As of today, at least 69 Democrats have expressed opposition to the Speaker's health care bill. As the bill comes to the House floor, how many Democrats will stand up and vote against a health care bill that raises taxes, cuts benefits to seniors, and spends money that families and small businesses across America cannot afford?

Pelosi needs 39 to carry the majority.

Read the list at link. I'm not posting it because I expect it to be in flux.

Meanwhile USA Today just posted:

Some of the most vulnerable Democrats in the House are starting to flake off the health care bill.

There are a dozen first-term Democrats representing districts that Republican presidential nominee John McCain won last year. So far, six have announced that they will vote against their party's health care bill.

Four of those announcements came today. All 4 of the lawmakers who announced opposition cited concerns about the price tag of the legislation, estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be more than $1 trillion over 10 years.

[HT on Whip count: Michelle Malkin on Twitter]

It also indicates Catholic pro-life Dem congressman (and co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus) Bart Stupak is holding strong with his assertion he has the votes to stop healthcare on the Life issue. From CNS News, today:

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops... sent a memo to congressional staff on Thursday about the issue. The memo, a copy of which was obtained by CNSNews.com, says that the Ellsworth amendment is not a "meaningful compromise," because merely segregating the funds would not prevent federal money from being used to fund abortion....

In the case of the bill's public option, the Ellsworth amendment mandates that the government segregate federal subsidy payments from individual premiums.

The bishops called this a "money-laundering system" because once premiums are paid into a public option, they become federal funds....

Doug Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee... called the Ellsworth amendment a "fig leaf made out of cellophane," adding that it was nothing more than a "last minute effort" to cloak the reality of the bill....

Stupak told CNSNews.com on Thursday that he and 40 other pro-life Democrats would continue to oppose the health care bill unless House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) allows a floor vote on his amendment that would explicitly prohibit federal funds from going to insurance plans that cover abortion.

Congressman Steve King today made the following statement calling on American citizens to come to Washington this weekend to stop a government takeover of health care.

"Nancy Pelosi and Washington liberals cannot ignore what transpired yesterday in Washington. Americans from every state stormed Capitol Hill. They took over the Hill. And they loudly chanted 'Kill this bill!'...

"We can kill this bill and stop the government takeover of health care. We need the help of every American willing to stand up for freedom and liberty. I urge all Americans who oppose this bill to come to Washington tomorrow morning and join us to stop this bill."

Tomorrow at 1p Congressman King will join his Republican colleagues and Americans from across the nation seeking to have their voices heard in the health care debate for a second House Call press event. Republicans and other participants will deliver a message that the American people reject a government takeover of health care.

When: Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 1:00 p.m.

Where: U.S. Capitol

[Photo of House Call I via moderator Bethany's parents!]

[HT: Mary LF]
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11/3, 6:36p:The 40 Days for Life blog is reporting that Abby Johnson, the former director of the Bryan, TX, Planned Parenthood who quit her job earlier this month and is now a pro-life convert, will appear on The O'Reilly Factor Friday night.

Read my previous post giving Johnson's backstory here.

The Associated Press has an update on PP's attempted restraining order against Johnson...

The injunction... prevents Johnson and the [Brazos Valley C]oalition [for Life] from releasing anything that Johnson, who was executive director for about 2 years, may have retained while working at PP - at least until the hearing.

Coalition Director Shawn Carney [pictured left] said Monday that there was not a campaign to reveal private information. He said PP's actions were unnecessary and an overreaction.

Lawyers for PP wrote in court documents filed Friday that Johnson was seen copying confidential personnel files and possibly other documents in the days before she abruptly resigned on Oct. 6. The clinic's lawyers expressed worry in the filings that Johnson might release clients' medical records, information about doctors who work at the clinic and the clinic's security measures.

Johnson said in a telephone interview with The Eagle that she didn't turn over any documents to the Coalition for Life.

"I didn't provide any because I don't have any," she said.

[HT: Pete K.]

Think newborns just eat, sleep and wail the same way across the world? That's not so, according to a new study which found that babies cry with an accent within the first week of life.

By recording cries of 60 babies born to French or German parents, researchers discovered that babies cry with the same "prosody" or melody used in their native language by the 2nd day of life.

French newborns in the study ended their cries with a lilt at the end typically heard in French.

German babies, however, started their cries intensely and dropped off at the end - much like the emphasis their German parents put in a sentence, according to a study published Thursday in Current Biology.

Experts in child development say the most exciting part of this discovery is not that infants recognize the melody of their language, but that the newborns may have the ability to use what they heard in the womb to then control their cries.

[HT: Nathan WS]

[HT: Michael B.]
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The FL Agency for Health Care Administration has shut down the Community Healthcare Center in Pensacola, FL, after it couldn't cough up $413k in fines for failing to renew a lab license for 413 days.

The AHCA served ample notice to the 25+ year old abortion mill in January, but when it hadn't settled its bill 10 months after the fact, the clinic "voluntarily" closed its doors October 30, according to AHCA via PNJ.com, after AHCA paid it a shakedown visit on October 20.

Too bad, so sad, PNJ.com also reports:

The closure leaves AMS of Pensacola... as the only abortion clinic in Escambia County.

40 Days for Life was keeping vigil at the mill during that time. What great news to learn on Day 38!

As an aside, this particular mill has a sordid history. It's where Paul Hill in 1995 killed abortionist John Britton and deathscort James Barrett.

