No, The Videos Were Not Manipulated

Yesterday The Blaze posted an article about the testimony of Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards before the House Oversight Committee hearing. Ms. Richards is quoted as saying, “I think everyone has agreed they were heavily edited.” The problem with that statement is that it is not true. The videos have been shown to be accurate by both supporters and foes of Planned Parenthood.

The article reports:

Alliance Defending Freedom hired tech firm Coalfire Systems to perform a forensic analysis of the undercover videos, in order to disprove claims they were “highly edited.” Planned Parenthood doctors discuss harvesting and selling aborted fetuses to researchers in the footage.

 “Coalfire’s analysis of the recorded media files contained on the flash drive indicates that the video recordings are authentic and show no evidence of manipulation or editing,” the report released Tuesday states.

The article further states:

An earlier analysis commissioned by Planned Parenthood also found the videos were not meaningfully edited, in spite of the brief cuts and skips. Planned Parenthood hired Fusion GPS — a Democratic opposition research firm — to perform the analysis.

“This analysis did not reveal widespread evidence of substantive video manipulation, but we did identify cuts, skips, missing tape, and changes in camera angle,” the report concludes. And the analysts “found no evidence that CMP inserted dialogue not spoken by Planned Parenthood staff.”

The videos are accurate. The question now is, “Do Americans want to continue sending taxpayer dollars to an organization that is selling aborted baby body parts?”

What kind of a nation are we going to be?

 

The Danger Of An Overly Powerful Government

The Founding Fathers attempted to create a government that included checks and balances to prevent one branch of government from becoming too powerful. Unfortunately they did not prepare for a powerful bureaucracy that would do anything it could to protect itself.

In October I posted an article about problems within the Secret Service. Various scandals have been or are being investigated by Congress. The Washington Post posted a story today about the actions taken by some employees of the Secret Service in retaliation for the investigation.

The article reports:

The Secret Service’s assistant director urged that unflattering information the agency had in its files about a congressman critical of the service should be made public, according to a government watchdog report released Wednesday.

“Some information that he might find embarrassing needs to get out,” Assistant Director Edward Lowery wrote in an e-mail to a fellow director on March 31, commenting on an internal file that was being widely circulated inside the service. “Just to be fair.”

Two days later, a news Web site reported that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, had applied to be a Secret Service agent in 2003 and been rejected.

That information was part of Chaffetz’s personnel file stored in a restricted Secret Service database and required by law to be kept private.

The House Oversight Committee is there to investigate misconduct by government agencies. It is unfortunate that the Secret Service chose to respond to an investigation into their misbehavior in this manner.

The thuggery that one associates with Chicago politics has been given free rein in Washington since the Obama Administration came to town. We have a chance to change the culture in Washington in 2016. Our freedom is at stake.

This Is Not A Culture Western Civilization Wants To Import

As the refugees stream into western countries, we need to think about the implications of this influx of Muslims. Most of the refugees are Muslim, for whatever reason America and Europe do not seem to be reaching out to the Christians. Accepting refugees is the humanitarian thing to do, but there are some things we need to consider. One of these things is the willingness (or unwillingness) of the refugees to adapt to western culture. There is no problem with their keeping their religion if they choose, but the refugees need to know what is acceptable behavior and what is not.

Yesterday the U.K. Daily Mail posted an article that shows what happens when Muslims bring their culture into the west and continue with those practices that are not acceptable in western culture.

The article reports:

A Muslim man has confessed to strangling his 19-year-old daughter to death with his bare hands after learning from police she had been caught shoplifting condoms to have sex with her forbidden boyfriend.

Asadullah Khan and his wife Shazia then dressed dead daughter Lareeb, a dental technician, in her clothes.

They then wheeled her in a wheelchair from their high-rise apartment to the family car, drove to a secluded embankment in their home city of Darmstadt in Germany, and tipped the corpse down it.

Under Sharia Law this conduct is acceptable. In western countries this is not acceptable behavior. This is one example of why Sharia Law should never be accepted in America.

For President Obama, Reality Is Optional

Bret Stephens posted an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about President Obama’s recent speech to the United Nations. Any resemblance between the speech and reality was purely coincidental.

The article reports:

Barack Obama told the U.N.’s General Assembly on Monday he’s concerned that “dangerous currents risk pulling us back into a darker, more disordered world.” It’s nice of the president to notice, just don’t expect him to do much about it.

Recall that it wasn’t long ago that Mr. Obama took a sunnier view of world affairs. The tide of war was receding. Al Qaeda was on a path todefeat. ISIS was “a jayvee team” in “Lakers uniforms.” Iraq was an Obama administration success story. Bashar Assad’s days werenumbered. The Arab Spring was a rejoinder to, rather than an opportunity for, Islamist violence. The intervention in Libya wasvindication for the “lead from behind” approach to intervention. The reset with Russia was a success, a position he maintained as late as September 2013. In Latin America, the “trend lines are good.”

“Overall,” as he told Tom Friedman in August 2014—shortly after ISIS had seized control of Mosul and as Vladimir Putin was muscling his way into eastern Ukraine—“I think there’s still cause for optimism.”

I like optimism, but I am also a big fan of reality. President Obama’s foreign policy has been an unmitigated disaster. His latest ‘accomplishment’–the Iran Treaty–will bring a nuclear arms race to the Middle East and eventually war. The Treaty will fill the coffers of terrorists and lead them to new heights of terrorism. Great.

The article further states:

In late-era South Africa and the Soviet Union, where men like F.W. de Klerk and Mikhail Gorbachev had a sense of shame, the Obama theory had a chance to work. In Iran in 2009, or in Syria today, it doesn’t. 

(The Obama theory is was expressed in his 2009 contention in Prague that “moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon.”)

Then again, that distinction doesn’t much matter to this president, since he seems to think that seizing the moral high ground is victory enough. Under Mr. Obama, the U.S. is on “the right side of history” when it comes to the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine, or the killing fields in Syria, or the importance of keeping Afghan girls in school.

Having declared our good intentions, why muck it up with the raw and compromising exercise of power? In Mr. Obama’s view, it isn’t the man in the arena who counts. It’s the speaker on the stage.

