By Helene Cooper, New York Times, May 23:

... Now that there is a new team at the White House, guess who is knocking down straw men left and right? To listen to President Obama, a veritable army of naysayers has invaded Washington, urging him to sit on his hands... and do nothing to address any of the economic or national security problems facing the country....

"Here's the trick: Take your opponent's argument to a ridiculous extreme, and then attack the extremists," said William Safire, the former presidential speechwriter who writes the "On Language" column for The New York Times Magazine. "That leaves the opponent to sputter defensively, 'But I never said that.' "

The telltale indicators that a straw man trick is on the way are the introductory words "there are those who say" or "some say."

"In strawmanese, you never specify who 'those who' are," Mr. Safire said. "They are the hollow scarecrows you set up to knock down."...

UPDATE, 5/24, 6:15a: Someone wrote the obvious yesterday: Obama has to make a recess appointment with a Democrat majority?
_______________

On May 13 Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he didn't have the votes to confirm Dawn "pregnancy is slavery" Johnsen to head the Dept. of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel. Seems her überliberal ways have gotten in her way.

Now word is fellow überliberal, Barack Obama, may appoint Johnsen to the position during the upcoming Memorial Day recess, bypassing the Senate. This would allow Johnsen to serve until the end of 111th Congress (January 2011), at which time she would have to be renominated and redo Senate confirmation proceedings. CQ reported today:

During the 110th Congress... Reid vigilantly scheduled pro forma sessions to prevent President George Bush from making recess appointments of nominees that Democrats found objectionable....

Yesterday Congressmen Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Chris Smith (R-NJ) held a press conference and sent a letter to President Obama, asking him to heed the words of his own speech at Notre Dame on the issue of healthcare conscience protections.

They also called Obama out on his oft-repeated phrase of late, that of wanting to reduce the number of women needing abortions. No, that's not quite right, wrote the congressmen. Pretty savvy letter. Click to enlarge.

by Carder

Edward T. Oakes, S.J. asks in a First Things journal entry the burning spiritual question about our President:

Can Barack Obama be converted on abortion? The short answer to that question is: probably not.

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....

President George W. Bush observed the National Day of Prayer all 8 years of his presidency with a public event at the White House, inviting Dr. James Dobson and wife Shirley, chairwoman, among others.

Prior to that, observances were sketchy. According to US News and World Report, President Bill Clinton did not host an event, while President George H. W. Bush did once in 1989 as did President Ronald Reagan in 1982.

So, I guess on one hand I'm not surprised President Obama has decided to take a pass this year (tomorrow, May 7), since Dr. Dobson wholeheartedly opposed Obama for president, particularly hammering him on the abortion and infanticide issues. Dobson had abortion survivor Gianna Jessen and me on his radio show to discuss Obama's support of post-birth abortions, and Focus on the Family Action spent $500k running BornAliveTruth.org's Gianna ad in a few states.

But I find Obama's decision another tempt of fate, although would his depraved heart's prayers be heard anyway, I wonder.

I'll be interested in the Proclamation that Obama issues. Daughter Daena wrote last year's, which I find ironic. She told me tonight it is being sued, as is Shirley Dobson, which I didn't know.

by Carder

Hot Air reports a thwarted attempt at artist Michael D'Antuono's unveiling of his painting "The Truth," in honor of President Obama's 100th day in office.

A PR Newswire press release claims...

Last night the only question President Abortion took on the issue was a well-crafted one by CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry that combined current events with a call to accountability on a campaign promise and a dig couched with humor:

In a couple of weeks, you're going to be giving the commencement at Notre Dame. And, as you know, this has caused a lot of controversy among Catholics who are opposed to your position on abortion.

As a candidate, you vowed that one of the very things you wanted to do was sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which, as you know, would eliminate federal, state and local restrictions on abortion. And at that it was above - quote, "above my pay grade."

Now that you've been president for 100 days, obviously, your pay grade is a little higher than when you were a senator.

Do you still hope that Congress quickly sends you the Freedom of Choice Act so you can sign it?

Obama's answer surely riled abortion activists, because he came close, as he has done before, to saying what they abhor and deny: Abortion kills children....

by Carder

Doug Kmiec, rejected along with Caroline Kennedy as ambassador to the Vatican for being anti-life, has written two articles in defense of the Obama administration.

Regarding Dawn "fetal containers" Johnsen at the Legal Times:

She understands the fundamental difference between academic commentary and giving legal opinion on behalf of the US. That she has sharply criticized some conservative policy is no more relevant to her ability than if she liked outré modern art and displayed it in her living room...

The word "abortion" is nowhere to be found in the article....

by Kelli and Jill

Yesterday in the Politico, Carrie Budoff Brown wrote on the increase in "anti-abortion recruitment" since Barack Obama became President:

The first hint of a stir came just after Election Day, when the computer servers at Americans United for Life crashed. People were swamping the Web site to sign a petition urging... Obama to stand firm against abortion.

"I got a call from one of our guys, 'We have a problem,' " said Charmaine Yoest, the group's president and CEO....

UPDATE, 8:50p: Ok, I'm totally going off topic now. I mentioned at the bottom of this original post what 1st impressed me about Josh was his ability to play piano and talk to me at the same time. So I've just been made aware of this new video of Josh playing piano and drums at the same time. Yeah, my friend Josh...

4:30p: Josh Brahm of CA RTL has just posted his 2nd Science Matters report on YouTube....

Eric Scheidler of Pro-Life Action League sent out this alert yesterday, the first public action being taken by the pro-life Notre Dame student group NDResponse.com, and their first public request for the pro-life community's help. Please attend if you're anywhere close. This debut of pro-life objection to the ND administration's plan to honor Barack Obama at its May 17 commencement must be strong.

Dear Jill,

Ever since word broke that Barack Obama is to give the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, pro-lifers across the country have been eager to speak out against this scandal.

Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins has been flooded with phone calls, e-mails, letters and faxes urging him to rescind the Obama invitation.

NOW comes our first opportunity to publicly demonstrate ON CAMPUS against Barack Obama's appearance there.

Notre Dame Response is hosting a pro-life rally this Sunday, April
5 - Palm Sunday - at 2 p.m. at the Dome, after the Noon Mass at the Basilica....

From CBN's David Brody:

The White House is holding their big Health Care Summit in an attempt to begin the conversation about how to reform the healthcare system with the goal of bringing America some sort of universal health care system. There's just one problem. Where are the pro-life leaning medical groups who may have a thing or two to say about reforming healthcare in this country?...

I do see Planned Parenthood on the list. The Human Rights Campaign is on the list. National Council of La Raza is there. The Children's Defense Fund is there. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is there. The National Partnership for Women and Families is on the list. Shall I go on? You get the idea....

[See list of invited participants on page 2.]

From the Committee for Justice blog today:

[T]he Deseret News reports on a February 13 speech by Ken Starr. The article summarizes Starr's message:

If President Barack Obama is hoping for bi-partisan support of his future U.S. Supreme Court nominees, he may have painted himself into a political corner ... because he actively opposed nominees from former President George W. Bush... supported a filibuster against Justice Samuel Alito and voted against John Roberts.

As Starr notes, Obama finds himself in the awkward position of being "the first president of the United States ever in our history to have participated in a Senate filibuster of a judicial nominee."

Multiple filibusters in fact (Obama also supported a filibuster against Fifth Circuit nominee Leslie Southwick in 2007). Quoting the Washington Times, Starr concludes that Obama's Senate record on judges leaves him "hard-pressed to call for bipartisan help confirming judges or even an up-or-down vote."

[Graphic courtesy of barack-obama-tshirts.com]

by Carder

Given President Obama's talent for nominating individuals of impeccable character, we can look forward to this next gem of a nominee for Deputy Attorney General (2nd in command): David Ogden.

Consider his virtuous record:

UPDATE, 2/4, 11a: According to Family Research Council, Americans aren't the only ones who are unhappy with President Obama for overturning the Mexico City Policy, which kept international abortion groups from getting U.S. tax dollars. FRC reported yesterday:

Countries across Latin America have lashed out at the new White House for contaminating their laws with anti-life policies. Congresswoman Martha Lorena de Casco of Honduras said she felt "sorrow" that one of the President's first acts was to threaten her country's pro-life law. Representatives from Argentina, El Salvador, and other countries echoed de Casco encouraging Americans to follow their example and respect the right to life in national law.

As I've [Tony Perkins] said before, President Obama's election was the result of an economic mandate, not a social one. The further he deviates from that mandate, the more likely he is to lose it.

UPDATE, 2/3, 10:30a: The Republican National Coalition for Life has listed specific ways for pro-lifers to apply pressure in opposition to Obama's repeal of the Mexico City Policy, which received a 65% disapproval rating in the Gallup poll below...

I wrote last week about a Zogby poll and short film showing Obama supporters didn't have a clue who their candidate really was.

Well, Amanda Carpenter reported yesterday on the - surprise! - virulent backlash from the Left....

I haven't written on Barack Obama's cabinet appointments because frankly I found it too depressing. This is like watching a Culture of Death tsunami. Nothing we can do to stop it....

By now most are familiar with the Matthew 25 Network, a PAC organized last spring to "target[] religious communities that are key to electoral success for Senator Obama, including Catholics, moderate evangelicals, Hispanic Catholics and Protestants," as quoted by the New York Times.

Well, M25N lives on to continue its attempt to break down the pro-life movement by changing beliefs on how to stop abortion. Its message, emulating Obama's, is that to strategy must shift from trying to outlaw abortion to enacting policies that reduce abortion.

Pro-lifers certainly agree policies should be implemented to reduce abortions, but we disagree with the policies Obama and his proponents tout.

On November 21 M25N reposted a USA Today editorial approving these plans. (Red flag: MSM agreeing on anti-abortion strategy.):

By seeking common ground, they can make procedure less common....

... to push a new agenda passage of measures to provide low-income, pregnant women with the kind of services and education that could discourage them from seeking abortions. They are on the right track.

We hope they can do even more, particularly in finding ways to make contraceptives more widely obtainable and in improving sex education.

I attempted to post a rebuttal on M25N, but surprise, M25N censored me. Here 'tis...

Patrick O'Hannigan has a great piece in today's American Spectator....

... For every Newsweek reporter who wondered why there was no "central debate" over abortion in the presidential campaign, thousands of other people saw that debate spotlighted more glaringly than ever before in the warp and woof of the rival tickets, with a pair of pro-life candidates facing off against their decidedly ambivalent counterparts....

One wonders how Newsweek would explain the name recognition that little Trig Palin now enjoys.

Or, to put this another way, had abortion not been a significant campaign issue, the endorsement of Obama by Catholic law professor Doug Kmiec would not have made the splash it did.

Instead, Kmiec abandoned past service in Republican administrations to parlay off-the-scale approval ratings from Planned Parenthood for Obama into a cottage industry, defending the idea that electing a president who has never supported even modest restrictions on abortion rights would somehow reduce the level of abortions nationwide. (With arrogance masquerading as magnanimity, Kmiec now says he would change his mind if the Pope personally corrected him.)...

Sure enough...

Windy City Times is a gay Chicago publication. It posted a couple snapshots of those on hand, apparently in a reception tent near Grant Park, to celebrate Obama's victory.

And there she was, NARAL prez Nancy Keenan, to smile with the "I want to reduce abortion" president-elect....

The woman who called partial birth abortion a "legitimate medical procedure" was quoted for this ironic headline on Politico.com. Michelle Obama said on 60 Minutes Sunday she hopes the White House will be "full of life and energy." Quite the contrary, it will be full of energy to kill life.

[HT: reader Susie A.]

UPDATE, 11/20, 6:30p: The following video, which Jasper highlighted as his quote of the day 2 days ago, is an accompaniment to the Zogby poll, commissioned by HowObamaGotElected.com:

See page 2 for the 12 questions (and answers) these people were asked.
_______________

UPDATE, 11/19, 2:35p: Results from Zogby...

A great column by Christopher Ferrara at RemnantNewspaper.com...

Barack Hussein Obama, staunch defender of a form of infanticide that Caligula would have found appalling, is now President of the United States of America, thanks to the votes of 63 million Americans. Why is it that despite my months-long dread of the impending Obama presidency, at the moment I feel nothing but an urge to suppress a howl of laughter at this absurd development?

During Obama's long campaign for the White House no one was allowed to see his original doctor-generated Hawaiian birth certificate (if there is one), his applications to Occidental College and Columbia, his Harvard Law School application and his application to the Illinois bar (all of which would provide clues as to his origins), his college transcripts, his law school transcript, anything he ever wrote in law school, a list of the clients he has represented, or even his medical records....

Barna has analyzed the vote breakdown for president and determined a whopping 88% of evangelicals voted for McCain and only 11% for Obama.

Barna determined evangelicals not by whether they said they were evangelical but by how they responded to 9 questions.

Have you ever wondered exactly what an evangelical is? Here were the criteria to qualify as an evangelical, according to Barna:

"Born again Christians" are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents are not asked to describe themselves as "born again."

"Evangelicals" meet the born again criteria (described above) plus 7 other conditions....

Spotted this at the Abortion Gallery and got permission to post...

Did you vote for Obama? Your vote got us more of that. Deal with it.

Newsweek, November 14 (November 24 issue), theorized there will be an Obama baby boom 9 months from now (August 2009) due to celebratory sex in the wake of his victory.

That would be great, but I'll hazard a sad guess there'll also be an abortion boom in 2-3 months, given the world view of the majority of his supporters.

[HT: moderator Carder]

First, a reminder of President Clinton's early moves (click to enlarge):

Now, from NPR, November 13...

Pro-abort columnist Camille Paglia wrote a great piece in liberal Salon magazine yesterday, joining the growing list of Obama-supporting journalists writing morning after confessionals.

The excerpt I'm posting is lengthy but very good. Paglia's bold, brave thoughts on Palin, who "as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism," come near the end.

But Paglia is also the 1st credentialed liberal I've seen express serious concern about Obama's birth certificate, questions about which I've been dismissing as conspiracy theory. And Paglia spotlights the very creepy side (aside from the terrorist side) of Bill Ayers' wife Elizabeth Dohrn. Makes me want to rent the Weather Underground documentary she rented.

Read the excerpt on page 2.