[HT: David Bereit of 40 Days]

The above Boston Globe photo is of TX Congressman John Culberson yesterday, tossing Pelosi's 2k page healthcare bill into an opposition crowd. Reports the Globe...

The sweeping health care overhaul package before Congress is under an 11th-hour attack over a pair of emotional issues, abortion and immigration, that are complicating Democrats' efforts to piece together the coalition they need to pass the bill.

Veteran lawmakers said they were confident they could add wording to ease the worries of colleagues and interest groups...

But with the House scheduled to vote on the health care package tomorrow, members of Congress are being inundated with complaints from constituents about hot-button social issues the lawmakers say are not even related to a bill that will affect 1/6 of the nation's economy. Thousands of protesters, many of them carrying signs against abortion or illegal immigrant health care coverage, gathered at the Capitol yesterday demanding that Congress "kill the bill,'' and many visited their congressmen's offices yesterday to voice the same opinion.

In an article entitled, "Temperatures rising on healthcare," The Hill reports this morning the pressure is INTENSE on pro-life Democrats to support Pelosi's healthcare bill:

The abortion compromise was turning into a contest of wills, with the US Conference of Bishops on one side and Pelosi, a devout Catholic [?!] and a supporter of abortion rights, on the other.

Ellsworth said at least 3 Democratic abortion-rights opponents have agreed to support his language, but many others won't because the bishops don't support it.

"Other members felt like they needed the... blessing of the Catholic bishops," Ellsworth said.

And the bishops, whose representatives he met with Thursday morning, are insisting on an amendment authored weeks ago by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), which would block any subsidies from paying for abortion....

Meanwhile the phony pro-life Ellsworth amendment "has sparked a furious backlash among national, state and local anti-abortion groups who typically support Ellsworth," according to the Courier Press, a paper in Brad Ellsworth's IN district. Here's a photo from the paper (click to enlarge)...

The Hill is updating a list of Democrats moving from the no to yes to maybe column and back again on healthcare.

Today's the day to call. Tomorrow's the vote. We can do this. Call your congressperson at both his or her district and DC office. Use the online congressional directory to find your rep and phone numbers or call the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121.

The above is a shot of the wild scene outside Nancy Pelosi's office yesterday afternoon, as described in The Hill last night...

Conservative protesters chanting "Kill that bill!" stormed the Capitol on Thursday as Republicans launched a last-ditch effort against the Democrats' healthcare bill.

The protesters from around the country entered House office buildings after attending the "House Call" rally on healthcare, largely the brainchild of Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)....

It is unclear how many people attended the event, thought the protesters appeared to number in the thousands. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) estimated 10k attended.

Our own Bethany's parents even attended the House Call rally! Attendees were encouraged to take a page from the 2k page healthcare bill to their congressperson's office and demand s/he explain it. At Pelosi's office, though, people crumpled theirs and trashed it...

Look closely at that still shot. Code Pink counter-demonstrators were standing to the left outside Pelosi's office door, but staging his own personal sit-in inside was Fr. Norman Weslin, who we last saw being arrested at Notre Dame.

And whoops, he did it again, leaving Pelosi's office and laying down in the hall, where he was again arrested...

According to the Associated Press:

U.S. Capitol Police have arrested a dozen anti-abortion activists outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office after a massive protest against the Democrats' health care bill.

The charges ranged from unlawful conduct to disorderly conduct and unlawful entry in the incident, which happened around 2:15 p.m. EST Thursday....

Was this Randall Terry's doing? Yep.

Here's some wild video of the scene. All 7:30 minutes are worth watching...

When I read NBC's Law & Order was airing an episode last week "ripped from the headlines" of an abortionist shot in church, i.e., Dr. George Tiller, I, of course, anticipated the plot would not go well for pro-lifers. The most I expected was milliseconds of fairness with pro-abortion clichés ruling the hour.

My, was I surprised. I could have written that script. The episode wasn't even balanced. It was outright pro-life, not that I mind.

If you haven't seen the episode, you should. Sans commercials it is only 42 minutes long....

Pro-abort reaction was swift and harsh. Sarah Seltzer at the Ted-Turner-funded blog RH Reality Check called the episode an "abortion disaster" and "wasteland of TV."

Kate Harding at Salon accused NBC of spreading "anti-choice propaganda" and "smear[ing] the memory of... Dr. Tiller."

Ms. Magazine was "appalled by this second assassination" of Dr. Tiller, calling the show "shocking" and "insensitive."...

Jennifer Boulangerat Women and Hollywood called the show "deeply stigmatizing" and "rife with medical inaccuracies."

On and on.

The question is: How did this story line come to pass?....

Continue reading my column this week, "Is Hollywood tipping pro-life?" at WorldNetDaily.com.

Then there was this, posted 6p ET tonight, entitled, "Pelosi breaks pledge to put final health care bill online for 72 hours before vote"...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office tells The Weekly Standard that the speaker will not allow the final language of the health care to be posted online for 72 hours before bringing the bill to a vote on the House floor, despite her September 24 statement that she was "absolutely" committed to doing so.

House members are still negotiating important issues in the bill - whether it will provide taxpayer-funding for abortions, for example. Pelosi is pushing for a Saturday House vote, and a number of big changes will be introduced, likely less than 24 hours before the vote takes place (if in fact it does)....