Le Tour: Game On

Now or Never

In its first editorial five decades ago, The National Review urged thinking Americans to stand athwart history yelling “Stop!” Several weeks ago, The Weekly Standard told those of us concerned about the current mad rush toward Socialism, Globalism, and Amoralism, “Don’t Wince. Fight.” Clearly, it's now or never.

True Patriotism

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president." --Theodore Roosevelt

Marxism

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying all the wrong remedies." --Groucho Marx

Never Thought About It? Are You Kidding?

President Obama's Supreme Court nominee has said that she has "never considered whether an unborn child has any rights."

No really. I am not making this up. The person our president wants to serve on the nation's highest court says that she has never really given any consideration to the single most bedeviling civil rights issue of her generation. Oh my! What an admission!

In a conversation with Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), chairman of the Senate Steering Committee, Sonia Sotomayor also called into question the applicability of the Second Amendment. And while that is certainly disturbing news, the fact that this sitting federal judge, a confessing Catholic, has such a rigid, closed, ideological worldview that she has never even thought through the issue of abortion is stunningly horrific.

Sotomayor is either lying or evasive or irresponsible or all three together.

Not surprisingly, DeMint now questions whether the nominee has what he believes is required of a Supreme Court nominee--an "unwavering commitment to the Constitution and equal justice for all Americans." Umm, well, yeah. I guess so. Let's just hope there are enough other Senators who display a modicum of epistemological self-consciousness to stand steadfast in opposition to this nomination.

Bad Choices

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received Planned Parenthood’s highest honor—the 2009 Margaret Sanger Award in Houston on March 27, 2009 at a gala, which took place just a few blocks from the construction site of America’s largest-ever abortion facility. Clinton was lauded as a “champion of women’s health and rights throughout her public service career.”

Planned Parenthood is of course, an organization whose founder Margaret Sanger embraced ideological Eugenics and targeted “the unfit” for “extinction.” Recently, Planned Parenthood has been involved in serial statutory rape cover-ups, fraud, and has petitioned for the construction of abortion clinics under false pretenses.

Its very name, the Margaret Sanger Award, is a tribute to a woman whose whole life’s mission was to “build a race of thoroughbreds” and "eliminate human weeds." Planned Parenthood’s long campaign to promote unregulated abortion on request, celebration of sexual libertinism, Eugenic racism, and revolutionary human callousness is, according to the Family Research Council, "the worst foreign policy message our nation could send."

Agreed. Alas, now the insidious organization has crowned the Secretary of State as their anointed messenger.

A Sad Day

In the Scripture text I preached from this morning--in Matthew 5 and its parallel passage in Luke 6--Jesus exhorts us to love enemies, to bless those who curse, to do good to those who hate, and to pray for those who persecute. In other words, we who were once at enmity with God ourselves are now to love as the Father loves; we are to love others just as He has loved us.

Thus, as you might well suppose, I am deeply grieved that late-term abortionist Dr. George Tiller was murdered this morning in Wichita--and that his family, his church, and his community were all subjected to the horror of such unwarranted violence.

This is a very sad day for us all--for the pro-life movement, for the church, and for the nation.

Are Obama and Sotomayor Out of Step?

For the third time in a month, another public opinion poll has been released demonstrating that a majority of the American public is pro-life. Two weeks ago it was the Gallup poll that got the headlines, as it was the first time in that poll's history that it showed over half of the public as holding a pro-life position. Then last week, there was a Fox News poll, indicating the same thing: more Americans are pro-life than "pro-choice".

The third poll, this one from Rasmussen, should put to rest exactly how most Americans feel about the issue. The survey actually asked a different question than the others and found that 58 percent of Americans say abortion is morally wrong most of the time. Just twenty-five percent disagree and the rest had no opinion.

The poll found women are more strongly pro-life than men with 64 percent of women asserting that most abortions are morally wrong, a view shared by just 51% of men. Meanwhile, another Rasmussen survey question found a majority of Americans, 52 percent, think it is too easy to get an abortion in America. That's up seven percent from two years ago when 45 percent thought it was too easy.

The two important points to take away from this are first, that the pro-life position is indeed a majority position in this country, and second, that the pro-life position has been gaining momentum at precisely the moment President Obama seems to be steering his administration in the opposite direction--witness his nomination of a radical judicial activist and career left-wing pro-abort, Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

This Is How It Ends

"The court of appeals is where policy is made." --Sonia Sotomayor, Radical Judicial Activist and Obama's Supreme Court Nominee

"So, this is how Democracy ends: with thunderous applause." --Senator Padme Amadala, Character in Star Wars III

No, Mr. President

Pro-Life America

A new Gallup Poll, conducted this past week, has found that 51% of Americans now call themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and only 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of US adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995. The results, obtained from Gallup's annual Values and Beliefs survey, represent a significant shift from a year ago, when 50% were pro-choice and 44% pro-life.