Finally, Mr. Obama believes history is going his way. “What? Me worry?” says the immortal Alfred E. Neuman, and that seems to be the president’s attitude toward Mr. Putin’s interventions in Syria (“doomed to fail”) and Ukraine (“not so smart”), to say nothing of his sang-froid when it comes to the rest of his foreign-policy debacles.

I do believe that moral leadership is important, but I question how we can be moral leaders when we are killing over one million babies a year, selling their aborted baby parts for profit, and funding the organization doing most of the work. I believe that we have lost our morals and need to find them before we suffer the consequences of our deeds. Just because we choose to call ourselves moral does not mean that we are.

While We Were Watching The Pope Visit America…

On September 23rd, The Daily Caller posted an article about Abdul Shalabi, a Guantanamo detainee and former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden. Shalabi has been released from Guantanamo and sent to Saudi Arabia.

The article reports:

On December 15, 2001, Pakistani authorities captured Shalabi along with 31 other al-Qaida fighters, who were fleeing from Tora Bora, Osama bin Laden’s mountain complex.

Near the end of December, authorities transferred Shalabi over to U.S. custody, who then was sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where he stayed for 13 years.

At the time, the assessment determined Shalabi was too dangerous to release, but the board changed its mind in June, clearing him for release.

One wonders what caused the board to change its mind. There are now 114 prisoners left at Guantanamo. Fifty-two of those have been cleared for release.

The article further reports:

There are 52 detainees left who have been cleared for release. The rest require further detention. President Barack Obama still wants to close the prison before his term is up, and so the Pentagon has investigated domestic facilities to hold detainees in the long-term if the administration manages to shutter Gitmo.

The war against radical jihad is unlike any other war ever fought. The war is not only against America–it is a war against western civilization. It is a war that will not end until the jihadists realize that they have no hope of winning and are not gaining power. Until then there is no reason to close Guantanamo or to let any of the remaining prisoners leave. The actions of President Obama in regard to Guantanamo will cost American lives–either in the near future or the distant future. In closing Guantanamo and letting its prisoners free, President Obama is neglecting his duty to protect the American people. The President will be in office for another year. Hopefully the damage he has done to the country can be repaired after he leaves office. However, that depends on the votes of the American public.

We Fired The Manager, What Happens Next?

The Daily Caller posted an article today about the resignation of John Boehner and the speculation as to who will replace him.

There is a statement in the article that I really like:

In sports, if a team isn’t doing well, you fire the manager. You do this because you have to do something, and it sends a message. The fact that you can rarely blame all a team’s struggles on the manager hardly matters (which is why the Nats should fire their manager and the general manager — for giving him that sticking bullpen).

Sometimes change, in and of itself, can shake things up. Sometimes winning is as much about chemistry as it is about substance. If you like a guy personally, you’ll give him more leeway. If a guy wronged you in the past, you’ll be skeptical of him forever. Who cares if he’s no more conservative than the last guy?

As a New York Jets football fan, I can relate to that statement. However, it may be really accurate in the battle to replace John Boehner.

The odds-on favorite to be the new Speaker of the House is Kevin McCarthy, who represents a district in California. Representative McCarthy is well-spoken, handles the media well, and seems pleasant enough in dealing with the media, but he is not a conservative. The Conservative Review gives him a Liberty Score of 45 percent (hardly a passing grade). The Liberty Score® grades members of Congress on the top 50 votes over the past six years.

The Daily Signal posted an article yesterday about the possibility of Representative McCarthy as Speaker.

The article states:

If the torch is passed on to McCarthy, he will face challenges with lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum. The Wall Street Journal said, that if elected, McCarthy “would inherit a series of messy legislative problems that could require him to risk alienating colleagues before he even acclimates to the new job.”

A member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, spoke on “Fox News Sunday” about a possible McCarthy speakership.

Mulvaney said McCarthy is a “ground-up” type of leader. But that “the important question is, will things change? Will they change for the better or will we simply replace Mr. Boehner with somebody else who will do the same thing.”

Obviously, time will tell if Representative McCarthy will be any better for conservative causes than John Boehner. However, from what I have seen, Representative McCarthy will be more accessible to conservative news outlets and has a style that works better in communicating with people of all political stripes. I want to see conservative causes advanced, but I am hopeful that in the process conservatives will be able to soften our image with the American public. I firmly believe that conservative ideas are better for America, I also firmly believe that the liberal media has so totally demonized conservatives that our ideas are not being heard. I had an interesting experience at a recent high school reunion when someone who evidently had a very negative opinion of conservatives talked to me for a while and was amazed to find out that I was actually a rational person. Representative McCarthy is a very personable politician, and I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt before reaching a conclusion about his conservatism. Admittedly, his rating from the Conservative Review is horrible, but I think we have to go back to the “Buckley Rule.” The Buckley Rule (invented by William F. Buckley) is to support the most viable conservative candidate.

 

Lies Scientists Tell In Order To Get Grant Money

Yesterday John Hinderaker at Power Line posted an article about the lies being told by scientists pushing the Global Warming agenda. I am not a scientific type, so I don’t understand exactly how this works, but even in my nonscientific state, I can understand that inventing numbers in reporting temperatures will change the results. The source of the article at Power Line is an article at wattsupwiththat.com, probably the best climate site on the internet.

The article reports:

This article at Watts Up With That? adds incrementally to that picture. John Goetz analyzes the U.S. temperature data that finds its way into “official” tabulations. This is particularly important because, while the U.S. represents only 6.6% of the total land area of Earth, we account for close to half of the data relied on by the Global Historical Climatology Network. This is a big topic, and you should study the Goetz article in its entirety if you have time. I am still digesting it.

But a few highlights are obvious. First, Goetz finds that approximately 92% (or even more, depending on how you calculate it) of US surface temperature data consists of estimated or altered values. Very little raw data finds its way into the warmists’ climate models–which, of course, is the way they want it. Second, the adjustments that are made to the U.S. data consistently skew the numbers as we have described many times before–they try to make the present look warmer, compared with the past.

It’s all about the money.

