![[Jill Stanek]](/images/jill_try2.gif)
At times like this my tribe will recite this reminder:
God is good all the time; all the time God is good.
Yesterday Phill Kline lost his primary bid to become the Republican nominee for Johnson County District Attorney.
I was around when Phill was making his decision whether or not to run in an election where it was obvious pro-abort, liberal, and media long-knives would be out to get him.
Phill ultimately decided to run because it was the right thing to do, the right example to set. It was to run the entire course of this race in his life, philosophically speaking.
The Bible clearly teaches God controls world events. God either allows or causes the rise and fall of every kingdom and ruler, large and small, for His purposes. Sometimes we don't understand. But it's all for good.
In one sense I feel relief for Phill. The pressure upon him has been greater than most could bear. Now it is off. Now God has authorized him to move on. One of my favorite verses is John 17:4. In fact, I'd like it on my tombstone should I finish my long race in good standing:
I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.
Phill has done that.
Also read Kathryn Jean Lopez's column today.
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August 4, 2008
Well, this one certainly puts U.S. Senator Sam Brownback in a tight spot. Recall Brownback threw Phill Kline under that bus headed to Politicalexpediencyville to endorse Steve Howe in tomorrow's Republican primary for Johnson County, KS, state attorney.
KS Pro-life leaders attempted to talk sense into Brownback - encouraging him to remain non-commital in the primary if he was afraid to stand with Phill - but no. Word is Brownback wants to inhabit the KS governor's mansion in 2010 and chose politics over principle.
So be it. Now Brownback may have to decide between the company he keeps. On one side is his new friend Howe and his baggage and on the other side is his close DC ally Family Research Council and its head, Tony Perkins.
The socially liberal group KS Traditional Republican Majority issued this press release August 1:
Read entire press release here and Perkins' refutation here.
If Howe were truly conservative, he would never associate with a group that would sink so low as to disparage FRC and Perkins.
Meanwhile, there was a great op ed in yesterday's Washington Times:
Which election this year is most important to the pro-life cause?...
That's easy: the presidential. Two numbers - 68, the average age in years of justices on the Supreme Court, and 26, the average tenure in years of justices since 1970....But a much larger number - 290,000, the number of abortions performed at Planned Parenthood facilities in 2006 - gives pro-lifers reason to believe a much smaller election may prove almost as consequential for their cause. That's because if he wins re-election for district attorney of Johnson County, KS, Phill Kline will proceed with the only abortion criminal case against PP since the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision....
[I]n October 2007, after years of delay tactics by attorneys for both abortion entities, Mr. Kline filed 107 counts, including 23 felonies, against PP for "unlawful late-term abortions" and other violations....
PP's... annual income surpasses $1 billion, and it receives more than $350 million yearly in tax-payer subsidies.
A conviction in the KS case would jeopardize that public funding. And it would embolden other state and federal law enforcement officers to consider their own investigations of PP....
Mr. Kline told me every judge who has looked at the case has found probable cause to believe that crimes were committed.
That explains why the abortion lobby spent $1.5 million to defeat Mr. Kline in his 2006 re-election bid for attorney general, and why the Planned Parenthood Action Fund plans to spend $10 million on pro-abortion candidates this year, threefold what it spent in 2006.
It also explains why, after Mr. Kline was appointed to his current office, PP sued him in what Mr. Kline calls "the only case we've ever seen in the entire nation where the criminal defendant gets to sue the prosecution."...
If PP manages to avert justice, Mr. Kline says he will become, "an example as to why, politically, other state officials should not [prosecute illegal acts by the abortion industry]." And both Mr. Kline's Aug. 5 Republican Primary opponent and his potential Democratic general election opponent have signaled they would discontinue the case.
That's a prospect sure to relieve the abortion industry, and underscore for pro-lifers why Phill Kline's election may plausibly be called the second-most-consequential for their cause.
Also see this (click to enlarge):
Here's how the Baltimore Sun reported the story on August 2:
Eighteen anti-abortion protesters were arrested yesterday after they marched among cars stopped at red lights in Harford County and refused to disperse, state police said.
And here's how SocietyandReligion.com reported the incident on August 3:
Eighteen pro-lifers participating in the MD Face the Truth Tour were arrested without warning by Hartford County State Troopers in the city of Bel Air, MD on... August 1....It was during the last tour stop of the week-long event, sponsored by Defend Life when a State Trooper named Bradley approached the group and told them to move and put away their signs or they would be arrested. In an effort to comply, group leader Jack Ames gathered the group and moved down the road, into the city limits of Bel Air....
