Journalist, author and TV host Greg Gutfeld has a few remarks about the political/media response to the mass murders at Ft. Hood.
...When a fundamentalist kills thirteen innocent people while shouting “allahu akbar,” Islam isn’t just a small player – it’s got a starring role. And now that U.S. intelligence admits Hasan tried to contact al Qaeda, it should make it increasingly hard for anyone to say otherwise.
I say it “should,” but it won’t.
Look at the news.
Over at Time, thoughtful types speculate over a “secondary trauma” that could have driven Hasan to kill. Never mind terror – one news network tells us we should focus more on “a backlash against Muslim soldiers.” On a major website, they want us to ponder the “next McVeigh.” And our very own Homeland Security secretary says she’s hard at work preventing “a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment.”
And that’s the drill: concern over crimes that have never happened, as opposed to the terror that has. When Americans are murdered in cold blood, the first step in our screwed-up world is to chant, “backlash.” Never mind that backlash concerns may have allowed this massacre to occur in the first place. Hasan exhibited more signs than a horoscope – yet fears over appearing politically incorrect kept him around.
The fact is, in mosques all over the world, the desire to destroy the west continues – and our administration still worries about what you might do. The PC thing? Avoid “connecting the dots,” but stick to the “square peg in round hole” equation: a troubled man feeling hopeless in a weird world, suddenly snaps and kills people.
But it’s more than that. The defiant Muslim living in America has contempt for modern life, your lifestyle, your beliefs. Add to this a rejection of female equality, which pretty much eliminates any chance for a hook-up – and you’ve got a madman on a mission.
I suppose saying all this makes me a right-wing hate monger. But that’s the point. When a man kills Americans in the name of Allah – and you become a bad guy for pointing that out – then it’s time to be the bad guy.
It’s far better than moaning “why do they hate us.”
I'm sure you've seen the trailers for the new movie 2012. You may have even heard the talk going around about the end of the world the movie portrays -- the end of the world purportedly prophesied by the ancient Mayans.
Well, our British colleague Stuart Cunliffe would like to offer you a quick primer on prophecy that will serve you much better than Entertainment Tonight discussions of Mayan calendars, Nostradamus rumors or Jeanne Dixon horoscopes. It's a neat column and you'll find it right here.
What extremely dangerous activity is it that nearly half of American college students engage in regularly?
Binge drinking.
Certainly binge drinking (downing 5 or more alcoholic drinks at one sitting) encourages irresponsible, even hazardous behavior: crime, sexual promiscuity, drunk driving, etc.
But it's a very dangerous act in itself. For not only are alcohol-related deaths continuing to increase in this age group, young people who binge drink are causing serious and frequently irreparable damage to their brains.
Talking to your kids about alcohol abuse and the whole host of related issues (peer pressure, self-esteem, moral standards, expectations and achieving goals) cannot be emphasized enough. And those conversations certainly shouldn't wait until your kids are packing the car to go off to college.
Committing ourselves to our kids' future means spending plenty of meaningful time with them, preparing them spiritually for the challenges awaiting, and maintaining high standards of morality and purpose ourselves.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is joining other high-ranking Democrats (see this Vital Signs post from yesterday) who promise that the pro-life protections that were part of the health care bill that squeaked out of the Congress last weekend will be removed.
"I think that's what's gonna happen," Clyburn said during an appearance on MSNBC when asked if Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) amendment would be removed.
Clyburn said that many other House Democrats supported the having a vote on the amendment in the House, with the expectation that it would eventually be removed. "I agree that the language approved by the House is unacceptable," Clyburn explained. "We were doing what was necessary to do to put the bill on the floor in about 12 hours."
Excuse me? Did Clyburn just confess that a bunch of Democrat Congressmen are liars and hypocrites? I think he did.
But it's not just Democrat politicians who are bound heart and soul to extending abortion. So too are abortion profiteers like Planned Parenthood and journalists turned liberal activists like Chris Matthews.
The stuff of life -- the elemental events surrounding birth, death, raising children, fulfilling one's personal potential, dealing with adversity, intimate relationships -- occurs within just four institutions: family, community, vocation and faith. Seen in this light, the goal of social policy is to ensure that those institutions are robust and vital. The European model doesn't do that. It enfeebles every single one of them...
Call it the Europe Syndrome. Last April I had occasion to speak in Zurich, where I made some of these same points. Afterward, a few of the 20-something members of the audience came up and said plainly that the phrase "a life well-lived" did not have meaning for them. They were having a great time with their current sex partner and new BMW and the vacation home in Majorca, and they saw no voids in their lives that needed filling.
It was fascinating to hear it said to my face, but not surprising. It conformed to both journalistic and scholarly accounts of a spreading European mentality that goes something like this: Human beings are a collection of chemicals that activate and, after a period of time, deactivate. The purpose of life is to while away the intervening time as pleasantly as possible.
If that's the purpose of life, then work is not a vocation, but something that interferes with the higher good of leisure. If that's the purpose of life, why have a child, when children are so much trouble? If that's the purpose of life, why spend it worrying about neighbors? If that's the purpose of life, what could possibly be the attraction of a religion that says otherwise?
I stand in awe of Europe's past. Which makes Europe's present all the more dispiriting. And should make it something that concentrates our minds wonderfully, for every element of the Europe Syndrome is infiltrating American life as well. The European model provides the intellectual framework for the social policies of the Democratic Party, and it faces no credible opposition from Republican politicians...
America's elites must once again fall in love with what makes America different. The drift toward the European model can be stopped only when we are all talking again about why America is exceptional, and why it is so important that America remain exceptional. That requires once again seeing the American project for what it is: a different way for people to live together, unique among the nations of the earth, and immeasurably precious.
You're not going to agree with everything that Charles Murray says in this Washington Post essay; you probably won't even understand a few parts. But you undoubtedly will find it fascinating and provocative. I just came across it though it was printed back in March as an adaptation of his 2009 Irving Kristol Lecture.
The lavish wedding ceremony of comedienne/talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres and her “wife,” actress Portia di Rossi, was the theme of an Oprah show a couple of days ago. Among the viewers was Sue Bohlin, a speaker and writer who, among her many other Christian responsibilities, serves on the board of Living Hope Ministries, a Christ-centered organization that helps people struggling with unwanted homosexuality. Sue's cogent and compassionate response to that program makes for very insightful reading.
I have mentioned Sue Bohlin before on this blog. She is a woman Claire and I greatly respect and her work alongside her husband with Probe Ministries is something we especially appreciate. But for this column, you'll have to zip over to another team project she's involved in. It's a web outreach organized by over a dozen Christian women called The Tapestry: A Christian Women's Collective.
You'll find Sue's column right here. And it's well worth the trip over there to read. But I'm betting you'll also start browsing around a bit once you're there. You'll discover it's a very nifty site that you'll want to revisit often.
I'm sending a note to Ben Nelson this morning -- no, I think I might call his office instead -- and thank him for the gumption he's showing on the health care bill. I'm going to tell him I read the ABC News story about him (excerpts below) and really appreciated his comments. I'll ask him to stand behind those words in the days ahead when the President and the Democrat party starts increasing the pressure.
I'm also going to remind him of some of the the statements of his fellow Democrats promising they will get abortion back into the bill and tell him to be extra careful, extra resilient in resisting their sneaky efforts.
And then I'm going to ask Ben Nelson to complete his pro-life responsibilities there in the Senate by doing one other very important thing; namely, to vote against any further Supreme Court nominees put up by the radically pro-abortion Barack Obama.
For Ben Nelson's defiance on abortion provisions in the health care bill mean next to nothing if he continues to approve of judges who are chomping at the bit to extend abortion. For instance, what good is it for a "final" health care reform bill to have a Stupak amendment if the Supreme Court promptly negates that particular part of the bill?
And you know that backup plan is already well into the works.
So, Senator Nelson sounds good right now. And he may even be sincere and well-meaning, I don't know. But as long as Ben Nelson remains a Democrat who adores Obama, accepts his czar-oriented oligarchy and obediently votes for the President's extremist judicial nominees -- he's not truly defending the sanctity of life cause.
Here's that ABC report:
In a warning sign for the White House, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska tells ABC News that he'll vote to block any health care bill that looks like the bill passed by the House.