QOTM: Quote of the Month

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." Thomas Jefferson

Candid Camera

A hidden video has captured a conversation between a Planned Parenthood abortion counselor in Memphis coaching a 14-year-old to lie to a judge about her 31-year-old boyfriend.

Tennessee Code 37-1-605 requires health professionals to report suspected cases of sexual abuse of minors to law enforcement immediately.

The Planned Parenthood counselor tells the young girl on camera, “Look, if we keep this conversation I’m gonna have to talk to my manager and yeah, [your boyfriend]’s gonna get in trouble,” but promises, “I’m not gonna tell anybody, ok?” She adds, “And please don’t say that I told you this.” When the girl tells the counselor she thinks her boyfriend will get in trouble if her parents find out, the counselor advises her to lie about the man’s age when speaking to a judge in order to obtain a bypass of Tennessee’s parental consent law for abortion: “Don’t mention it. Just say you have a boyfriend 17 years old…whatever.”

The video sting operation was conducted by the nonprofit organization Live Action. It is the fifth installment in Live Action’s “Mona Lisa Project,” a nationwide undercover investigation that documents Planned Parenthood’s repeated noncompliance with state mandatory reporting laws for sexual abuse of minors. Tennessee is the third state to be implicated in the controversy, along with Arizona and Indiana.

Despite the mounting evidence of Planned Parenthood's institutionalized indifference to statutory rape and sexual abuse of children, no criminal charges have been filed.

Planned Parenthood's Annual Report

There is no recession or economic downturn for Planned Parenthood. According to the malevolent abortion conglomerate's Annual Report, it is raking in the money like never before. Indeed, it's big government giveaways increased nearly 7.5 percent last year leading to a 5.3 percent increase in the number of its grisly abortion procedures.

Prenatal care and adoption referrals accounted for only 5 percent of the total services provided to women--while abortions accounted for 95 percent of the services, according to Planned Parenthood's own figures.

And things are likely only to get worse. Look for another spike in the numbers this next year--now that the Obama administration has made this perverse multi-national thanatos industry the chief beneficiary of its health care and domestic policy machinations.

Planned Parenthood truly has become a moral monstrosity of Babylonian proportions!

Official Snub

President Obama has conducted a Health-Care Summit meeting at the White House. But, it appears that ideology, not health, continues to reign supreme in his administration. For evidence one need go no further than the guest list. The world's largest abortion-provider, Planned Parenthood, was offered a prominent role in the proceedings while no pro-life, pro-family advocates were even given the courtesy of a back-row pass. The administration continues to earn its reputation as the most radically pro-death, anti-family government in the Republic's history. And after the Carters, Fords, and Clintons, that is saying a lot.

100 Days of Abortion

While the major media outlets have focused on the Obama regime's initial efforts to restore stability and solvency to the staggering US economy, it has almost ignored the new administration's most concerted, dramatic, and sweeping changes: 100 days of radical, unprecedented, untempered pro-abortion advocacy. As Tom Hoopes reports, the sweeping changes the Obama ideologues have undertaken are utterly astonishing both in scope and sequence, in both brazenness and bravado. May God have mercy on us all.

Sober Ironies

You probably saw the terrible story this week of a private plane that crashed into a Montana cemetery--killing 7 children and 7 adults. What you may not have seen are the even more terrible ironies surrounding the sad circumstances. According to Gingi Edmonds , a freelance pro-life activist, writer, and photographer from Hanford, California, the whole tragedy is fraught with irony:

The Catholic Holy Cross Cemetery, where the crash occurred, is owned by Resurrection Cemetery Association in Butte. It contains a memorial for local residents to pray at the "Tomb of the Unborn." This memorial, located a short distance west of the church, was erected as a dedication to all babies who have died because of abortion.

That alone makes the story more than a little ironic. But according to Edmonds, there is more:

The family who died in the crash near the location of the abortion victim's memorial, is the family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, owner of the largest for-profit abortion chain in the nation. Family Planning Associates was purchased four years ago by Irving Moore "Bud" Feldkamp III, owner of Allcare and Hospitality Dental Associates and CEO of Glen Helen Raceway Park in San Bernardino. The 17 California Family Planning clinics perform more abortions in the state than any other abortion provider--Planned Parenthood included--and they perform abortions through the first five months of pregnancy.