The group stood peacefully on public property and did not "march" into the street as one news organization erroneously reported. Without warning, an estimated 20 patrol cars arrived on the scene and began arresting pro-life participants without a word. Those arrested were not told what they were being charged with, nor were they read their rights.One of the women who participated in the tour overheard a police radio conversation where an unknown person told the troopers to make the arrests and that they would "figure out later" what charges would be filed....
Two minors in the group were soon released, but the adults were held overnight.... The last of the pro-lifers were released... August 2, at about 10:45 AM.
The group was eventually charged with loitering, failure to obey a lawful order, and disorderly conduct.
Sure hope there was video. Let this be yet another reminder that pro-lifers should ALWAYS videotape their protests.
In this photo you can see a squad car with its lights on pulled over next to the pro-lifers. They sure do not look like they're "march[ing] among cars." That absolutely does not sound like any pro-life protest I've ever attended. Our people obey the law.
[HT: budpatmac and John Jansen of Pro-Life Action League; photos courtesy of the Defend Life blog]
August 2, 2008
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"....
Pro-lifers disdain Sebelius and distrust Kaine. Pro-aborts disdain and distrust Kaine.
Now talk of both as prospective VP picks has incited another pro-abort battle within the Democrat Party, just when their major rift over Obama and Clinton was abating.
Whether you are liberal or conservative, and strategically speaking, who would you pick as Obama's VP nominee if given only those 2 options, and why?
July 30, 2008
Senator Tom Coburn is the bane of Majority Leader Harry Reid's existence for relentlessly and fiercely opposing wasteful spending. For example, as FRC reported yesterday:
Repeatedly... Reid... has decided to ramrod legislation through the chamber.... He attempted this - unsuccessfully - with a massive $11 billion spending bill last week. Mockingly called the "Coburn Omnibus" because it contained several programs and expenditures that the OK Senator opposed, Reid's bundle of fiscally irresponsible projects failed.
And now see this most pathetic display of revenge. Reported The Hill July 28:
Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) office hit back Monday at new attempts to prevent him from delivering babies for free, arguing the Ethics panel might as well investigate Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-VT) cameo in The Dark Knight.
Speaking of, a commercial break with the aforementioned...
Back to The Hill piece...
Coburn has come under new pressure from the Ethics panel for delivering babies at the Muskogee Regional Medical Center, which changed from a public to a private institution in April last year....In May, Coburn received a strongly worded "final determination" memo threatening him with a Senate censure if he did not stop delivering babies for free....
Coburn spokesman John Hart... called the Ethics panel's logic "absurd" and its argument "inane."
"Just as parents don't choose him hoping to sway his vote, parents don't choose to receive his services at a particular hospital because Dr. Coburn has somehow endorsed that hospital because he is a senator," Hart said in a statement.... "The committee has shown us zero empirical evidence to back up its flimsy claim.
"Has Sen. Leahy provided an improper endorsement to Warner Brothers for appearing in Batman?" Hart asked. "Will millions of Americans now see Batman not because it features stars like Christian Bale or the late Heath Ledger, but because Patrick Leahy, a distinguished U.S. senator, has offered his illustrious endorsement to this motion picture?
"If Sen. Coburn can only deliver babies for free at a public hospital, shouldn't Sen. Leahy only be allowed to donate his notable thespian skills to a public entity like PBS?"
Leahy spokesman David Carle pointed out that his boss gives any proceeds he receives from movie appearances to the Kellogg-Hubbard children's wing of the Montpelier Public Library....
The new fight comes as Coburn is engaged in a battle with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) over the Senate's legislative agenda. Reid was forced to dedicate the majority of the Senate's time this week to overpowering the holds Coburn has on 35 bills....
Hart also said the Ethics panel should investigate Reid and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who chairs the Ethics panel, for book signings they've had at privately owned bookstores if they are going to investigate Coburn's baby deliveries."If the committee wants to walk down this path, we would expect they will investigate Sens. Reid and Boxer, who have both held books signing [sic] events at privately owned book stores," Hart wrote. "After all, their events endorsed one book store over another. If Dr. Coburn can only deliver babies for free at public hospitals, Senators should only be permitted to sign books at public libraries."
Reid's and Boxer's offices declined to comment....Hart estimates that Coburn has delivered dozens of babies since last receiving an ultimatum from the Ethics panel in 2005. Coburn has received no compensation for his work and paid "tens of thousands of dollars" out of his own pocket for medical malpractice insurance and other costs related to his medical practice, Hart said....
