The story:

BIRMINGHAM, June 30 /Christian Newswire/ — A Planned Parenthood counselor in Birmingham was caught on hidden camera telling an alleged 14-year-old statutory rape victim that the clinic “does sometimes bend the rules a little bit” rather than report sexual abuse to state authorities. This is the seventh Planned Parenthood clinic implicated in a multi-state child abuse scandal involving the deliberate and unlawful suppression of evidence of statutory rape.

Lila Rose, 20-year-old UCLA student and president of the non-profit Live Action, went undercover at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Birmingham and told a counselor that she was 14-years-old, pregnant by her 31-year-old “boyfriend.” Rose said she needed a secret abortion so her parents would not find out about her sexual relationship with the older man.

After telling the counselor that her “boyfriend” is 31, Rose asks, “Is it a problem about my boyfriend?” The counselor, identified as “Tanisha” in the video, responds, “As long as you consented to having sex with him, there’s nothing we can truly do about that.” Rose then says that her boyfriend “said he could get in big trouble,” and Tanisha acknowledges that “he could, especially if your parents find out that he’s 31.” She then tells Rose that the clinic manager, OB/GYN Dr. Desiree Bates, “sometimes does bend the rules a little bit” and states that “whatever you tell us stays within these walls” and “we can’t disclose any information to anybody.”

Alabama code 26-14-3 requires health professionals to disclose suspected cases of sexual abuse to state officials immediately.

How many of these cases will we have to see before:

1. Liberals admit that Planned Parenthood is a criminal organization?

2. The Federal government stops using taxpayer funds to support PP?

3. Criminal investigations are launched against this corrupt group?

This is the 7th case documented so far – so PP knows that this is happening and if they were at all interested in obeying the law, there would already be a serious effort to discipline the affiliates to ensure they are following the law. That this has happened so many times indicates that PP doesn’t care about the law and figures that the Democrats will protect them in return for continued campaign donations. But, Democrats, is this what you really want for your party? Even if you think abortion should be legal, do you really want to be associated with people who cover up rape?

What can we expect from an organization founded by a racist eugenicist who wanted to use abortion to rid America of black people and other “undesirables”? When you start off as a criminal enterprise, you’re not likely to improve with age. We need to shut this organization down and send its leaders to jail, not prop it up with taxpayer money.

From Mark Steyn:

…I support the Governor (Sanford) on limited government, spending and taxes, but sorry, his talents are not so unique that it’s worth putting up with a narcissist buffoon.

My column at the weekend suggested that celebrity politics and big government – ie, putting your trust in princes and putting the prince in “the bubble” – all but guarantee rule by creeps and misfits. In support of that thesis, we now have John Edwards – The Movie:

Former Edwards aide Andrew Young says the ex-senator and his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, once made a sex tape…

Of course. What else would a presidential candidate do to unwind after a hard day on the stump? But the line that caught my eye was this, from Mrs Edwards:

Elizabeth also suspects Young stole the baseball card collection of her late son, Wade…

Is politics some kind of affirmative action program for sociopaths?

Given that I’m on verge of jumping into the sewer, any advice on avoiding sociopathic behavior would be appreciated.

If there has ever been an argument against term limits, the actions of these creeps has swept it aside. I’m reminded now that the Romans under the Republic had a tradition that once you served in an office, you had to step aside for five years before seeking a different office…and during that five years you were open to lawsuits arising out of your actions in office. This, at least for a few centuries, kept Roman government reasonably honest…think of it, we’d never have a sitting Senator running for President ever again! That, in and of itself, would be a boon to our nation…and each time some self absorbed cretin got in to office, we’d have five years after he left office to forget about him.

For those who concentrate too much on the materialist aspects of charity:

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat. – Blessed Mother Teresa

In case you wonder where he gets his desire to serve the suffering from:

In a recent Rolling Stone magazine interview with Brian Hiatt, U2’s Bono says that the song “Magnificent” is inspired by the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“All music for me is worship of one kind or another,” says Bono.

The song appears on the band’s new album, “No Line on the Horizon.”

“Magnificent was inspired by the Magnificat, a passage from the Gospel of Luke in the voice of the Virgin Mary that was previously set to music by Bach,” says Bono. “There’s this theme running through the album of surrender and devotion and all the things I find really difficult.”