"Well, first of all, it has more than a robust public option, it's got a totally government-run plan, the costs are extraordinary associated with it, it increases taxes in a way that will not pass in the Senate and I could go on and on and on," Nelson said in an interview that is part of ABC News' Subway Series with Jonathan Karl.
"Faced with a decision about whether or not to move a bill that is bad, I won't vote to move it," he added. "For sure."
The $1.1 trillion price tag on the House bill, Nelson said, is "absolutely" too high...
"Federal taxpayer money ought not to be used to fund abortions," Nelson said. "So whether it is subsidies on premiums or whether it is tax credits or whatever it is...it should not be used to fund abortions." Nelson also talked about the message he heard from former President Bill Clinton, who talked to Senate Democrats at their weekly closed-door luncheon.
"What I heard him say is that you don't have to let the desire for perfection get in the way of the good," Nelson said. "And that makes a great deal of sense. But I would add the caveat that we have to be sure it is not a bad bill, that it doesn't add to the deficit, that it doesn't increase taxes, and that does, in fact, control the growth in costs."
As a fellow who celebrated his 38th wedding anniversary last week, I was particularly interested in Connecticut Judge Howard Owens' opinion about long marriages.
Owens delivered his views at the conclusion of the Jim and Ann-Lorraine Nantz divorce trial. Nantz, who Owens believes is "our nation's most prominent sportscaster" (Sorry, Al Michaels) was ordered to give his now ex-wife about a million a year, a home and condominium in Connecticut, half of all their joint assets and accounts, continued beneficiary status in his $3 million life insurance, and $70,000 to join any country club she desires. Nantz retains their home in Houston, a luxury condominium in the Deer Valley ski resort in Park City, Utah, and the rest of his $7 million a year earnings from his CBS salary, endorsements and other gigs.
But again, what struck me was the judges' opinion of longevity in marriage. Contending that Nantz' 29-year old girlfriend has nothing to do with the matter, Owens agreed instead with Nantz who contended that "Lorrie" Nantz hadn't kept up proper interest in her husband's career. She didn't attend all the events he wanted her to nor did she provide enough "emotional support." For her part, Mrs. Nantz said that she attended as often as possible, but that those continual events (Nantz travels extensively around the country) were not her main focus in life. Raising their daughter was.
Said Owens, "In fairness, for most of the years he prioritized his family obligation and put his wife and daughter Caroline first. As frequently happens in marriages of lengthy duration, the parties do not have the same interest and ardor for their spouses' endeavors."
In other words, Mrs. Nantz should have racked up more frequent flyer miles. And maybe she should have let him hang in the living room that big oil painting of himself accepting a "Man of the Year" award.
And Mr. Nantz? Well, by golly, he gave it a pretty good run. After all, his family was Priority #1 for quite a bit of the marriage anyhow. Before his career really took off. Before he had a best-selling book. Before he found a later model dating partner.
How sad. Marriage is supposed to be (and can be) about sharing, loving, forgiving and showing forbearance towards one another. And done right, two people move closer together, not farther apart. Love over time thus becomes more beautiful, more productive, stronger -- an invaluable resource for not only partners and children but the general culture as well.
But when ego, career advancement, a love for money and position (not to mention roving affections) are allowed priority status in one's life, when these things assume the place that should be reserved alone for one's spouse, the pure and ennobling love of marriage cannot survive.
And neither can the culture. For though a secular judge can come along and divide the spoils, he cannot repair the broken hearts nor the damage done to children and extended family and friends. And with each sacred vow that is broken, the moral structure that underlies a secure and healthy nation is broken a bit more too.
The old saw from Abraham Lincoln is that a nation divided against itself cannot stand. True enough. But neither can a nation of divided families, divided loyalties, and divided consciences.
Mark Steyn looks at just a few of the remarkable items which were ignored by the military brass (and others) involving Major Nidal Hassan's windup to mass murder. Those items include this one:
Danquah assumed the military’s chain of command knew about Hasan’s doubts, which had been known for more than a year to classmates in a graduate military medical program. His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan’s "anti-American propaganda," but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint.
Steyn draws this conclusion --
I believe it was Derb a few months after 9/11 who said that for this new struggle our watchword was "Better screwed than rude." Major Hasan represents the institutionalization of that attitude.Thirteen people are dead, dozens more will live with their injuries for the rest of their days, and a lot of families have had a great big gaping hole blown out of their lives because of it.
Anwar al-Awlaki and his chums have bet that such a society is too sick to survive. Watch the nothing-to-see-here media driveling on about pre-post-traumatic stress disorder like gibbering lunatics in a padded cell, and then think whether you'd really want to take that bet.
Here's an interesting case of a fired-up, pro-abortion feminist complaining that Planned Parenthood and NARAL were not pro-abortion enough given their latest efforts with the Obama/Pelosi health care bill.
Hmm.
My take is that this is just another way for radical pro-abortionists like Jane Hamsher to spin the boondoggle bill. Specifically, it spins it in such a way that "moderate," supposedly pro-life Democrats are given an excuse to vote for the bill -- when everyone on the inside knows it will eventually give the abortionists all they want anyhow!
You think I'm being paranoid?
No, call it first the experience of 30 years in pro-life work.
And then call it simple awareness of what the mainstream media isn't telling the public. Like powerful Democrat Senator Henry Waxman refusing to guarantee that the Stupak amendment won't be thrown out with the trash when Democrat leaders of both houses of Congress get together and re-work the bill.
Indeed, speaking of guarantees, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democrats’ chief deputy whip in the House, IS giving one that the Stupak amendment will be stripped from the final health care bill. “I am confident that when it comes back from the conference committee that that language won't be there."
No, you can count on it, the crying coming from the pro-abortion lobby is all crocodile tears. They're playing the same game they have for decades; namely, help out the Democrats with effective pro-life constituencies in their districts to find excuses to promote abortion legislation.
Guys, don't let it work this time.
Continue to write and call "moderates" like Nebraska's Ben Nelson and let them know that you're watching very, very carefully what's happening with the legislation. For instance, quote Rep. Wasserman in your letters. Remind them that the alternative media gives you a pretty clear window into political machinations and so you are much more aware of the intents (and even the tactics) of Democrat schemes than in previous years. Inform them most clearly that you're tired of excuses and blame and back-room dealings.
And let them know that you're going to do your doggonedest to flush out of office any scalawag who plays politics as usual.
* Did you see this video clip of a raving mad Nancy Pelosi, complaining on the House floor about how unfair and irresponsible it is to require a vote on bills that haven't been read yet? Of course, the clip comes from a few years back -- before Pelosi herself was the gal changing the rules and running roughshod over common sense and justice. Pelosi would definitely be squirming at the uncovering of this clip...if, that is, she was still capable of being ashamed. I don't think she is.
* "Reality has not been kind to President Obama’s promises. On November 6, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their Employment Situation Summary showing that the nation’s unemployment rate had soared from 9.8% to 10.2% in October. You can see how President Obama’s promises compare to reality to the right." (For a close-up view of and additional commentary on the chart, go to this Conn Carroll post over on The Foundry.)
* Oh, how our Republic has sdaly changed. Here is a story and accompanying news clip with Congressman Barney Frank nonchalantly talking about his homosexual relationship with James Ready and about his presence when Ready was busted for growing pot. One wonders where the MSM was on this story. After all, the arrest was a matter of public record; Congressman Frank's prominent name was in the police report; Frank even accompanied Ready to court. And yet two years go by before a local Fox station manages to break the story? Get outta town.
* A lying Congressman isn't news per se. Neither is a promise-breaking Congressman. But when a new Congressman both lies and breaks 4 campaign promises in his first hour on the job? Wow. That's the infamous "NY 23" victor Bill Owens diving into the tank. And had his real intentions been known, the Conservative Party nominee would almost certainly be occupying the office. Do the Democrats really think this is a good omen for the future?
* According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon (a loyal party man), President Obama in his arm-twisting of Democrats to vote for the Obama/Pelosi health care disaster, used this question to urge compliance? “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit Democratic voters and it will encourage the extremists." Well, nice to know what the President of the United States thinks about more than half of his country's citizens, huh?