Coburn... wants to remain a true citizen-legislator and has long argued that the Senate should allow him to keep serving his patients because he plans to return to the practice when he leaves the Senate in 2016, consistent with his pledge to serve only two terms. He would like to keep up his medical skills if he is going to continue being able to earn a living in his chosen profession....
Asked about the recent Ethics Committee action, Coburn said he doesn't believe he is in violation and will continue to fight any action taken against him.
"All I'm going to say is that's a fight I would relish," he said.
Hart said Coburn has no intention of abandoning his medical oath to his patients under threat of censure....
Were Tom Coburn aborting babies free instead of delivering them free, there would be no investigation; there would be an awards ceremony. This is ridiculous on so many levels, not the least of which is the Democrats' disregard for the poor, unless they control the dole so as to get the credit.
[HT: Family Research Council; photo of Boxer courtesy of Book Soup book store in W. Hollywood]
July 29, 2008
Many here have helped Phill Kline financially in his primary race against Steve Howe for Johnson County, KS, District Attorney. The election is one week from today!
Kline, of course, is the stalwart trying against all odds to enforce KS's late-term and underage abortion laws.
There is still time to financially help.
Meanwhile, some have been asking for a fundraising update. Financial reports were just submitted, and here's the status today from the Associated Press...
Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline raised about $83,000 in six weeks for his Republican primary campaign.He took in slightly more than his opponent, Steve Howe, did in a year.
The figures were in reports filed by their campaigns with the secretary of state.
Kline is running for a full, four-year term, having been appointed by fellow Republicans appointed him to fill a vacancy, starting in January 2007. He started raising money two days after making the June 10 deadline to file to run.
Kline's report showed he and his wife contributed $1,000. Then he raised an additional $82,160.
Howe, a former assistant district attorney, began raising money in June 2007. His total since then is $81,784, including $50 he kicked in.
I understand online contributions helped signficantly.
Want to restress: More funds are needed. THANKS.
July 28, 2008
When last we left Detroit's Wayne State University in November 2007, Medical Students for Choice was hosting infamous late-term abortionist Alberto Hodari to speak words of wisdom.
You remember that speech, secretly taped by Students for Life infiltrators who caught Hodari on video stating he had a "license to lie," among other gems.
Then, of course, Hodari went on to achieve national recognition for being caught trashing aborted babies in a couple of his mill dumpsters.
But I digress.
The Detroit News reported July 24:
A student group at Wayne State is suing the university, its top officials, and the student council, alleging the group was denied funding and the use of university facilities because of its anti-abortion stance.Wayne State University Students for Life filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Detroit....
University officials denied the group "access to both funding and facilities in 2008 based on the content and viewpoint of SFL's speech," the lawsuit alleges.The university student council denied the group's request for more than $4,000 in funding for its 2008 "Pro-Life Week," citing "spiritual and religious programming references" in a letter detailing the planned events, the lawsuit alleges.
University officials also denied the group the use of a stage area in the student center and other facilities for planned events, the lawsuit alleges.
Added the Associated Press:
Students for Life said it is a registered campus organization. And like other groups, it believes it should be entitled to a portion of student fees....A lawsuit... said the initial request was rejected because of "spiritual and religious" references. But the anti-abortion group said it doesn't have a specific religious affiliation....
"Access for these groups to funding and facilities must be provided without regard to the group's viewpoint. When a public university enforces a viewpoint-discriminatory policy, the school violates the Constitution," attorney Joseph Martins said in a statement....
The group wanted to hold a "pro-life trivia game" on a stage at Student Center North Commons, a busy area, but was told by campus officials to use another area, according to the lawsuit.
"Some people would no doubt likely find it difficult to eat lunch if they have strong opinions either for or against your group," Christina Basso of the Student Center staff said in an e-mail attached to the lawsuit.
Go SFL!
Don't forget the Stand with Phill campaign is ongoing, trying to raise $300k for a burst of final days advertising in Phill Kline's race against Steve Howe to capture the Republican nomination for Johnson County District Attorney. The election is in 8 days on August 5. Speaking of Howe, he just got a nomination he says he didn't want, according to the Kansas City Star blog:
Don't look for an endorsement from the Mainstream Coalition's political action arm on Steve Howe's campaign resume....
The board of MainPAC, an affiliate of the politically moderate Mainstream group, voted to endorse Howe, who is running against Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline in the Aug. 5 GOP primary.
