Thursday, January 27, 2011

HORROR IN PHILADELPHIA Updated

In West Philadelphia an abortion doctor, Kermit Gosnell, has been arrested and held without bail for the murder of a 41 year old woman and seven live babies.  The more information that comes out about this man and his squalid back alley abortion clinic, the more appalling it becomes.  If you have the stomach for it, the full grand jury report is here.

Under his "care" (and I use the term very, very loosely), numerous patients suffered from perforated bowels, cervix and uterus. He was known to stitch up the problem and not mention it to the patient or their loved ones.  The grand jury report is chilling (via lifenews.com):

One woman, for example, was left lying in place for hours after Gosnell tore her cervix and colon while trying, unsuccessfully, to extract the fetus. Relatives who came to pick her up were refused entry into the building; they had to threaten to call the police. They eventually found her inside, bleeding and incoherent, and transported her to the hospital, where doctors had to remove almost half a foot of her intestines.


On another occasion, Gosnell simply sent a patient home, after keeping her mother waiting for hours, without telling either of them that she still had fetal parts inside her. Gosnell insisted she was fine, even after signs of serious infection set in over the next several days. By the time her mother got her to the emergency room, she was unconscious and near death.

A nineteen-year-old girl was held for several hours after Gosnell punctured her uterus. As a result of the delay, she fell into shock from blood loss, and had to undergo a hysterectomy.

One patient went into convulsions during an abortion, fell off the procedure table, and hit her head on the floor. Gosnell wouldn’t call an ambulance, and wouldn’t let the woman’s companion leave the building so that he could call an ambulance.

He performed late term (6,7,8 months) abortions regularly (often telling first-time mothers they were only 24 weeks along), and when the baby survived as a live birth, he would kill it by severing it's spinal cord with a pair of scissors.

What is most horrifying of all is that there are few records, which means there is just no telling how many times he did this.  The reason there are only seven counts of murdering live babies is because those are the only documented cases (via CBS Philly):


Gosnell is suspected of killing hundreds of living babies over the course of his 30-year practice. However, he is not charged because the records do not exist.

Among other complaints were his use of a 15 year old high school student to administer anesthesia.  He used unsterilized equipment and performed the procedures in rooms that often had animals and even litter boxes in them.  Eight members of his staff were also arrested, some of them for being unlicensed.  Gosnell himself wasn't even certified as an OB/GYN.

His abortion mill truly was a house of horrors.  There were bags and bottles containing aborted fetuses throughout the clinic, and there were jars of severed baby feet lining a shelf in his office. 
Gosnell was in the business for thirty years, and it seemed to be a very lucrative living for him:


DA Williams said Gosnell made approximately $1.8 million in one year alone performing the procedures.

So why was he never shut down?  According to reports, even with numerous complaints and 46 malpractice lawsuits against Gosnell, there had been no inspections of his facility since 1993.  There are allegations that politics were the reason for the lack of oversight.  The Pennsylvania Departments of Health and State provided no oversight whatsoever for reasons unknown, and so he was allowed to victimize a community of poor, minority women with impunity.  It seems they came to the decision that it is better to have a butcher slaughtering innocents performing abortions than close him down and not have an abortion clinic in that neighborhood (not that there isn't another clinic about a mile away).

This man should be thoroughly evaluated by a mental health professional.  It's one thing to have a dirty facility (although probably not to the level that has been alleged), but it's a whole other thing to save severed feet in jars on a shelf.  They're almost like...trophies

The "doctor", his wife, and eight staff members have been arrested.  No one from Health or State  has even been reprimanded.  Animal slaughterhouses have more oversight than this man's facility, and the methods are more humane than those undertaken by Gosnell. 