* Rick Pearcey comments on the stunningly insensitive comment made by Army chief of staff Gen. George Casey on ABC's "This Week." Casey said that although what happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, "I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here."
Writes Pearcey on his web blog, Pro-Existence, "I'm sorry, but this smacks of politically correct nonsense. And it's dangerous, to boot. The United States is founded upon the Declaration of Independence, not upon declarations of diversity. The difference in concept and practice is immense.
It's the difference between a George Washington who respects the Constitution and the Declaration and the unique Creator upon whom the content of liberty rests, as opposed to an Obama regime that rejects these foundations and rushes to remake America in the image of race, class, gender, and other passionate envys.
And note the result. While these "diversities" divide and conquer, there is a unity that grows in power: The Washington-centric federal state reigns supreme over all.
You may not hear this on the evening news, but in the hands of pretend gods, diversity is a weakness. And the worship of it seems a surefire way to lose the war on terror. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and the "Allahu Akbar" people probably like that."
You want yet another example of how the Constitutional freedoms of speech and freedom of religion are being overthrown by a decadent, intolerant culture? How about this young Christian who was fired from his job simply for stating his opinion to a lesbian who had repeatedly boasted to him about her recent "marriage" to another homosexual?
Peter Vadala, 24, told FoxNews.com he was terminated in August from his position as second deputy manager at a Brookstone store at Boston's Logan Airport after a conversation he had with a manager from another Brookstone store who was visiting the location.
Vadala claims the woman, whom he declined to identify, mentioned four times that she had married her partner. He said he then left the store briefly to visit the airport's chapel before returning. "I found it offensive that she repeatedly brought it up," Vadala said. "By the fourth time she mentioned it, I felt God wanted me to express how I felt about the matter, so I did. But my tone was downright apologetic. I said, 'Regarding your homosexuality, I think that's bad stuff.'"
The woman, according to Vadala, then said, "Human resources, buddy — keep your opinions to yourself," before exiting the store.
Two days later, Vadala, who had been employed for just a matter of weeks, received a termination letter citing the company's zero-tolerance policy regarding "harassment" and "inappropriate and unprofessional" comments....
"I see, like all real Christians, homosexuals as people who, like me, are sinners and need to be told the truth in a loving way," Vadala said. "In this situation, I took issue with the behavior. I think it's lunacy to call that type of behavior marriage in any kind of form. I had to express that I'm intolerant of that behavior. It's a love-the-sinner, hate-the-sin kind of deal."
Vadala said he felt "intentionally goaded" by the manager to comment on her relationship. "She knew how I felt about homosexuality," he said. "When you talk to someone about something like that, you want their support. She was kind of looking into my eyes for that social cue for me to say, 'I'm happy for you.' But I really couldn't feel happy for her."
Brookstone President/CEO Ron Boire vigorously defends the company's firing of the young man. Brookstone, he says, "is an equal opportunity employer, meaning that we maintain a healthy, safe and productive work environment free from discrimination or harassment based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, or other factors that are unrelated to the Company’s legitimate business interests. We are proud of our diverse workforce of varying cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds."
Meaning, of course, the company tolerates everyone except devout Christians.
Because of this outlandish discrimination bias, I won't be buying anything from Brookstone in the future. And I sent the company a brief note to let them know why:
"Dear Mr. Boire,
Because of your termination of a young Christian man simply for stating his religious belief about homosexual marriage (and this only after repeated statements from another employee boasting of her homosexual marriage), I will no longer be spending any money at Brookstone stores. Your decision was a poor one, reflecting an intolerance for Christian beliefs despite your vaunted claims to be an equal opportunity employer. Bias cuts many ways, Mr. Boire. And your company has obviously opted to favor only certain, politically-correct views while severely discriminating against others. Bad form. And very unfair. So, I'd rather spend my money elsewhere."
One of the blogs run by the Daily Mail gives a rundown on a few of the newspapers that bothered to do a little fact checking on the White House claims regarding how many jobs were "created or saved" by the stimulus bill.
And, lo and behold, it turns out that Team Obama was lying through their collective teeth.
That, of course, isn't surprising to conservatives or, for that matter, anyone else plugged into the new media. After all, this administration has lied more than a 5-year old who got into the chocolate.
But what is surprising is the number of major newspapers whose reporters are finally beginning to remember what they learned in Journalism 101 -- newspapers like the Denver Post, Sacramento Bee, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and even the New York Times. Indeed, it's the Times that comes up with my favorite item from the long list of White House fibs:
“In June, the federal government spent $1,047 in stimulus money to buy a rider mower from the Toro Company to cut the grass at the Fayetteville National Cemetery in Arkansas. Now, a report on the government’s stimulus Web site improbably claims that that single lawn mower sale helped save or create 50 jobs.”
Read some of the other takes right here.
President Obama took another pass at commenting on the Fort Hood massacre in the Rose Garden this morning:
"This morning I met with FBI Director Mueller and the relevant agencies to discuss their ongoing investigation into what caused one individual to turn his gun on fellow servicemen and women. We don't know all of the answers yet, and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all of the facts."
"Don't jump to conclusions" is an all-purpose tautology, like "Don't panic." It's hard to argue with. One wonders, though, exactly what conclusions he has in mind. I think it's safe to predict that President Obama will never reach those conclusions, let alone jump to them.
The most informative and straightforward account of the massacre I've seen is in London's Sun newspaper. It pays tribute to policewoman Kimberly Munley, who was on a routine traffic patrol and became the first officer on the site. (There were lots of soldiers there, of course, but they were all unarmed because it was a "gun-free zone"--sort of a microcosm of the adage that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.) It would have been easy for her to conclude that this incident was way beyond her pay grade and wait for reinforcements, but instead Sgt. Munley sought out the murderer, confronted him and shot him four times while being wounded herself. The Sun quotes Base Commander Lt. Gen. Bob Cone: "Often you circle the building and wait for back-up. But the thinking is if you act aggressively and take-out the shooter you have less fatalities."
Presumably that doesn't constitute jumping to conclusions.
PAUL adds: Suddenly, President Obama doesn't want to jump to conclusions. He had no such compunction about jumping to conclusions when his friend Professor Gates harangued a police officer.
I think we can jump to a few in this case. The shooter hated the United States and its armed forces. The shooter's grievances were political and religious in nature. In addition, the shooter may have had grievances specific to things that were said and done to him. Any such grievances cannot remotely explain or justify his resort to violence, much less mass killing. The killings are best viewed as an act of terrorism grounded in radical Islam.
A FEW MORE CONCLUSIONS (jumped to by Paul): The shooter should be executed. If the shooter is not executed, this country is in more trouble than I thought. There should be an investigation into how the shooter remained in the Army, given his increasingly obvious anti-American radicalism.
The rule against soldiers carrying weapons on military bases should be revisited. The rule against soldiers having their weapons "locked and loaded" on bases in combat areas (yes, a friend who served in Iraq tells me there was such a rule on his base) should be revoked.
(John Hinderaker, Power Line, November 6)
Tomorrow morning (Saturday, November 7) Claire and I will be joining several of our Christian pro-life colleagues for a special demonstration outside the Council Bluffs Planned Parenthood at 1604 2nd Avenue. (That's 2 blocks south of Broadway on 16th Street.)
This is the PP center where we used to regularly picket and sidewalk counsel before they stopped committing surgical abortions there last year. We now do our sidewalk counseling on Monday mornings at the Bellevue abortion clinic.
However, the PP center in Council Bluffs remains a very wicked and lethal place: distributing deadly abortifacient poisons as well as advice and enablement for sexual promiscuity. So Vital Signs Ministries has selected Planned Parenthhood facilities to be on the list for our team pro-life demonstrations to be held the first Saturday morning of the month.
This particular facility will not be open tomorrow so we will be concentrating on prayers (corporate and private) as well as informing the public driving by that intersection. We'll be at the facility tomorrow morning at 7:30 for an hour (maybe a bit more).
And, in addition to some of our regular signs and banners (babies, "Every Heartbeat Is a Gift from God," the white cross on a color banner, etc), we'll be carrying signs made by Kurt Oyer that read:
* Every Year PLANNED PARENTHOOD Receives $265 MILLION OF YOUR TAX DOLLARS
* PLANNED PARENTHOOD: America's Largest Abortion Business. They're Making a Killing. Literally!