[HT: America's Right via Arlene and Karen]

Day Gardner, president of the National Black Pro-Life Union, emailed me (and then gave me permission to post):

Reading your article brought back most of what I felt after the election. I have never felt so hopeless and depressed. I cried harder than I have since losing my earthly father and hero, Pop, 4 years ago.

Every time I had even a slight thought about Obama, my eyes welled and I'd find myself on my knees crying out to God. The whole thing really had me going for at almost 3 days, I couldn't shake the feeling of doom for millions of babies... America... the world!

I didn't watch the news. I didn't want to talk to people, not even my husband. I was glad my pro-life (Democrat) son who came home to work and vote McCain/Palin was tied up working on his laptop. I didn't want to put on a happy face for him either....

After lamenting President Bush's various pro-life cabinet picks - such as Tommy Thompson at Dept. of Health and Human Services followed by Michael Leavitt, Eric Keroack at Population Affairs (family planning) followed by Susan Orr, Andrew von Eschenbach at the Food & Drug Administration, and John Ashcroft as Attorney General - Kay Steiger at (Ted Turner-funded) RH Reality Check yesterday listed names being speculated to head President-elect Obama's cabinet.

Dept. of Health and Human Services

[F]ormer SD Sen. Tom Daschle, National Democratic Committee Chairman Howard Dean, and KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius [pictured right with late-term abortionist George Tiller at a party she hosted in his honor at the guv's mansion].

All 3 are whopping pro-aborts. Dean interned at a Planned Parenthood. Sebelius has been late-term abortionist George Tiller's biggest protectioner. Daschle, Steiger wrote, is the favorite.

Secretary of State...

Got this email from a friend of mine, a pro-life leader in TN...

I don't want to add to anyone's despair, but even I was shocked last evening at the all night post office here in Nashville when an African American in line greeted an entering black pastor.

Naturally (?) the conversation began loudly with how well things were going with a fresh wind blowing, etc. I barely shook my head near the back of the line when a black woman next to me cheerfully said, " guess you don't agree." I responded as most pro-lifers would that it was exciting to have a black president but not one so committed to killing the unborn... not to mention using our tax dollars to accomplish it.

At first, she gently chided me saying that many people pay tax dollars to fund practices to which they object (stem cell research, death penalty, etc.) I told her that I also objected to those practices as well. She started to heat up, however, as an elderly black woman injected her view that women seeking abortions were "going to have to answer to God for that....

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....

It is 6 days after the election, and my sorrow persists, if not deepens. Maybe I'm depressed. I look around and can only sense impending doom. I don't know how people can smile, how life is just going on.

There is no way God would have allowed Barack Obama to become president were He not finally turning us over to judgment(s), to whatever great or lesser extent that will be.

I sat in my mother's church yesterday and was surprised to feel anger that the worship leader smiled and sang the same songs as ever, as if life didn 't drastically change last week, as if the Church itself weren't indicted by the election of Barack Obama.

Then my eye caught a teen with Down syndrome coming late to service with his mother, sitting down the row from me....

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....

Reported Breitbart.com November 5...

Little Obamas and Michelles were coming to the world in maternities all over Kenya -one woman managing both at the same time with a pair of twins -as the party mood continued Wednesday in the nation where the US president-elect's father was born.

In the New Nyanza provincial general hospital in Kisumu, the capital of the region which is home to Barack Obama's ancestral village, Pauline Adhiambo gave birth to twins she named Obama and Michelle....

At least 8 other boys were named Barack or Obama - or both - in this hospital alone while maternities in the capital Nairobi and across the entire country reported new namesakes for the future occupants of the White House....

UPDATE, 11/7, 6:40a: FYI, I've been inundated with hate mail as my column has reached the liberal blogosphere, although none of it comes as a surprise. The volume is just impossible for me to keep up with at the moment. (On the other hand, I've been inundated with emails in agreement from pro-lifers, which I can't keep up with either.) Will try to address the haters tomorrow morning.

Liberal sparring partner, Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, entitled his post about my column today, "Roe rage," adding...

Statement released November 5 by Jill Stanek, Executive Director of BornAliveTruth.org, upon the election of Barack Obama for president...

UPDATE, 10:40a: Here's an interesting albeit vicious read from the other side, the liberals' perspective of us and our plans, "The Religious Right after an Obama victory: The beat goes on."

[HT: reader WKBBronx]
____________

Robert Novak, Chicago Sun-Times...

The national election Tuesday was not only historic for the election of the first African-American president in the nation's history but also for how little the avalanche of Democratic votes changed the political alignment in Congress....

Republicans, though discouraged by the election's outcome, believe Obama will be hard-pressed not so much to enact his agenda but to keep his popular majority, which he considers centrist, as he moves to enact ultra-liberal legislation....

Jeffrey Shapiro, Wall Street Journal...

The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.

Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty - a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.

Having a daughter who works for President Bush, I became aware more than many of the day-to-day kindnesses, intelligence, and hard work of this man and the people with whom he surrounds himself. Many staff are committed Christians and pro-lifers. I was at the WH 10 days ago, for instance, and here were bumper stickers on a car 25 feet from the West Wing entrance....

A conservative filmmaker friend in Hollywood sent me this report and photo:

Hi Jill,

As sad as it is, I thought you might get a kick out of this. Here is a sign I made with the kids Saturday morning.

I had to because "they" keep stealing our McCain signs. So, I made this and nailed it to the tree.

Already, the flag has been ripped off and I had to replace it.

Kudos to my friend for staying strong in the face of adversity and even retribution for the stand he and his family take. They may not see it in the short run, but they are making a difference.

Well, this is reassuring. For all his God talk, Obama lost ground. According to Yahoo News, November 1:

Barack Obama has courted white weekly churchgoers as avidly as any Republican-leaning bloc of voters, though it now appears his efforts may fall flat on Election Day.

The Gallup Poll now shows Obama backed by 28% of white voters who attend church at least once a week - a group that makes up a roughly a third of all voters - which would be no improvement from the 29% of these voters who, according to exit polls, backed Democrats John Kerry and Al Gore in the previous two presidential elections....

Read the rest of the article on page 2, which lists Obama's foremost problem wooing both Protestants and Catholics. One guess what that is.

From the Sydney Morning Herald, today:

A hideous new affliction is creeping through the ranks of America's creative community.

The further Barack Obama edges ahead of John McCain in the million and one polls that are coming out the more pernicious the nagging fear becomes.

What if he loses?

Barely a left-wing pundit, barely an Oscar-nominated softie can sleep a wink these days for fear of the race riots and international humiliation that will ensue should "The One" be defeated on Tuesday.

They think he's going to win, of course, but their hearts still bear the scars of 2000 and 2004.

The comedian Chris Rock is at least capable of joking about it. "If Obama loses?" he replied to a question from talk show host Bill Maher. "Well, that Wednesday after election day, anybody ... any activity in your life that involves black people, it's not going to get done. If you're at the airport? No one's going to get your bags."

But for others, the dread is nameless and paralysing. Erica Jong, author of the 1970s feminist bible Fear of Flying, has developed a new complex in recent weeks - the fear of an Obama flogging.

"If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me," she told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera last week. "My back is also suffering from spasms, so much so that I had to see an acupuncturist and get prescriptions for Valium.

"Yesterday, Jane Fonda sent me an email to tell me that she cried all night and can't cure her ailing back for all the stress that has reduced her to a bundle of nerves."...

When last I left Chris Crocker, it was with admitted outbursts of laughter after watching his "Leave Britney alone!" YouTube video (WARNING, foul language), a must see for those interested in keeping tabs on our crazy culture.

I do feel bad for the mixed up gay kid, but I had no laughs for Crocker's latest video endorsing Obama for president. In it Crocker makes offensive statements against pro-lifers and against children whose fathers are rapists (WARNING, foul language)...

Here's the transcript of Crocker's abortion rant...

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.

Deal Hudson of Inside Catholic reported yesterday that the pro-abortion group Catholics United has sent out an email blast calling on its readers to stop pro-lifers from distributing voter guides before and after Mass this weekend as well as leafletting cars. CU is instead encouraging them to distribute liberal voter guides.

Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life shot a response letter to CU, warning that pro-lifers are prepared to sue, because such circumvention would be a constitutional violation.

Read the CU email and Fr. Pavone's response on page 2...

On Oct. 14, little Shanice Osbourne was finally laid to rest 27 months after she was allegedly killed on the day she was aborted alive, July 20, 2006, by abortion clinic owner Belkis Gonzalez at A Gyn Diagnostics Center in Hialeah, FL.

Read the details of baby Shanice's death here.

Following is Miami's NBC6 news coverage of the funeral...

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....

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....

In 2001, then IL state Sen. Barack Obama, for the 2nd year in a row, was the sole person opposing Born Alive Infant bills on the state senate floor.

Audio of senate floor debates is destroyed when transcripts are written. Until now, only the Chicago Tribune was known to have audio of this debate but had only released a very small clip.

But we now have it. A reader requesting anonymity sent it to me. Thanks to moderator Chris for making a YouTube video, accentuating Obama's talking points and irrationality...

In the audio, Obama argues against calling for a 2nd physician if the 1st physician - the abortionist - has decided the baby s/he has just aborted alive is non-viable....

Click to enlarge...

According to CBN today...

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....

Last week actor Stephen Baldwin caused a liberal stir by calling Barack Obama a "cultural terrorist" and jokingly challenging him to a boxing match, which he was attending at the time, adding, "I'd like to knock some good sense into Barack. I wouldn't hurt him. But if he wins the election, he'll hurt me. He's a cultural terrorist."

On his Saturday radio show, which Baldwin co-hosts with Kevin McCullough, Baldwin explained his thinking has to do with Obama's opposition to Born Alive...

This new video by America's Choice Now is great, well done. It mentions Barack Obama's opposition to Born Alive. The end is convicting, heart-breaking...

Press release just issued:

CHICAGO - BornAliveTruth.org released its second ad today featuring abortion survivor Gianna Jessen responding to Senator Barack Obama's direct attack on her. See the ad here.

Additionally, Focus on the Family Action, a CO-based family organization, is kicking off a $500,000 radio ad buy featuring the original Gianna ad revealing Senator Obama's voting record on born alive infant protections. See here.

Gianna's first ad will air on radio stations across CO and the new Gianna response ad will air on TV in Cleveland, and will be featured on TheDrudgeReport.com [later today] and at BornAliveTruth.org.

The total ad buy for both radio and TV will be close to $600,000....

Read the rest of the press release on page 2. Here's the new ad, which is excellent...

CBN's David Brody interviewed GOP VP pick Sarah Palin for a segment to run tomorrow, October 21.

Brody asked Palin's analysis of Barack Obama's self-characterization of being a "strong Christian family man" versus his stance on abortion.

Palin listed Obama's outside-of-mainstream positions like opposition to parental notification as well as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban but reserved most of her critique to Obama's opposition as state senator to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act...

Transcript of Brody's question and Palin's response is on page 2.

From the Associated Press, October 18, the dispute between the Catholic right and left is growing sharper...

Denver Roman Catholic Archbishop Charles Chaput labeled Barack Obama the "most committed" abortion-rights candidate from a major party in 35 years while accusing a Catholic Obama ally and other Democratic-friendly Catholic groups of doing a "disservice to the church."...

Read the rest of the story on page 2. I love Chaput. Here's a great line from later in the story:

"To suggest - as some Catholics do - that Senator Obama is this year's 'real' pro-life candidate requires a peculiar kind of self-hypnosis, or moral confusion, or worse."

"Or worse." Those words would make me nervous if I were on the Catholic left, implying purposeful attempts to mislead the flock, which renders harsher consequences.

Meanwhile, click here to view Catholics United's deceptive mailer mentioned near the end of the AP article. Here's the front...

Pro-lifers are getting the message out about Barack Obama's radical opposition to declaring abortion survivors legal persons in innovative ways.

Pharmacists for Life president Karen Brauer has posted the following banner near a road by her "pharm" in Lawrenceburg, IN...

(See more photos on page 2.)

Sam Stein in the Huffington Post reported today that the Republican National Committee has released a mailer in NC attacking Barack Obama on his opposition as state senator to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

And it's perfect...

When John McCain brought up Barack Obama's opposition to the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act during last night's presidential debate, Obama indignantly responded:

If it sounds incredible that I would vote to withhold lifesaving treatment from an infant, that's because it's not true.

Savvy strategy, and not the first time his side has used something close to this line. When National Right to Life first outted Obama in August as having voted against the identical version of Born Alive in IL that passed overwhelmingly on the federal level, Obama's incensed campaign at first denied it all, saying in a written statement:

The suggestion that Obama - the proud father of 2 little girls - and others who opposed these bills supported infanticide is deeply offensive and insulting.

Is the too-crazy-to-be-true strategy of denial working? Maybe. Bearing in mind the following comes from an Obama aide via Byron York in National Review Online today, still...

Rush Limbaugh, yesterday:

Rush: Isn't it interesting, ladies and gentlemen, that Obama wants to take from the rich to give to the poor when it comes to money; when it comes to human life, Obama is willing to allow babies to be killed in order to get their mothers' votes....

The 3rd and final presidential debate finally saw the abortion issue broached... barely, but enough to force Barack Obama out of his fox hole to attempt to explain away his opposition as IL state senator to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

McCain was weak on the draw, but at least he provided an opening:

Sen. Obama, as a member of the IL State Senate, voted in the Judiciary Committee against a law that would provide immediate medical attention to a child born of a failed abortion. He voted against that.

And then, on the floor of the State Senate, as he did 130 times as a state senator, he voted present.

Then there was another bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the state of IL not that long ago, where he voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion, one of the late-term abortion, a really - one of the bad procedures, a terrible. And then, on the floor of the IL State Senate, he voted present....

Many people have been asking for it, and here 'tis - BornAliveTruth.org's Gianna ad in Spanish. Please distribute widely to Spanish groups, friends, family.

Thanks to pro-lifer Hector Ferrar for helping translate.

Many people have sent me a link to this excellent commentary by Princeton's Robert George yesterday.

A must read.

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?

Today WI RTL released its 2nd in a series of 4 anti-Obama pro-life e-cards.

Last week's card focused on Barack Obama's radical opposition to Born Alive and Partial Birth Abortion legislation. This week's is on another out-of-mainstream abortion position Obama has taken. Click on the graphic below to view the e-card and send to friends and family:

Below is an interesting endorsement on several counts.

