Finally, someone in the clueless mainstream media has “discovered” that the American electorate is angry about — Obamacare. Here is what Josh Kraushaar wrote yesterday in the National Journal:
“Election Day isn’t until Tuesday, but the post game spin has already begun. Conventional wisdom is blaming Democrats’ expected poor performance on the lousy economy. Democrats blame the influx of outside money. And Republicans are thanking Nancy Pelosi. But the reality that Democrats hate to discuss — and even some Republicans have been hesitant to fully embrace — is that the party’s signature health care law is what’s turning a bad election year into a disaster of potential history-making proportions.”
Kraushaar cites numbers of polls which show that Americans oppose Obamacare and want it repealed. Writing about Stupak and company who caved in and gave the President the votes he needed to win, Kraushaar says: “Indeed, House Democrats who gave the decisive margin at the end — the so-called Stupak bloc, who held out their support until anti-abortion language was inserted and those who flipped their votes to support the bill — read like a who’s who of the most at-risk Democrats.”
Of course, there was no anti-abortion language inserted so Stupak and his block are hit with a double-whammy.
Kraushaar concludes: “This election is not about messaging or money — it’s largely about policy, and in particular, on a far-reaching piece of legislation that has proven deeply unpopular in states and districts across the country.” Amen.
The slippery slope appears to be bottomless. Ludwig Minelli, founder of the Swiss suicide group he calls Dignitas, is now advocating for doctor-prescribed death not only for those who are terminally ill, but for legalization of drugs for healthy partners who do not want to live without their loved one.
Minelli told the Swiss newspaper Blick Sonntag that “a change in the law is required to give dementia sufferers and their families more opportunities. The partner should be allowed to have a prescription for these drugs even when they are not terminally ill. In such cases the partners are often a similar age and one does not want to remain without the other.”
Dignitas has created a suicide tourism industry in Switzerland with people traveling from all over the world to be assisted with suicide. It has been reported that Dignitas charges up to $8,000 for this “service.” Do you suppose it plans to offer a two for one price? It is too sickening to complicate.
“A report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) outlines that since 2002, nearly $1 billion in federal funds has been spent by six organizations that promote or provide abortions, including Planned Parenthood, which received a majority of the funds,” writes Dr. Randy O’Bannon of National Right to Life.
The GAO report was requested by 26 members of the House and five Senators. How much, they wondered, was going to Planned Parenthood and its friends. A lot, it turns out. The six groups spent $967 million in federal funds over a period of about seven years. Planned Parenthood Federation of America spent $657.1 million, the largest amount.
Rep. Chris Smith calls for defunding of Planned Parenthood which he calls Child Abuse, Inc. because PP kills well over 300,000 babies each year. We agree.
It is a strategy being used around the country. Pro-abortion candidates are now raising the abortion issue to attack right-to-life candidates.
It first surfaced in Wisconsin with abortion ads attacking Senate candidates Leah Vukmir (Milwaukee) and Terry Moulton (Eau Claire). The same ad was tweaked slightly and aired against congressional candidate Dan Kapanke (La Crosse).
Now, gubernatorial candidates Tom Barrett and Scott Walker have entered the fray. Barrett started the debate by airing an ad with a couple talking about how their daughter was brutally raped, and concluding that Walker doesn’t care about rape victims. Walker countered with an ad featuring wife Tonette Walker who talks about Barrett’s voting record in favor of taxpayer funding of abortion and his support for abortions in the ninth month of pregnancy.
Pundits believe this strategy is an attempt to:
1. Distract voters from economic issues.
2. Garner the vote of women.
What do you think? Will this strategy succeed? Or produce just enough votes to provide a margin of victory for pro-abortion candidates? Let us know!
It is shocking and scandalous. Tom Barrett said at the October 15 Town Hall meeting in Milwaukee that embryonic stem cell research is “the Lord’s work.” What a breathtaking new description of life-destroying research! Most people believe God is the Creator of life, and now Barrett has made God a willing accomplice in research which depends on destroying a living human embryo.
Barrett is not only wrong on the morals, but wrong on the science. At a time when there are so many ethical stem cell alternatives, Barrett clings to old research and displays a lack of moral character that is simply stunning.
We’ve told you about it before — the infamous exchange between Senator Rick Santorum and Senator Russ Feingold on the Senate floor in 1996 during a debate on whether partial-birth abortions should be banned. Now, Wisconsin Right to Life has made the C-Span recording of Feingold’s comments available. In his own words, Feingold reveals that his anti-life mentality knows no bounds.
Be sure to watch the video and circulate it widely. Pass it on.
In its usual style, Geron has put out a press release that it has injected the first patient for its trial of embryonic stem cells for spinal cord injury. Of course their main goal is to increase their stock price and cash flow from investment. Not about science, not about helping patients. After all, this is just an announcement that the patient has been injected with millions of cells. No results, no peer-reviewed publication, nada.