The article at Power Line reports:

Why do the alarmists, lavishly funded by the world’s governments, persistently alter the data before they feed it into their computer programs? Because the raw data won’t get them where they are trying to go, to keep the money flowing. This is what you see if you just plot the temperatures that were recorded on thermometers here in the U.S. No warming:

uscrn-trend-plot-from-ncdc-data

It’s bad enough that politicians routinely lie to the public, but it really bothers me when scientists do it.

The Political Left’s War On Guns

Yesterday Hot Air posted an article about the closing of the last gun shop in San Francisco. It wasn’t that the gun shop was not making a profit–the regulations finally forced the gun shop to close down.

The article reports:

The new city laws were so far over the top that it’s difficult to imagine them surviving a court challenge, but the owners apparently don’t feel like converting their entire operation into little more than a legal defense fund to keep fighting the liberal legislature. They were going to force them to record videos of every customer in the store and keep those videos available permanently. The personal information of every customer would have to be turned over to the police department each and every week even if there wasn’t a hint of an allegation that any crime had taken place. In short, the rules were designed to force the shop to harass their own customers mercilessly to the point where no reasonable person would want to shop there anyway.

The Obama Administration has been waging a war on guns and gun owners for a few years now. In June 2014, I posted an article about Operation Choke Point, an outgrowth of the President’s Financial Fraud Task Force, established by President Obama by Executive Order in 2009.

I quoted a Daily Caller article that reported:

Operated under a cloud of secrecy by the Department of Justice and in coordination with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Operation Choke Point forces banks to keep a closer eye on companies in industries that are deemed “high risk”, including gun and ammunition dealers, coin dealers, payday lenders, and debt consolidation service providers.

As a result of this government interference, a gun shop in Massachusetts was forced to close its doors when it was denied a line of credit from his bank because of the fact that he sold guns.

Americans are guaranteed the right to keep and bear arms in the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment states:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

We need public officials that respect the Constitution that they took an Oath of Office to uphold.

The Actions Of A Younger Sister Remind Us That There Is Hope

On Saturday, Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts unveiled a statue of Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy killed in the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. Both of Martin’s parents graduated from the University, and Martin wanted to go there also. What made the unveiling an truly special event were the actions of Martin’s younger sister, Jane, who as the photographer was taking pictures of the statue of her brother, gave her brother bunny ears. The gesture was simply an example of what Jane and Martin would be doing if he had not been killed in the attack. Jane was also injured in the attack, losing a leg.

The Consequences Of Not Paying Attention

Those of you who read this blog who are not political junkies actually have lives and responsibilities. I understand that. I also understand how easy it is to get disillusioned with politics and political figures (If I had a nickel for every time I yelled, “Throw all of the bums out,” I would right up there with Donald Trump financially). However, there comes a time when you have to pay attention, take action, and work to make your voice heard. If you live in North Carolina, now is that time. I can’t speak for other states, but I can tell you what is going on here.

This article is based on a number of articles that have recently appeared in The Daily Haymaker, a conservative newspaper that does a very good job covering the hijinks of North Carolina politicians. The article is also based on my personal observations at the North Carolina Republican Executive Committee Meeting in Greensboro. I am not a delegate, so I had the opportunity to sit in the back of the room and observe. Boy, did I get an eyeful.

I recently posted an article about the law passed regarding the date of the Presidential Primary election in North Carolina. What was needed was a straight-forward, clean bill to change the date of the Primary Election to March 15th. What was passed was a money and power grab by establishment Republicans to cut off funds to conservative candidates and do away with those pesky conservatives in the legislature that want to hold elected officials accountable.

On Friday, The Daily Haymaker reported on some financial shenanigans that took place before the vote on the amended Primary Election Bill. Essentially, money is being moved out of the state Republican Party coffers (where it would be under the control on the newly-elected conservative Chairman and Vice-Chairman). Eight members of the legislature received checks for $15,000 (this is not an election year). Oddly enough, seven of those people were present and voted for the amendment added to the Primary Election Bill.

The article reports:

THIS is not an election year.  Why the big payouts?  Could it have something to do with the surprise outcome of the NCGOP convention in June?  (After all, we did break the story about establishment insiders plotting to move “caucus funds” out of the state party bank account.    Laundering the money through the accounts of loyal lieutenants — who won’t snitch — would seem like a great way to do that.)

At the Executive Committee Meeting yesterday, the Craven County Delegates brought forth a Resolution that David Lewis, the person who put the last-minute amendment into the Primary Election Bill, be removed from his position as Republican National Committeeman for the cause of Party Noncompliance (in other words, he broke the Party rules).  It was very obvious that those running the meeting did not want this Resolution introduced and did not want it voted on. There were three calls to make sure there was a quorum within about ten minutes to delay the vote. David Lewis got up and explained what a wonderful idea it was to create shadow political parties (wonderful for whom?), and generally the meeting was a three-ring circus for about thirty minutes. After a very lively discussion, the establishment prevailed (at least temporarily) and declared that the Resolution was out of order. It may (or may not) have been out of order, but it was clear that the group of politicians running the meeting did not want to be held accountable for their actions.

Because most of us have lives and don’t pay a lot of attention to what is going on in our local and state governments, professional politicians have not been held accountable for their actions. They are elected because they say the right things, but are not held accountable when they do the exact opposite of what they say. Because we are not holding our elected officials accountable, they are seizing more power and our voices are not being heard. In the coming week we have a chance to make a difference (at least in North Carolina).

The solution to the current mess is for Governor McCrory to veto the current Primary Election Bill, send it back to the legislature, and have the legislature send him a clean bill. There is time for that if the Governor vetoes the bill on Monday or Tuesday. If you want to have a voice in your state government, please call Governor McCrory’s office (919-814-2000) on Monday and ask him to veto House Bill 373.

Unfortunately Sometimes The Bad Guys Win

Yesterday I posted an article about the shadow Republican Party created in the state of North Carolina. Today The Daily Haymaker has the update. The bill to move the North Carolina Primary Elections to March 15th passed. That is the good news. It consolidates local and state office primary elections and will save the state money. The bad news is that there was a last-minute amendment to the bill that essentially sets up a shadow Republican fund raising party in the state.