The lyrics include: “Magnificent, Magnificent, I was born, I was born to be with you in this space and time. I was born, I was born to sing for you. I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up and sing whatever song you wanted me to. I give you back my voice. From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise … Only love, only love can leave such a mark, but only love, only love can heal such a scar.”

Recorded in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1: 41-45), the Magnificat (Latin for “magnifies”), also known as the Canticle of Mary, is the Blessed Virgin Mary’s joyful prayer in response to her cousin Elizabeth’s greeting.

Now, if we could just figure out a way to (gently) knock the syrupy liberalism out of his head, he’d be a perfectly fine, Irish gentleman. But his desire to aid the suffering is Catholic through and through, and if you listen carefully to his music, you’ll quickly see that it is shot through with Catholic references and ideals. No surprise, then, that Bono turns to Our Lady for inspiration.

And, it would seem, terrorist, too:

From a Q&A with the speaker of the California assembly, Karen Bass, in the Los Angeles Times:

Q: How do you think conservative talk radio has affected the Legislature’s work?

A: The Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now [some] are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat: “You vote for revenue and your career is over.” I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it’s about free speech, but it’s extremely unfair.

I guess she said it: “I guess it’s about free speech, but it’s extremely unfair.”

Thinking back a bit, I seem to recall that prior to January 20th, dissent was the highest form of patriotism – now, its terrorism? And the Speaker of the California Assembly doesn’t “know why we allow” free speech to exist?

Interesting. Liberals, have anything to say?

Now, if they can just figure out a way to keep her:

At around noon Tuesday the Israeli Navy intercepted and took control of a boat that had set sail for the Gaza Strip with three tons of medical supplies, Palestinian sources said, adding that the Navy jammed the boat’s radio signals.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Office confirmed the report. Israeli military sources said there was no violence after the small ferry, sailing from Cyprus with activists from the US-based Free Gaza Movement, was intercepted off Gaza…

…The boat is also carrying 21 peace activists, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia Ann McKinney (D-GA) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire.

If the Israelis can’t keep her, perhaps we can trade her to the Palestinians for something equally valuable…like a bootleg Barry Manilow tape…and it can be on 8 track, we’re not too picky.

Technically, I could have made this “What Media Stupidity? Part 1”, but why start a whole, new thread:

U.S. consumer confidence took an unexpectedly steep slide in June, figures released on Tuesday showed, suggesting the 18-month-long recession had yet to loosen its grip on the economy. (emphasis added)

Unexpectedly? By whom? How much of a liberal pinhead do you have to be to not expect a massive slide in consumer confidence when unemployment is going heck for leather towards 10%? The surprising thing is that anyone could be confident – the economy is collapsing around our ears and all of us, even here to for safe government employees, are wondering not if the axe will fall, but when. Unless you’ve got some irreducibly valuable skill (doctor, Marine, etc), you’re at risk of a job loss.

But there is that good, old MSM bias – the MSM has it that the “green shoots” are real and that after a month of MSM cheerleading for Obamunism, people should be upbeat. The next paragraph is even more funny:

A separate report on April house prices in major cities offered some encouraging signs that the worst of the housing slump may be over, but that was not enough to lift investors’ spirits. (emphasis added)

Yeah, the worst of the slump is over…or, at least, it may be; but if the worst of the slump is over am I supposed to jump for joy that my house has lost 70% of its value? Kick up my heels and vote Democrat because it hasn’t lost 80% of its value? Believe Obama if he claims that he “saved” 10% of my home value? We’ll be at least a decade recovering housing prices – and, indeed, there is the chance that my house (and the houses of millions of other Americans) will never recover their value. We could say “it’ll always recover” when the drop was even as much as 20%…but I’ve seen nice houses for sale here in Las Vegas for as little as $50,000; anyone want to bet against there being swell digs for $40,000 not too long from now? How about $25,000? My Dad’s first house was something like $10,000…we’ve only got to drop a bit more for my house, adjusted for inflation, to be worth that…a half century of wealth is on the verge of being wiped out.