First, I just have to say the photo of Obama holding a poodle - in front of Abraham Lincoln, no less - makes me want to puke.

Second, all the legislators the Humane Society touts as pro-humane treatment of animals are radically anti-humane treatment of preborn humans - Obama, Boxer, Durbin, and Biden....

On September 25, Time magazine's Michael Scherer wrote in a web article entitled, "Smear Wars: Welcome to negative ad season," which was included in the October 6 print edition:

BornAliveTruth.org has been advertising in swing states with the misleading claim that Obama supports the death of fetuses born after failed abortions. (Obama opposed an IL senate bill he said could have jeopardized other abortion statutes; at the time, IL law required doctors to save the lives of all viable fetuses after birth.)

He followed it up with a September 29 MSNBC appearance stating:

So the Born Alive Truth ad, it is true that Obama when he was in the State House in IL opposed a bill that would have declared a human person those fetuses who survived an abortion. What's not true is that it somehow meant he supported infanticide. At the time it was very clear under IL state law that any viable fetus who survived abortion had to be saved by the doctors during the procedure.

I appreciate that Scherer took my call after the first article was posted, and I note he avoided calling abortion survivors fetuses in his third botch. But botch he threepeated....

The Matthew 25 Network is the repulsive group audaciously promoting Barack Obama as a leader of Christian values based on this of all verses, Matthew 25:40, Jesus speaking:

Speaking of the least of these, Matthew 25 is also behind the Prolife ProObama website.

So word came today via CBN's David Brody:

And here's the ad...

Yesterday I posted an Associated Press article that included excerpts from Sarah Palin's October 11 speech in Johnstown, PA, when she took on Barack Obama for various heinous positions on the life issue.

The Republican National Coalition for Life has distributed that entire segment of Palin's piece, which is simply excellent. Here 'tis:

In this same spirit, as defenders of the culture of life, John McCain and I believe in the goodness and potential of every innocent life. I believe the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who are least able to defend and speak for themselves. And who is more vulnerable, or more innocent, than a child?

When I learned that my son Trig would have special needs, I had to prepare my heart for the challenges to come. At first I was scared, and Todd and I had to ask for strength and understanding. But I can tell you a few things I've learned already.

Yes, every innocent life matters. Everyone belongs in the circle of protection. Every child has something to contribute to the world, if we give them that chance. There are the world's standards of perfection... and then there are God's, and these are the final measure. Every child is beautiful before God, and dear to Him for their own sake....

By Henry Payne of Townhall.com...

Likewise, MSM has been mesmerized by Barack Obama's lies on the Born Alive issue.

Ready example. Yesterday Sarah Palin continued pounding Obama on his Born Alive vote, coming closer than ever to saying he endorsed letting little preborn babies like Trig die in hospital soiled utility rooms only because they were abortion survivors.

Yet, MSM simply repeated Obama's lie about his vote again. MSM has yet to investigate. From the Associated Press, yesterday...

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.'"...

By Amanda Carpenter at Townhall.com this afternoon:

GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin described her rival Barack Obama's radical position on abortion as "absolutely atrocious" on Laura Ingraham's radio program Thursday.

Palin specifically attacked Obama for his votes against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act as an IL State Senator....

By Terrence Jeffrey in today's Townhall.com, an excellent, clarifying commentary:

The most telling debate Barack Obama ever had was not with John McCain but Patrick O'Malley, who served with Obama in the IL Senate and engaged Obama in a colloquy every American should read.

The Obama-O'Malley debate was a defining moment for Obama because it dealt with such a fundamental issue: The state's duty to protect the civil rights of the young and disabled....

Then-IL state Sen. Patrick O'Malley, whom I interviewed this week, contacted the state attorney general's office to see whether existing laws protected a newborn abortion-survivor's rights as a U.S. citizen. He was told they did not....

Wisconsin Right to Life is producing a series of 4 e-cards to expose Barack Obama's radical position on abortion. WIRTL released its 1st e-card today, focused on Obama's radical opposition to Born Alive and Partial Birth Abortion legislation. Click on the graphic below to go to the site to view the e-card and send to friends and family:

UPDATE, 10/9, 3p: I'm told the ad buy in NC, PA, and WI was large, which is good.
_______________

According to NPR:

A brand-new nonprofit organization with a classic attack-group name is airing TV ads in battleground states knocking Obama on his abortion stance.

The Committee for Truth in Politics, which was incorporated just one week ago in NC, is running the ad in PA and WI [and NC]. Showing images of a cooing, yawning baby, the ad says, "Sen. Obama, why did you vote against protecting infants that survive late-term abortions, not once but four times?" It concludes, "Call Senator Obama. Tell him to stop trying to overturn these basic human rights."

The ad echoes the recent message of Born Alive Truth, an IL 527 organization.

The incorporator and sole director of the Committee for Truth is NC attorney Bill Peaslee, formerly the chief of staff, legal counsel and political director for the NC Republican Party....

Great ad! I also read on Free Republic that the group filed suit for the freedom to run the ad despite the dastardly McCain-Feingold Act...

Popular and Influential Latino actor Eduardo Verastegui, in conjunction with Catholic News Agency, has produced an excellent video in Spanish, "Dura Realidad," i.e., "Hard Truth."

With English subtitles, Eduardo explains how abortion hurts the Hispanic population (in fact, a target) and family and how Barack Obama radically supports abortion beyond most of the public's sensibilities. Eduardo mentions Obama's opposition to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

The unedited video also includes graphic footage of real abortions. As Eduardo states, "We all instinctively know that abortion is something intrinsically evil, and if it is something so terrible that we can't even see it, shouldn't we perhaps not tolerate it either?"

I'm not surprised YouTube pulled the unedited version. YouTube has been removing graphic abortion videos for some time. I am surprised and saddened GodTube pulled it, though. I wonder whose side GodTube thinks it is on. Who wins by not showing the reality of abortion? GodTube is not unlike the Christians in Germany during the Holocaust, trying to look the other way.

Here is the edited version of Eduardo's video still up on YouTube. View the unedited version here.

Only 4 days ago Michelle Malkin called FactCheck.org's output "pure garbage."

I'm here to corroborate.

On September 24, FC posted an article supposedly fact-checking BornAliveTruth.org's Gianna ad as well as Barack Obama's retaliatory attack ad.

There was no excuse for Jessica Henig's hit piece, at times deliberately deceptive and at times woefully ignorant. We know this because we provided every bit of documentation she requested and some she didn't think to request in the days before she posted her liberal spin.

In addition, we emailed protests with the same corroboration on September 25 to FC's editor, Brooks Jackson, and he, too, lacked the objectivity or understanding to do the right thing as requested, disable the post pending further investigation.

The title of Henig's piece gives its bias away: "'Born Alive' baloney."

I wrote Jackson that Henig's article was wrong from the very first word, indicative of shoddy work to follow. Henig should have started with "An," not "A," and 3 days later it's still wrong:

But that was nothing....

UPDATE, 9/27, 12p: Statement from NRLC: "NRLC has suspended the posting of the web ad because very late on September 26, an objection was received from an attorney with the Christian Broadcasting Network, asserting that the use of a brief clip from a broadcast CBN interview, showing Barack Obama saying that NRLC was "lying," infringed upon a CBN copyright. NRLC has taken this objection under advisement and, after further research by our attorneys, we will have more to say about the matter."
_______________

National Right to Life just posted this on YouTube:

Here is the August 16 interview wherein Barack Obama expressed indignation at the charge he voted against the identical Born Alive bill as state senator that passed overwhelmingly on the federal level...

This was created by Granny Grump at RealChoice.com. Gives me shivers...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This blog post by Obama-leaner Steve Waldman, founder and editor-in-chief of Beliefnet.com, may signal the end of serious attempts by Obama to woo moderate Evangelicals by portraying himself as pro-abortion reduction despite the fact he is radically pro-abortion.

By trying to straddle the issue, Obama has apparently been gaining no ground with religious folk and may have been losing more ground with Hillary supporters. Recent actions indicate Obama may be abandoning the ploy. I submit the release of the BornAliveTruth.org Gianna ad has had something to do with it....

At the Saddleback Forum, Obama boasted, accurately, about how he'd stuck a sentence into the Democratic platform encouraging support for women who wanted to take a baby to term instead of having an abortion. Pro-life progressives hailed that sentence as a great victory and sign that he might be able to win over moderate evangelicals and Catholics with this new "third way" approach.

Then, the first abortion ads put out by the Obama campaign, didn't mention abortion reduction....

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:

BornAliveTruth.org received the funniest hate mail ever. Had to share. I've cleaned up the misspellings...

You pro-life hypocrites better stop your ads attacking Obama....

You people and your attack ads is one the the main reasons this country is bitterly divided. Maybe they ought to change the Consitution and rename the United States of America the Divided States of America.

Since you people are attacking Obama it is your fault a lot of TV stations this fall cancelled their local newscasts this fall. Maybe someone should cancel you....

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:

Here they are again, first the ad BornAliveTruth.org began airing on September 16 in NM and OH, and then Barack Obama's response attack ad that began airing September 18 in NM and OH...

Obama's ad was deceptive in at least 4 ways...

UPDATE, 1:50p: Gianna forwarded me a great commentary by Mona Charen today, "Abortions do sometimes produce live births," with this excerpt:

I've received a number of letters from viewers. This one caught my eye: "I am a pediatrician. When I was a pediatric resident on a neonatal intensive care rotation, we were routinely called to resuscitate infants. In one instance I was called to pronounce a baby dead who had been born an hour earlier after a failed abortion. We were not called to resuscitate the baby immediately after the delivery as the intent was abortion. I write to attest that babies are sometimes born alive after abortion and then put aside to die."

UPDATE, 1:30p: First lie in Obama ad: attributing the Gianna ad to John McCain, rather than BornAliveTruth.org.

Second lie: "votes taken out of context"? A vote cannot be taken out of context. It's a vote. Notice this is Obama's excuse for every indictment against him.

Third lie: "Obama has always supported medical care to protect infants." FALSE. Remember this, from Obama's 2002 Senate floor speech against Born Alive?

Obama is acknowledging in that audio clip that a baby could be aborted alive but argued against calling a 2nd physician to assess and potentially provide medical care (the 1st physician being the abortionist) because it would place a "burden" on the "original decision" of the mother to abort. How much clearer can Obama's position be?

Also don't forget the Obama campaign admitted to the New York Sun on August 18 that he voted against the identical version of Born Alive as state senator that passed overwhelmingly on the federal level.

Ben Smith at Politico.com is now covering this, as is Hotair.com.
_______________

UPDATE, 11a: Michelle Malkin's all over this in a post entitled, "Who's afraid of Gianna Jessen? Answer: Barack Obama."
_______________

Yesterday Barack Obama quietly began airing an ad in NM and OH, where BornAliveTruth.org began airing its Gianna ad on Tuesday.

Obama has been drawn out.

Here it is...

BornAliveTruth.org is getting fabulous press, as you can tell by all the news I've posted. Monday's Associated Press story ended up in over 3,000 worldwide news outlets. Our YouTube video of the Gianna ad has been viewed almost 90,000 times, and at least 6 others have posted the ad, so a total of about 130,000 have viewed it. 49 blogs and websites are linking to BornAliveTruth.org.

Here's yesterday's Washington Times piece...

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.

Last night Gianna Jessen was interviewed on Hannity and Colmes and did a FABULOUS job. Alan's arguments were pathetic.

UPDATE, 4:40p: Based on evidence presented in this post, Martin has removed "self-proclaimed" and Tapper has posted an addendum stating, "UPDATE: Jessen has posted medical records on her Web site to support her story," with a link to this website.

Kudos to both for their willingness to reanalyze their stories when presented with new information.
_______________

Today Politico's Jonathan Martin called Gianna Jessen a "self-proclaimed abortion-survivor," and ABC's Jake Tapper said Gianna "claims" to have survived an abortion.

To be fair, speculation is warranted. So in answer to that, here are documents proving Gianna is indeed an abortion survivor. The first is Gianna's birth medical record, indicating she was "Born during Saline abortion"...

Next is Gianna's birth certificate, listing infamous abortionist "Edward C. Allred, M.D.," as the physician who delivered her. Allred is the owner of the largest group of independent abortion mills in the U.S. (click to enlarge)...

By Time/CNN's Mark Halperin on The Page this morning:

And the ABC News Jake Tapper blog this morning also included the YouTube video of the Gianna ad...

The following New York Times story on 527s included an image of our BornAliveTruth.org ad as its sample of conservative sponsored issues advocacy:

After largely staying on the sidelines, the types of independent groups that so affected the 2004 presidential campaign are flooding back as players in the final sprint to the election this fall, financing provocative messages on television, in mailboxes and through the Internet....

Yesterday friend Fran at IllinoisReview.com found this blast from the past, a photo taken the day of the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act bill signing on August 5, 2002...

That's me on the left, then President Bush and Gianna, of course.

Go to BornAliveTruth.org for more info and to donate!

Gianna just did fabulously on Hannity and Colmes. Will post interview asap.

UPDATE, 6p: We're hearing from the media Obama's people are telling them they have no comment on the Gianna ad, that Obama didn't vote for Born Alive because it would undermine Roe. Even if that were true, which it is not, am I hearing Obama admit he supports infanticide if it would otherwise interfere with legalized abortion?
_______________

UPDATE,5:30p: New Associated Press story out on BornAliveTruth.org...

Read Charles' Krauthammer's column, "Obama's race to lose - and he just might," making a point I mentioned the other day: Part of Barack Obama's problem now is simply gravity: shooting stars must eventually fall, his in unfortunate conjuction with a new star rising.

Then there's the problem of the non-Biden factor, as illustrated by Gary Varvel...

... mostly due to the fact he's not Hillary.

Which brings me to a Monday question. I usually reserve this segment for weekends, but I'm going to be busy this morning working on a Big Announcement - watch for it this afternoon - and won't be posting again 'til later.

So here's something to discuss in the meanwhile. There was chatter at the Vote Values Summit that Obama indeed might switch out Biden for Hillary.

How would people receive this decision? How do you think it would impact the election?

One of our new PUMA friends has posted a disturbing photo of Sarah Palin, one of many disturbing finds by the only army Barack Obama is not repulsed by, his army of lawyers.