But the conservative Howe turned down the endorsement.The former assistant district attorney, fired by Kline when he took office, is holding together a fragile coalition of GOP conservatives and moderates.For social conservatives in Johnson County, the "secularist" Mainstream Coalition is the enemy. Howe doesn't want to be regarded as sleeping with the enemy.
It could cost him critical conservative support.
As usual the KCS is spins. In reality, the Mainstream Coalition is a big liberal organization that mostly endorses pro-abort Democrats. Howe has been attempting to portray himself as a conservative. Howe's cover is blown.
And ironically, the Mainstream Coalition will endorse and fight against many legislators in Howe's "fragile coalition" in the upcoming general election.
July 27, 2008
By Glenn McCoy...
I've resisted posting on this all week but can no longer. On July 22 the National Enquirer followed up on a story it published late last year about John Edwards allegedly fathering an illegitimate baby....
This time NE appeared to catch Edwards visiting mom and baby. By this weekend the story had blanketed the Internet and is just starting to get mainstream play.
Let me first say, as I have said previously re: mothers in similar high profile crisis pregnancies, if this is true kudos to Hunter for carrying her baby under I'm sure enormous pressure to abort.
According to the Courant.com, "Edwards later issued a brief statement criticizing the tabloids. He didn't address the love child story, though it was the right time to deny it if it isn't true." If someone can find that statement, please link.
A couple bloggers are pointing back to a September 2007 Huffington Post story that may now make more sense.
Even as you liberals prepare to lambaste me for posting allegations, let me ask where were you when the New York Times alleged on its front page that John McCain had had an affair with a lobbyist?
Also consider this warning from your own, Huffington Post's Lee Stranahan, today, well worth reading in its entirety:
The truth is that I believe anyone who looks into the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter affair story will see that Edwards has, at best, acted in a very suspicious manner for over a year now....At first, I was skeptical of the National Enquirer story catching Edwards leaving the Beverly Hills Hotel at 2:45am because there were no pictures and the tabloids aren't reliable. Now it turns out that Edwards was at the hotel, so was Ms. Hunter, and that he when he saw reporters he hid in the bathroom until security guards came and got him....
Let's go with the assumption that Edwards is innocent for a moment; he didn't have the affair so the baby isn't his. If he didn't do anything wrong then it seems like he'd have good reasons to stop the rumors. A DNA test months ago would have ended all speculation about the paternity of the baby. Isn't that a better, less suspicious move than pulling down all the videos that Rielle Hunter helped produce about him for his campaign?...
It seems to me that this is going to be a tsunami-sized scandal for the Democratic Party and right now the coming typhoon of press coverage is close to breaking. We're at the point of calm before the big waves hit but there are signs of the impending deluge. Jay Leno is making jokes about it. Perez Hilton is on the story. The mainstream media is fairly quiet but the most ominous silence right now is from the progressive blogosphere.
The progressive blogosphere is ignoring this story at its own peril because it's going to be big. At this moment, there's a weird state of denial about the entire thing...
A blog by John McQuaid said that there's no "physical evidence a la Bill Clinton." Well, there's a baby. Not a stained dress left to hang in the closet for a few months but a real cooing, smiling little baby who I assume looks adorable on camera and probably has nice hair. That lil' tyke is stuffed full of DNA, too. Cute little DNA.
Despite what some people are going to say, this is news. A former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate who was running for President less than six months ago and is now on the short list for Vice President has a long affair during the campaign and fathers a child, covers it up, and then is caught at a hotel with the mother of the child. News! Oh - and his wife made regular appearances on the campaign trail and has been diagnosed with cancer. If it were Mitt Romney, you'd be hearing peels of laughter and the satisfying smacking sound of Merlot and Starbucks fueled high fives coming from the nearest blue state. Would it have made the progressive blogs? C'mon, of course it would....
July 24, 2008
UPDATE, 9:15a: Michelle Malkin has linked to Dawn's post, adding her own choice thoughts.
Credit for post title goes to Dawn Eden of Dawn Patrol, who also revealed this maddening information on her blog today:
Visit the USDA's WIC Learning Center, the official Web site for the U.S. government's Women, Infants and Children program, and you will find a link to the home page of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
WIC is supposed to be a low-income nutritional program!
WIC provides nutritious foods, nutrition counseling, and referrals to health and other social services to participants at no charge. WIC is effective in improving the health of pregnant women, new mothers, and their infants....