To top it all off, this week marked the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It's hard to believe that in 38 years we have managed to go from dirty, back alley abortions to...this

Of course certain factions on the left are using this as a rallying cry for federal funding of abortions, arguing that if it were allowed, Gosnell would never have been able to do what he did.  In actuality, if the Departments of Health and State had done their job with regular inspections - heck, just investigated the multitude of complaints against him - he most likely would have been shut down years ago.  Instead, no one checked it out, because abortion is a political hot button and no one wanted to deal with the possible repercussions of an investigation. 

In this case, it wasn't just the lives of the children that meant nothing, but the lives of the mothers, as well.  This man victimized a whole community, for decades, in the most debased, disgusting way imaginable, and it makes barely a blip on the national media scene. 

God only knows how many women died or were permanently damaged from complications due to his botched abortions, and God only knows how many live babies were slaughtered at his and his staff's hands.  That there has been very little media coverage of this outrage practically assures that it will happen again, in another city, with another doctor.  It probably has already.  With our bureaucrats too frightened of the political ramifications of dealing with abortion issues, the odds are good that another house of horrors will crop up somewhere.

According to CBS News, Gosnell is "confused" by the murder charges and the fact that he was refused bail.  This man destroyed records and lied to patients about how far along they were so that he could perform illegal abortions, because he knew late term abortions were illegal in Pennsylvania.  He routinely murdered viable babies that would have lived had they received medical care (and not had their spinal cords severed with scissors). He injured patients and never notified them or their caregivers of the injury. His actions go beyond mere negligence.  He even went so far as to segregate white women who came for his services in cleaner rooms, because he thought they would be more likely to complain.  He knew what he was doing.  But don't be surprised if his "confusion" could well be the beginnings of a mental competency plea.

When he does go to trial, if he is found guilty and gets a death sentence, I humbly suggest that he die via his spinal cord being severed with a pair of scissors.

UPDATE:  The Abbess has a great piece on how the media is not covering the Gosnell story, and makes quite a compelling argument for why they should.  She also reminds them of another story that also deserved (and got) lots of media attention which helped to root out the evil. 
In Pennsylvania, twenty-two abortion clinics have been investigated and fourteen have had issues - although nothing on par with Gosnell, thank God. 
Delaware AG Beau Biden is investigating a clinic Gosnell worked at one day a week for a number of years.  He would often start abortions in DE and send the patient up to his clinic in Philly to finish the job due to Delaware's abortion laws.  He is also being investigated for defrauding the Delaware Pro-Choice Medical Fund by giving some of his PA patients DE addresses.
The Delaware clinic is owned by the same people who own a clinic in Louisiana that is so bad that a group of lawyers has threatened to sue the state Dept. of Health if they don't shut it down.
We seem to have forgotten that Roe v. Wade didn't just provide for legal abortions, it provided for safe legal abortions.  It's bad enough we're killing the babies; do we really need to be maiming and killing the mothers, too?

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

IN ONE EAR AND OUT THE OTHER Updated

Well, that was the oddest memorial service I think I've ever seen.  The speakers were good, including President Obama, but the audience seemed to think it was at a pep rally, not a memorial service for the victims of a massacre.  It was a bit surreal, watching the speakers with their somber messages of healing and hope, having to shout over the whooping and cheering.   

Obama's speech was good.  He hit the right tone; no preaching, just reaching out.  There was also a finger wag at the left's rush to judgement and the accusatory nature of their ridiculous hypotheses.  Better late than never, I suppose.  Ultimately, the only person responsible for this tragedy is Jared Loughner, and Obama made that clear.  Although a politician was targeted, it was because of mental illness, not politics.

What I find most ironic is that all of those people raging against the incivlity and violent rhetoric are actually whipping up their base to...incivility and threats of violence.  Makes ya dizzy sometimes, doesn't it?

Loughner was non-political.  He wasn't left, he wasn't right, he was just plain unstable.  Anyone who doubts that should take a nice looooong look at that mugshot.  If you don't see crazy when you look in those eyes, you are willfully blinding yourself. 

