trib just couldn't resist advancing its liberal agenda, however, which was to thrust that some scientists believe the morning after pill does not stop a 5-9 day old embryo from implanting in the uterus. This was evidenced by the headlines used. The front page headline was....

Related:
Pharmacists for Life's "Kemical Killing" links to numerous studies of the modes of action of the morning after pill.

New York Times, June 15 [see page two for full article, which is no longer available on the Internet without paying for it]:

Studies Rebut Earlier Report on Pledges of Virginity

Challenging earlier findings, two studies from the Heritage Foundation reported yesterday that young people who took virginity pledges had lower rates of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases and engaged in fewer risky sexual behaviors....

Independent experts called the new findings provocative, but criticized the Heritage team's analysis as flawed and lacking the statistical evidence to back its conclusions....

The authors of the new studies... said their findings contradicted those published in March in The Journal of Adolescent Health by Dr. Peter Bearman, the chairman of the sociology department at Columbia University, and Hannah Brückner of Yale University. The earlier study found that a majority of teenagers who took the pledge did not live up to their promises and developed sexually transmitted diseases about the same rate as adolescents who had not made such pledges. It also found that the promise did tend to delay the start of intercourse by 18 months.

Who were the NY Times' "independent" experts?

The team needs to do "a lot of work" on its paper, said David Landry, a senior research associate at the Alan Guttmacher Institute [research arm of Planned Parenthood]....

Dr. Bearman [author of study being critiqued!] said: "... The use of self-report data for S.T.D.'s is therefore extremely problematic."

Hat tip: Reader Kevin

From yesterday's Herald-Mail Online in Maryland:

When Hagerstown mom Angelique Bowman first spotted the posters of bloody aborted fetuses Monday afternoon as she strolled down West Washington Street holding the hands of her sons Dushion, 2, and Thavies, 5, she was shocked.

"I got a little annoyed because they are so graphic," said Bowman, 28. "I had my kids with me and I didn't expect to see that."

But a few blocks, some conversations with the protesters and a pamphlet later, Bowman said she was convinced that the images were "what it takes" to convey what the protesters call "the truth" about abortion.

"I never realized that this is what it looks like, that it takes so much mutilation," Bowman said.

Reactions such as Bowman's were what members of the Baltimore-based anti-abortion group Defend Life were after when they set up their posters... on either side of the Hagerstown Reproductive Health Services clinic....

The photo, left, is of a reporter holding a dead puppy and was posted in the June 18 Roanoke-Chowan News Herald, accompanying an expose that two PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) workers who were caught killing dogs and cats and throwing them in dumpsters.

Why do you think the newspaper posted a photo of a dead animal pulled from a dumpster?

When viewing the photo, were you disgusted by the vicious act committed against helpless animals, and their gross disposal, or were you disgusted by the photographer?

What about an analagous photo of a baby killed by abortion?

In its report, Pilot 13 News wouldn't show video of the dead animals, but it did show the dumpsters and the animals' remains in garbage bags. Would that Pilot 13 News cared as much about the disposal of dead aborted babies.

Hat tip: www.PETAkillsanimals.com

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin began her June 17 screed against pro-lifers by quoting from Jesus' "judge not lest ye be judged" speech in Matthew 7:1-5.

Marin was ticked that the American Life League publicly called Catholic Church leadership into account for handing pseudo-Catholic US Sen. Dick Durbin his communion wafer on Sunday after he voted against the partial birth abortion ban the Friday before... and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act the Friday before that... etc., etc., etc. ALL took out a full-page ad in the June 16 Sun-Times.

Fellow CWA-er Mary Lynn Ferkaluk has submitted a great rebuttal to Marin's piece, which follows.

Related:
"How the most misquoted Bible verse is destroying America," 6-20-05

[Photo is of Carol Marin from the Chicago Sun-Times website.]

The opening paragraph of June 18's Flint Journal story breathlessly reported: "The reaction didn't get violent as it did last year, but emotions clearly were running high as people viewed graphic photos of aborted fetuses exhibited by an anti-abortion group at several local stops Friday."

Then quoted were a "sobbing" woman and a woman who had miscarried, both distraught by the photos.

It wasn't until paragraph 5 did the reporter reveal that last year's "violence" was at the hand of an angry, white pro-abort woman who "was so incensed by the posters that she drove her car over a curb and wrestled the group's leader, the Rev. Matt Trewhella, to the sidewalk.... Amanda Crim of Davison later pleaded guilty to assault and battery in Flint District Court."

[Photo credit of car over curve, August 2004: Missionaries to the Preborn]

Click here to see the full-page ad American Life League took out in yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times, in conjunction with the first day of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops' spring meeting being held in Chicago.

The ad drew the ire of liberal Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin who - surprise! - also doesn't think Durbin should apologize for his "American-soldiers-are-comparable-to-Nazis" remark earlier this week.

Only 17 words in yesterday's 871-word Associated Press piece about Governor Rick Perry's June 5 signing of legislation at a church school have anything to do with what was signed...

Blogger JivinJehoshaphat says, "According to Nick Cannon's official fan club site his prolife music video 'Can I Live' will appear on MTV's Total Request Live today. It's a true story about how his mother wanted to abort him, but ended up choosing life."

The video is viewable on Cannon's site. It's excellent.

I'm surprised CBS News 4 out of Miami/Ft. Lauderdale included this tidbit in its piece on Gov. Jeb Bush's signing last week of a law regulating Florida's abortion mills:

One supporter on hand for Tuesday's signing was Dr. Randy Armstrong, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Hillsborough County who provides emergency room coverage at University Community Hospital.

Armstrong, who does not perform abortions (JLS comment: if abortions aren't bad, why note that?), said he has seen "and continues to see" the problems that result from lack of regulations of abortion clinics. In the last six months of 2004, nearly three dozen women were admitted into the hospital because of complications from second-trimester abortions.