Although Feldkamp is not himself an abortionist, he reaps profits of blood money from the tens of thousands of babies that are killed through abortions performed every year at the clinics he owns. His business in the abortion industry was what enabled him to afford the private plane that was carrying his family to their week-long vacation at the Yellowstone Club, a millionaires-only ski resort.

The plane went down on Sunday, killing two of Feldkamp's daughters, two sons-in-law and five grandchildren along with the pilot and four family friends. The plane, a single-engine turboprop flown by Bud Summerfield of Highland, crashed into the Catholic cemetery and burst into flames, only 500 feet from its landing destination. All aboard were killed.

The cause of the crash is a mystery. The pilot, who was a former military flier who logged over 2,000 miles, gave no indication to air traffic controllers that the aircraft was experiencing difficulty when he asked to divert to an airport in Butte. Witnesses report that the plane suddenly nosedived toward the ground with no apparent signs of a struggle. There was neither a cockpit voice recorder nor a flight data recorder onboard, and no radar clues into the planes final moments because the Butte airport is not equipped with a radar facility. Some speculate that the crash was due to ice on the wings, but this particular plane model has been tested for icy weather and experts have stated that ice being the cause is unlikely.

Edmonds concludes:

In my time working for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, I helped organize and conduct a weekly campaign where youth activists stood outside of Feldkamp's mini-mansion in Redlands holding fetal development signs and raising community awareness regarding Feldkamp's dealings in child murder for profit. Every Thursday afternoon we called upon Bud and his wife Pam to repent, seek God's blessing and separate themselves from the practice of child killing.

We warned him, for his children's sake, to wash his hands of the innocent blood he assisted in spilling because, as Scripture warns, if "you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you". (Ezekiel 35:6)

A news source states that Bud Feldkamp visited the site of the crash with his wife and their two surviving children on Monday. As they stood near the twisted and charred debris talking with investigators, light snow fell on the tarps that covered the remains of their children.

I don't want to turn this tragic event into some creepy spiritual "I told you so" moment, but I think of the time spent outside of Feldkamp's--Pam Feldkamp laughing at the fetal development signs, Bud Feldkamp trying not to make eye contact as he got into his car with a small child in tow--and I think of the haunting words, "Think of your children." I wonder if those words were haunting Feldkamp as well as he stood in the snow among the remains of loved ones, just feet from the "Tomb of the Unborn?"

I only hope and pray that in the face of this tragedy, Feldkamp recognizes his need for repentance and reformation. I pray that God will use this unfortunate catastrophe to soften the hearts of Bud and Pam and that they will draw close to the Lord and wash their hands of the blood of thousands of innocent children, each as precious and irreplaceable as their own.

Edmonds closes with the sober covenantal call of Deuteronomy: "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then." (Deuteronomy 30: 19)

Obama's Poll Plunge

Surprise! Surprise! New National Polling Data from both Rasmussen and Gallup now shows President Obama's popularity has already begun to plummet. Precipitously! In addition, according to the Wall Street Journal, the American electorate is perhaps more polarized than ever this early into a new administration. Indeed, Obama's numbers are even worse than Jimmy Carter's were at the same point in his administration. And only less than a quarter of Americans believe that the federal government truly reflects the will of the people.

All talk of "reaching across the aisle," of "non-partisan cooperation," and of "a new era of change" has become sadly, though predictably, passe.

Back When Liberals Were Actually Liberal

The late, great Richard John Neuhaus once asserted, "The pro-abortion flag is being planted on the wrong side of the liberal-conservative divide." Of course, that was before he was forced by conscience to cross the ideological aisle himself; that was back when he still thought that liberals ought to be, could be, and would be... well, liberal; that was back when it seemed all too logical that caring liberals would surely want to expand the community of care to embrace the helpless unborn; that was back when liberals actually cared about things like justice and mercy rather than simply rights and convenience; that was, I suppose, a long, long time ago now--though I remember it well.

Dems and the Economic Meltdown

So Far, So Bad

President Barack Obama has established quite a portfolio of extreme pro-abortion advocacy--already making his administration the most radical anti-life, anti-family administration in American history:

January 5, 2009 - Obama picks pro-abortion Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as the chairman of the Democratic Party.

January 6, 2009 - Obama chooses Thomas Perrelli, the lawyer who represented Terri Schiavo’s husband Michael in his efforts to kill his disabled wife, as the third highest attorney in the Justice Department.

January 22, 2009 - Releases statement restating support for Roe v. Wade decision that allowed virtually unlimited abortions and has resulted in at least 50 million abortions since 1973.

January 23, 2009 - Forces taxpayers to fund pro-abortion groups that either promote or perform abortions in other nations. Decison to overturn Mexico City Policy sends part of $457 million to pro-abortion organizations.

January 26, 2009 - Obama nominee for Deputy Secretary of State, James B. Steinberg, tells members of the Senate that taxpayers should be forced to fund abortions. Nominee erroneously says limits on abortion funding are unconstitutional.

January 29, 2009 - President Obama nominates extreme pro-abortion advocate David Ogden as Deputy Attorney General.

February 12, 2009 - Obama nominates pro-abortion Elena Kagan to serve as Solicitor General.

February 24, 2009 - Obama nominates Dawn Johnsen, a former NARAL attorney, as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of the Legal Counsel. Johnsen is a professor at the Indiana University School of Law, but she is also the former Legal Director for NARAL serving from 1988-1993. She has argued that any restriction that makes abortion less accessible is tantamount to “involuntary servitude” because it “requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state’s asserted interest in the life of the unborn.”

Getting Planned Parenthood Off the Dole

Is it finally time to end Planned Parenthood's massive government bailout scheme? The Family Research Council thinks so.

With a $1 billion budget and a $114 million operating surplus, Tom McClusky, vice president for government affairs at the family advocacy organization, says Planned Parenthood just doesn't need to be in the public welfare line. “Planned Parenthood has proven that they don't need federal or state handouts,” he said. “During these economic times, when states are rethinking their investments, subsidizing abortion is probably not the kind of thing that they want to be known for.”

Thus, FRC is launching a new National Campaign to retrieve the $337 million in public funding Planned Parenthood uses to run its grisly abortion business at 880 mills nationwide.

Red Envelope Day

During the month of March, thousands of pro-lifers from around the nation will be participating in Red Envelope Day. Why don't you join us? The idea is very simple. We will all just send Red Envelopes posted to the White House to arrive on or before the last day of the month.

We will all write a very simple message on the back of each of the envelopes:

"This envelope represents one child who died because of abortion It is empty because the life that was taken is now unable to be a part of our world"

That's it. Some folks are gathering groups together to do mass mailings. Some have had a rubber stamp made to mass-produce the message. One enterprising group has even had postcards, envelopes, and postage stamps which can be purchased.

Regardless of how you do it, just do it. And make sure your Red Envelopes arrive at the White House on or before March 31, 2009.

The address is:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Send a letter. Make a difference. Save a life. Be a part of Red Envelope Day.

Obama and Black Genocide

Abortion is the number one killer of African-Americans in the US. Indeed, though African-Americans only make up about 13% of the U.S. population, over 37% of all babies killed by abortion are black. In the last 36 years over 17 million African-American babies have died by abortion alone.

Because of these horrific genocidal realities--and because the new president of the US is himself an African-American--the Campaign Life Coalition, a political arm of Canada's pro-life movement, has called on Barack Obama to halt the slaughter. Obama travels to Canada today, so CLC President Jim Hughes has seized the opportunity to send the president a vital message: "Save the lives of 4000 African-American babies who die by abortion every day in the United States."

Pro-Lifers for Obama?

According to a new poll from Professor John Green of the University of Akron, pro-lifers made up a bigger percentage of Obama's vote than union members, white Catholics, Jews, gays, Latinos, or 18-21 year olds.

Pro-Life Legislation in the States

The news is not all dreary. A bevy of states are presently taking up pro-life legislation that could ultimately make an enormous difference--not just in Arizona, Arkansas and Kansas, but across the nation as we endeavor to defend human life.

A 12-Year Old Speaks Out

New Pro-Life Political Party

Libertas, a new European Union political party dedicated to “individual freedom, democracy, and a culture embracing life” has now been formally recognized in all 27 EU member nations despite what founders have called, “the best efforts by Brussels” to stymie the movement.

The new Pro-Life party will contest the European elections in 2009 on a Pan-European basis, fielding candidates across the European Union on a common pro-European platform of democracy, accountability and transparency.

Lost

"A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about. Ours is a rich legacy. Rich but lost." --Woodrow Wilson

Place in History

“Whatever else it is, the pro-life movement of the last thirty-plus years is one of the most massive and sustained expressions of citizen participation in the history of the United States.” --Richard Neuhaus