It's too bad that at least one of President Obama's most ardent, tingly admirers didn't pick up on what he was throwing down in his speech.  You know the message hasn't been received when the words "can't exonerate" are used in relation to people who have neither committed a crime nor even, according to all the evidence we have so far, incited a crime.  Get a grip, Tingles.  Jared Loughner is the defendant, not Palin or Beck.  Not even if you wish really, really hard.

The other oddity was the branding of the memorial.  Right down to "Together We Thrive" t-shirts.   It seems a bit..tacky, no?  Or was this the rollout for the 2012 campaign, and we just didn't get the memo?  At least no one is fundraising on the tragedy...oh, wait.  Never mind.  Well, at least the speech was good. 

UPDATE:  Ugh.  The California chapter of the Tea Party Express actually sent out a fund raiser of their own to counter leftists attempts of "trying to exploit" the tragedy.  Um, I hate to tell you this, guys, but fundraising off a national tragedy is also "trying to exploit" it.  Disgusting.  Shame on you.

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Sunday, January 9, 2011

THE POLITICS OF MURDER Updated

Yesterday's Arizona Safeway massacre was a horrific act by a seriously disturbed individual.  Eighteen people were shot.  Six died, including a federal judge, a congressional staffer, and a nine year old girl.

Judge John Roll ,63; Dorthy Murray, 76; Dorwin Stoddard, 76; Christina Greene, 9; Phyllis Scheck, 79; and Gabriel Zimmerman, 30 all lost their lives yesterday, in a senseless act of violence by a mentally unstable young man named Jared Lee Loughner.  His motivations are unclear.  Unless, of course, one can make sense of a rambling rant about government mind control through grammar

Twelve people were injured, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head but is, thankfully, expected to survive her injuries.  Rep. Giffords was fresh off a legislative victory, having successfully passed legislation reducing congressional pay by 5%.  The legislation passed the House with a whopping 410-13 majorityGiffords was interviewed by Fox News' Bill Hemmer Friday morning, before the vote, so she could explain the legislation.  She was concise, articulate and pleasant.  Her proposal was timely and well received, and it is a crying shame that we will not have her moderate, common-sense voice on the Hill for the foreseeable future.

Gabriel Zimmerman was an aide to Rep. Giffords who was loved and respected for his outreach in his community.  Judge Roll had simply come by to say hello to his friend Giffords after church.  Christina Green, born on Sept. 11, 2001 and a member of her school's student government, was there to learn about the political system and meet her congresswoman.  None of them should have died yesterday.

But a madman took their lives, violently and, at least so far, without reason.  Even if his attack on Rep. Giffords was politically motivated, his subsequent random shooting of onlookers defies reason.  Can we really argue that nine year old Christina Green was a political threat?

The reason those six people are dead is because they were attacked by a mentally unstable young man.  Before his name was even released, some on the left were painting him as a right-winger and tea partier.  As usual.  They did the same with Joseph Stack, who flew his plane into an IRS building.  Amy Bishop, the socialist professor who killed three of her colleagues was also initially accused of being right wing.  Let's not forget, too, Michael Enright, the liberal volunteer who slashed a NY cabbie after first asking if he was Muslim, and Bill Sparkman, the Census worker who committed suicide in such a way as to make it seem like murder solely for insurance purposes.  Both of them were also erroniously labeled right-wingers reflexively, before any investigation had been done. 

Instead of pointing fingers and manipulating information to score political points, how about we do something novel and unheard of in these hyper-political times - refrain from accusations until an investigation has been conducted and concentrate, instead, on supporting the victims and coming together as a nation to express and work through our grief?

Six innocent people died yesterday, and twelve more were injured.  THAT is the important story of the day.  We may eventually learn Loughner's motivation, we may not.  But this finger pointing is not productive and only lowers the level of discourse in this country and ratchets up the anger even more.