Wrote CountUsOut.com, today:

Reports from a crack team of reporters, lawyers, researchers, and forensic analysts sent by the Barack Obama campaign to Alaska to properly vet little known vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin filtered in late Tuesday. They paint a chilling portrait of a disturbed woman who is not ready to assume the Presidency should John McCain be run over by a pie wagon or bored to death by Keith Olbermann...

Obama has found a way to get some support back...

[HT: commenter Ezek13:19]

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.

I wrote the other day that liberals, pollsters, and MSM repeatedly have tried to maintain that abortion ranks low on the list of American priorities when choosing candidates for political office.

This has always been about minimizing the pro-life effort. "No one cares. Go away."

Yet, abortion has taken center stage in this election....

The McCain campaign quickly posted an ad punishing Barack Obama for his "lipstick on a pig" slur against Sarah Palin yesterday, which Obama just incredibly, arrogantly, and offensively denied.

The press is all over this one. Over 3,500 news stories on it this morning.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air said it better than I could have this morning...

Here's a fun YouTube video contrasting Barack Obama's claim that Sarah Palin has "zero experience" with his own...

[HT: reader David J.]

I'm certainly not one to give Barack Obama and Joe Biden
advice. If they think slinging slurs at Sarah Palin is going to get them votes, they can have at it.

Clearly Palin has Obama so rattled he's doffing his Mr. Nice Guy facade. Obama today, like NARAL a few days ago, referred back to Palin's hockey mom-bulldog-lipstick comment, insinuating Palin is a pig:

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?"...

Before I get to the story I'm posting on, here's a verrry interesting post showing how the New York Times edited a story on Sarah Palin's acceptance speech by removing the word "electrifying", to describe the speech, as well as to describe Obama pimping Hillary and other women to campaign for him in her wake.

And now a story in today's Wall Street Journal:

The moderate evangelical vote is slipping away from Barack Obama.

All year, Sen. Obama has worked hard to win evangelical voters.... At stake are about six million voters - moderate evangelicals who voted for George Bush last time but were intrigued by Sen. Obama....

Several things have battered Sen. Obama's standing with moderate evangelicals:

1) His poor performance at the Saddleback candidates forum, especially (or perhaps entirely) his comment about it being "above my pay grade" to know when life begins....

Lest you think this blog's profile in the Washington Post today might go to my head, never fear, there will always be those ready to humble me. From today's Birth Pangs blog, referring to my "Lipstick on a pig" post yesterday...

I've been doing a lot of radio interviews the last couple of weeks about Barack Obama's opposition to Born Alive, sometimes four a day.

(To the right is a photo of Mancow and me when I interviewed in his studio Tuesday.)

Below is a clip from C-SPAN September 2 where a caller described hearing me on the radio (he got the facts mostly right) and asked MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty why the GOP isn't making a bigger deal if it is indeed true that Barack Obama voted against a bill to stop abortion survivors from being left to die....

Michael Barone, a U.S. News & World Report columnist, had the following op ed published in several news outlets, including the Boston Herald, August 31:

Barack Obama... has 3 major vulnerabilities here as I see it. One is his 20-year relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright....

Another problem is Obama's relationship with the unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist bomber William Ayers....

Finally, there is Obama's 2003 vote against a bill, "virtually identical" as the Obama campaign admits, to one that passed the U.S. Senate 98-0, banning the killing of fetuses who have survived abortions....

UPDATE, 7:45p: Hear the ad.

Obama's got a lot of nerve, but what else can he do? He's attempting to pull himself out of defensive mode on abortion by going on the offense. From Politico, September 2:

Barack Obama has launched a broadside against John McCain's opposition to abortion rights and moved one of the most divisive issues in modern American politics to the airwaves on a large scale for the first time in this presidential campaign.

Obama's new radio ad, airing widely in at least 7 swing states, tells voters McCain "will make abortion illegal." It's airing as McCain courts female voters with the addition of the staunchly anti-abortion governor of AK, Sarah Palin, to his ticket.

Democrats had, until now, sought to appeal to women primarily on economic issues such as health care and workplace discrimination; abortion rights were hardly mentioned at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last week....

Posted at Free Republic (click to enlarge):

[HT: friend Leslie]

UPDATE, 4:10p: According to LifeNews.com, Palin is a member of Feminists for Life.

UPDATE, 1:40p: Americans United for Life has posted several of Palin's pro-life statements.
_______________

John McCain just hit a grand slam.

With McCain's announcement today that AK Gov. Sarah Palin will be his running mate, Barack Obama's abortion problem just got a whole lot bigger.

The McCain/Palin ticket offers a complete contrast to the Obama/Biden ticket on the pro-life issue.

Palin is a pro-lifer who not only talks the talk but walks the walk. Palin and her husband chose to deliver her fifth child, Trigg, earlier this year even though he was prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome. Her doctor recommended abortion but Palin and her family refused. Indeed, 90% of babies with Down syndrome are aborted in the U.S. today.

But Palin told the Anchorage Daily News in April, "We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed."

Meanwhile, Barack Obama, actively opposed legislation as IL state senator to protect little babies with Down syndrome who had survived their abortions but were being shelved in a hospital soiled utility room to die....

According to the Associated Press:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain decided on a running mate early Thursday, and one top prospect, MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty, abruptly canceled numerous public appearances.

The AZ senator will appear with his No. 2 at an OH rally on Friday, aides said, though they provided no details on who McCain had picked.

This would be good, very good.

Tonight, just as radical pro-abortion Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama begins his acceptance speech at Denver's Invesco Field, American Right To Life will display for the second and last time the world's largest protest sign.

The location for the final unfurling of the 353,000 square-foot sign (530x666 feet) is still secret but will maximize the likelihood Obama and thousands of delegates will see the sign with their own eyes.

On August 26 ARTL spread this sign on a grassy mountainside public knoll:

Destroys
uNborn
Children

Beginning tonight the sign will read:

Destroys
borN
Children

... to expose Obama's repeated opposition as state senator to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, a bill to protect abortion survivors from being relegated to death. In fact, Obama took a leadership role in defeating the bill, the identical version of which passed overwhelmingly on the national level and was deemed not threatening to abortion by NARAL....

It is into the wee hours of Day 4 actually, and I'm only now able to recap yesterday. It has taken awhile to edit and upload the video at the end of this post.

First, some popular booths spotted, including the Goodnight Bush booth, selling a parody of the classic Goodnight Moon (click to enlarge)...

Here's an excerpt (yes, I bought the book; it's really pretty funny):

Goodnight ballot box
Goodnight FOX
Goodnight towers
And goodnight balance of powers
Goodnight Constitution
And goodnight evolution...

You get the drift.

I attended a standing room only Democrats for Life press conference this afternoon. PA Senator Bob Casey, who gave a speech at last night's convention, was on hand, as was Congressman Heath Shuler of NC...

Factcheck.org has confirmed Barack Obama voted against the identical version of Born Alive as IL state senator, as was passed overwhelmingly on the federal level and then misrepresented his vote:

Obama opposed the 2001 and 2002 "born alive" bills as backdoor attacks on a woman's legal right to abortion, but he says he would have been "fully in support" of a similar federal bill that President Bush had signed in 2002, because it contained protections for Roe v. Wade.

We find that, as the [National RIght to Life Committee] said in a recent statement, Obama voted in committee against the 2003 state bill that was nearly identical to the federal act he says he would have supported. Both contained identical clauses saying that nothing in the bills could be construed to affect legal rights of an unborn fetus, according to an undisputed summary written immediately after the committee's 2003 mark-up session....

Here's another political cartoon that can't wait until Sunday to post, by Eric Allie, courtesy of Townhall.com:

[HT: reader S. O'Brien]

A column by David Reinhard, associate editor of the liberal Oregonian:

It's often said that it's not the crime, it's the coverup. Here, it's the crime and the coverup. Misrepresenting the reasons for a key vote is the coverup. Opposing efforts to help babies born alive in botched abortions is the crime - enabling infanticide....

At the risk of committing blasphemy, you have to ask: What's with this guy?...

A column by Joan Vennochi of the liberal Boston Globe...

The Black Republican PAC has a new ad running in OH, taking Barack Obama on for raising taxes, for his willingness to sit down with terrorist leaders - and because he would be "the first president to support infanticide for babies who survive late term abortions." Fabulous.

[HT: readers Neetul and Moving Sale Johnson]

UDPATE, 6:50p: Here is the mp3 audio of the address.
_______________

I said the next time you'd hear from me would be from Denver, but a reader just sent this and I had to post it - John McCain's weekly radio address today, a large portion of which was spent spotlighting Obama's Born Alive vote and cover-up as well as other life issues.

From Time/CNN, August 23:

Good morning, this is John McCain, speaking to you at the end of an eventful week in the presidential campaign....

The week began with a debate of sorts between Senator Obama and me at Saddleback Church....

In case you missed it, the discussion yielded the line of the week, and maybe even of the campaign, when Pastor Rick Warren asked my opponent a very serious question. He wanted to know at what point, in my opponent's view, does a baby have human rights? Senator Obama thought about it for a moment, and came back with the reply that the question was, quote, "above my pay grade."

Here was a candidate for the presidency of the United States, asked for his position on one of the central moral and legal questions of our time, and this was the best he could offer: It's above his pay grade. He went on to assure his interviewer that there is a, quote, "moral and ethical element to this issue." Americans expect more of their leaders....

by JivinJ

Sean Hannity has done a fabulous job covering the Barack Obama/Born Alive scandal.

For the past 2 nights his liberal counterpart, Alan Colmes, has proposed rationale far and away from Obama's original reason for opposing the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act, which he stated on the IL State Senate floor in 2001, at the genesis of this debate:

I just want to suggest ... that this is probably not going to survive constitutional scrutiny....

I mean, it - it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an anti-abortion statute. For that purpose, I think it would probably be found unconstitutional.

Colmes has maintained, quoting from last night's show, "there was already a law in place that said that in the unlikely case that an abortion would be - cause a live birth, a doctor should provide immediate medical care for any child born alive."

Here are Hannity and Colmes segments from August 20 and August 21, debating Obama's opposition to Born Alive:

Was there a law in place? As National Review Online's Ramesh Ponnuru explained in a column August 20...

The folks at RH (i.e., Reproductive Health) Reality Check need to stop wasting Ted Turner's money by hiring morons. Yesterday one of its finest, Scott Swenson, posted this:

Spare the respect, Scott. It's not mutual and you'll soon be taking it back, although maybe not since your Pulitzer Prize nominee, Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune emailed me yesterday, "He not only misunderstood what I wrote in the first place, but he misunderstood my confirmation to him." So Swenson's denseness apparently knows no bounds. To his credit, Zorn attempted to correct Swenson's gross misrepresentation of my comment....

The IL General Assembly destroys audiotapes of its floor debates after transcripts have been written. That is why there is precious little audio, if any, of Barack Obama as state senator making any speeches.

But a pro-life sleuth has found a short audio clip on the Chicago Tribune website of Obama arguing on the IL Senate floor on April 4, 2002, against Senate Bill B1663, a companion bill to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act that would have required an abortionist to call a second physician to assess a baby aborted alive.

Here is the Senate transcript to ensure the comment is heard in context....

Last night Sean Hannity interviewed me about my experience at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, IL, holding a baby who had been aborted alive for 45 minutes until he died.

The interview extended to Barack Obama's leadership role in opposing the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act, to give abortion survivors legal rights.

One other point clarified during the interview: Obama denied for 4 years he voted for the identical language in IL that was passed overwhelmingly on the federal level, including a unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate. NARAL went neutral on the bill as well.

Here's the transcript.

UPDATE, 8/22, 4a: One of Hannity's producers emailed me yesterday: "Just so you know we got a jump of 100,000 people in demo (ppl btw 25-45) during your segment, which is fantastic."

Still trying to spotlight all the major news articles published today on the new revelation that Barack Obama voted against identical Born Alive legislation as IL state senator that passed on the federal level overwhelmingly.

Washington Post, today, front page:

The narrative of the presidential campaign appeared to be set on the issue of abortion: Sen. Barack Obama was the abortion-rights candidate who was reaching out to foes, seeking common ground and making inroads. Sen. John McCain was the abortion opponent....

But both those impressions have been altered since the Rev. Rick Warren's Saddleback Civil Forum in CA ....

Obama's hesitant statement at the forum that defining the beginning of life is "above my pay grade" took even some supporters by surprise. Since then, the National Right to Life Committee has challenged him on an obscure law that protects babies born alive after failed abortions, saying that his opposition to the measure in the IL state legislature proves he is an extremist....

On August 19, Hannity, Colmes, and Beckel got into a shouting match over Barack Obama's opposition as IL state senator to the Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

At issue was whether it was worded identically as the federal bill, which Obama has denied for 4 years.

It was. Obama was lying.

Beckel did not like that Obama was standing accused of supporting infanticide.

Which he does.

Colmes, sarcastically: "Barack Obama wants to kill Jill Stanek's baby."

David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network helped launch a firestorm of controversy on August 16 when asking Barack Obama in an interview after the Saddleback Showdown about the accusation he had misrepresented his opposition to IL's Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

National Right to Life had just announced the discovery of documentation that Obama opposed identical verbiage as the federal Born Alive bill, contrary to multiple statements otherwise.

This interview provides a great synopsis and update of the controversy so far.

Barack Obama has painted himself into a corner by his vote against the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

He made this evident at Pastor Rick Warren's Aug. 17 Saddleback Showdown.

Warren asked both presidential candidates the same questions separately. Here was his best one: "At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?"

Very simple. But Obama wouldn't answer it. His now infamous response: "Well, I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade."

The most adamant pro-abort will at least agree babies acquire human rights when they have completely delivered.

But Barack Obama couldn't bring himself to say, "At birth." He wouldn't confer human rights to newborns....

Continue reading, "Why Obama couldn't answer Warren's baby question," on WorldNetDaily.com.

Last night I taped a segment for Hannity's America that is going to air TONIGHT during Hannity and Colmes.

The spot was originally scheduled to run this coming Sunday, but the Democrat National Convention got in the way.

I'm glad. More viewers during the week than on weekends.

I'm told The O'Reilly Factor is going to cover the Obama/Born Alive scandal tonight as well.

Also, fyi, I'll be on Michael Reagan's radio show tonight at 7:30p EST.

Finally, a little scoop. An insider tells me Obama's camp is going "ape sh**" over all this.