* 240,000 Surgical Abortions: Done Every Year By PLANNED PARENTHOOD
* The “Morning-After” Pill and RU-486 ENDANGER YOUR HEALTH TOO!
* PLANNED PARENTHOOD Racist -- Elitist -- Barbaric And You Are Paying the Bill!
If you'd like to join us tomorrow morning, please do. We'd love to have you aboard. And if you'd like to be on the call list for other First Saturday demonstrations, just let us know.
A couple of weeks ago, Lord Christopher Monckton was in St. Paul, Minnesota to speak not only about the bad science (and even "badder" political purposes) behind the global warming hype, but also about the imminent danger of America signing away her sovereignty to global socialists at the United Nations Climate Change talks in Copenhagen next month.
The following video clip is only about 4 minutes long but I'm sure you'll find it riveting, inspiring...and scary. (Thanks to Jesse Bagwell for alerting me to the clip.)
The liberal media wants ObamaCare to pass almost as much as Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and George Soros do. That's why the newspapers and network news shows are splashing around the AMA's endorsement of Congress' 1,990 page health care reform bill.
But they are being careful to avoid telling you that the AMA represents only 17-24% of the profession.
Indeed, as I pointed out from an Investor's Business Daily poll last September, two of every three practicing physicians opposed the medical overhaul plan that was then under consideration in Washington. Hundreds of thousands were considering shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted.
And that was then. The final bill created by Nancy Pelosi and other liberal Democrats is now much more extreme, expensive and intrusive. The numbers of doctors opposing it would be even higher.
But the MSM coverage conveniently (unjustly is the better word) leaves these facts out.
Nor does the MSM tell us about the state medical associations of Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida who are considering a bolt from the AMA endorsement.
Nor do they tell us that former AMA president Stormy Johnson is preparing a resolution to rescind the endorsement.
Nor do they tell us that the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons announced their firm opposition to the House bill.
So please pass this on to your friends who are only hearing the media's slant in this debate. We can't rely on Katie. We have to get the truth out ourselves.
Don't let your "moderate" Democrat Congressmen and Senators fool you with their blather, lies and knowingly false promises. Even the Washington Post openly admits that the 1,990 page monstrosity that is the Obama/Pelosi "health care reform" bill requires abortion coverage that taxpayers must finance AND free health care for illegal immigrants.
The Department of Labor announced today the economy shed another 190 thousand jobs in October, pushing the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent and the running Obama jobs deficit to 5.7 million. Earlier in the week the Obama Administration released figures purporting to show the Obama stimulus had saved or created 640,000 thousand jobs.
Only in Washington can jobs be saved by the thousands while being lost by the millions.
(J.D. Foster, "Obama Jobs Deficit Hits 7.7 Million and Climbing," The Foundry at the Heritage Foundation)
And yet despite a hugely unsuccessful stimulus bill and this soaring jobless rate, the media criticism of the Obama administration is almost nil.
What happened to all those journalists who savaged George W. Bush for much less damaging numbers?
They're lying. It isn't that at all.
In this post Harned lists the specifics of the Ellsworth Amendment and gives a brief commentary on how they will affect you. It is an excellent analysis, one that you'll need to counter the false claims that will be made by "moderate" Democrats and the press.
This Wall Street Journal editorial is a must-read.
And not just for you.
In fact, I encourage you to forward this post to everyone on your e-mail list. We must take seriously our responsibility as American citizens (and, I should add, as citizens of heaven also) to oppose this horrendous and immoral power grab.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told fellow Democrats that she's prepared to lose seats in 2010 if that's what it takes to pass ObamaCare, and little wonder. The health bill she unwrapped last Thursday, which President Obama hailed as a "critical milestone," may well be the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced.
In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics.
Yet at this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan "reform" and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be "universal coverage." The result will be destructive on every level--for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity...
As Congress's balance sheet drowns in trillions of dollars in new obligations, the political system will have no choice but to start making cost-minded decisions about which treatments patients are allowed to receive. Democrats can't regulate their way out of the reality that we live in a world of finite resources and infinite wants. Once health care is nationalized, or mostly nationalized, medical rationing is inevitable—especially for the innovative high-cost technologies and drugs that are the future of medicine.
Mr. Obama rode into office on a wave of "change," but we doubt most voters realized that the change Democrats had in mind was making health care even more expensive and rigid than the status quo. Critics will say we are exaggerating, but we believe it is no stretch to say that Mrs. Pelosi's handiwork ranks with the Smoot-Hawley tariff and FDR's National Industrial Recovery Act as among the worst bills Congress has ever seriously contemplated.
* A New Zealand politician is proving once again that you can't talk out loud about elitist, eugenics philosophy. That stuff is apparently okay to motivate population controllers and Planned Parenthood officials who are still carrying out the racist claptrap of their founder Margaret Sanger. But you can't go on the radio and openly talk about paying the "appalling underclass" not to breed.
* Al Gore is poised to become the world's first "carbon billionaire," reaping huge profits from the global warming hype he has been so successful in generating. Never mind the hard science. Never mind the defensiveness of this New York Times profile of Gore's business activity. Follow the money and see if you don't think there's something besides "Al-truism" going on here.
* "Senate Democrats have blocked a Republican attempt to require next year's census forms to ask people whether they are a U.S. citizen." You would think this would be a common sense reform, right? But the Democrats are not interested in true reform any more than they are in fairness, accountability, transparency in government, or justice for taxpayers.
* John Nolte at Big Hollywood gives the lyrics to 11 new "Obama praise songs" that educators are coaching schoolkids to sing. Yes, these are in addition to the ones you've already watched in disgust. Be be forewarned -- several of the video clips Nolte offered have already been removed by You Tube which is becoming well known for its unjust censorship policies.
* The administration's figures about the number of jobs "created or saved" by Congress' boondoggle stimulus continue to be shown up as super-inflated. And though the media are generally going along with the gag (i.e. not bothering to inform the public of the truth), some of the more independent and responsible journalists like ABC's Jake Tapper are shining the light on the lying numbers.
* The New York Times tries in this story to present Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn's "Dr. No" image as an irascible Republican curmudgeon. It just doesn't work. The truth comes through that Coburn is a common sense, Constitutionally-minded, hard-working, morally responsible physician and Senator -- a fellow that most Americans would not only trust but who would like to go fishing with.
* Erick Erickson over at Red State says that the administration and most of its lapdog press will keep telling you that Tuesday's Republican gubernatorial victories in Virginia and New Jersey are anything but a rebuke to Team Obama policies. But he then lines up the facts that are squirmingly uncomfortable to the White House and, more importantly, to those Democrat politicians who must soon face their own reelection bids.
* And oh yes...the New York Yankees won the World Series.
Chip Maxwell, the executive director of the Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research, fires both barrels (and hits both targets) with splendid op/ed columns for both the Omaha World-Herald and the Lincoln Journal Star. They are both well worth reading so do check them out.
* "Let Ethics Drive Research Debate"
* "Find Other Stem Cell Research Options"
And it's not in the nuances. It's not in the penumbra. It's right there in plain English (well, as plain as legalese ever is) that the President Obama/House Speaker Nancy Pelosi government-run health care bill will require a monthly abortion premium.
Here is the straight skinny as posted in the House Minority Leader John Boehner's blog, "On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under 'Abortions for which Public Funding is Allowed' the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. The Speaker’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered in the Exchange covers abortions.
What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be charged of all enrollees in the government-run plan. It’s right there on line 16, page 96, section 213, under 'Insurance Rating Rules.' The premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account - and these federal funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.
Section 213 describes the process in which the Health Benefits Commissioner is to assess the monthly premiums that will be used to pay for elective abortions under the government-run plan. The Commissioner must charge at a minimum $1 per enrollee per month.
Speaker Pelosi’s 2,032-page health care monstrosity is an affront to the American people and drastically moves away from current policy. The American people deserve more from their government than being forced to pay for abortion.
House Republicans are offering a common-sense, responsible solution that would reduce health care costs and expand access while protecting the dignity of all human life. The Republican plan, available at HealthCare.GOP.gov, would codify the Hyde Amendment and prohibit all authorized and appropriated federal funds from being used to pay for abortion. And under the Republican plan, any health plan that includes abortion coverage may not receive federal funds."