We are not allowed to grieve in this country anymore.  Instead we are expected to become even more enraged as pundits attempt to place blame to score political points before the facts are in.  Those who scream about "accountability" should consider the effect their unfounded accusations have, as well as their non-existent or whispered retractions when they are proved wrong.  That we have come to the point where political opponents are considered an "enemy" that deserves to be "punished" is indicative of a national malaise that will only fester and grow with every false accusation and politically motivated exaggeration.

As for me, my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families - particularly Christina Green's parents.  As a mom, my heart breaks for the loss of that beautiful, promising child.  What a horrible, horrible waste.  The person(s) I hold accountable for her loss is Jared Lee Loughner and his as-yet unidentified  accomplice.  Period.

So please, America, let's have a little perspective, shall we?  Let's focus on the victims for now, and allow the police to interrogate and investigate.  There will be plenty of time during and after his trial to affix blame.

UPDATE:  Let's hope the Patriot Guard Riders are saddling up, because the despicable Westboro Baptist Church is planning on protesting nine year old Christina Green's funeral.  Will the insanity never end?

UPDATE II:  Jared Loughner has been exhibiting extremely disturbing behavior for some time now, to the point where he was asked by the school to go in for a mental evaluation before allowing him to return to school:

The suspect was suspended from a Tucson community college in October after what the school said were multiple run-ins with campus police that led to his suspension.
...Pima Community College warned Loughner in a follow-up letter that to return to campus, he had to present a doctor's note stating that his presence would not be "a danger to himself or others."



His college math teacher and fellow classmates were terrified of him.  He had had contact with Rep.Giffords before and it is beginning to look like she was indeed the main target of the shooting (some had been speculating that Judge Roll might have been the target).  There is no accomplice - the person in question was a cabbie who had followed him to the venue when Loughner didn't pay the fare.

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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

NA NA NA NA, HEY HEY HEY, GOOD-BYE

I've been singing the chorus to this all day.  Here's the picture of the day:




The votes are in.  Speaker Boehner won his spot with a unanimous republican vote.   Former Speaker Pelosi?  Eh, not so much.  The interesting part about the 19 who voted for just about anyone but Pelosi is that many of them are truly an endangered species - conservative democrats.  So the question is, if they are angry enough to publicly refute her via a roll call vote, are they angry enough to work with republicans to reverse her job killing, government expanding, budget busting agenda? 
Perhaps they just simply have no confidence in her anymore, which wouldn't be surprising after the shellacking they took in November.  Add in her utterly delusional take on her term of office yesterday, and it really just isn't surprising at all.  Deficit reduction has been their mantra, indeed.   Perhaps she sensed that the country needed a good laugh after her reign of terror tenure - intended or not, it was hilarious.  If spending $5 trillion in four years is fiscal responsibility, I'll eat my hat.  Thanks, Queen Nan, for reminding us why we dethroned you. 

Here's hoping the 112th Congress is a damn sight better than the 111th.  Luckily, Pelosi's set the bar pretty low.

Congrats, Speaker Boehner. 

Now don't screw it up.  We're watching.

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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Senator Harry Reid has apparently decided that, in the absence of Pelosi's leadership, he is going to step up to the post of top congressional dictator.  He and a few senior senators have taken it upon themselves to attempt to dictate to the House what laws they can and cannot pursue. 

In a letter to Speaker Designate Boehner, Reid, Schumer, Durbin, Murray and Stabenow all "warned" Boehner not to attempt to repeal Obamacare, particularly the so-called "donut hole" provision.  Or else.

Speaker Boehner has responded with a terse, 65-word response (via The Hill):

Senators Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Murray and Stabenow:


Thank you for reminding us – and the American people – of the backroom deal that you struck behind closed doors with ‘Big Pharma,’ resulting in bigger profits for the drug companies, and higher prescription drug costs for 33 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D, at a cost to the taxpayers of $42.6 billion.

The House is going to pass legislation to repeal that now. You’re welcome.

- Speaker-Designate John Boehner’s Press Office

Oh, this year is going to be fun! 

,

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