Contrary to what most of the news stories report, Geron is not injecting growing embryonic stem cells into a patient. They inject cells made from embryonic stem cells; in this case cells called “oligodendrocyte progenitors.”
Oligodendrocytes form a sheath around nerve fibers, like insulation. The injected ESC-derived cells are progenitors or precursors, only partly specialized; theoretically the cells will grow, migrate and specialize around the spinal cord, creating a sheath around nerves and also perhaps secreting nerve growth factors to enhance nerve survival.
From the total of two published rat studies on which the human experiment is based, Geron already knows that their ESC-derived cells will not work on chronic spinal cord injury; patients must be recruited and injected within the first 14 days after their injuries. They also know that the patient must be juiced with immunosuppressive drugs, so that the injected cells are not rejected by the immune system, since they are foreign to the body.
And because of the significant possibility that ESC-derived cells can run amuck, growing out of control or forming improper tissues throughout the body, Geron has already said they will have to monitor the patients for 15 years to assess the danger. The danger has made even some proponents of embryonic stem cell research concerned about the risky nature of Geron’s human experiment, instead of making a political point.
The Geron experiment in patients is not blinded, randomized, or controlled, and spinal cord injury patients can show spontaneous improvement within the 3 months after injury, even up to 18 months. It will be difficult to determine whether Geron’s injected cells had any real effect. We wish the patient well, but think Geron is irresponsible for this premature hype.
Of note is that now, a year and a half after approval, Geron has finally listed their experiment, the only approved embryonic stem cell trial, at ClinicalTrials.gov. As of this writing, there were 2,002 adult stem cell trials in patients listed.
Despite the overwhelming success of adult stem cells for patients, few have heard the good news.
Adult Stem Cells have already shown published scientific evidence documenting effective treatment for spinal cord injury.
That peer-reviewed evidence includes not only safety but also improvement of chronic spinal cord injuries, including in patients up to 15 years after their injury. Dr. Jean Peduzzi Nelson of Wayne State University discussed this research in her recent Senate testimony; Laura Dominguez is one of the spinal cord injury patients who has benefited from adult stem cells.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s PolitiFact came to the conclusion earlier this week that Tom Barrett is telling some mighty tall tales about Scott Walker’s position on stem cell research. Of course, we already knew that. But we’re glad that the Journal-Sentinel, hardly a bastion of support for Walker, exercised some intellectual honestly and looked at the facts.
Here’s what PolitiFact said: “Democrat Tom Barrett is running a TV ad claiming his opponent for governor, Republican Scott Walker ‘would ban stem cell research in Wisconsin.’ In truth, Walker has repeatedly said he supports research involving adult stem cells, but opposes research involving embryonic stem cells. That is a critical distinction in the world of science - and of politics. Barrett’s ad ignores it, presenting Walker as so extreme on the matter that he is ‘against hope.” We rate Barrett’s claim false.”
Barrett, of course, supports the use of living human embryos for unethical medical experimentation. As distasteful as that is, it really is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Barrett’s complete disregard for the sanctity of human life. Don’t take our word for it … see for yourself. Check out the complete Barrett anti-life voting record throughout his state legislative and congressional career at our election website, My Election Central.
You’ll find it here
And you don’t want to miss our brand new video highlighting Barrett’s disgraceful voting record on life. Find it here and PASS IT ON!
It’s right out of the Doyle play book — put an appealing mother and a young child with a serious illness in a television ad and accuse Scott Walker of depriving the child of hope. Why? Because, the ad says, Scott Walker wants to “ban stem cell research.”
There are two problems with this ad:
1. Scott Walker only opposes embryonic stem cell research which depends on the destruction of living human embryos. He fully supports ethical stem cell research.
2. Science has changed dramatically since Doyle pulled this trick four years ago. Ethical adult stem cells continue to show great benefit for real people with real diseases. Three years ago, scientists in Madison and Japan discovered ethical iPS cells which derive from turning ordinary skin cells into acting like embryonic stem cells. No one has to die to retrieve or reprogram the cells. Barrett is way behind the times scientifically.
Don’t fall for this pathetic, inaccurate ad, folks. And be sure that everyone you know gets the real story.
WRTL has a new video on Barrett’s anti-life voting record. You can see the Barrett video here. Be sure to pass it on.
Remember the scorn heaped on Sarah Palin when she talked about “death panels” as part of Obamacare? That scorn continues to this day. Burke Balch of National Right to Life has written a comprehensive piece on how death panels could work as part of Obamacare.
An Independent Payment Advisory Board will invade every corner of the private and government health care systems limiting what Americans can spend of their own money for lifesaving treatment.
The Secretary of HHS is empowered to impose quality and efficiency measure on all health care providers, determining what diagnostic tests and actual treatments meet those standards.
Under “Shared Decisionmaking,” funds are provided to nongovernmental bodies to create aids to “help” patients make treatment decisions.
Donald Berwick, the individual chosen to implement Obamacare, is a vocal advocate of rationing.
Death panels — yes or no? What do you think?
Read the entire Balch article here.
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