The Daily Haymaker article explains one of the reasons this is a problem:

Right now, the rules bar state parties and caucus groups from overt involvement in primaries.  Some politicos may see the changes as a good thing (protecting incumbents.) But this legislation allows for the money raised by these committees to be used anyway the leaders want in primary races.  Cross your party leaders, and you may find yourself with a primary challenger loaded with cash provided by one of these new “affiliated committees.”   

(“Troublemakers” like, oh, Mike Speciale, John Blust, Larry Pittman, Chris Millis and Justin Burr should pay especially close attention to THAT part.)

It’s going to be A LOT harder for some “Mr. Smith Goes To Raleigh”-style amateur to compete with an incumbent now that this legislation has passed.  (On the Democrat side AND Republican side.)

Transparency. This lifts donation limits for individuals and groups.  It MAY allow for the skirting of the rules about donations from lobbyists during session.  It will now be a lot easier for these “affiliated committees” to get involved in primaries and hide from donors what exactly the money will be used for.  The reporting requirements are a lot more lax than current standards.  It will be much easier to fire off checks to these ambiguously-named Independent Expenditure groups to run attack ads and promotional efforts for select incumbents.

This move takes power away from the grass roots (which happened to seize power at the State Republican Convention in June) and allows the establishment to use Republican money to attack non-establishment Republicans.

The Craven County Republicans have responded to this move.

The Craven County Republican Party posted the following on its website yesterday:

The Craven County GOP Executive Committee unanimously adopted the following resolution Thursday night:

A Resolution to Remove David Lewis from National Committee Chairmanship Immediately for Failure to Comply with NCGOP Plan of Organization

Whereas David Lewis introduced language into H373 in the “11th hour,” establishing shadow parties in direct competition with the Republican and Democratic Parties, in direct and overt retaliation to the newly-elected GOP leadership; and

Whereas the “affiliated party committees” created under § 163-278.8B are permitted to use the identical names of the parties represented by their leaders but are established to operate with their own bylaws and bank accounts, not subject to the same campaign finance restrictions of the state parties, thus bypassing accountability to the state parties’ own authority and respective Plans of Organization; and

Whereas the NCGOP Plan of Organization in 7.a.1 (correction: VII.A.7.a.1) allows for any member of a committee organized under the plan to be removed for “failure to comply with the State Party Plan of Organization,” and the establishment of a competing “affiliate party committee” using the same trademarks as the State Party is obvious noncompliance;

Resolved, that Craven County GOP encourages all delegates to the NCGOP Executive Committee to move, second, or vote in support of any motion made to remove David Lewis from his position as Republican National Committeeman for the cause of Party Noncompliance.

Unfortunately, this is going to get ugly. The establishment Republicans are working hard to make sure Jeb Bush is the Presidential nominee. Unfortunately, they are not necessary being transparent, fair, or honest about it. The establishment Republicans have also become as addicted to big government and big spending as the Democrats. Unless we want to continue to take money from our children and our grandchildren, it is time to remove the establishment Republicans and the Democrats from power. That is the only way our states and our nation will survive economically.

House Speaker John Boehner Is Resigning

NBC News reported today that Speaker of the House John Boehner has announced that he will resign at the end of October. The announcement comes at a time when the battle between the conservative Republicans and the establishment Republicans is heating up in Washington and in some states.

Many Republican voters are disillusioned because they have voted Republican for the past two or three election cycles, and nothing has changed–we are still overspending, ObamaCare has not improved health care, in fact it has cost more and done less, and the treaty with Iran is going forward. So why did we bother to vote? A change in House leadership was needed last year, but did not happen–Boehner held on to his position.

The article reports:

An aide to Boehner said that the Ohio Republican had planned to serve only through the end of last year, but that the stunning primary loss of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor changed that calculation.

The defeat of Eric Cantor was an indication that the grass roots are not happy with the direction of the party. The establishment Republicans are no different than the Democrats in most policy areas, and the voters have figured this out. The Tea Party evolved out of that feeling, and despite reports to the contrary, has not gone away.

So where do we go from here? We can probably expect a government shutdown some time in the near future over the funding of Planned Parenthood. I don’t know how any American who has seen the undercover videos about the selling of aborted baby body parts can support the funding of Planned Parenthood, but evidently some do. The Republicans offered to give the money to community health centers that serve women, but the Democrats wouldn’t budge (possibly because of the large amount of money Planned Parenthood puts in their campaign coffers). I honestly do not know where the American public stands on Planned Parenthood, but if they support what is going on, we are in danger of losing our humanity.

Designed To Tug At Your Heart Strings

Somehow most of the American media missed the fact that the young girl who approached the Pope about her fears that her parents would be deported was part of a staged event.

The U.K. Daily Mail posted the story yesterday. Follow the link to see all of the pictures.

The story relates:

Security had stopped Sophie before she could approach the pope on her first attempt during a parade at the Ellipse outside the White House.

On her carefully orchestrated attempt, her father lifted her over the barricade, and she was able to hand him the letter which included a touching drawing of Francis holding hands with children of differing ethnicity. Over the picture it read: ‘My friends and I love each other no matter our skin color.’

The schoolgirl said she already has a second letter which she plans to give to President Barack Obama someday.

In an interview with NBC before the trip, Sophie said she wanted Pope Francis to ask Obama about legalizing all immigrants in the United States

Gateway Pundit reported yesterday:

…Her father Raul Cruz , who like Sophie’s mother, came to the U.S. from Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca about 10 years ago, said they were ‘so happy, so excited.’ Sophie and her sister were born in the United States and are therefore American citizens.

The Cruz family had traveled to see the Pope’s parade in Washington as part of a trip organized by Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional, based in Los Angeles, for six children and 19 adults, hoping to deliver their message on immigration.

I do feel sympathy for this family. However, their problem began with an illegal act–they came into America illegally and had children here. This is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue. The child was very sweet, but the moment was designed to manipulate the American public. I object.