Households with incomes at or below 185% of the federal poverty income level are eligible.
What does WIC's purpose have anything to do with PP? Continued Dawn:
[A] hefty chunk of the $5 billion in taxpayer funds for the program designed to help feed and provide health care for low-income pregnant women, new moms, and young children go to Margaret Sanger's organization.
Considering that some 61% of WIC recipients are nonwhites, the government's efforts to steer them towards PP dovetails neatly with the nation's No. 1 abortion provider's efforts to prevent births in the black and Latino communities.
Granted, the federal money that pays PP to serve WIC clients technically does not go towards abortions.
But any money given to PP by the federal government keeps the organization's lights on and its paychecks coming, enabling it to spend its $115 million surplus on expanding its abortion business. And does anyone doubt that PP will attempt to impress upon a pregnant WIC client that it can make her un-pregnant if she wishes? Especially when the client walking into its clinic is greeted with posters like this ...
Read more as well as view additional disturbing PP posters on Dawn's site.
July 23, 2008
A fierce fight was launched last week over a proposed Department of Health and Human Services regulation that would attach financial strings to laws that have been in place for 35 years guaranteeing health care providers and institutions the right to practice medicine without violating conscience.
See my previous post for backdrop.
If you've paid attention to the news, you've seen the other side has inundated MSM outlets, the White House, and DHHS with ferocious protests.
Pro-lifers must fight back, and today....
First, call the DHHS and White House comment lines and simply state:
Health care professionals have a right to practice medicine without violating conscience. Please issue regulations protecting conscience rights soon.
DHHS: 202-205-5445
WH: 202-456-1414
Also please call your congressperson and ask him or her to sign on to a letter sponsored by Reps. Dave Weldon of FL and Lincoln Davis of TN expressing this same sentiment. Deadline to sign on to this letter is close of business tomorrow.
The other side is circulating a letter to its pro-abort members. Currently they have about 90 signers and we only have about 60. We need to get our numbers up.
A letter is also being drafted in the Senate, but it has not yet been formalized. For now just call House members.
Action again: Call White House, DHHS, and your US rep now. It'll take 5 minutes total. Don't worry about being asked to engage in conversation and being asked questions you don't have the answers to. That won't happen.
This regulation will help ensure faithful pro-life hospitals, health care workers, and pharmacists aren't forced to participate in abortion or dispense potentially abortive drugs.
Carly Fiorina, former Hewlett-Packard CEO, has been touted as one of John McCain's potential vice-presidential picks.But on July 7, Fiorina exposed herself as either a political airhead or saboteur by handing pro-aborts a wider opening to attack McCain than they could possibly have fantasized....
Since early this year, NARAL has been sounding the alarm that its polling showed independents and pro-abortion Republicans have taken McCain's "maverick" reputation to mean he bucks his party's platform and is pro-abortion.
But recently, pro-abortion groups have adopted the deceptive strategy of portraying McCain as anti-contraception.
Apparently, their follow-up polls showed McCain's simply being anti-abortion has not raised the dander of targeted voters, particularly in light of mounting evidence that Barack Obama is an abortion extremist....So Fiorina could not have played more perfectly into pro-abort hands.
On July 10, a reporter asked McCain about Fiorina's mother of all verbal gifts to pro-aborts.
This prompted "some of the most riveting campaign footage of the entire year so far," reported MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. You can view it in its entirety online here....
Continue reading my column today, "McCain and Viagra," on WorldNetDaily.com.
[Photo courtesy of RTTNews]
July 21, 2008
On July 17 Bill O'Reilly took on "the Planned Parenthood fanatics" for an ad they are running against John McCain for his votes against forcing insurance companies to fund contraceptives, even if Catholic, for instance, and in violation of their beliefs.
I was glad O'Reilly took the position he did but winced at his rationale, which was a bit ill-informed (stating this was a taxpayer funding issue) and I thought sexist....
While O'Reilly may consider impotence a "medical condition" insurance companies should pharmaceutically cover, others would make a strong case that contraceptives also treat medical conditions, like irregular or painful periods, as well as prevent pregnancy.
I'll cover this more in my WND column Wednesday, but the problem here is more theological and moral. I'm sure for John McCain there were free market issues, too. The Catholic Church believes the concept of contraception is wrong. Furthermore, birth control pills and IUDs can abort a 5- to 9-day-old embryo. That's why its insurance companies don't want to subsidize birth control.
Perhaps someone can explain O'Reilly's last line, which I kind of get but not quite: "Do I have to buy you dinner before you use the birth control? Give me and every other taxpayer a break, Planned Parenthood."
July 19, 2008
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?
July 18, 2008
From today's Rapid City Journal:
South Dakota will begin as early as Friday to enforce a 2005 law that requires doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure ends a human life....
An order issued by a federal judge means that as of Friday, there will no longer be any court order preventing the state from enforcing the law....Planned Parenthood, which operates SD's only abortion clinic in Sioux Falls, will comply with the law....
"We will do what the law says, but clearly the law is extreme and flawed and wrong,"
[spokesperson Kathi] Di Nicola said.PP believes the courts will eventually strike down the SD law....
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal last month overruled a lower court order that had temporarily prevented the state from enforcing the law. The appeals court said SD could begin enforcing the law passed by the 2005 SD Legislature....The appeals court's decision sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier... for proceedings that will result in a decision on whether the law is constitutional....
The 2005 law requires doctors to tell women "that the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." Women also would have to be told they have a right to continue a pregnancy and that abortion may cause them psychological harm, including thoughts of suicide....
PP contends the measure would interfere in the relationship between doctors and patients and would require doctors to tell women untrue things....
"This law is unprecedented in the nation. It's an unprecedented, extreme law that's going to compel physicians to deliver state ideology," Di Nicola said....
Only ignoramuses or liars could possibly attempt to argue abortion doesn't end a human life. This is one point science, medicine, and religion all agree: the union of human sperm and human egg creates a separate, unique human life. This is Biology 101. Each species begats offspring from its own species.
[HT: reader Gary V.; photo is of a preborn at 12 weeks, the age most abortions are committed]
July 17, 2008
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...
Um, as you were talking about earlier, the recent Bush Supreme Court's decision really took away critically important decisions from women and put them in the hands of politicians. And as a result of this, we're expecting, and have already seen, so much anti-choice legislation at the state level. Um, what would you do at the federal level not only to ensure access to abortion but to make sure that the judicial nominees that you will inevitably be able to pick are true to the core tenets of Roe v. Wade?
Obama was answering that he believed FOCA would combat "anti-choice legislation at the state level" and take judges out of the abortion debate. That it would, on steroids. It would overturn all 300+ local, state, and federal abortion restriction laws, such as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban.
How can a candidate claiming he wants to prevent abortions want to overturn every common sense abortion restriction? That's like saying one wants to stop pollution by overturning all anti-pollution laws.
Don't believe me? Read FOCA for yourself. I'll make it easy (click to enlarge):
Note "health" is not defined in this bill, of which Obama is already a cosponsor. This would fly in the face of Obama's statement to Relevant magazine July 1 that he thinks the definition of "health" should be "strict, well-defined."
In fact, Obama's support of FOCA flies in the face of his entire statement to Relevant...
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.
... since FOCA would overturn those state laws he says he finds "appropriate."
Here are 2 major flip flops Obama is still flipping and flopping on, depending on his audience. Where's MSM?
July 16, 2008
The KS primary election is in less than 3 weeks.
The most watched and important race is for Johnson Co. District Attorney Republican nominee: Phill Kline vs. the establishment opponent who will drop the only criminal case in the U.S. against Planned Parenthood.
As many of you have followed, Kline filed 107 charges against Comprehensive Health of PP of KS and Mid-MO in October 2007.
Since then, PP has wielded all its influence in a state run under pro-abortion Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to delay the evidence from ever getting before a jury. PP's plan: run out the clock on Kline's term in office. Kline has courageously fought against overwhelming odds to enforce the law against this $1 billion abortion cartel.
Now, Kline needs the help of the nationwide pro-life community. There is no one else but us. The only way Kline can get his message of truth out is to go around the Kansas City Star with a final days, aggressive, multi-faceted ad campaign. (Recall KCS has pounded Kline since the day he took office, re-earning the "Maggie Award" PP gave it in 2006 for helping unseat Kline in the Attorney General's race.)...
Phill needs to raise $300,000 in a week. To reach that goal, StandwithPhill.com has launched a "$50 for Phill" campaign. 6,000 people or families must contribute. Please be one. View this inspiring video of Kline's long battle to bring PP to justice and then participate in the "$50 for Phill" campaign to help him get his word out around the liberal media. If Kline doesn't win on August 5, the 5 year battle to get the only criminal case against PP will be lost forever.
There are encouraging signs. On July 5, Kline won a straw poll of 130 Republican leaders by a landslide in Olathe County - where the PP abortion mill is located. His competitor's campaign manager was heard to mutter, "Sh**!" after Phill gave this unity speech before the group.
A pro-life group called Victim's Voice Foundation, Inc. has also been running powerful radio ads to show the strong prosecutor Phill Kline is and expose what the KCS will not tell the public. Whenever Kline's office successfully prosecutes a case, for instance, the KCS does not state his name, only citing "the prosecutor's office." These ads go around KCS to the public.
Listen to the ad outting the KCS for censoring Kline's accomplishments here. Hear the ad about Kline's prosecution of the infamous Kaufman House here.
Please sacrificially contribute to Kline's race today at StandwithPhil.com.
And please forward this message to your pro-life lists.
July 15, 2008
Yesterday I blogged on KS Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' chances of getting the VP nod from Barack Obama due to her scandalous support of Wichita late-term abortionist George Tiller, which includes hob-nobbing with him at the guv's mansion as well as hobbling numerous investigations.
Would an Obama/Sebelius ticket prove too pro-abortion for the American people, I wondered?
Last night The O'Reilly Factor featured a segment of various on-the-street interviews by Factor producer Jesse Watters (who always does a great job on these things) with governors attending a conference in Philadelphia over the weekend. Most of the governors confronted were from states that have not yet passed Jessica's Law, which would increase the criminal penalty for child rapists.
But the last governor confronted was Sebelius, for her support of Tiller. Click on the link below to view the video. You will then have to click on the "Demanding answers: The Factor confronts lax governors" tab. Sebelius' portion starts at 3:45:
[HT: reader Susan C.]
July 14, 2008
Featured as a 2008 Human Rights Watch Film Festival Official Selection and a 2008 British Academy of Film and Television Arts award winner for Best Current Affairs program, "China's Stolen Children," will be shown tonight on HBO as part of its Documentary Film Series.
Scheduled for 9p EST tonight with an 85 minute run time. Narrated by Ben Kingsley. Check full schedule of all showings here. Watch video clip here. Read the synopsis here. Here's a synopsis of the synopsis...
China is being swept by an epidemic of child kidnapping with as many as 70,000 children a year being snatched and sold on the black market.This alarming trend is a direct result of China's one-child policy, initiated in 1979 to curb the country's exploding population.
Shot undercover in China, this film explores the epidemic through the eyes of a couple desperately searching for their stolen son, a detective committed to tracking down stolen children, a boy who was abducted and later rescued 800 miles from his home, and a trafficker willing to broker a deal to sell a young couple's only child.
[HT: Joseph Farah via Robert King]
July 11, 2008
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...
... So, despite my still-raw feelings about Hillary's concession, I was prepared to go forward this week and commit full support to Obama.Then the danger signs started....
During the last two weeks, the thunderclouds of doubt have gathered ever more ominously until they cast Obama's character into serious question....
By the time he started parsing what reasons for abortion the law may deem acceptable or not... and sounding for all the world like he was withdrawing his long held opposition to the federal abortion ban, I was seriously questioning whether this man would have the necessary mettle to withstand any challenges at all. Or worse, is he just another politician swaying with the winds and running for cover at the hint of a little thunder?
He'd obviously allowed the anti-choice misstatement of the abortion ban's provisions to frame his answer, when any lawyer ought to know that buying into your adversary's argument is guaranteed to doom your own....
"Federal abortion ban" is what pro-aborts call the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, btw. This seems like a good time for a commercial break:
Back to our story, reported The Politico yesterday:
For the past week, some activists in the abortion rights community have been trying to figure out why Barack Obama, a Democrat praised for his strong defense of reproductive rights, appeared to be turning soft.Those who work on the front lines of the abortion debate couldn't quite believe what they were hearing: Obama, in an interview with a Christian magazine, seemed to reject a mental health exception to the ban on late-term abortions. They feared that Obama, like Democrat John Kerry in 2004, was adopting a view favored by abortion opponents to appeal to conservatives.
After days of examining his initial comments and a subsequent clarification that he supports a mental health exception - as long as the woman suffers a diagnosed illness and is not just "feeling blue" - some activists are satisfied, while others are far from it or just plain confused....
"The e-mails were just going back and forth," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation....
The reaction to Obama's statement revealed a divide in the abortion rights community, one that closely tracks the allegiances formed during the Democratic Party's protracted primary election fight. While NOW and the Feminist Majority voiced concern over Obama's abortion remarks, two of the largest organizations dedicated to reproductive rights took a different tack and backed up Obama.