• Twitter Updates for 2009-06-29 http://tinyurl.com/kvhxa8 #
• Hungarians Smarter Than Obama http://tinyurl.com/nq6jaq #
• China: The “Other Shoe” Waiting to Drop http://tinyurl.com/nxrlx7 #
• Having a “Stay-cation” This Year? http://tinyurl.com/lp9kle #
• Phrase of the Day http://tinyurl.com/kvbdap #
• Going After the “Cap and Tr8tors” http://tinyurl.com/n3wrvq #
• Another election stolen for a Democrat… #
• @suziejoh and we have to wait 6 years for the MN voters to realize that the joke wasn’t funny. in reply to suziejoh #
• A Coda to the Scandal in the Church http://tinyurl.com/moshqp #

In all of the long and trying events of the Scandal in the Church, the most difficult part for devout Catholics has been to know the truth, but be unable to utter it because the public mind had been propagandized into a particular view. This view is that the Church’s rigidity on sexual matters led to priests being unable to openly express their sexuality and this, in turn, led to the abuse of youngsters and to cap it all off, the Church cynically covered it up because it, as an institution, didn’t want to confront the fact that the Church’s teachings on sex will have to be changed to fit modern mores. This line of thinking has going for it only one thing – the kernel of truth that priests did, indeed, abuse minors. Other than that, it is nonsense from start to finish – and this nonsense is best illustrated by the autobiography of Archbishop Weakland:

It sounds like an over-the-top Tom Wolfe novel: a successor to the apostles conducts an affair with a male graduate student, is accused of “date rape” and emotional harm by said student, and raids the collection basket of the faithful to hush the student up, then, as the bishop settles into a cushy retirement, he pens a “coming out” memoir in praise of homosexual behavior, all the while retaining the canonical rights and privileges of a retired archbishop and receiving pats on the back from fellow clergy.

Alas, this is no racy and risible fiction; it is the real story of Archbishop Rembert Weakland. The retired archbishop of Milwaukee released June 15 his autobiography, A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: Memoirs of a Catholic Archbishop. In it he admits to several affairs with men, crowns himself the first voluntarily “out” bishop, and argues that the Church should endorse the “physical, genital expression” of homosexuality, as he put it to the New York Times in May.

As the article goes on to note, Weakland was the liberal’s liberal Catholic prelate – it was Weakland who was leading the charge to “modernize” the Church and bring it more in tune with, well, Oprah, I guess. It was Weakland who was strong in his condemnation of conservatism’s supposed greed and cruely…and while making such condemnation, Weakland was dipping in to the collection plate to pay hush money to his gay lover. Nothing so strongly illustrates what went wrong than the story of Weakland – a man who allowed himself to be enslaved the world, worked diligently to have others enslaved, caused untold damage to those who refused servitude, and now writes about what a swell guy he is and if only the Church would preach heresy, all would be well.

If you seek for the reason behind the late John Paul II’s insistence upon renewed discipline and orthodoxy, you need look no further: here is the reason. If you wonder why Benedict the XVI is following resolutely in these foot steps: here is the reason. It is only by a return to the most uncompromising orthodoxy that the Church will recover from this scandal. There is rising in the Church what is being called the “John Paul II generation” – young and vigorous priests and religious who are orthodox all down the line and who are starting to take over from the weak, liberal leaders who led the Church into disaster in the two decades immediately following Vatican II – a council, it should be noted, which was twisted out of recognition by liberal bishops such as Weakland; so twisted, indeed, that Weakland and his ilk had it legislating the opposite of what was decreed.

In this Age of Lies, the Rock of Truth may be submerged from time to time, but it remains a Rock, and it is coming back to the surface. It will take a generation for this shame to be washed away – Weakland will soon appear before the judgment seat of God, and I hope he fares well there…but I don’t wish myself ever to be in his shoes, that of a shepherd who led the flock astray.

This is the way to let them know we’re not going to take this fascist nonsense lying down:

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) is one of the eight “cap-and-tr8ters” who crossed the line and voted for the Waxman-Markey Bill, generally known as cap-and-trade, but in fact is a national energy tax.

Today at Noon a Tea Party protest took place at Kirk’s district office in Northbrook. It was a floating crowd–some came during their lunch hour–but the peak attendance was thirty–a huge number considering the event was announced just yesterday afternoon and received no mainstream media coverage that I know of.

Everyone I spoke with, with the exception of myself Anne Leary of Backyard Conservative, lived in Kirk’s Chicago North Shore district, and Leary and I live within a mile of Kirk’s corner of the state.

While working my father-in-law’s garage sale this past weekend a lady come to shop dropped in to my hands her personal manifesto about what is wrong with our country – too much taxes, too much spending, too much socialism…never had that happened before. The lady was apparently passing it out to all and sundry as she went about her business. I know, just one bit of anecdotal evidence…but I’m seeing more and more people just furious with the current state of affairs. I think a political hurricane is brewing.