The Price Of Liberty Is Eternal Vigilance

Our Founding Fathers understood that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Many of us have forgotten that. We live in a busy, complicated world, and it is hard to stay tuned to the nuances of the political world around us and how those nuances impact our lives. In recent years there has been a power struggle between the political class and ordinary citizens attempting to exercise their voice in America‘s government. We are a Representative Republic–not a Democracy, and unfortunately we have reached a point where we have a political class that does not always respond to the needs of the people they are supposed to represent. In fact, in many cases, the political class desires only to hold on to their power to the detriment of the people they are supposed to represent. We are seeing that situation unfold today in the North Carolina legislature.

On July 26, I posted an article about the date of the North Carolina Presidential Primary. If the Primary Election took place in February, North Carolina would lose most of its delegates. If the Primary Election took place before March 15th, the delegates would be awarded proportionally, giving more weight to the delegates of the liberal states that hold later primary elections. Having the Primary Election before March 15th allowed the more liberal establishment Republicans to control the outcome–the desired outcome of the establishment being the nomination of Jeb Bush. The North Carolina legislature has written a bill to change the date to March 15th, which would solve the problem. Unfortunately, the establishment Republicans have decided to add a poison pill to the bill. If the bill is passed with the “Affiliated Party Organization” Amendment, it will strip the existing state Republican Party of its power. Why would they want to do that? Because at the North Carolina GOP Convention this summer, two political outsiders were chosen to head the party.

The Daily Haymaker posted the details of the story yesterday.

The article explains:

Since that happened (the election of political outsiders to lead the party) at the NCGOP’s June convention, party establishment insiders have been scheming about how to wrest control of the funds from these *filthy tea partiers.*

There have been attempts to go around the two new elected party chieftains by inserting highly loyal (to the establishment) senior staffers inside the party HQ.  Several attempts at that have failed, and it appears another one is on the way to doing so.  

House insiders are hot under the collar about these last minute changes.  One quipped to me that the bill should be renamed “The Shumaker-Stewart-Leis-Dollar Retirement Guarantee Fund.”

Basically, these changes allow for Jones Street “honorables” to create FOUR new party organizations THEY FULLY CONTROL and thereby weaken / neuter their existing party apparatus.  It’s establishment weasels thumbing their noses at the worker bees outside the beltline.  

It is time for the American people to take back their government. This begins at the local and state level. The “Affiliated Party Organization” Amendment is an effort by the political class to prevent the average citizen from having a voice in the government. The Amendment was introduced by State Rep. David Lewis (R-Harnett), chairman of the House Rules Committee. The Primary Election needs to be moved to March 15th, but not in a bill that includes this amendment. The establishment Republicans in North Carolina should be ashamed of themselves. The people of North Carolina need to stand up and take back their state. They began with the election of Hasan Harnett and Michele Nix to lead the party. Now we need to fight to make sure what we have done stays in place.

Changing A Position In The Hope Of Changing The Subject And Gaining Political Points

I understand that politics is a strategy and is played to win, but I wish we could reach a place where the good of the country was more important than personal political gain. Unfortunately, we are not there. What would energy independence mean to America? It would probably result in a dramatic shift in our foreign policy. We would no longer have to cater to the whims of oil producing countries that fund terrorism and do not allow their citizens to live in freedom. We would not longer be borrowing money from other countries to give to countries that hate us. At least we could do it with our own money.

What would it take for America to be energy independent? I would suggest building a few new oil refineries. Since 2008 we have built three refineries. The last refinery built before 2008 was built in 1998. (This is according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.) We would also have to find ways to better tap into our energy resources and transport the petroleum products we produce. On February 12, 2014, I posted an article about the people who are making money because the Keystone Pipeline is not being built. A number of those people are in Congress voting on the Pipeline. Somehow I don’t think that is in the interest of the American people–I think they are voting on their own financial interests.

Meanwhile Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton has come out in opposition to the building of the Keystone Pipeline.

Fox News has the story, and contrasts her current position with her past position:

In 2010, then-Secretary Clinton indicated potential support for the project as she told a San Francisco audience, “We’re either going to be dependent on dirty oil from the [Persian] Gulf or dirty oil from Canada.”

She was right about that, now she has changed her mind.

It is interesting that the unions support the Pipeline because it will mean jobs. The extreme environmentalists oppose it.

Yesterday Politico reported the following:

Two major unions have decided to delay endorsements in the presidential race — a move labor insiders attribute in part to the uncertainty Vice President Joe Biden’s potential run has inserted into the Democratic primary.

The decisions are a setback for Hillary Clinton, who has been courting the labor giants in the hopes of an early lock down of two powerhouse unions that can organize millions of members and resources on the ground. And they come against the backdrop of a Clinton campaign show of force — in terms of establishment donors, delegates and endorsements — as Biden weighs his options. Adding the support of two of the most muscular unions now would have sent a powerful message there is little room in the race for the vice president.

The two unions are the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). It will be interesting to see what happens next.

We Will All Miss Yogi Berra

Yogi Berra was a major part of an era when baseball was a wonderful sport and most of its players were positive role models. My husband talks about the days when Whitey Ford used to play basketball with the neighborhood children at the local elementary school. Those were the days.

Everyone who remembers those days is saddened by the news that Yogi Berra has died at the age of 90.

Newsmax has posted fifty-three Yogi Berra quotes. Here are a few of them:

  • “I never said most of the things I said.”
  • “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
  • Mickey Mantle was a very good golfer, but we weren’t allowed to play golf during the season; only at spring training.”
  • “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”
  • “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.”
  • “I can see how he (Sandy Koufax) won 25 games. What I don’t understand is how he lost five.”
  • “In baseball, you don’t know nothing.”
  • “I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?”
  • “I think Little League is wonderful. It keeps the kids out of the house.”
  • “I wish everybody had the drive he (Joe DiMaggio) had. He never did anything wrong on the field. I’d never seen him dive for a ball, everything was a chest-high catch, and he never walked off the field.”
  • “It’s deja vu all over again.”
  • “I usually take a two-hour nap from 1 to 4.”
  • “Never answer an anonymous letter.”
  • “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
  • “You can observe a lot by watching.”
  • “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
  • “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”
  • “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.”
  • “It gets late early out here.”

Other articles about Yogi Berra note that he won 10 World Series as a player and three more as a coach. Today’s New York Post quoted the players that knew him and their comments.

Here are two of the quotes from The New York Post:

Derek Jeter

“To those who didn’t know Yogi personally, he was one of the greatest baseball players and Yankees of all time. To those lucky ones who did, he was an even better person. To me he was a dear friend and mentor. He will always be remembered for his success on the field, but I believe his finest quality was how he treated everyone with sincerity and kindness. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Hal Steinbrenner, Yankees general partner

“Yogi Berra’s legacy transcends baseball. Though slight in stature, he was a giant in the most significant of ways through his service to his country, compassion for others and genuine enthusiasm for the game he loved. He has always been a role model and hero that America could look up to.

“While his baseball wit and wisdom brought out the best in generations of Yankees, his imprint in society stretches far beyond the walls of Yankee Stadium. He simply had a way of reaching and relating to people that was unmatched. That’s what made him such a national treasure.

“On behalf of my family and the entire Yankees organization, we extend our deepest condolences to Yogi’s family, friends and loved ones.”

Yogi Berra’s quotes and observations on life will be missed.

 

Why Local Elections Matter

It is a given that parents care about the education of their children. Currently, North Carolina has an Academic Standards Review Commission (ASRC) which is looking at the Common Core standards to see if they are appropriate for North Carolina. The ASRC has heard testimony from people who support Common Core and from people who oppose it. I have attended a number of the ASRC meetings, and have listened to both sides of the story. I have learned that even the teachers who like Common Core talk about the difficulties in implementing it. I have also learned that two of the people involved in the creation of Common Core have refused to sign off on the program because it did not do what it was supposedly intended to do. I have also learned that there is some information gathering included in Common Core that makes the NSA look like amateurs. Common Core is a copyrighted program, making it difficult to alter, that includes millions of dollars in unfunded liabilities because of the software licensing and computers needed to meet the testing requirements of the program. These are just a few of the issues. On September 21, 2013, (according to The Washington Post), Bill Gates stated, “It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.” Just for the record, The Daily Caller reported in March 2014 that the children of Bill Gates attend a private school that does not use Common Core standards. Common Core for thee, but not for me.

So where am I going with this? I am looking at the way local school boards are not looking out for the students in their districts. On September 19, 2015, The New Bern Sun Journal posted a story about the Craven County Board of Education. The state has recently released the test scores for area schools for last year. Common Core has been in North Carolina since the 2012-2-13 school year, so these scores reflect the success (or failure) of Common Core.

The article mentioned that across North Carolina, 72.2 percent of traditional public schools received grades of C or better. The article also notes that in 2014-2015, the period covered by the grades, there is a 15-point scale used in the grading process. That means that a C is from a 55 to a 69. Meanwhile, the students are on a different grade scale–a scale which would consider those numbers as failing grades. What we have here is a different standard for the school than for the students. How convenient. Note that this shows that more than one fourth of the schools scored below a 55. Wow.

There is a very viable option to Common Core–it is called the North Carolina Education Plan, and is based on a successful program previously used in Greensboro. This is the website.

If you are a parent, there are a number of things you can do to protect your child’s education. You can begin attending Board of Education Meetings and speaking out when those in charge try to tell you that a failing grade is not a failing grade. You can also seek out people to run for the local Board of Education who will look out for your child’s education and not simply go along with what the state bureaucracy tells them. You have a voice in your child’s education. You have the option of speaking out or remaining silent and paying the consequences.

Ignoring The Facts To Slant The News

On Sunday, NBC News reported that Dr. Ben Carson, who is running for President, does not believe that a Muslim should be President. The news is reporting this as if it were a horrible example of prejudice. It isn’t–it’s a comment from someone who understands Islam.

The article reports:

Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson said he would not support a Muslim as President of the United States.

Responding to a question on “Meet the Press,” the retired neurosurgeon said, “I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that.”

He also said that Islam, as a religion, is incompatible with the Constitution.

One of the basic tenets of Islam is the support of Sharia Law. This is coupled with a belief that any legal system not based on Sharia Law is invalid and does not have to be followed. Couple this with the fact that another part of Islam is taqiyya, Taqiyya is based on Quran 3:28 which states that lying can and should be used to confuse and split the enemy.  The result of this is that often when Islamic leaders speak, they have one message for infidels and one for the Muslim audience. Therefore, it would not be unrealistic to expect a Muslim candidate for President to lie to the American people about his intentions and then move to implement Sharia Law as soon as he was sworn in. A true Muslim would have no problem lying when taking the Oath of Office. If you don’t believe Sharia Law could come here, be aware that there are already Sharia advisory boards in the United States. It was also reported in a Center For Security Policy poll that 51% of American Muslims believe that American Muslims should have the choice of being under American or Sharia Law.

I agree with Dr. Carson’s statement that a Muslim should not be President of America. It is not a politically correct statement, but it is a true statement.

More Information That Changes The Story

We have all heard the story of Ahmed Mohamed, the Irving Texas high school student who was arrested for taking a clock to school. It was noted that the clock looked like a suitcase bomb, but that was just an unfortunate coincidence. Many people who read the story were horrified that the student was handcuffed and arrested. Well, not so fast.

The Daily Caller posted an article about the incident yesterday.

These are a few random facts that were included in the story. I am not sure I have seen them posted elsewhere:

Let’s start with the clock. It doesn’t remotely resemble one. No, it resembles a briefcase bomb. Photos show a vintage Radio Shack clock, dissembled and put back into a case, with a wire sticking out.  Once it began beeping inside a back-pack, that’s when the trouble started. When police questioned young Ahmed, they said he was “passive aggressive,” stubbornly repeating it was a clock and stonewalling other questions. But here’s the thing, even if the Pope or Dalai Lama brought that device into a school, and then played games with teachers and police, they’d get arrested too.

In today’s world, is it an everyday occurrence for a school child’s backpack to start beeping? Why did it start beeping? Is it possible that it was programmed to start beeping?

Let’s look at Ahmed’s family:

His dad, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed has engaged in publicity stunts before, like defending the Koran in Florida Pastor Terry Jones’ mock trial in 2010. In a 2011 television debate with Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch entitled, “Does Islam Respect Human Rights?” Mohamed identifies himself as President of Al-Sufi Islamic Center in Dallas and former presidential candidate of Sudan. It’s the country where the Muslim Janjaweed militia carried out genocide against non-Muslim black Africans in Darfur.