Read entire article on page 2. Note again, as I noted on the Associated Press article and in my talking points post, Obama surrogates are attempting to mash reasons - particularly Born Alive's companion bills - into his new excuse for not voting for Born Alive. But these were always separate bills with separate bill numbers and separate votes. One did not hinge upon the other's passage.

New York Times, today:

Abortion, a familiar issue in elections past, has again emerged in recent days as a focus of controversy. Senator Barack Obama is coming under intense fire from anti-abortion groups because of the position he took as an IL state senator on legislation regarding the status of fetuses that survive abortion procedures....

From the Associated Press, today:

... "For people to suggest that I and the IL Medical Society, so IL's doctors, were somehow in favor of withholding lifesaving support from an infant born alive is ridiculous," he recently told the Christian Broadcasting Network. "It defies common sense and it defies imagination."

But as a state senator, Obama repeatedly voted against that requirement and other restrictions on what opponents label "born alive" abortions. Obama says he opposed it only because of technical language that might have interfered with a woman's right to choose....

Abortion opponents say Obama's position amounts to an endorsement of killing babies, and that he has lied about it....

I spent a great deal of time on the phone with 3 reporters from major news organizations the last 2 days, and each one became frustrated with me because I wouldn't allow them to take me down rabbit trails when discussing Barack Obama's opposition to the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

All 3 times, I was the call they made...after the call they made to the Obama campaign, to Planned Parenthood or to the ACLU, so I was handed their talking points to rebut.

The other side is trying to obfuscate Obama's opposition to Born Alive by saying: 1) it was part of a package of 3 bills with intolerable ramifications to abortion; and 2) although the verbiage of the federal and state bills was identical, the consequences to state law was not.

But I refused to deviate from these 2 points:

1. We now know Barack Obama as state senator voted against identical Born Alive Infants Protection Act legislation that was passed overwhelmingly on the federal level and accepted by even NARAL.

2. For 4 years Barack Obama has misrepresented his vote and must answer for that.

The exasperated New York Times reporter finally complained, "They're trying to broaden the discussion but you're trying to narrow it," as if I were the one to blame for that. I said of course they're trying to move eyes off the ball, and of course I'm trying to stay focused.

Anyway, it wasn't we who narrowed the discussion. It was Barack Obama himself, who has repeatedly stated he would have voted for Born Alive in IL had it been the same as the federal bill. He focused on one point - one bill - and so are we.

On August 14 the Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn published a refutation from the Obama campaign to the charge he did indeed oppose identical legislation as state senator to legislation passed overwhelmingly on the national level and deemed unobstrusive on abortion by NARAL.

The Obama team's protest including a chart it stated showed the "FACT: There are MAJOR differences in state and federal bills, including the fact that the federal bill included a 'Neutrality Clause'":

Yesterday the Obama campaign released a new "fact sheet" with a critical change in the chart, and an admission Obama opposed the amended Born Alive bill, which was now identical to the federal version.

One added point. Note the heading, "Language Clearly Threatening Roe."

"Clearly threatening Roe"? Then explain this, Senator Obama. Even before the hyped "neutrality clause" was added, the U.S. House voted 380-15 in September 2000 for this version, you know, the one "clearly threatening Roe." Leading pro-abort Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) stated at the time, according to World magazine:

The purpose of this bill is only to get the pro-choice members to vote against it so they can slander us and say we are for infanticide. That's why I voted for it in committee, and that's why we will vote for it on the floor.

Obama just wasn't so smart.

On August 18, the exchange between sides became heated on Hannity and Colmes on the topic of Barack Obama's opposition as state senator to the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

The argument centered on whether Obama opposed the identical language that 98 of his U.S. Senate colleagues supported and that even NARAL went neutral on.

Colmes continued to assert the answer was no, even though there is proof the answer is yes. I had it confirmed last night that Colmes' people have been given the documentation. Let's see what he does with it.

Ann Coulter was fabulous...

This one can't wait until Sunday, by my favorite political cartoonist Glenn McCoy:

[HT: Troy Newman of Operation Rescue]

From National Review Online, August 20:

Bereft of an argument, the Obama campaign is pounding the table.

The recent attacks on Senator Obama that allege he would allow babies born alive to die are outrageous lies. The suggestion that Obama - the proud father of two little girls - and others who opposed these bills supported infanticide is deeply offensive and insulting.* There is no room for these kinds of distortions and lies in this campaign.

Note, first, that Obama's comment about lies over the weekend referred to the National Right to Life Committee. Yet the campaign has not made a single specific allegation that any of the NRLC's statements are inaccurate, let alone dishonest. The campaign claims only that the NRLC has left out some context that exonerates Obama....

UPDATE, 7:15a:While trying to figure out the problems on the site yesterday, I removed this post in case it contained html language or something else that was upsetting the system. So sorry, the three comments made before I took the post down are also gone. Am reposting now....

On August 17, Hannity's America ran an expose segment on Planned Parenthood's sexually explicit and downright creepy Take Care Down There internet site.

Hannity wondered if Barack Obama really wants to brag about his association with PP...

From the New York Sun, dated August 18:

Indeed, Mr. Obama appeared to misstate his position in the CBN interview on Saturday when he said the federal version he supported "was not the bill that was presented at the state level."

His campaign yesterday acknowledged that he had voted against an identical bill in the state Senate, and a spokesman, Hari Sevugan, said the senator and other lawmakers had concerns that even as worded, the legislation could have undermined existing Illinois abortion law. Those concerns did not exist for the federal bill, because there is no federal abortion law....

The following statement was just issued by National Right to Life Committee Legislative Director Douglas Johnson, in response to the David Brody interview with Barack Obama last night:

Since 2004, Obama has been betting that the mainstream news media will lack the interest and attention span required to get a clear picture of his actual record regarding infants who are born alive during abortions, and so far that mostly has worked for him....

I have to hand it to Rick Warren. Many of his questions last night to presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain were very good. This one was the best:

"At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?"

Very simple. But Obama wouldn't answer it. He wouldn't even confer human rights to newborns. He couldn't even say, "at birth," which should be the pro-abortion position of all but the Peter Singers in the world.

Obama responded...

No Sunday funny today. There's nothing funny about Barack Obama's bold-faced lie to CBN's David Brody last night after the Saddleback Showdown, when he continued to maintain he did not vote against an identical bill as IL state senator to the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act:

Obama was obviously aware of the evidence provided last week by National Right to Life when making the statement. He not only continued to deny his vote in the face of 2 pieces of documentation showing otherwise but called the messenger a liar.

Again, here is Obama's March 13, 2003, vote in the IL State Senate Health & Human Services Committee, which anyone could obtain from the IL General Assembly archive (click to enlarge):

"DP#1" means "Do Pass Amendment #1." "DPA" means "Do Pass as Amended."

Here is the original bill. Here is Amendment #1. Here is the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

Obama first voted in favor of Amendment #1 and then voted against the Born Alive bill as amended. It couldn't be more clear. Furthermore, here is the Republican Senate Staff Analysis from that day, expressing the same understanding of the chain of events:

Senator Obama needs to show his own evidence that none of this is true.

[HT: moderators Jasper and Carder and pro-lifewitness.com]

This afternoon I'll be discussing Barack Obama's opposition to the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act on Sean Hannity's radio show at 4:05p EST. You can listen live online.

Last night Hannity announced on the Hannity and Colmes Fox cable news show I would appear on Hannity's America next Sunday night. Be warned, however, that no concrete plans have been set for the interview.

Hannity made the announcement during a panel discussion on Obama's opposition to Born Alive. At least 2 panelists were previously unaware, and their response was interesting. Watch through to the end. The abortion/Born Alive issue keeps popping up.

Here's a good one.

The 1,710 word book-column at FindLaw.com looks impressive on the surface, written by Sherry Colb, "a Professor of Law and Charles Evans Hughes Scholar at Cornell Law School."

Cornell, my.

The only problem with Colb's attempt to clear Obama of his pro-infanticide position is she referenced the wrong bill. I couldn't believe it....

This morning Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune posted a response from the Obama campaign to this week's revelation that Obama actually did vote against an identical version of the federal Born Alive while state senator, contrary to his repeated statements over the years otherwise.

Here's what Zorn said the Obama campaign sent him:

Well, if that doesn't beat all. They're continuing to lie despite documentation. I expected many responses, but not that one.

Below is the vote tally, from the IL General Assembly archives. Anyone can get this vote tally by contacting the ILGA. Click to enlarge....

Jerome Corsi, author of the book, The Obama Nation, was a guest on Hannity and Colmes August 12.

Both Hannity and Colmes spent time with Corsi discussing Obama's opposition to IL's Born Alive Infants Protection Act while state senator, legislation that would give newborn babies equal protection under the law even if aborted.

Frustratingly, none of the 3 were aware of the latest development, revealed by National Right to Life August 11: While Obama has repeatedly said he would have voted for the state Born Alive had it been an exact duplicate of the federally passed bill, the fact is he did vote AGAINST an identical version on March 13, 2003.

Note Colmes called aborted alive babies "fetuses born alive after botched abortions." These are not fetuses.

Also note the name of a nurse you know popping up a couple times.

Erick Erickson at RedState.com has subsequently challenged Colmes to stop "parrot[ing] the Obama talking points on this issue, because those talking points are dead wrong".

Conservative and new media are all over National Right to Life's August 11 revelation that, contrary to multiple statements otherwise, Barack Obama as state senator did indeed vote against identical legislation as the federal Born Alive Infants Protection Act, putting him to the left of NARAL and every other US senator.

But as Warner Todd Huston writes today on NewsBusters.org, MSM has gone "mum".

I happen to know one of the big 3 network news organizations has been sitting on this since last Thursday, going so far as to pass up the chance to break the story.

Meanwhile, The Weekly Standard has a piece on this today.

And look for something by Wall Street Journal's John Fund tomorrow....

UPDATE, 1:30p: Reader Charles wanted to learn how to pronounce the word "infanticide" on the web, and he was surprised to see the word's sponsor (click to enlarge):

UPDATE, 12:10p: Reader HisMan just forwarded this (click to enlarge)...

UPDATE, 4:30p: Ben Smith of The Politico has linked to this post.

UPDATE, 4p: Concerned Women for America has audio of an interview with me on this here.

UPDATE, 10:22a:Michelle Malkin has linked to this post.

UPDATE, 9:50a: Kathryn Lopez of National Review Online is covering the story.

Last week Doug Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee drew my attention to a previously unnoticed January 2008 article by Terence Jeffrey stating Barack Obama actually did vote against a version of the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act that was identical to the federal version, contrary to multiple public statements Obama or his surrogates have made to rationalize his opposition to the IL bill for the past 4 years.

Since then we have found 2 separate documents proving Barack Obama has been misrepresenting facts.

In fact, Barack Obama is more liberal than any U.S. senator, voting against identical language of a bill that body passed unanimously, 98-0. In fact, Barack Obama condones infanticide if it would otherwise interfere with abortion.

Here is the statement with documentation released by NRLC this morning...

The Barack Obama/Born Alive issue made the UK's The Guardian today, called "smear." Oh brother on the title.

The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn also tried in vain to bat the issue away once again today. Oh brother on the title of his piece, too....

Democrat strategist Bob Beckel duked it out with The Obama Nation author Dr. Jerome Corsi on Fox & Friends August 5.

The spar is posted on YouTube. Scroll to 5:15 on the video and you'll see the conversation turned to Barack Obama's opposition to Born Alive. And "the nurse who is very famous out in Illinois" would be me....

God bless Dr. Corsi. The left wing Media Matters has tracked at least three times Corsi has stated during interviews exactly how far Obama will go in his radical support of abortion: "even late term, induced abortions where the baby lives. Obama's on record as let's kill the baby if that's what the mother wants."...

On Nov. 8, 1994, Pastor Scott Willis and his wife, Janet, started the day by voting in Illinois' general election. One vote they cast was to re-elect Secretary of State George Ryan.

They then commenced a road trip to Milwaukee with the youngest six of their nine children, ranging in age from 6 weeks to 13 years.

On Interstate 94 a truck in front of them suddenly dropped what was later determined to be a 6-by-30 inch metal brace weighing 30 pounds.

Having no time to swerve or stop, Scott ran over the brace, which hit the gas tank.

The van instantly exploded into an inferno. Scott recalled:

It was just roaring flames coming up on both sides. I was yelling to get out of the car. Janet and I had to consciously put our hands into the flames to unbuckle the seat belts and reach for the door handles.

Janet fell out the door while the car was still moving. Benny was in the midst of the burning; his clothes were mostly burned off by the time he got out. The five youngest children, who had been asleep, died instantly.

Only they didn't die instantly....

Continue reading "Cold and calculating - that's Obama" at WorldNetDaily.com.

by Chuck Asay...

by Eric Allie...

Two Catholics with supposedly opposing views on abortion are said to be on Barack Obama's VP short list: KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and VA Gov. Tim Kaine.

Sebelius states she is personally pro-life but in all her actions is a flagrant pro-abort and has even been asked by her bishop to refrain from receiving communion.

Kaine has more fooled. He professes to be pro-life and has many on the other side worried, but he is not pro-life. National Right to Life goes so far as to call Kaine "pro-abortion"....

I just posted on a book about to be released against Obama entitled, The case against Barack Obama.

But another similarly themed book has just come out, The Obama Nation. Its author, Dr. Jerome Corsi, of Swift Boat fame, was on Hannity & Colmes last night.

Go to 1:45 in the video below to see Corsi and Hannity briefly discuss Obama's opposition to Born Alive. The last 20 seconds of the interview is also interesting. Corsi states Obama will lose his bid for the presidency, in part for his position on social issues.

[HT: moderator Carder]

The book, The case against Barack Obama, will be released Monday, August 4, Barack Obama's birthday.

The author, David Freddoso, came to Chicago and interviewed many of us involved in the Born Alive issue as it pertained to Obama. Freddoso dedicated an entire chapter to this. I haven't read it but someone who has proclaimed it "excellent."

As you can see by the promo below, Obama's opposition to Born Alive is one of the major talking points.

Men's apologist Mark Rudov wrote the following in an interesting July 19 Men News Daily column, "Obama's baby mamas," on the speech "misandrist" Barack Obama should have given on Mother's Day to balance his chastisement of absentee fathers on Father's Day:

Unmarried mothers must stop complaining that sperm owners aren't committed fathers. Here's a rule of thumb for every unmarried woman: if you have no wedding ring on your finger, assume the man with whom you're having sex will not hang around post-childbirth. Let that sink in the next time you roll the dice with an innocent child's future.

Women have 20 methods of birth control from which to choose, according to Planned Parenthood.

Women must stop passing the buck to men. Either men are equally responsible for pregnancy or they're not. If they are, give them an equal say in all decisions about abortion, adoption, and custody. Otherwise, all unwed mothers should be totally responsible - logistically and financially - for raising their children.

Agree or disagree?

That would be me.

Last night on CNN's The Situation Room, Barack Obama's hostility toward IL's Born Alive Infants Protection Act came up again, this time in a discussion of his opposition to the Partial Birth Abortion Ban:

This is the 2nd time James Carville has ducked discussion of Obama's opposition to Born Alive in favor of taking a swipe at me. Carville was obviously unprepared on June 30 for a debate on the merits of Born Alive, but almost 3 weeks later he still has had no time or an intern to do some really easy research?

Two points...

I'd heard conservative commentator Cal Thomas had led Democrat strategist Bob Beckel to the Lord and have even observed Beckel's commentating style become less abrasive on Fox over the past year.

In the July 26 issue of World magazine Marvin Olasky interviewed the pair, and my name came up in a discussion of Barack Obama. Read the World magazine piece in its entirety here. World has graciously enabled a link to the article for my readers. Following is the relevant excerpt:

Beckel: Let me be purely pragmatic about this: In politics the reason common ground will work is that polarization is bad politics in the voting booth and common ground is good politics.... Barack Obama took the message and it has been with him throughout the Democratic nomination. That'll tell you something.

World: But how will he actually pursue common ground? Let's look at one of the most difficult issues - abortion. Jill Stanek, the IL pediatric nurse, has written about appearing before Obama's committee (when he was in the IL senate) on infant born alive legislation: After a "failed" abortion when the baby is born alive, do you try to keep him alive or do you just let him die? Stanek has commented that, despite his public demeanor, Obama was heartless and callous. How is Obama going to find common ground on abortion when he doesn't even want to protect an infant already born alive?...

Beckel: I was pro-choice all my life until I came to faith and now I find it very difficult to reconcile that in biblical terms. I've had to remove myself from a number of pro-choice groups; I was on their boards. In politics you pick your fights. It is the most difficult example you put forward on Obama. I don't know where he would come down, but my guess is you probably wouldn't be able to find common ground with Obama on that issue.

Many people consider that the most pressing issue, and I understand that, but let's keep in mind here that the hard pro-life faction in this country who demand no abortions, versus the hard pro-choice faction who demand abortion at any time, are about 15% on either side. So you've got about 70% who look for some compromise. You can say, how do you compromise life? That's what we would say, but that's the reality of where the American people are. Part of common ground is approaching those issues that are doable.

[Photo courtesy of World magazine]

It was one year ago today that Barack Obama spoke at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund event, uttering the now infamous line, "Well, the first thing I'd do as president is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. [Applause.] That's the first thing that I'd do."

You can view the entire 24-minute speech here or watch this clip:

Obama made his remark in response to a question from the audience...

CNN interviewed Dr. Alveda King, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, niece, today as one African-American voter who does not support Barack Obama due to his pro-abortion position.

Alveda is a formidable black spokesperson on the pro-life issue, and I'm glad this angle got CNN coverage. Alveda's interview comes 50 seconds in:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Relevant magazine must certainly be enjoying its 15 minutes. The backlash continues re: statements Obama made in a July 1 interview with the liberal Christian publication. I've previously dissected his "mental distress" and "Born Alive" comments, but Obama touched on 2 other topics that has pro-aborts fuming: partial birth abortion and abstinence education. On pba he said:

I have repeatedly said that I think it's entirely appropriate for states to restrict or even prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is a strict, well-defined exception for the health of the mother.

Obama must have repeatedly said that only to the pandering pro-abort in the mirror, because stalwarts were taken aback. They considered Obama's comment a direct assault on partial birth abortion.

Former Planned Parenthood CEO Gloria Feldt published a piece July 9 and 10 in both the Huffington Post and RH Reality Check explaining why she dissed a July 9 NY funder for Obama and voided her $4,600 donation check...

Last week Barack Obama raised eyebrows on all sides by tampering with a foundational principle of legalized abortion, the Supreme Court's purposefully vague and all-encompassing "health" exception.

As defined in Roe v Wade's companion case Doe v Bolton, it is: "all factors - physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age - relevant to the well being of the patient" (with Chief Justice Warren Burger accentuating, "the term health in its broadest medical context.")

The abortion industry has used this definition for 35 years to commit abortion throughout all 9 months of pregnancy for whatever reason, because whatever reason will fit into that "health" definition. Pro-aborts also try to add a "health exception" to any anti-abortion legislation presented so as to gut it.

Then along came Obama on July 1, the self-described constitutional expert. According to the Associated Press...

In June, I reported on two points from Barack Obama's Fathers Day speech: his chastisement of black men for abandoning their paternal responsibilities, and, his enlightening statement that "responsibility does not end at conception."

For that, Jill from Feministe accused me of being a "nutbag... total nutbag... [and] crazy racist", as did liberals on this blog in so many words.

It's hard to keep the finger-pointing straight, but yesterday it came to light. Jesse Jackson was caught on a hot mic a few days ago complaining in derogatory terms that Obama was actually the racist for making those remarks. According to the Associated Press...

The Christian Defense Coalition has launched a campaign featuring this ad exposing one of Barack Obama's many far left abortion positions:

Quoting a CBS News story on this today...

A CNN reporter interviewing me a couple weeks ago about Barack Obama's opposition as state senator to the Illinois Born Alive Infants Protection Act groaned more than once that this topic was "complicated."

She was referring to Obama's various explanations through the years for blocking Born Alive and lately his outright denial that obstructing legislation declaring live aborted babies legal persons had anything to do with endorsing their death.

I finally emailed her, "It is clear: Obama strongly opposed legislation to protect abortion survivors. This is horrible, so of course he will try to make it 'complicated,' but it is not."

Obama has recently been ratcheting up the obfuscations....

Obama may have set a new record in a July 1 Relevant magazine interview, rattling four excuses in one soundbite, all previously outlined in my January 2008 column, "Obama's 10 reasons for supporting infanticide" - Nos. 1, 6, 7 and 10!...

Continue reading my column today, ""Botch an abortion? Obama would let baby die," on WorldNetDaily.com.

by JivinJ

Many people have emailed me about Barack Obama's July 1 interview with Relevant magazine, in which he stated...

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...

by Chuck Asay...

by guest columnist Joseph Wildman

On July 17, 2007, Senator Barack Obama spoke to President Cecile Richards, Steve Trombley, and other senior leaders at a Planned Parenthood Action Fund meeting.

To this cheering...audience, Senator Obama promised, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." These words inspired and rightfully energized the PP... leadership....

From LifeNews.com today:

A new report shows voters are interested in the position Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama takes on abortion. The Internet traffic monitoring firm HitWise indicates abortion is now the number one political issue voters are looking for when they conduct a search on Obama's campaign web site.

Hitwise analyzed the top 200 U.S. search terms that sent visits to the presidential candidates' websites for the first half of 2008, revealing the types of content searched for the most among Internet users.

Issues like education, the environment, health care and immigration are important to visitors on Obama's web site, but HitWise says abortion tops them all.

On June 25, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked conservative commentator Bill Bennett what question he would ask Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama if he could.

Bennett said he would ask Obama:

Why are you to the left of NARAL, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein when it comes to abortion? Are you really there?.... I got to question the guy's moral judgment who doesn't see a problem with killing a baby after it's been born.... What is the answer to that question?

Bennett was speaking about Obama's opposition to Illinois' Born Alive Infants Protection Act as state senator....

(To which Obama defender Donna Brazile responded, "Bill, you want to have a conversation about narrow issues... but the American people want to talk about gas prices....")

Over the years, Obama or his surrogates have mischaracterized Illinois' Born Alive Act and his reasons for opposing it at least 10 different ways.

But Obama's most flagrant lie, perpetuated by both NARAL* and the Obama campaign* after CNN ran a fair analysis on June 30 of Obama's opposition to Born Alive, is as NARAL wrote in a rebuttal....

Continue reading my column today, "Obama's biggest lie about supporting infanticide," on WorldNetDaily.com.

*See NARAL press release on page 2. Go here to read Obama's attempted refutation that he is pro-infanticide.

CNN's Carol Costello did a good deal of research and fairly reported Barack Obama's opposition to the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act when he was state senator.

Bill Bennett added important info in a follow-up debate against James Carville.

Costello's follow-up should be to answer the question she closed with: Did Barack Obama reject the opportunity to vote for a bill identical to the federal bill?

To listen to my interview on Bill Bennett's radio show this morning discussing Barack Obama's opposition to IL's Born Alive Infants Protection Act click here.

Bill has also posted a link to the audio on his site.

A 527 has been launched and a website is in process to expose Barack Obama and his opposition to the IL Born Alive Infants Protection Act, in other words, his support of infanticide.

I am making this public now since many Bill Bennett listeners are checking out this blog after his having publicized it this morning.

If you would like to donate to our 527 now, please make checks out to BornAliveTruth.org and mail them to:

BornAliveTruth.org will go live in the coming days, and online donations can be made then.

Bennett listeners, go here to see photos of Christ Hospital's Comfort Room. Go here to view Obama's votes and actions against IL's Born Alive Act. And to read further information on Barack Obama and Born Alive, go here to view my Obama archives.

[Graphic courtesy of The Husaria]

In response to MoveOn.org's "Not Alex" ad comes this political cartoon by Chip Bok of Townhall.com:

Here's that ad, in case you missed it:

I wonder if Bok anticipated people like me interpreting his work as I have....

Carol Costello of CNN contacted me this morning to be interviewed on my experience with Barack Obama and IL's Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

So I just got back from taping a segment at the Chicago CNN studio. I was told it would air during The Situation Room, on now. It hasn't aired yet.

UPDATE, 5:15p: Just talked to Carol, and she didn't get all of her interviews done in time, she said, so they postponed the segment until tomorrow between 5-6p EST.

SECOND UPDATE, 6/27, 5:35p: The segment will again be postponed - until Monday, between 5-6p EST. Bill Bennett was also interviewed for the piece and is scheduled to appear live on The Situation Room Monday. So he asked that the segment be held until then so he can discuss and rebut it after it airs.

Just up on YouTube by Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, this is absolutely fabulous...

[HT: Fran at Illinois Review]

I wrote earlier this month actress Scarlett Johansson told the London Telegraph "she has regular email contact with presidential hopeful Barack Obama in which she offers advice and consoles him after difficult debates." Continued the Telegraph:

The Hollywood starlet said she had been communicating with the Democratic candidate for months and was "amazed" that he always found the time to reply....

"You'd imagine that someone like the senator who is constantly travelling and constantly 'on' - how can he return these personal emails?" she told the Politico website.

"But he does...."

She described how after a particularly tough debate earlier this year, she sent an email congratulating him for "holding his ground".

He responded that the questioning was "difficult" and he was being pounded on "one silly question after another."

I said at the time young Scarlett had received her last email from Obama, who if what she said was true, had engaged in a politically risky tête-à-tête.

Now, according to Us magazine, Obama is denying all but 1 email...

I've written before (here and here) about the Democrats' attempt to reinstate taxpayer subsidies of college and Planned Parenthood birth control pills in the War Supplemental Appropriations bill.

Recall PP CEO Cecile Richards famously lamented that without this subsidy's restoration, college women would have to choose between sex and food, i.e., buy birth control pills or eat.

Well, I guess now we'll see what their priority is. And maybe they'll get their free-sex partners to kick in a little to support the habit. Or would that make them feel too much like prostitutes?

From Medical News Today, June 23...

Wrote Mark Finkelstein at Newsbusters.org yesterday:

Who cares if Barack Obama won't protect a child who is born alive after an abortion? Gas is over $4/gallon!

So argued Donna Brazile when Bill Bennett pressed her on the matter today. The issue arose during a post-Obama press conference kibitzing session on CNN's Situation Room. Bennett was making the point that the complaisant media in attendance had failed to press the candidate on tough issues.

Here's the clip. (Thanks to Mark for being so kind as to post it on YouTube.)

Read transcript of Brazile/Bennett exchange on page 2.

Continued Mark...

Every morning I read my Bible and pray. Otherwise I know I'd not fare well mentally through the day trying to promote the sanctity of life against anti-life liberals and media. Today though, despite the great start, I'm really close to losing it.

This just blows my mind. Click to link to video:

I almost can't get my arms around this one. The audacity of Obama to push abortion to its most radical ends - pba, live birth abortion, and FOCA - and then relish kissing babies? He really is maniacal....

by Glenn McCoy, June 20:

Jill at Feministe took a swipe at me June 17 for my post, "Obama: 'Responsibility doesn't end at conception.'"

According to Jill I am a "nutbag... total nutbag... [and] crazy racist," and she filed her piece under the tags "A**holes, Crazy Conservatives... Racism... [and] Stupidity."...

From Newsmax.com, June 18:

In coming weeks, John McCain is planning to confront Barack Obama on three issues dear to conservatives' hearts.

First is Obama's support of the recent Supreme Court ruling that gives foreign enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo Bay the right to challenge their detention in federal district courts....

Second is Obama's opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act, which says a state is not required to recognize same-sex marriages that are performed in other states. Congress overwhelmingly passed the bill in 1996, and Bill Clinton signed it into law.

Third is Obama's vote in 2002 as an Illinois state senator against a bill to define as a "person" a fully born baby who survived an abortion. The bill was intended to make it clear that if an abortion were botched, an infant born alive would not be killed and would receive medical care. Twice, Obama voted against various versions of the bill and twice voted "present." The Illinois bill did not pass....

In March 2002, then IL state Sen. Barack Obama and I engaged in an interesting exchange during my testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which he was a member.

I was speaking in favor of the IL Born Alive Infant Protection Act for the second time, which had failed the year before.

The previous year, I had told Obama and the committee of my experience holding a live aborted baby until he died in my capacity as a labor and delivery nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, IL.

That year, I described Christ Hospital's Comfort Room, unveiled in December 2000 to counter my public statements that personnel were shelving babies to die in the department's soiled utility room next to dirty linens, bloody and biohazardous waste, and a urinal....

