Cross-posted from Hot Flash Report.

Fewer than 2200/year or 0.2% of the 1.3 million abortions performed yearly are past 24 weeks.  But, the anti-abortion propagandists have successfully maligned procedures at this stage of pregnancy by calling them "Partial Birth Abortions" (not a medical term, but a political one).  Even pro-choice Democrats don't understand the reality of late abortion.

I call abortions past 24 weeks Mercy Abortions...and I'll tell you why.

For 14 years, I worked at Midtown Hospital in Atlanta, a woman's hospital specializing in late abortion.  The hospital opened in 1977 because at that time, Georgia law mandated that an abortion past 12 weeks had to be performed in a hospital.  Abortion had just been made legal in 1973 and it became the first procedure to be widely performed on an outpatient basis.  

More below the fold.

Cross-Posted from HotFlashReport.com.

Yesterday, despite having 2 Democratic candidates who are pro-choice, NARAL Pro-Choice America decided to endorse Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton.

This action flies in the face of sanity in that the pro-choice movement is seen as stabbing its friends in the back...a friend named Hillary Clinton.

Their action created a firestorm last night on the NARAL Blog and many others have come forward to disagree vehemently with NARAL's ill-chosen action.

Abortion providers have alot to thank the Clintons for, as the Clinton administration did everything in their power to protect abortion rights and use their Justice Department under Janet Reno to protect the lives of providers.

Cross posted from Hot Flash Report

Early on January 29, 1998 a bomb went off at New Woman All Women abortion clinic in Birmingham Alabama.  The security guard, off duty police officer Robert "Sandy" Sanders, was blown to pieces and the clinic nurse, Emily Lyons, was gravely injured.  The bomb was detonated from about a block away by Eric Rudolph who is currently serving 2 life sentences in jail for this bombing and has confessed to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Park bombing and the bombings of an abortion clinic and gay nightclub in Atlanta.  

I went to Birmingham 2 days after the bombing to support the owner, my friend Diane Derzis.  I took these chilling pictures.  Homegrown terrorism had come home to roost.

Now, that a pro-choice Democrat is poised to become the next President, I and others in the pro-choice movement fear that the violent anti-abortion attacks of the 90's will be rekindled.

NOTE:  Dr. Hern asked me to cross-post this for him from HotFlashReport.com.  I'll stick around for the discussion.

When Is an Egg Not an Egg?
By Warren M. Hern, M.D.
Director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic.
Reprinted with author's permission as first published in The Colorado Statesman, July 27, 2007.

An egg is a person. No, an egg is a chicken.  A fertilized human egg is a person.  An acorn is a tree. A seed is an apple.  A set of plans is a house.  A blastocyst is a "pre-born baby."  An adult human being is a "pre-dead corpse."  Up is down.  Black is white.  War is peace.   Facts are not important.  Belief is what matters.  And people who know the truth will tell you what to believe.

(Plenty more below the fold.)

Cross-posted at HotFlashReport.

I couldn't help but be amazed at the Oprah Winfrey press conference this morning about the child abuse alleged at her school in South Africa.  Video is HERE.

Oprah was poised.  She was dignified.  She was direct.  She didn't sweep anything under the table.  According to the MSNBC correspondent I listened to, she ran a clinic on how a CEO should react to a potentially disastrous scandal.

Unlike...err, well...the Catholic Church.  The same Catholic Church who has covered up child abuse by priests for decades.  The same Catholic Church who put abusive priests back in situations whereby they would have contact with children.

In a move worthy of Jerry Falwell who blamed 9/11 on "the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians", crazed anti-abortion pastor Matt Trewhella of Missionaries to the Preborn sent the following E-Mail out today to his flock:

Subject: The Righteous Judgment of God
Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:00:18 +0000

Dear Friends,

Last week I groaned when I read how Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law in California which foisted homosexuality upon the children of that state through the state school system. The bill was SB777 and it clearly redefines (perverts) what sexuality is, as well as promotes the legitmacy of homosexuality upon children starting from kindergarten on up. He signed the bill on Saturday, October 13th.

Seven days later on October 20th, wildfires broke out across California in  several places.

More of this crap below the fold.

Convicted anti-abortion terrorists Don Benny Anderson, and brothers Matthew Moore and Wayne Moore, were supposed to be released from jail and into a halfway house yesterday, September 11, 2007.  

Don Benny Anderson was convicted in 1982 of kidnapping the owner of an abortion clinic and his wife in Illinois.  The doctor was forced at gunpoint to make an audio recording urging then President Reagan to oppose abortion, even though Reagan already did.  After 8 days in fearful captivity, the couple were released unharmed, but have remained relatively low profile since then.  Anderson was scheduled to be released yesterday from Federal Prison into a halfway house near the clinic after spending 24 of his 30 year sentence in jail.  The infamous Army of God claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.

While the media is obsessed with foreign terrorists and the Petreaus report and the fear of Iraq, Iran, AlQuida, Osama Bin Laden, and other boogey-men, these three bonafide convicted terrorists will be walking the streets.  But wait, these dudes are "White Christians", so never mind.  The chilling details of their crimes are below the fold.

Cross-Posted at Hot Flash Report

OK. Uncle. We give up. Make our day. Bring 'em on.

This country's Republican leaders think that morality is an important issue. Some would claim that it was THE issue in the last elections. Knock yourself out.

But, there's a catch.

If you're a politician, influential media expert or "talking head" or "pundit", or if you're a religious leader, we think you should declare your morality before trying to legislate the morality of this country.

I've fallen back on my religious upbringing and broken it down into 8 major issues. Anybody in the above groups that wants to run on or vote or write about or preach about these issues needs to dig deep into his or her soul and come clean. If you want to be a moral arbiter, then you should declare your values.

Cross-posted from Hot Flash Report.