The article at the Daily Caller mentions that Ahmed’s handlers include the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood group founded in the 1990’s to advance Islam (and Sharia Law in America)–they serve as the legal arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.

So why target Irving, Texas? Well, in March, Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne pushed a Texas legislature bill, “American Laws for American Courts.” She also opposed Sharia mediation at a local mosque.

The article concludes:

So, enter the fresh faced, nerdy kid with the NASA shirt, who tinkers with go-carts and just wants to be an engineer someday. Hollywood couldn’t have cast him better. Just three weeks into high school, he secretly carries in a device that any TSA agent at airport security would think is a bomb. Then provokes police to get arrested, leaving the cuffs on just long enough for his sister to snap a photo.

My fellow Americans, we’ve been trolled. And if we don’t get wise to it, the next Ahmed may very well blow up his school. That’s the inevitable result of silencing teachers and disarming police. Time to face truth, or forever live with the consequences.

We can be politically correct or we can survive as a nation. It’s time to make a choice.

Scott Walker Has Left The Presidential Race

Like the gentleman he is, Scott Walker has quietly left the Republican party race for the Presidential nomination.

He sent an email to his supporters that included the following statement (as posted on Power Line):

Sadly, the debate taking place in the Republican party today is not focused on [Ronald Reagan’s] optimistic view of America. Instead, it has drifted into personal attacks.

In the end, I believe that voters want to be for something and not against someone. Instead of talking about how bad things are, we want to hear about how we can make them better for everyone. …

Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top of the field. With that in mind, I will suspend my campaign immediately.

I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative to the current frontrunner. This is fundamentally important to the future of the party and – ultimately – to the future of our country.

Hopefully we will hear more from him in the future. I would have liked to have seen him as the candidate.

When Money Is More Important Than National Security

On September 6, I posted an article about the money the Iranian lobby gave to Congressmen to support the Iranian nuclear deal. This is an article showing the monetary reasons some Republicans allowed the deal to go through.

The Iranian nuclear deal is a treaty. Were it treated as a treaty, it would be defeated. Therefore, the Obama Administration needed to come up with a scheme to prevent it from being defeated. First of all, they declared it an ‘agreement’–not a treaty. Then they agreed to a deal under which it would take two-thirds of the Senate to reject it–not two-thirds of the Senate to approve it. If the Senate could not get a two-thirds rejection vote (when was the last time two-thirds of the Senate agreed on anything?), the ‘agreement’ would become law.

I wondered why the Republicans were stupid enough to agree to that deal, but I think Andrew McCarthy has the answer. On Friday Andrew McCarthy posted an article in the National Review which might explain the actions of the Republicans.

The article reports:

Based in Chicago, Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company, with revenues expected to surge past $96 billion this year. It is a major GOP donor. It gives mountains of money to Democrats, too, but the lion’s share of its political contributions go to Republicans.

For the 2014 campaign cycle, according to OpenSecrets.org, the company gave about 60 percent of its whopping $3,250,000 in donations to the GOP. Major recipients included such establishment pillars as the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee ($38,000 each), and the National Republican Senatorial Committee ($33,000). Significant contributions were also made to McConnell ($13,000), Boehner ($25,000), Senator Lindsey Graham ($39,000), and many others. And that’s apart from the nearly $17 million the company spent in 2014 on lobbyists, 80 percent of whom have transitioned to the other end of the trough after careers in government.

It just so happens that Boeing stands to reap huge money from Obama’s lifting of the sanctions.

This is an aspect of politics that most Americans hate. Congress sold its soul to the highest bidder.

The Iran deal is a real threat to America–it funds terrorists and terrorism, creates a nuclear arms race in the Middle East–an area of the world that has never been known for political stability, and pretty much assures a war between Iran and Israel. Any Senator that voted for this treaty or voted to prevent a vote should be ashamed. The purpose of government is to protect the nation. Our Senate has betrayed us.

The Current American Welfare System

Yesterday The Daily Signal posted an article about the current state of American welfare spending. It seems that those leaders who believe that we should become more like Europe and Scandinavia in our welfare spending practices might want to take another look.

The article reports:

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual poverty report. Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. has a small social welfare system and far more poverty compared with other affluent nations. But noted liberal scholars Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater, and Timothy Smeeding challenge such simplistic ideas in their book “Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader?”

Garfinkel and his colleagues examine social welfare spending and poverty in rich nations. They define social welfare as having five components: health care spending, education spending, cash retirement benefits, other government cash transfers such as unemployment insurance and the earned-income tax credit (EITC), and non-cash aid such as food stamps and public housing.

The authors find that in the U.S., social welfare spending differs from that in other affluent countries because it draws heavily on both public and private resources. By contrast, in Europe, government controls most of the resources and benefits. For example, in the U.S., government health care spending is targeted to elderly and low-income persons; the American middle and working classes rely primarily on employer-provided health insurance. The U.S. government health care system is, therefore, more redistributive than the systems of most other developed nations.

Note to Bernie Sanders–we are already redistributing wealth.

The article goes on to explain that ‘poor’ families in America usually have air-conditioning, a car, and cable or satellite television. Poverty in America looks very different than poverty in many other parts of the world.

The article concludes:

It is, of course, a good thing that left-wing claims of widespread deprivation in the U.S. are inaccurate. But government welfare policy should be about more than shoveling out a trillion dollars per year in “free” benefits. When President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty, he sought to decrease welfare dependence and increase self-sufficiency: the ability of family to support itself above poverty without the need for government handouts. By that score, the War on Poverty has been a $24-trillion flop. While self-sufficiency improved dramatically in the decades before the War on Poverty started, for the last 45 years, it has been at a standstill.

A decent welfare system would return to Johnson’s original goal of reducing poverty by increasing self-sufficiency. It would require able-bodied recipients to work or prepare for work if they are to receive benefits. It would reward, not penalize, marriage. In other words, it would be the exact opposite of the welfare behemoth we currently have.