I did not mention the Comfort Room when I testified again in 2002. But Barack Obama
remembered....

Continue reading my column today, "Barack Obama and the Comfort Room," on WorldNetDaily.com.

See more photos of Christ Hospital's Comfort Room that I submitted to then state Sen. Obama and other members of the IL Senate Judiciary Committee on page 2.

From U.S. News & World Report yesterday:

The nation's largest abortion-rights group today released a poll of likely women voters in 12 battleground states that suggests... John McCain could lose the support of significant numbers of independent and pro-choice Republican women - if they are educated about the AZ senator's antiabortion voting record.

Ok, underlined are your first clues this article is biased, in fact, just a reworking of the NARAL press release.

For instance, the USN reporter merely reordered NARAL's "McCain's votes against birth control access" to "his votes to limit access to birth control," which is pure spin. McCain opposed forcing insurance companies, such as those owned by Catholics, to fund contraception against their moral beliefs. As usual, so much for choice....

Yesterday at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, Barack Obama gave a good Father's Day speech on the responsibility of black men to be good fathers.

Obama once again uttered the strange line, "We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception."

When does Obama think that responsibility begins? Is he saying there's a problem in the black community where 70% of men think they are responsible to impregnate women, but hang on, there's more to it?...

Just a few minutes ago doors opened to the Kettering University auditorium in Flint, MI, where Barack Obama is scheduled to give a speech at 11:45a EST on jobs and the economy.

Little did Flint Right to Life and Black Americans for Life know when they co-sponsored this billboard in front of the college awhile back that it might be read by such a prominent promoter of black genocide:

[HT: Judy Climer, president of FlintRTL]

I am not Catholic, but since the Catholic Church has written the most extensively and perfectly on the pro-life issue, and since the Catholic Church wields a great deal of influence in this arena, I like to follow Catholic conversations.

On June 7, Doug Kmiec, chair and professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University, and former dean and St. Thomas More professor at Catholic University of America, wrote a column on Catholic Online explaining his endorsement of Barack Obama for president....

Pro-abort bloggers Christina Page on the Huffington Post and Scott Swenson on RH Reality Check are attempting to spin Barack Obama as "centrist" on abortion, or even "pro-life."

Beyond the fact that this is a wild lie, the question is why, according to them, would this be a good thing?...

by JivinJ

I have a feeling loose-lipped Scarlett has received her last email from Barack.

From the London Telegraph, June 11:

The actress Scarlett Johansson has revealed that she has regular email contact with presidential hopeful Barack Obama in which she offers advice and consoles him after difficult debates.

The Hollywood starlet said she had been communicating with the Democratic candidate for months and was "amazed" that he always found the time to reply.

"You'd imagine that someone like the senator who is constantly travelling and constantly 'on' - how can he return these personal emails?" she told the Politico website....

The pro-abortion women's PAC EMILY's List has learned through experience how to put on a happy face in the aftermath of huge losses.

In 2002 17 of EMILY's 21 endorsed candidates lost in the national election.

In 2004 10 of EMILY's 13 endorsed candidates lost in the national election.

In 2006 16 of EMILY's 18 endorsed candidates lost in the national election.

Now, the group's leadership has apparently gone hysterical after seeing its hard-fought presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lose to Barack Obama. Reported the Washington Independent on June 11:

Ellen Moran began to laugh. This wasn't a snicker or a snort, but a full-throttled laugh that caused Moran to jerk her head back toward the ceiling as she contemplated the question before her. It was the early afternoon of June 6 and the 42-year-old executive director of EMILY's List had just been asked whether she believed if the political group could have done anything differently during the presidential run of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in which the political group played an integral part....

A friend sending me an article on the ACLU's $335 fundraising effort included this thought:

In an Obama administration with a Democrat-controlled Congress, pro-life efforts would likely gravitate to "outside the beltway" activities, i.e., activities at the state level.

Our enemies seem to have anticipated that. They are gearing up, as the article below documents. Are pro-life efforts and plans also gearing up at the state level?

Here is the June 10 ACLU press release:

The ACLU today announced the... largest fundraising campaign on behalf of civil rights and liberties in American history. The $335 million... unprecedented effort [is] to build the organization's infrastructure by increasing funding to key state affiliates nationwide....

The Republican National Committee began running this anti-Obama ad June 3. I had forgotten the job of IL state senator is part-time, making Obama's resume even slimmer.

I'm glad the RNC noted Obama's "present" votes on abortion but note the RNC didn't take a position for or against abortion in the ad. Shrewd or scared?

Yesterday, Barack Obama met with church leaders - in the Chicago highrise office building where my husband works, incidentally - to perhaps discuss the wonderment that lightning doesn't strike whenever he invokes the name of Christ in the same breath he condones abortion.

Ok, I doubt that but do admire his chutzpah for continually taking the risk. According to the Associated Press:

As one clergyman put it, when Barack Obama met with Christian leaders in Chicago today, the discussion "went absolutely everywhere."

The presumed Democratic presidential nominee met privately with the group [of ~30], which included conservatives, and discussed Darfur, the Iraq war, gay rights and abortion.

Bishop T.D. Jakes, who heads a Dallas megachurch, tells the AP that Obama discussed his "personal journey of faith." And he says some of the participants clearly have political differences with Obama. Jakes, who does not endorse candidates, says he would also like to meet with John McCain.

Obama's campaign says the event included "prominent evangelicals and other faith leaders" and there will be more such meetings in the months to come....

by JivinJ

See previous posts here and here.

The Politico reported yesterday:

Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday batted down rumors circulating on the Internet and mentioned on some cable news shows of the existence of a video of his wife using a derogatory term for white people, and criticized a reporter for asking him about the rumor, which has not a shred of evidence to support it.

"We have seen this before. There is dirt and lies that are circulated in e-mails and they pump them out long enough until finally you, a mainstream reporter, asks me about it," Obama said to the McClatchy reporter during a press conference aboard his campaign plane. "That gives legs to the story. If somebody has evidence that myself or Michelle or anybody has said something inappropriate, let them do it."...

by JivinJ

On June 3, Chicago Cardinal Francis George placed liberal big mouth Fr. Michael Pfleger on a 2-week leave, a sentence much too light and years too late for Catholic Citizens of IL, which has started a drive to get Pfleger pfired.

Meanwhile, Pfleger's parish members pfreaked, just as they always do when the Archdiocese threatens to remove him. This time they added a teen hunger strike as a piece de resistance. From the Chicago Sun-Times, yesterday:

Defiant St. Sabina parishioners demanded Cardinal Francis George reinstate their controversial pastor, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, just hours after he was removed Tuesday from his post against his wishes....

Read my 1st post on this here. HillBuzz is reporting this morning:

Here's what's known so far:

The Michelle Obama Rant Tape was filmed between June 26th - July 1st 2004 in Chicago, IL at the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Conference at Trinity United Church: specifically the Women's Event.

Michelle Obama appeared as a panelist alongside Mrs. Khadijah Farrakhan and Mrs. James Meeks....

I reported May 29 on a private party pro-abort KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius hosted for late-term abortionist George Tiller and staff on April 9, 2007.

Whoops, the plot thickens, as it always does when involving KS and abortion.

Timeline:

April 28, 2008: Operation Rescue requests receipts for the event via the Open Records Act.

May 23, 2008: The Greater KS City Women's Political Caucus reimburses the state $848 for the event.

May 23, 2008: Governor's office sends OR the receipts with a cover letter stating...

The Clinton camp is denying the Associated Press story that she plans to concede to Obama tonight only on the point he has enough delegates.

Rumors why she's staying in the race: VP spot, Senate Majority Leader spot, Supreme Court spot, DNCC speaker's spot, or a shakedown to force Obama to help pay off her $17 million campaign debt.

Meanwhile the following YouTube video from Saturday's Democrat Rules Committee meeting has gotten over 1 million views. Harriet Christian's outburst followed its decision to allow disobedient FL and MI only half-votes, a big nail in Hillary's nomination coffin. The video demonstrates the anger Clinton's feminist supporters feel about the impending Obama nomination, and what at least one of them plans to do about it:

Will the Obama and Clinton supporters eventually make up and unite if only to get a Democrat in the White House? Maybe so but hope not. I've been part of one campaign (no, not my own) where that never happened. Feelings can get very raw in political fights.

Democrat strategist Bob Beckel, known to underplay problems within his Party but still somewhat of a straight shooter, just mentioned on Fox & Friends he is worried about a rumor he's heard about Michelle Obama - a bomb Republicans are supposed to drop tomorrow.

Beckel wouldn't elaborate but here's the scoop, from Poligazette.com, yesterday...

From Mark Steyn, who I've decided I have a crush on, an excerpt from his column, Sexism, not Obama, beat Hillary, May 31:

Sex-selective abortion is a fact of life in India, where the gender ratio has declined to 1,000 boys to 900 girls nationally, and as low as 1,000 boys to 300 girls in some Punjabi cities.

In China, the state-enforced "one child" policy has brought about the most gender-distorted demographic cohort in global history, the so-called guang gun - "bare branches." If you can only have one kid, parents choose to abort girls and wait for a boy, to the point where in the first generation to grow to adulthood under this policy there are 119 boys for every 100 girls. In practice, a "woman's right to choose" turns out to mean the right to choose not to have any women.

And what of the Western world?...

Fr. Michael Pfleger has just burst on to the national scene in an unseemingly way, but he's been making unseemly waves in Chicago for years.

During Pfleger's 2002 stand-off against Cardinal George, for instance, here was a cartoon the Chicago Sun-Times printed about Fr. Showboat:

Catholics interested in reading about the colorful 2002 stare-down between Cardinal George and Pflegers, when the Archbishop blinked first, can read some news articles I've reprinted in full on page 2.

[HT: Ann Scheidler of Pro-Life Action League]

I recently wrote about liberal priest Michael Pfleger's connection to pro-abort Barack Obama's campaign. I picketed Pfleger's St. Sabina's Church on Chicago's south side in 2003 when Pfleger hosted pro-abort Rev. Al Sharpton to preach from the pulpit. I also went inside the church to hear them both speak.

Yesterday came news that Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ invited Pfleger to speak on May 25th, and Pfleger let loose with more of the same racism from the pulpit that those like Rev. Jeremiah Wright have been known to spew.

Obama quickly distanced himself from Pfleger, learning his lesson after foot-dragging to distance himself from Wright. Obama appeared to feign surprise in his statement...

On May 26, columnist Robert Novak wrote about "the leading prospect to become Barack Obama's running mate," pro-abort KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Novak quoted a disclaimer Sebelius wrote when vetoing a pro-life measure in 2006: "My Catholic faith teaches me that life is sacred. Personally, I believe abortion is wrong."

Earlier this month, KS Archbishop Joseph Naumann wrote an open letter to Sebelius asking her not to receive communion due to her pro-abortion stance. He stated Sebelius indicated she felt resigned to support abortion: "The governor has spoken to me on more than one occasion about her obligation to uphold state and federal laws and court decisions."

Sebelius has an odd way of living out her personally-pro-life-but-obligated-to-be-pro-abort position.

Yesterday Operation Rescue released photos taken at a party hosted by Sebelius on April 9, 2007, for infamous late-term abortionist George Tiller and staff at the governor's mansion. OR stated its source said the party was "exclusively in Tiller's honor."...

On Monday presidential candidate Barack Obama misspoke when citing Auschwitz rather than Ohrdruf (pictured right), a sub-camp of Buchenwald, as one of the Nazi concentration camps his uncle helped liberate. According to the Associated Press:

The Barack Obama campaign said Tuesday the candidate mistakenly referred to the wrong Nazi death camp when relating the story of a great-uncle who helped liberate the camps in World War II....

The new poll question is up:

This weekend GOP presidential candidate John McCain is hosting several possible vice presidential picks at his home. He said last month there were ~20 in his pool. Of these top names floated, who would you choose?

The poll site, Vizu, only allows 10 spots for answers, which made it hard. I listed the most recently and commonly foated names....

I reported May 20 that Congressional Democrats were trying to sink a birth control pill subsidy into the War Supplemental Appropriations bill.

Here's the latest, from CQ Politics, today:

A proposal that would restore government subsidies for birth control pills and devices at university health clinics and Planned Parenthood centers was retained in the Senate version of the war supplemental spending bill sent to the House on Thursday....

As we've been discussing the past couple days, Barack and Michelle Obama fully support partial birth abortion.

In fact, they've gone so far as to attempt to raise money by fear-mongering about the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, calling it a "legitimate medical procedure."

Obama should be proud of his support of pba. Commenter Cranky Catholic photoshopped a perfect ad for his consideration. But then again, if he's ashamed even to wear an American flag lapel pin, I doubt he'll go for this.

Last April the US Supreme Court upheld the federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban. Liberty Council filed two amicus briefs on my behalf in support of the ban, and I was present in the courtroom for closing arguments.

Yesterday the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down VA's pba ban for the 2nd time, basically sneering at the US Supreme Court, which had asked it to reexamine its 1st decision in light of the Supremes' decision.

I probably don't need to say more than the 2 4th Circuit judges voting to strike VA's pba ban down were Clinton appointees. The lone judge upholding it was a Bush I appointee.

But I'll expound. What is the difference between the 2? I spoke this morning with reps from the VA Society for Human Life and the VA Family Foundation.

They said the only difference between the 2 is the federal law describes a baby as partially in the womb when the pba is started and the VA bill describes the baby as partially out of the womb when the pba is started.

From that the Clinton appointees decided an abortionist could violate the VA pba ban if starting a different abortion procedure and accidentally stumbling into a pba.

So in theory, an abortionist could be attempting a dilatation and evacuation (D&E) abortion, where s/he draws and quarters the baby en utero before removing the pieces, and somehow deliver a live baby past the navel (in a head first delivery) or up to the head (in a breech delivery) and violate the ban if then killing the baby....

On Jan. 24, when the pro-abort divide between Clinton and Obama supporters was escalating into civil war, NARAL President Nancy Keenan issued an appeal for all sides to remain calm and focused on the real enemies, preborn children....

NARAL tried to redirect attention to the "staunchly, rigidly, undeniably anti-choice" Republican nominee John McCain in its almost daily e-alerts, which I receive.

But NARAL was unsuccessful. Thanks to sexier issues like Bosnia and Jeremiah Wright, the mainstream media didn't bite.