Last paragraph, interesting. And pro-aborts need not worry about Obama. He may talk soft but will never actually go soft. He takes Viabortionagra every day.
It was Obama's comment on abstinence in Relevant that was "the last straw" for Feldt, "when he gratuitously offered up language coded to out-triangulate any triangulating he had ever accused Hillary of doing":
So, if we are continuing what has been a promising trend in the reduction of teen pregnancies, through education and abstinence education giving good information to teenagers. That is important-emphasizing the sacredness of sexual behavior to our children. I think that's something that we can encourage.
Note Obama didn't say the word "sex" before the first "education." 
And I know what he really meant in terms of future policy. He'll continue to support comprehensive sex ed that he'll tout as also teaching abstinence. But the other side didn't even like Obama even inferring there was any value to abstinence education.
[Top graphic courtesy of Stanek commenter Cranky Catholic]
July 10, 2008
Last night I reported the Republican U.S. House leadership allowed its pro-life members use its Special Order hour to publicly expose Planned Parenthood as a racist organization, which also stands accused of committing multiple crimes across the country, and demand Congress defund it.
You can view YouTube videos of clips of speeches by many stalwart and eloquent pro-life congresspersons here. One who particularly impressed me was Rep. Michelle Bachmann:
I picked 3 from this heroic group, looked up their DC office phone numbers online, and simply called them today to leave a message of appreciation. You might consider the same. All the better if you find 1 from your state.
July 9, 2008
Watch C-SPAN between 6-7p* EST tonight.
When the U.S. House completes business, Rep. Chris Smith will host a 1-hour Pro-life Special Order in the House of Representatives.
During this time House members will speak on the subject of taxpayer subsidies for the abortion industry and what their constituents are unknowingly supporting when millions of tax dollars are funneled to organizations like Planned Parenthood.
What is Special Order?
The first 2 hours at the end of legislative business each day are reserved for Republican and Democrat leadership for Special Order business. Tonight the Republican leadership has given its hour to Smith and others to speak for the unborn. It was kept quiet until now to ward off PP types from crashing the event.
*The Special Order should start very soon after the last series of votes. The timing cannot be predicted exactly but will begin sometime between 6 and 7 pm.
July 7, 2008
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...
Calling the IL senator a "last gasp" of 1960s-era radicalism and "George McGovern without the experience," Thompson sternly warned the crowd that Obama would appoint Supreme Court justices unfriendly to their agenda.Thompson noted that during his career in the IL Legislature, Obama opposed a version of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, a bill that made it illegal to harm an infant born after surviving an abortion.
Observing that even the National Abortion Rights Advocacy League had not opposed this legislation, Thompson joked: "I trust [Obama] is explaining how he's to the left of NARAL during the religious outreach meetings he's holding."
[Rove photo courtesy of NRLC]
July 1, 2008
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?
June 26, 2008
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...
Barack Obama has downplayed his "email relationship" with Scarlett Johansson - and says the actress doesn't even have his personal address.Earlier this month, Johansson claimed to have a "personal dialogue" with Obama....
But Obama told reporters Tuesday that "she sent one email to [my assistant] Reggie [Love], who forwarded it to me.
"I [wrote] saying, 'Thank you Scarlett for doing what you do,' and suddenly we have this email relationship," he explained.
So either Scarlett has publicly engaged in school girl fantasy, or Barack has engaged in a Clinton-lite denial.
All Scarlett has to do to clear her good name is produce the emails, if she's telling the truth. That would be interesting.
[HT: proofreader Laura Loo; photo courtesy of Us]
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...
The House on Thursday approved a supplemental war funding package... [that] does not include [i.e., stripped] a provision - included in an earlier Senate version of the war supplemental bill... that allows pharmaceutical companies to sell deeply discounted birth control products to college health centers and certain family planning clinics without impacting the Medicaid drug rebate program.According to House Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey (D-WI), President Bush likely would have vetoed the package if it included the birth control pricing provision.... The dropped provision was modeled after legislation (S 2347) introduced by Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) in November 2007.
The bill now goes back to the Senate, which "is expected to concur with the House amendments, effectively clearing the bill for President Bush's signature," according to CQ Today.
[HT: LifeNews.com; photo courtesy of GlossyNews.com]
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...
Bennett was alluding to the fact that, as CNSNews editor Terry Jeffrey has observed:Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion presidential candidate ever.He is so pro-abortion that he refused as an IL state senator to support