We have lost the War on Poverty. We are spending billions of dollars to create generational dependency rather than to create economic independence. It is time to refocus and encourage working instead of collecting money from the government. This process was begun under President Clinton (with the assistance of Newt Gingrich), but halted under President Obama. It’s time to bring a work requirement back into the welfare program. Please  follow the link and read the TopRightNews article about what is happening in Maine to bring welfare programs back under control.

The New York Times Finally Gets Around To This Story

On August 19th, I posted a story about one consequence of American policy in Afghanistan. The American policy is to ignore the practice of pedophelia that is common among Afghani men. The New York Times is finally telling the story in an article posted today.

The article details some of the aspects of the death of Lance Corporal Gregory Buckley Jr.:

The father of Lance Corporal Buckley believes the policy of looking away from sexual abuse was a factor in his son’s death, and he has filed a lawsuit to press the Marine Corps for more information about it.

Lance Corporal Buckley and two other Marines were killed in 2012 by one of a large entourage of boys living at their base with an Afghan police commander named Sarwar Jan.

Mr. Jan had long had a bad reputation; in 2010, two Marine officers managed to persuade the Afghan authorities to arrest him following a litany of abuses, including corruption, support for the Taliban and child abduction. But just two years later, the police commander was back with a different unit, working at Lance Corporal Buckley’s post, Forward Operating Base Delhi, in Helmand Province.

Lance Corporal Buckley had noticed that a large entourage of “tea boys” — domestic servants who are sometimes pressed into sexual slavery — had arrived with Mr. Jan and moved into the same barracks, one floor below the Marines. He told his father about it during his final call home.

The article reports Lance Corporal Buckley’s final call home:

“At night we can hear them screaming, but we’re not allowed to do anything about it,” the Marine’s father, Gregory Buckley Sr., recalled his son telling him before he was shot to death at the base in 2012. He urged his son to tell his superiors. “My son said that his officers told him to look the other way because it’s their culture.”

…When asked about American military policy, the spokesman for the American command in Afghanistan, Col. Brian Tribus, wrote in an email: “Generally, allegations of child sexual abuse by Afghan military or police personnel would be a matter of domestic Afghan criminal law.” He added that “there would be no express requirement that U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan report it.” An exception, he said, is when rape is being used as a weapon of war.

We are supporting people in Afghanistan who are as evil as the Taliban. I think it is time to either uphold basic morality and do what we can to change the culture in regard to child sexual abuse or get out. I really don’t see how anyone with a conscience can look the other way when this behavior is going on.

Strange Priorities

Yesterday Paul Mirengoff posted an article at Power Line about the upcoming visit to America by the Pope. President Obama will be welcoming the Pope and has made some interesting choices as to who his guests for the occasion will be. These guests include transgender activists, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, and a nun who criticizes church policies on abortion and euthanasia. I would consider the current Pope someone who leans to the liberal side of things, but this is definitely not a tactful move on the part of President Obama.

On Friday, The Washington Post commented:

What struck us as we read about this small controversy is the contrast between the administration’s apparent decision to risk a bit of rudeness in the case of the pope and its overwhelming deference to foreign dictators when similar issues arise. When Secretary of State John F. Kerry traveled to Havana to reopen the U.S. Embassy recently, he painstakingly excluded from the guest list any democrat, dissident or member of civil society who might offend the Castro brothers.

And when Chinese President Xi Jinping comes to the White House next week, shortly after the pope leaves town, it’s a safe bet that he won’t have to risk being photographed with anyone of whom he disapproves. Chen Guangcheng, the courageous blind lawyer, for example, lives nearby in exile, but he probably won’t be at the state dinner. Neither will Falun Gong activists, democracy advocates or anyone else who might, well, give offense.

That is truly sad. You would think that basic manners would prevent this sort of behavior. We really need to think about the character of the people we elect to the Presidency. I truly think this is a character issue. A religious leader certain deserves at least as much respect as a ruthless dictator.

During The Silly Season Don’t Even Trust The Fact Checkers

The Tampa Tribune posted an article today about one area of fallout from last week’s Republican debate. One of the parts of the debate featured Carly Fiorina talking about an undercover video of Planned Parenthood activity involving essentially dissecting a live aborted baby for its parts. The media was not in a hurry to report Ms. Fiorina’s comments and even went so far as to attempt to discredit them.

The article reports:

You know the video series, now 10 episodes presenting an increasingly dark view of Planned Parenthood’s cash-for-parts business. You know, also, if you’ve been following it at all, that traditional media outlets have spent months avoiding almost any coverage of or comment about them.

Oh, except for that frenzied moment a couple of weeks back when they thought they’d caught the producers sloppily editing even the full-footage videos from which the gritty, shorter versions were gleaned.

Never mind that it was an investigation paid for by Planned Parenthood, and that the investigators — Fusion GPS — are a left-wing outfit with a history of hostility for social conservatives (a fact omitted from any of the mainstream coverage), and that the Center for Medical Progress — producers of the series — swiftly posted the dropped footage (the content of which turned out the be even more problematic for America’s biggest abortion provider).

To the extent there was any reporting on the Fusion GPS investigation by Big Media, it was essentially stenographer service for Planned Parenthood, and that was enough for pro-abortion pundits to declare the whole business debunked. Enough of that. Back to extracting Hillary Clinton from her self-imposed fix.

But it wasn’t debunked, of course. And episode 10, released this week, presents Planned Parenthood officials, once more thinking they’re talking to fellow travelers in the baby parts trade, in full mercantile mode, sounding more like wholesale butchers than essential providers of women’s medical needs. Which, come to think of it, sums up the situation precisely.

The Planned Parenthood videos are edited, but they are accurate. How Americans react to what is going on will tell us a lot about how civilized we are as opposed to how civilized we think we are. I find it ironic that many politicians think nothing about demonizing corporations for their profits (actually corporations are in business to make profits, pay their stockholders, and engage in commerce), but will not demonize Planned Parenthood for making a profit off of selling aborted baby parts while taking money from taxpayers, lobbying Congress and being paid off by Planned Parenthood PAC’s.

I think we may have our outrage misplaced.