Meanwhile, the infighting continued. The Clinton camp kept pounding Obama as being soft on abortion because he voted "present" seven times as state senator on abortion legislation and because he wasn't a woman....

NARAL's endorsement of Obama last week came as a big shock, but it shouldn't have. NARAL has been clear it is watching a bigger clock tick.

Still, feminists were infuriated....

NARAL wants to rebrand, and riding Obama's coattails is one quick way. And oh, how NARAL wants Obama's list, to lure stupid abortion-inclined abortion survivors. It doesn't want to die as old pro-abort white women die.

The Obama campaign certainly shared polling data with NARAL, confirming its fears about McCain....

Continue reading my column today, "NARAL fuels pro-abort civil war," on WorldNetDaily.com.

(UPDATE, 5-21, 2:30a: I've separated my Obama: "Lay off my wife" post into 2, so Michelle Obama's fundraising letter leeching off the partial birth abortion ban wouldn't get buried.)

In February 2004, Michelle Obama wrote a fundraising letter during her husband's 2004 US Senate campaign claiming the partial birth abortion ban "is clearly unconstitutional" and "a flawed law."

I'd like to ask Michelle to explain her legal opinion about this law the Supremes went on to declare constitutional. I'd like to ask Michelle how in the world she could in good conscience raise money from fear-mongering about this barbaric abortion procedure.

But Barack, bristling at a TN GOP ad taking Michelle to task for her "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country" line, has issued a warning to "lay off my wife." As a commenter on another blog wrote, "'Free speech for me but not for thee'" - A typical leftwing position. Don't get in the ring if you don't intend to fight."

So it's fine to kill late-term babies, but we can't risk hurting Michelle's feelings about it. Click to enlarge:

(UPDATE, 5-21, 2:30a: I've separated this post into 2, spotlighting Michelle Obama's fear-mongering fundraising letter here that leeched off the partial birth abortion ban so it wouldn't get buried.)

Michelle Obama has been speaking on her husband's behalf for years, interjecting her own ideologies along the way. That's fine.

But it's not fine to suddenly declare her untouchable, as Barack Obama attempted yesterday on Good Morning America, when complaining about an ad the TN GOP is airing that repeats back Michelle's own anti-American words. Here's the GMA clip:

Michelle can say whatever she wants unchallenged? I thought Barack and Michelle were feminists? Does Barack not think Michelle equipped to debate issues she espouses? Where are the feminist groups decrying Obama as sexist for trying to shield his Harvard-educated attorney wife, as if she is too weak to defend herself?...

by JivinJ

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....

The new poll question is up:

Which Democrat candidate would do more to further abortion ideology and the industry as president?

The most popular response to last week's poll question surprised me. Almost 85% of you think a pastor should steer clear of political talk? Not good....

Here is an off-topic but related question this weekend.

This week Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama was touring a Detroit auto plant when a female reporter tried to ask him a question...

Obama later apologized to the reporter for calling her "sweetie." Do you think he was displaying sexism in an un guarded moment, or are we all just hypersensitive to any "-isms" in these politically correct days?

by JivinJ

I wrote in February that pro-aborts were raucously split in support of Clinton vs. Obama for president.

Ideologues like NOW (feminists 1st, abortion zealots 2nd) support Clinton. Hillary is a woman, and the presidency is their grail.

Pragmatics (abortion zeal and greed tied for 1st) support Obama. They expect him to do more to help the industry through government handouts, laws, and presidentially-overseen agencies.

So the NARAL board's May 14 announcement to endorse Obama is no surprise. The abortion industry funds NARAL. It's no dummy.

And the protest by feminist groups like EMILY's List is no surprise, nor defections of pocket NARAL affiliates, particularly NY, likely headed by rabid feminists.

Reported the New York Times, today...

The Obama campaign is mailing out the flyer below (see backside on page 2) in front of next week's KY primary.

To columnist David Broder's request for an explanation of its purpose, the Obama campaign responded via email (emphasis mine):

These fliers are part of the Obama campaign's sincere effort to communicate the values of Senator Obama's own Christian faith and the hope that people of all faiths and moral backgrounds will come together to address the needs of the "least of these" in our nation and in our world....

"Sincere"? "Values"? "Christian faith"? Obama's increasing gall is increasingly galling me.

"Least of these"? I'd like Obama's definition. I have one. How about live aborted babies left to die in hospital soiled utility rooms? No, the campaign won't like that one. How about late-term babies getting stabbed in the back of the head and their brains sucked out? No, it won't like that one either. How about 11-year-old girls being raped by their step-fathers? Ixnay. Oh, I give up.

And the line used to be "Faith, hope, and charity," btw. Now Obama's even trying to rewrite the Bible. Hide the 10 Commandments, quick.

He claims to be "do[ing] the Lord's work"? The man has cajones, I'll give him that.

[HT: Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America]

Saturday morning I worked on my computer comfortably located in my favorite recliner downstairs in the living room. When finished I placed the computer on the carpeted floor.

Sunday afternoon I chose another cozy spot to work, lounging in bed while watching old movies. So I retrieved my computer, arranged my pillows just so, found just the right old movie (Mr. Holland's Opus), and settled in to catch up on emails and such.

But as soon as my computer warmed up, what to my surprise should emerge but ants! Lots of them! And one of them even "jumped up and bit me," as Forrest Gump would say (although not in the buttocks).

What a coincidence that the Associated Press posted a story yesterday about "crazy ants" taking over Houston, including computers. I'm in Chicago. Are they taking over America this quickly? From the story...

by Joseph Farah, CEO of WorldNetDaily.com, yesterday:

Barack Obama is so confident, so well-spoken, so self-assured, so articulate.

Most of the time.

If you want to see Barack Obama uneasy, at a loss for words, tentative, halting, just ask him one of the simplest and most profound questions to be debated in the public square for the last 35 years - since he was 12 years old.

The question: "Do you believe life begins at conception and, if not, when does it begin?"

I urge you to watch what happened when he was asked that question last month in a candidate forum at Messiah College in Pennsylvania.

Watch him melt. Watch him squirm. Watch him reach for words that fail him. Watch him admit he hasn't really come to grips with one of the very hottest public policy issues of our time. Watch him try to come up with an answer that won't offend anyone....

David Brody is reporting that National Right to Life generated anti-Obama calls yesterday and even this morning to IN voters in anticipation of its primary today. Short, sweet, straightforward and honest. Good for NRLC:

Hello, this is National Right to Life PAC, asking you to vote against Barack Obama in tomorrow's primary election.

Barack Obama has said that his first act as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would enshrine abortion on demand into federal law and would require tax funding of abortion. This bill would legalize partial birth abortion again.

Barack Obama even voted against saving the lives of babies who survive late term abortion.

You can vote in either party's primary. If you vote in the Democratic primary, please do not vote for Barack Obama.

Every word of that script is accurate. There is no need to exaggerate, as much as the other side would call it such.

And here's the gobbledygook response from turncoat, double-crossing, traitorous, supposedly pro-life former IN Congressman Tim "Benedict Judas Arnold" Roemer. If Roemer can sleep at night it's only because his conscience is dead, and he's dreaming about promises Obama has whispered in his ear to garner his support:

As a pro-life Catholic Democrat, one of the main reasons I endorsed Barack Obama is because he approaches issues from a non-ideological standpoint, and on issues like abortion, he deeply respects the views of folks on the other side of the argument. He believes that if we focus on what unites us, we can accomplish more than we ever will by retreating into our corners and shouting each other....

I had not researched the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male that has been all over the news lately thanks to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Wright often invokes Tuskegee to substantiate his crazy claim that the US government created HIV/AIDS to wipe out blacks.

As if Wright really cares since he promotes abortion, which actually is wiping out US African-Americans. Thanks to abortion, blacks have lost their #1 minority status in the US to Hispanics.

But I digress.

On May 2, National Review Online editor Jonah Goldberg wrote an eye-opening column everyone should read. Here are excerpts...

by by Jivin J

by Chuck Asay for MSNBC (click to enlarge)...

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....

The new poll question is up:

What was the top news story this week?

Last week the answer on the question of the origin of human life getting the most votes was, "God created humans in present form within the past 10,000 years," which, of course, was the correct answer...

Barack Obama knew a question about Bill Ayers was coming. Sean Hannity has been pounding on Obama's association with the unrepentent, Pentagon-bombing, Weather Underground domestic terrorist for weeks.

So Obama was prepared; he and his handlers had come up with what they thought was a good response.

And last night the question came during the PA debate, by of all people George Stephanopoulos. Good for him.

Watch the 1st 2 minutes of this clip:

Obama's response? "The fact is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who during his campaign once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions. Do I need to apologize for Mr. Coburn's statements? Because I certainly don't agree with those, either."...

I've been tracking the Senate Democrat obstruction of President Bush's judicial nominees, including the Republicans' recent threat to shut the Senate down if Dems continue to block confirmations.

The clock is ticking. When whoever the new president is assumes duties, all of President Bush's good nominees will be erased from the docket. The Dems are stalling for that day.

Well, the Committee for Justice blog is today reporting big news:

Tuesday was a big news day for the judges issue - perhaps the biggest since the confirmation of Justice Alito. Senate Leaders Reid and McConnell [pictured right together] made a deal to confirm three appeals court nominees by Memorial Day; Sen. Levin and the White House reached an agreement to fill two long-standing vacancies on the 6th Circuit; and Sen. Specter asked Sens. Obama, Clinton, and McCain to declare their position on a possible motion to discharge three circuit nominees - Peter Keisler (DC Cir.), Bob Conrad (4th Cir.), and Steve Matthews (4th Cir.) - bottled up in the Judiciary Committee by Sen. Leahy.

Here's our take on the day's news, followed by excerpts from news reports....

Yesterday, the American Life League ran the above full-page ad in the Washington Times. View the large pdf version here.

I was glad to see ALL added Sen. Robert Casey to its list of "Pro-abortion 'Catholics'," because he is. Despite claiming to the contrary, Casey voted last year to overturn the Mexico City Policy, which stops US tax funds from going to international abortion groups.

But Bob Casey's most flagrant affront to the sanctity of life was recently endorsing Barack Obama for president. CNS News covered that very topic today...

I'm not naïve. I know there are 12-year-olds in the world having sex. But it's not normal behavior. A 6th-grader seeking sex lives in a dysfunctional home. More likely she is being raped by an adult perpetrator. That's not what I say. That's what Planned Parenthood and Guttmacher Institute say:

The younger the mother, the greater the partner age gap.... Fathers are on average 9.8 years older than mothers 11 to 12 years of age.

I have never known or heard of a father, diligent or absentee, liberal or conservative, who pondered aloud that his 9-year-old daughter in three short years might have unprotected consensual sex, so we must make contraceptives and abortion available to her.

Such a father would be creepy, close to a pedophilia promoter.

Such a father would be Barack Obama, who indicated such at Sunday's Compassion Forum....

Continue reading my column today, "Obama and the sex life of 12 year olds," on WorldNetDaily.com.

Obama is talking freakier and freakier about the projected sex lives of his young daughters.

Everyone is familiar by now with Obama's infamous March 29 statement:

Look, I got two daughters - 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. I don't want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn't make sense to not give them information.

At the time I wanted to puke at Obama's suggestion he would not just condone but push to abort his own grandchildren since he considered teen pregnancies punishment.

But at last night's Compassion Forum in PA Obama lowered the threshhold his daughters might "make a mistake" and have sex from age 16 to "12 or 13." What kind of sicko is this guy? First came the question from Newsweek's Jon Meacham...

In my previous post I discussed Hillary Clinton's contradictory statements on the life issue at last night's Compassion Forum at Messiah College in PA, emceed by CNN's Campbell Brown Newsweek's religious writer, Jon Meacham.

Yet Obama managed to surpass Clinton. There was this...

Last night Messiah College in PA hosted the Compassion Forum, for "Democratic presidential candidates to focus on the issues of faith and compassion," according to CNN's Campbell Brown, who emceed along with Jon Meacham, Newsweek's religious writer.

Conversation touched on aspects of our issue. It was frustrating that neither Brown nor Meacham had the knowledge, inclination, or wit to delve beyond easy answers. There was this...

About a nationwide poll it conducted April 7-9, the Associated Press reported:

Against McCain, Obama lost ground among women - from 57% in February to 47% in April. Obama dropped 12 points among women under 45, 14 points among suburban women and 15 points among married women.

Polls will come and go, but looking back over the past several weeks, why do you think Obama's support among women dropped so drastically?

An interesting aside: As bad as the poll was for Obama, it was still skewed in his favor: The AP interviewed 489 Democrat voters and only 369 Republicans.

The new poll question reflects the hot topic of blog discussion this week, thanks to the pending release of the movie, Expelled:

What is your view of the origin and development of human life on earth?

Re: last week's poll, most people thought Obama's brand suffered the most damage of recent Democrat presidential candidate gaffes...

by Jivin J

Paul Kengor on Bob Casey, Jr., Barack Obama, and abortion:

Sen. Barack Obama is so extreme on abortion that he has managed to achieve what I once thought impossible: He is to the left of Hillary Clinton on abortion. I say that as someone who has written a book on Hillary Clinton, with a special focus on her abortion fanaticism.....

Does Casey not understand the threshold upon which he and his nation now stand? Roe v. Wade is at last in peril, but if he achieves his dream of an Obama presidency, Obama can tip the Supreme Court's balance in a pro-Roe direction for decades to come. There have been 40 million abortions since 1973.

Consequently, Senator Casey's endorsement of Obama is an undeniable betrayal of his, his father's, and his church's pro-life work and commitment.

by Steven Ertelt

Nice to get to break some big news for Jill today...

One of the leading pro-life groups has announced it is supporting John McCain for president. No surprise there. While National Right to Life and McCain disagree on embryonic stem cell research and campaign finance reform, it recognizes the very obvious and clear demarcation between McCain and Obama/Clinton on abortion.

McCain gives the pro-life movement a shot at overturning Roe and won't go back on the numerous pro-life gains we made during the Bush years. Obama and Clinton guarantee 35 more years of legalized abortion, paid for by our tax dollars, and with the assurance that it will also be funded and promoted overseas. A no-brainer between the two.

From the story:

"National Right to Life supports Senator John McCain for election as President of the United States and strongly opposes both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and urges all pro-life citizens to d