I know some of you worry that you're going to be considered pests if you keep on writing, calling and e-mailing your Congressmen and Senators about your opposition to these Democrat atrocities. But hey! It's your money! It's your country! It's your government!
Be courteous, of course. But, by all means, keep the pressure on. After all, these guys make a lifestyle out of posturing and pontificating and playing the American citizen for a patsy. So, don't let them get away with it that easy any more. Tell them politely (but with vim and vigor) that you're tired of runarounds, tired of broken promises, tired of excuses, tired of political schemes that exploit taxpayers rather than inform and respect them.
And, above all, let them know the depth of your disgust for abortion disguised as health care reform.
When I interviewed director Roland Emmerich a few months ago about his upcoming disaster flick "2012," the first question I asked was, "Why do you like killing the world?" His response: "It makes for a good story."
Over the past fifteen years, Emmerich has crafted some great tales about global doom, featuring some spectacular scenes of destruction. He had aliens zap the White House in "Independence Day," he let a massive lizard flatten New York City in "Godzilla," and he sent killer tornadoes through downtown Los Angeles in "The Day After Tomorrow."
For "2012," Emmerich set his sites on destroying the some biggest landmarks around the world, from Rome to Rio. But there's one place that Emmerich wanted to demolish but didn't: the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure located in the center of Mecca. It's the focus of prayers and the site of the Hajj, the biggest, most important pilgrimage in Islam.
"Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit," the filmmaker told scifiwire.com. "But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said, 'I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.' And he was right."...
Emmerich has no qualms about wrecking other major landmarks, however. The massive dome of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican rolls on top of a crowd of churchgoers. The huge Christ the Redeemer statue that looms over Rio de Janeiro disintegrates. And, of course, the White House gets crushed when a wave drops the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy on top of it.
(Jonathan Crow, Yahoo Movies, November 3)
Chalk up Glenn Garvin, entertainment writer for the Chicago Tribune, as another fan of V...and another who perceives just how uncomfortable the new ABC series might be making Team Obama.
Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.
The news media swoons in admiration -- one simpering anchorman even shouts at a reporter who asks a tough question: "Why don't you show some respect?!" The public is likewise smitten, except for a few nut cases who circulate batty rumors on the Internet about the leader's origins and intentions. The leader, undismayed, offers assurances that are soothing, if also just a tiny bit condescending: "Embracing change is never easy."
So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait -- did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who's come here to eat us?
Welcome to ABC's "V," the most fascinating and bound to be the most controversial new show of the fall television season. Nominally a rousing sci-fi space opera about alien invaders bent on the conquest (and digestion) of all humanity, it's also a barbed commentary on Obamamania that will infuriate the president's supporters and delight his detractors.
"We're all so quick to jump on the bandwagon," observes one character. "A ride on the bandwagon, it sounds like fun. But before we get on, let us at least make sure it is sturdy."
The bandwagon in this case is conspicuously saucer-shaped. "V" starts with the arrival of a couple of dozen ships from outer space, piloted by creatures who look like humans except a lot prettier. "Don't be frightened," says their luminously beautiful leader Anna (Morena Baccarin, "Serenity"). "We mean no harm."
The aliens -- who become known as V's, for visitors -- quickly enthrall their wide-eyed human hosts.
A handful of dissidents hold out against the rapturous reception given the V's. Some are simply uneasy, such as the youthful priest Father Jack (Joel Gretsch, "The 4400"), who sharply criticizes the Vatican's embrace of the V's as divine creations: "Rattlesnakes are God's creatures too."...
Alveda King points out the horrid irony in this San Antonio case wherein a teenager is accused of burglarizing the home of a neighborhood restaurateur and brutally killing her with an arrow -- all because he wanted $300 to pay an abortionist to kill his girlfriend's baby.
The murderer, openly and without duress, confessed to the crime and to the motive.
But sleazy lawyers are trying to get him off on absurd technicalities.
For instance, the defense attorneys want the court to 1) throw out the murderer's statement about the abortion motive (along with other statements he made to police); 2) throw out evidence obtained from a search of the man's pockets (a key belonging to the victim, two of her credit cards and a tube of her hair gel) because there wasn't cause to search him in the first place; 3) throw out the confession because the detective "glossed over" the man's Miranda rights; 4) throw out other evidence obtained from the murderer because he was "illegally intimidated" by the arrest in which officers knocked on the door to his parents' house with a battering ram and handcuffed him while he still was in bed; 5) throw out other evidence obtained from the murderer because he was questioned "with his hair disheveled and wearing only basketball shorts."
And they call this the justice system?
* "For the first time in more than two years, CNN fell out of the top 30 cable channels last week in prime time (total viewers). Fox News ranked 3rd, behind USA and ESPN, while MSNBC was 26th. It was the 43rd consecutive week Fox News finished in the top 5 cable channels in prime time. In total day, FNC was #5, CNN #27 and MSNBC #31." (Mediaite.com, yesterday morning)
* "Highlighting even further the ratings erosion at CNN in prime time, the “Most Trusted Name in News” finished in fourth place among cable news outlets during election coverage last night. Fox News was #1 by a mile, followed by MSNBC, then CNN sister network HLN and CNN in 4th place. They were fourth in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic." (Mediaite.com, yesterday afternoon)
38 years and counting, Claire and I commemorate our marriage anniversary today.
And as we celebrate we remember:
* Being married in the county courthouse with a few friends standing by.
* Home Bible studies throughout the 70s with dear friends like Jim and Jeannie Lawson, Linda Scheffler, Pat Osborne and others.
* Tough economic times. Living in cheap apartments with cheap furniture...but precious friends, a vibrant faith and each other.
* University then graduate school.
* Trips together to Colorado, California, England, Canada, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Germany. My travels, alas, without her to Belarus, Russia, India, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Poland.
* Our pro-life ministries over the last three decades. Bad times (heartbreak, jail, discouragement, difficulties) and good times (honoring God's call, investing in eternity, lives saved, the honor of serving alongside heroes).
* Loving our house and yard. (Claire only had to wait 33 years for her own place.)
* And so many other things -- those terrific Christmases...years of radio programs...special times of teaching ministry in George, Iowa and now at Faith Bible Church here on the near south side of Omaha...picnics...times with family in Lincoln and Denver (some terribly sad moments there too)...sidewalk counseling in all types of weather...prayer meetings...day trips to Kansas City...rallies...listening to music...reading books...our fabulous Notting Hill Napoleon Literary Society...watching old movies...the Chesterton conferences...going to high school football games...Claire running and me playing softball, racquetball, tennis, and pickup basketball games with the Mexican kids in the neighborhood...watching fireworks over Rosenblatt Stadium...letter-writing...cooking...ever so much entertaining...and always love and gratitude and hope.
I could go on. But we're going to go celebrate now. And remember these things together.
Thank you Lord for our marriage. May it be sweeter and more effective in preparing us for heaven in the years to come.
One of the frequent blessings of being on Facebook is to read and then ponder for awhile the devotionals shared there by Stan Parker, co-founder and co-Director of Mission Nebraska. I asked Stan if I could re-print this one, an illuminating and memorable reflection on Hebrews 4:13 that emerges from Stan's days as a standout football player for the the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. I think you'll like it, quite possibly enough to ask to be his Facebook friend too!
"And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." -- Hebrews 4:13
When I played football at Nebraska, there was a video camera way up at the top of the stadium and that camera capture EACH AND EVERY play we ran the entire practice! Every one! Every day!
The slightest pre-snap twitch that would have been penalized during an actual game was captured on tape! We all knew it!
"The eye in the sky doesn't lie!"...we used to say when someone was not owning up to a mistake made they made! You see we also knew that the next day during team meetings that very same video was going to be played back, and we were going to be held accountable for every misstep and every blown assignment! Needless to say, that one reality profoundly effected the way each and every player approached a practice!
The soberness...
The intentionality...
The preparation...
The determination...
We made every effort to run each and every play right! No plays were "taken off" by any of us!
It also made us quick to own up to it when we did make a mistake! Even if the coach didn't seem to have caught it "live", we would often bring it to light ourselves, owning it and receiving real time correction! The meeting the next day went FAR better when we did! The tape still got run, but my mistake didn't get replayed over and over and no comment was made on it. It was as if it had never happened!
What a perfect picture and a powerful parallel this provided for me today while reflecting on Hebrews 4:13! Every day, every thought, word and deed... seen and CAPTURED by God, our heavenly Coach!
To live conscious of this reality is to live differently!
The article can be read in full (and should be) in the Washington Examiner.
But I'll print here just a few of my favorites.
"The $787 billion stimulus bill was passed in February and was promised as a job saver and economy booster. Here is where some of the money went:"
* $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.
* $30 million for a spring training baseball complex for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies.
* $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.
* $219,000 for Syracuse University to study the sex lives of freshmen women.
* $2.3 million for the U.S. Forest Service to rear large numbers of arthropods, including the Asian longhorned beetle, the nun moth and the woolly adelgid.
* $3.4 million for a 13-foot tunnel for turtles and other wildlife attempting to cross U.S. 27 in Lake Jackson, Fla.
* $6 million for a snow-making facility in Duluth, Minn.
* $300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.
* $1.3 million on government arts jobs in Maine, including $30,000 for basket makers, $20,000 for storytelling and $12,500 for a music festival.
* $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to the deceased.
Guys, these aren't jokes. Well, okay; they are jokes. But they're also all too real. As is the economic crisis in the United States because we've turned our country over to loons.
The specific items above, as the Examiner article points out, come from documented news reports and from the office of Sen. Tom Coburn. Please use them in letters to editors and urge your friends to do likewise.
20-year old Noor Faleh Almaleki will never see her 21st birthday.
The pretty young Iraqi woman is dead after succumbing to massive injuries caused by her father who deliberately ran her down with his Jeep because she had become "too westernized."
Police said her father mowed down both Ms. Almaleki and her boyfriend's mother as they were walking in a parking lot in Peoria, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. It was, by his own admission, a Muslim "honor killing."
Comments Mark Steyn, "If there were a Matthew Shepard murder every few months, Frank Rich et al would be going bananas about the 'climate of hate' in our society, but you can run over your daughter, decapitate your wife, drown three teenage girls and a polygamous spouse, and progressive opinion and the press couldn't give a hoot. Indeed, as The Atlantic notes, it's merely an obsession of us right-wing kooks.
During the IRA's long campaign against Her Majesty's Government, British officials had a cynical phrase about containing Northern Ireland to 'an acceptable level of violence.' I wonder what the silent U.S. media will settle on as the 'acceptable level of violence' against Muslim women. Ten honor killings a year? A couple dozen? A hundred?"
Where's that valiant, principled and independent press that we depended upon for fair, thorough coverage of the news?
They're still traveling in Team Obama's bus.
How else can you explain the media's ignoring this?
A new video of Jeremiah Wright has surfaced, showing Barack Obama's pastor of 20 years praising Marxism and discussing his ties to communists in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the Libyan government. Equally important, Wright is being introduced in the video by Robert W. McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, an organization which has come under scrutiny for its links to the Obama Administration and dedication to the transformation and control of the private media in the U.S. [McChesney is shown at left.]
In an article in the socialist Monthly Review, "Journalism, Democracy, and Class Struggle," McChesney declared, "Our job is to make media reform part of our broader struggle for democracy, social justice, and, dare we say it, socialism."
In the video, which captures Wright's appearance at a September 17, 2009, anniversary celebration of Monthly Review, Wright said that while the "corporate media" provide a "binary lens" of the world, in such terms as "communist versus Christian," Monthly Review offers what it calls "no-nonsense Marxism."
He added: "You dispel all the negative images we have been programmed to conjure up with just the mention of that word socialism or Marxism." He called America "land of the greed and home of the slave."
During the 2008 presidential campaign, as Obama was trying to distance himself from figures such as Wright and Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, Wright gave a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and repeated a discredited Soviet propaganda claim that the U.S. Government had manufactured the AIDS virus to kill black people.
The McChesney introduction of Wright provides more insight into the political network, based largely in Chicago, that launched Obama's political career and still influences him.
A professor at the University of Illinois, where Bill Ayers is also employed, McChesney was an editor of Monthly Review but now serves as a contributor to the publication and a director of the Monthly Review Foundation.
Fox News' Glenn Beck, who has focused critical public attention on McChesney's influence in the "media reform" movement and on the Obama Administration, has noted that McChesney co-authored another piece for Monthly Review, "A New New Deal Under Obama?," in which he said, "In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles."
Ironically, McChesney's Free Press organization has received at least $1 million from the Open Society Institute of billionaire George Soros, a mega-capitalist who seems to have dedicated his life to overturning the system that made him wealthy...
Read the rest of Cliff Kincaid's article over at Accuracy in Media. It's a doozy.
Over the weekend, Pat Osborne sent me a copy of a note he wrote to the Omaha World-Herald in response to the sophomoric yet vicious attack on pro-lifers which they published by staff writer Robert Nelson. (See "Nebraska Newspapers Are In the Tank for ESCR -- Is It Time for You to Cancel Your Subscription?" from last week's Vital Signs Blog.)
The newspaper won't print Pat's note. But that doesn't mean you have to miss it. It's acerbic, no doubt, but witty and spot on about just how unprofessional and distorted the World-Herald has become in covering pro-life issues, especially embryonic stem cell experimentation.
And, judging from what I've heard, the depth of disgust Pat feels is not uncommon.
I was told of this article by a friend and didn't have to pay for a paper to read it.
My, my, my. That article wasn't worth printing on toilet paper.
I hope your subscription numbers continue to decline. Printing that kind of silly ranting just shows how rabid you guys are about attacking pro-life sentiments of any kind. It's probably news to you that there are many in the medical and scientific community who oppose where the Med Center is wanting to go on this issue. But printing something like that would involve someone at the OWH actually doing some objective research.
And who has time for something like that when you can just wind up Mr. Nelson and let him blather on for a few hot air paragraphs of enlightenment?
Oh well, I most often found your opinion columns better than the comics...May your numbers continue to decline and your revenues fall.
What a difference a day makes.
The AP's Liz Sidoti told us yesterday that Republicans were making way too much out of polls that showed substantial strength for their gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia. In fact, Sidoti carefully explained that even if the Republicans could win one (or even both) contests, it really wouldn't matter much. They were too divided, too far behind the pace the Democrats had established nationally with Barack Obama's historic win last year.
But after the alternative press had a field day criticizing the biased coverage of the MSM (yesterday's Vital Signs post is but one small example) and after the Republicans won big last night -- 5% in the New Jersey race, 18% in Virginia -- the tone has definitely changed.
Here's what Ms. Sidoti writes this morning:
Independents who swept Barack Obama to a historic 2008 victory broke big for Republicans on Tuesday as the GOP wrested political control from Democrats in Virginia and New Jersey, a troubling sign for the president and his party heading into an important midterm election year.
Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in the Virginia governor's race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie's ouster of unpopular New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008...
Democrats in swing-voting states and moderate-to-conservative districts may be less willing to back Obama on issues like health care after Virginia and New Jersey showed there are limits to how much he can protect his rank and file from fallout back home.
The president had personally campaigned for Deeds and Corzine, seeking to ensure that independents and base voters alike turned out even if he wasn't on the ballot — and voters still rejected them. Thus, the losses were blots on Obama's political standing to a certain degree and suggested potential problems ahead as he seeks to achieve his policy goals, protect Democratic majorities in Congress and expand his party's grip on governors' seats next fall.
Interviews with voters leaving polling stations in both states were filled with reasons for Democrats to be concerned and for Republicans to be optimistic, particularly about independents — the crown jewel of elections because they often determine outcomes...
It's also difficult to separate Obama from the outcomes after he devoted a significant chunk of time working to persuade voters to elect Deeds in Virginia and re-elect Corzine in New Jersey.
The first selection for your midweek tea break is one of the very best from the One-Hit Wonder Department, The Left Banke's lovely "Walk Away, Renee." It's a terrific song. And check out the little guy belting out that deep bass voice. Man.
The second comes from Three Dog Night. Sure, it's a lip-sync performance but they usually were in the TV performances of that day. The song is "Eli's Coming."
And the third is "Be My Baby" by the incomparable Ronnie and the Ronettes. 60's music doesn't get any better than these stylish girls. Brew up and enjoy.
From Concerned Women for America comes this bit of evidence that the Congressional version of ObamaCare does indeed promote and require payment for abortion.
The abortionist who failed to overturn a ban on partial-birth abortion prominently sported a sign at a press conference in support of Nancy Pelosi’s health care bill that she unveiled today. LeRoy Carhart is currently under investigation by the Nebraska Attorney General for unsafe medical practices.
CWA President Wendy Wright spotted Carhart and responded, “Nancy Pelosi’s bill has gained the support of the nation’s most notorious partial-birth abortionist who is under investigation for alleged unsafe medical practices. Pelosi’s bill can now be rightly called an abortionist’s dream. Under her bill, government money will pay for abortions, even the kind that Carhart commits – late-term abortions against viable babies that put women’s health at risk.”
Carhart faces criminal allegations of allowing non-licensed persons to give injections, start IVs and administer controlled substances. In 2007, his legal challenge to overturn a federal ban against partial-birth abortions failed at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The effects of Nebraska's new ultrasound law (LB 675, the Mother's Right to See Her Unborn Child) are already having life-saving effects. As Michelle Sullivan of the AAA Center for Pregnancy Counseling describes on her Facebook page, "Because of a new law in Nebraska, the abortion clinic is referring patients to the CPC for the free ultrasound that is required by the new law."
"The abortion clinics do have ultrasounds [but] the new law requires that they give the patient the name of a provider that does ultrasounds for free...that would be us!! The abortions clinics won't do it for free."
Michelle closes with this. "Go God! Use whatever it takes to reveal the truth! Lord, change the hearts and minds of the women who come to the Center!"
This, of course, is absolutely terrific news and we should be praying more fervently than ever for those women facing unplanned, unwanted or otherwise problem pregnancies. And we should be making sure we're supporting the pro-life CPCs in our area: the AAA CPC, A Woman's Touch in Bellevue, EPS in Omaha, and Gabriel's Corner in Council Bluffs.
It also means we should make sure to honor Tony Fulton who introduced and fought hard for that legislation when he was a Nebraska State Senator. (Tony is now running for State Treasurer, a position whose importance is certainly emphasized by this post from yesterday's Vital Signs Blog).
We should also honor all those who voted for the ultrasound bill AND those who voted against it or ducked away from the controversy by not voting at all. Here's that breakdown:
Voting for the ultrasound bill: Adams, Ashford, Carlson, Christensen, Coash, Cornett, Dierks, Fischer, Flood, Friend, Fulton, Gay, Giese, Gloor, Hadley, Hansen, Harms, Heidemann, Janssen, Karpisek, Langemeier, Lathrop, Lautenbaugh, Mello, Nelson, Nordquist, Pahls, Pankonin, Pirsch, Price, Rogert, Schilz, Stuthman, Sullivan, Utter, Wallman, White, and Wightman.
Voting against: Campbell, Council, Haar, Howard, McGill, and Nantkes.
Present but not bothering to cast a vote: Avery, Cook, Louden
Absent from the chamber: Dubas, McCoy
Dr. Diane Harper, lead researcher in the development of two human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix, said the controversial drugs will do little to reduce cervical cancer rates and, even though they’re being recommended for girls as young as nine, there have been no efficacy trials in children under the age of 15.
Dr. Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri, made these remarks during an address at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination which took place in Reston, Virginia on Oct. 2-4. Although her talk was intended to promote the vaccine, participants said they came away convinced the vaccine should not be received.
“I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn’t help but question why we need the vaccine at all,” said Joan Robinson, Assistant Editor at the Population Research Institute.
Dr. Harper began her remarks by explaining that 70 percent of all HPV infections resolve themselves without treatment within a year. Within two years, the number climbs to 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent of HPV infections, only half will develop into cervical cancer, which leaves little need for the vaccine.
She went on to surprise the audience by stating that the incidence of cervical cancer in the U.S. is already so low that “even if we get the vaccine and continue PAP screening, we will not lower the rate of cervical cancer in the US.”...
Ms. Robinson said she could not help but wonder, “If this is the case, then why vaccinate at all? But from the murmurs of the doctors in the audience, it was apparent that the same thought was occurring to them.”
However, at this point, Dr. Harper dropped an even bigger bombshell on the audience when she announced that, “There have been no efficacy trials in girls under 15 years.”
Merck, the manufacturer of Gardasil, studied only a small group of girls under 16 who had been vaccinated, but did not follow them long enough to conclude sufficient presence of effective HPV antibodies.
This is not the first time Dr. Harper revealed the fact that Merck never tested Gardasil for safety in young girls. During a 2007 interview with KPC News.com, she said giving the vaccine to girls as young as 11 years-old “is a great big public health experiment.”
At the time, which was at the height of Merck’s controversial drive to have the vaccine mandated in schools, Dr. Harper remained steadfastly opposed to the idea and said she had been trying for months to convince major television and print media about her concerns, “but no one will print it.”
“It is silly to mandate vaccination of 11 to 12 year old girls,” she said at the time. “There also is not enough evidence gathered on side effects to know that safety is not an issue.”
When asked why she was speaking out, she said: “I want to be able to sleep with myself when I go to bed at night.”
(The Bulletin, October 25)
Elam reports that early last month a more promising development had been made in the case of Maryam and Marzieh, two young Christian women who have been in an Iranian prison Iran for their faith since March. They had been charged with propagation of the Christian faith, apostasy, and anti-state activity.
But a new judge dropped the last charge. That's very good news because it means their case will now be transferred from the revolutionary court to the general court. But they are still in great need of your prayers -- as are so many Christians who are being intimidated, persecuted and even brutalized around the world.
As I have several times before here on the blog, I encourage you to pursue prayer and advocacy efforts in behalf of the persecuted Church with help from such news organizations and outreach ministries as Elam, Compass Direct News, Open Doors, Christian Solidarity, and Forum 18, the Hudson Institute, International Christian Concern, and Voice of the Martyrs.
If ever a cliche needed to be retired, it's the one about "speaking truth to power." And if the recent use of this self-congratulatory phase, by top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, doesn't put us out of its misery, nothing will.
Jarrett was being interviewed by CNN's Campbell Brown about the White House's criticism of Fox News. Brown, bless her, was asking tough questions that placed Jarrett on the defensive. In a last gasp effort to defend her position that Fox's conservative opinion show hosts are more worthy of criticism than their left-liberal counterparts on MSNBC, Jarrett stated that the White House was "speaking truth to power."
Can we be far from "newspeak"when the most powerful office in the world holds itself out as speaking truth to power when it criticizes a cable news network?
Either Jarrett is an air-head or the Obama administration is a serious threat to freedom. The answer is, some of both, I think.
(Paul Mirengoff, Power Line, October 30)
I print below an excerpt from the Associated Press/Liz Sidoti story (which made the Yahoo Headline feature) in which the reporter deftly manages to skip over entirely the positive effects the Republicans will make with their showings in today's elections in New York, Virginia and New Jersey. Indeed, the story stubbornly sticks to the line that the G.O.P. is all but done for. No matter what happens today, at least in Ms. Sidoti's world, the momentum remains fully in Democrat control.
For Republicans, an election win of any size Tuesday would be a blessing. But victories in Virginia, New Jersey or elsewhere won't erase enormous obstacles the party faces heading into a 2010 midterm election year when control of Congress and statehouses from coast to coast will be up for grabs.
It's been a tough few years for the GOP. The party lost control of Congress in 2006 and then lost the White House in 2008 with three traditional Republican states — Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia — abandoning the party.
So even if political winds start blowing harder behind them and even if they can capitalize on Democratic missteps, Republicans still will have a long way to go over the next year because of their party's own fundamental problems — divisions over the path forward, the lack of a national leader and a shrinking base in a changing nation.
The GOP would overcome none of those hurdles should Republican Bob McDonnell win the Virginia governor's race, Chris Christie emerge victorious in the New Jersey governor's contest, or conservative Doug Hoffman triumph in a hotly contested special congressional election in upstate New York.
In fact, 2009 seems to have underscored what may be the biggest impediment for Republicans — the war within their base...
Now I'm making no predictions about how the Republicans (or in one case, the Conservative Party) are going to do in today's elections. But I do know they are going to fare way better than they were supposed to following the election of Barack Obama a year ago.
We were told then that conservatism was dead, that the benevolent tyranny of the Democrats would be the new order for the rest of time.
But then came the Apology Tours, the massive boondoggle of the stimulus bill, the collection of czars, the soaring narcissism of Team Obama, and the Democrats' reckless power grab badly disguised as health care reform.
And bingo... it turns out that conservatism is anything but dead after all. The polls show conservative values (and even the term) is on the rise while the ratings for Obama and Congress are tanking.
Therefore, today's political contests are very important bellwether events. Everybody knows that including the DNC who spent a lot of money in those races and Joe Biden and the President himself who made personal investments there. And the liberal press knows that too. So, they're using the ignoble tools of their trade to omit, distort, and cover up what's really happening.
But despite the press spin, despite the big money of the DNC, despite personal visits of Joe Biden and the O himself, the conservatives are looking awfully healthy in those races. Thus, the mainstream media with their overtly liberal bias are heavily downplaying the results -- even before they come in. Ms. Sidoti's slanted report is just one example of many such stories floating around today.
For the media knows that a strong showing by the Republicans (especially in these northeastern areas of the country) would be a most important story indeed, an indication that the spell Barack Obama tried to cast on the American people just hasn't taken.
Oh yes, these races are very important. So watch them closely...and pray.
That bad odor coming from the University of Nebraska isn't from the athletic locker rooms. It isn't even from the shady shenanigans of the NU leadership pushing to promote yet more human embryos be lethally exploited for gruesome experimentation. (Though it sure could be that.)
No, this particular odor comes from the infamous pairing of "waste and fraud" that bureaucrats so love to engage in.
Here's the story from Nebraska Watchdog.
In the last few years Nebraska state funds were used to buy a $628 fountain pen from Borsheims, a $750 dollar picture frame, a $219 golf club, and a $250 Nintendo Wii game. By the way the Wii was never used, the golf club can’t be found, and according to State Auditor Mike Foley the purchases, “have the appearance of being inappropriate.”
Those are just some of the findings in a 233 page audit of the University of Nebraska’s credit card system released today by Foley. Foley said the credit cards have been issued to over 2,000 University employees.
As Nebraska Watchdog first reported on Wednesday the audit has turned up questionable credit card purchases, including first class airline tickets which are strictly prohibited by the University. Foley said today that $283,000 in first class tickets were purchased by University employees between July 1, 2007 and December 31, 2008.
20 of the tickets cost more than $5,000 each, five cost more than $10,000, and one round trip first class ticket to China cost over $15,000.
According to the audit Harold Maurer, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, used his University credit card to purchase three first class tickets. Maurer went to China, Germany, and Hawaii. The China trip cost $11,886.46, the Germany trip cost $4,751.03 and the Hawaii trip cost $2,111.84.
The audit also notes that John Christensen, Chancellor of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, used his NU credit card to buy plane tickets to a conference in Minneapolis for his wife and son. The tickets cost $302.60 each. According to the audit the purchases, “were not properly approved.”
Foley said the credit cards have been given to over 2,000 University employees.
The audit also revealed a technique Foley called “pyramiding” which found employees circumventing the credit card’s dollar limitations. Foley said most of the cards had a dollar limit on any single purchase but the audit discovered that employees got around the limit by dividing large purchases into several smaller purchases. According to the audit the pyramiding transactions totaled over $330,000.
The audit also found that while all credit card purchases are to be approved by two people on many occasions they were only approved by one person, the same individual who made the credit card purchase. Foley said a serious weakness in the University’s accounting controls allowed the card’s primary user to log in to the system, change their user name, and avoid the approval by a second individual...
So far the bureaucrats in charge are stonewalling, passing the buck (no pun intended) and saying, as they always do, in the broad scheme of things, this is no big deal.
While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was calling conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh too "divisive" to own a professional football team, rapper Snoop Dogg was appearing in television ads for ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown."
I guess Goodell and other higher-ups within the league weren't concerned with having a man possessing multiple felony charges against him including murder do commercials for the highly-watched Sunday pre-game show on the nation's leading sports cable network.
(Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters, October 29)
If you'd like more about a writing a principled response to Roger Goodell's hypocrisy, see this Vital Signs post from last week, "NFL Commish Fumbles Away His Character...Again."
No kidding, Andre? That long-haired mullet look of yours that graced so many magazine covers back in the 80s was fake?
...The deception came to a head in the 1990 French Open final, when his toupee fell apart the night before the match, forcing him to play with the wig clamped down with hair clips. "During the warm-up training before play I prayed," he wrote. "Not for victory, but that my hairpiece would not fall off."
Ecuadoran Andres Gomez won the match.
Hillary Clinton when commenting on the low tax rates in Pakistan made this candid statement (I'm sure with no small amount of pride) -- "We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move."
A Facebook friend, Dan Conner, alerted me to this terrific story coming out of College Station, Texas. Check it out in this superb KBTX story.
And then please consider passing along to KBTX your appreciation for their fine work on the story.
Is ABC's new sci-fi series an unwitting metaphor for the Obama administration?
For anyone who has seen the trailers playing on the network, it's kinda' hard to miss the parallels. The visitors seemingly come out of nowhere with unearthly powers and grandiose promises to bring hope, peace and universal health care to the whole world. But don't look too close. Don't question them. Don't resist. Just give them full control over your lives.
This "soft tyranny" leads to mass protests as people decide that freedom itself is worth more than any of the gifts the benevolent masters dole out.
Now I doubt that the originators of the series designed it this way. It was, after all, produced last year and is but a remake of an older series that starred alien lizards taking over the world.
But the show debuting as it does during the administration's full court press for health care reform and after its paranoid attack on Fox News and conservative talk radio makes the similarities of V to O all too eerie.
Watching a teaser on the ABC web site (with a musical background featuring singers repeating "They will not control us. We will be victorious.") certainly implies that the theme of the show will be a principled revolution against the V. And the good guys in V (all too clearly reminiscent of last summer's tea-parties) are the protesters.
For Team Obama which has also promised hope and universal harmony but requires as a trade-off that citizens relinquish to the government more and more of their personal freedoms, the arrival of the V on ABC can't be a good thing. It strikes too close to home and will inevitably provide a whole lot of material for conservative pundits, late night comedians, and witty techno-geeks who come up with clips like this one:
In a Politico story that made Yahoo's top news headlines, Daniel Libit reports on high-level (and very visible) Democrats who are willing to say that the Obama administration's attacks on Fox News have been unfair, counter-productive and rather silly.
Democrat Bob Beckel, for instance has been under contract with Fox News for six years. “I talk to more persuadable voters in a month than anybody on MSNBC and CNN talks to in a year.” No doubt about it. As Libit writes, "Fox is where the viewers are — No. 1 in the prime-time news ratings and drawing more than twice as many viewers on weeknights as either MSNBC or CNN."
But it's not just about the numbers.
Lanny Davis, the former White House counsel for Bill Clinton, who provoked mindless liberals everywhere when he said that Fox News was the fairest of any of the cable networks in its treatment of Hillary Clinton, says that the claims of conservative bias directed at Fox are without foundation. And those claims come from hypocrites.
Asks Davis, “Is there a difference between Fox and MSNBC?” You count the number of guests on Rachel [Maddow] and Keith [Olbermann] who are conservative Republicans. If you get to double digits, I’ll buy you dinner for each one.”
Liberal Susan Estrich is another regular on Fox and she has encouraged others to join her there particularly for Fox News' high standards. “They are the most professional network of any I have dealt with. If you are a Democrat who wants to deliver mindless talking points on Fox, it’s probably best to go to MSBNC and hope you get a chance to recite them. I think Fox encourages critical views of all sides, asks different kinds of questions and wants to have diversity of view.”
Beckel agrees and says Fox viewers are more open to the Democratic side of the story than stereotypes might suggest.
Are you getting any of this, President Obama? Your much-touted war on Fox News has backfired badly. It has made you look intolerantly partisan and imperially egotistical -- even to Democrat insiders.
(A tip to those of you who write letters to editors -- the above paragraphs provide a wealth of material. Please use it.)