In a desperate attempt to couch their pro-choice stands on abortion, Democratic candidates all over the country have adopted the Clintonesque mantra that they want abortion to be:

"Safe, Legal and Rare"

This was vigorously discussed several weeks ago in a DailyKos Diary by Beket.

The problem is that this catchphrase worked for the charming wordsmith Bill Clinton in the 90's, but it marginalizes the issue for politicians 15 years later in 2007.

It's time to revamp this phrase to reflect the realities of 2007 to:

"Safe, Legal, Rarely Used and Universally Available"

"Universally Available" abortions were also extensively discussed in a DailyKos Diary by Readrock several weeks ago.

OK.  So you're going to YearlyKos.  Chicago.  Chicago.  My kind of town.

And you're a baseball fan.

Boy, do I have a deal for you.

I've got 6 tickets to the Cubbies v. the Phillies on Wednesday evening 8/1/07 at 7:05 pm.  3 of them are in Section 228 (behind homeplate along the 1st base line) and 3 are in Section 211 (behind 3rd base).  One ticket in Section 228 is for me...and the other 5 are up for grabs...for FREE (Value $34 each...more from Scalpers).  OK OK if you want to buy me a beer or two at the game, I won't turn that down.

How to WIN tickets detailed below the fold.

From today's Raleigh News and Observer, another disgraced Republican politician is charged with paying for sex:

Coy Privette, a retired Baptist pastor, conservative lawmaker and outspoken advocate for Christian groups, was charged Thursday with paying a 32-year-old Salisbury prostitute for sex acts.

The 74-year-old Cabarrus County commissioner was arrested at his home in Kannapolis early Thursday.

More hypocrisy below the fold.

Don't miss the first AtlantaKos event this Saturday, 6:30 PM, at Manuel's Tavern near Midtown. We have over 50 people signed up to attend.  The beer will be flowing.

Special guests are:

1.  James Marlow, GA-10 Congressional candidate,

2.  Ron Sparks, potential AL-Senate candidate, and

3.  Atlanta's very own local hero Mike Malloy, current Nova M network and former Air America talk show host.

4.  Ann Coulter blow up doll.

Much more...

To bring home the point:
40 Million Votes Up For Grabs - Vol. 1

40 Million Votes

To reiterate.  They are women who've had abortions.

Who and where are the women who've had abortions?  I'm one.  Look around you.  There is definitely a woman within earshot of you right now that's had an abortion.  But, you say, there's no "slutty" looking women around me now.  I'm at work.  Or, I'm in church.  Or, I'm at the gym.  We're there though.  You can't avoid us.

And to you politicians and candidates paying attention out there.  Women who've had abortions are on your staff.  They are relatives.  They are friends, relatives, co-workers, volunteers, Republicans, Democrats, etc.  Women who've had abortions are everywhere.

More.

Yup.  40 million votes.  They're laying on the table.  Who wants them?

And who are these 40 million votes?

Women who've had abortions, that's who.

A diarist several days ago made the point that these numbers are significant.

I made the point in the comments that these numbers could mean victory for the right candidate in the upcoming Presidential election.

And these 40 million women already voted pro-choice.  They voted with their feet by walking into a clinic.

More below the flip.

With the most recent uproar over AnnCoulterSpeech, I thought it would be productive to emphasize what this type of speech is doing to tarnish the Republican (R) brand.

Junglered1 diaried an excellent list of Coulter's quotes at:  Ann Coulter is worse than you think.

Branding is vital to establishing a service or product in the cluttered world of marketing and advertising.  Corporate America spends millions of dollars to create, market and protect their individual brands.  

Branding should therefore uplift a service or product in order to make customers want to associate themselves with that service or purchase that product.  There's a whole sub-specialty of companies who specialize in disaster management of goofs that could impact a brand's good name.

I'm just beside myself.  As an avid Braves fan and Season Ticket holder since 1991 (the "Worst to First" season), I don't know if I'll be able to take Bill O'Leilly "cheering" on the Braves.

The article on the Braves site says:

ATLANTA -- After a year of negotiations, it appears Liberty Media Corp. has agreed to terms on a deal to purchase the Braves from Time Warner Inc.

By Monday night, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution had both reported that they received confirmation of the deal.

More below the fold.

Monday, January 22, 2007 marks the 34th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the United States.

Just hot off the presses the full text of Bush's proclamation follows:

America was founded on the principle that we are all endowed by our Creator with the right to life and that every individual has dignity and worth. National Sanctity of Human Life Day helps foster a culture of life and reinforces our commitment to building a compassionate society that respects the value of every human being.

Does this "commitment to building a compassionate society" include helping to get already born individuals off of poverty by giving them a decent wage?  Does the "Decider" respect the value of every human being INCLUDING our soldiers in Iraq, or is he decidin' to send more "valuable" American human beings over there to be sitting ducks?

I think not.

In a race chronicled on CNN's Anderson Cooper show last week as "David vs. Goliath", Republican Congressman Tom Price (GA-06) is being challenged in a grassroots campaign by upstart Steve Sinton.  Price has outspent and outraised Sinton 20 to 1, but the buzz in this affluent North Atlanta district is all about Steve Sinton.  The district starts in the upscale Sandy Springs neighborhood and also includes Roswell, Alpharetta and Kennesaw.

Tom Price was elected 2 years ago with 100% of the vote because he was unopposed.  The Dems didn't even field a candidate.  Now, thanks to Howard Dean's 50-state strategery, Steve Sinton is emerging as a viable candidate.  The Republican brand has been tarnished by scandal after scandal in the past few months:  Jack Abramoff, Tom Foley, Scooter Libby, Ted Haggard, Tom Delay, Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham...the list goes on and on...and that can only help underdogs like Steve.

More on the flip: