Patterico's Pontifications

7/4/2008

Jesse Helms Dies; Left Shows Class and Restraint

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 3:03 pm



Jesse Helms has died at 86. TBogg puts aside the partisanship:

Since we are supposed to say something nice about the dead I’ll just say that I feel sorry for his family and understand the grief that they must feel, fully aware that Jesse is in hell today … most likely getting [deleted by Patterico]ed in the ass by Roy Cohn.”

His commenters show similar class. Examples: “I look forward to his funeral, because then I will know where to go to piss on his grave.” Also: “Today, God blessed America.”

Note well: it is not support of the man or his views to note what assholes some leftists are when someone they don’t like dies.

Happy Fourth.

P.S. I firmly believe “TBogg” wouldn’t be this happy if the dead man were Osama bin Laden, instead of Jesse Helms.

Of course, if I’m wrong, it’s easily proven. All you need to do is dig up all his old posts exulting over the deaths of important terrorists.

Have fun trying to find those. I’ll be waiting for them, over here with the chirping crickets.

UPDATE: Captain Ed quotes a guy responding to notorious asshole Ken Layne by noting that Helms’s most racist comments (including some cited by TBogg) were made while he was a Democrat.

Obama: I Don’t Like Post-Viability Abortions for Mental Health Reasons — But I Vote for Laws and Supreme Court Justices Who Do

Filed under: 2008 Election,Abortion,General — Patterico @ 1:26 pm



Immediately below, I mention an AP article that soft-soaps Obama’s support for partial-birth abortion. But there is another aspect to the article that is worth a new post.

Namely, Obama claims to be against late-term abortions done only for the mental health of the mother. But what he doesn’t tell people is that the justices he would select would make his alleged position impossible to enforce. The justices John McCain would pick would likely be more in line with what Obama claims his position is.

Obama says:

I have repeatedly said that I think it’s entirely appropriate for states to restrict or even prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is a strict, well-defined exception for the health of the mother. Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother.

Well, that’s just lovely, Senator. But the problem is that the justices you claim to admire think the opposite.

Jan Crawford Greenburg lays out the law in detail, as well as Obama’s previous support for legislation that allows post-viability abortions for mental health reasons — exactly what Obama claims he opposes. Greenburg has put the question directly to the campaign:

[H]ere are some questions for the Obama campaign: Does Obama still support the Freedom of Choice Act? Would he appoint justices like Ginsburg — or like Thomas, Scalia, etc.? Would he direct his Solicitor General to file a brief supporting state abortion bans that did not include a mental health exception?

She also is asking the McCain campaign how they can criticize Obama for his flip-flops on this issue, while considering Mitt Romney for the VP slot. That’s not a bad question either.

I’m thinking it’s going to be fun watching campaign coverage from someone like Greenburg who knows what she’s talking about. Naturally, both campaigns will respond with pap — we already know that — but it is fun watching someone knowledgeable who is willing to sweat them on these important issues.

AP Chooses P.C. Over Facts in Describing Obama’s Views on Partial-Birth Abortion

Filed under: 2008 Election,Abortion,Media Bias — Patterico @ 11:22 am



The Associated Press “reports”:

Last year, after the Supreme Court upheld a federal ban on late-term abortions, Obama said he “strongly disagreed” with the ruling because it “dramatically departs form [sic] previous precedents safeguarding the health of pregnant women.”

Could somebody remind me when the Supreme Court upheld “a federal ban on late-term abortions”? I must have missed that one.

These reporters are so damn politically correct that they would rather say something factually false, rather than repeat a phrase they have been told is ideologically loaded.

I’ll tell you what the AP won’t: the Supreme Court did not uphold “a federal ban on late-term abortions” last year. It upheld a federal ban on partial-birth abortions.

Of course, the AP doesn’t want to use the term “partial-birth abortion” because it is a misleading, contentious, and highly charged phrase that doesn’t accurately reflect what happens, which is an abortion after a partial birth.

So they’ll just tell you that there was a federal ban on late-term abortions — making it sound as though there is no longer any such thing as a late-term abortion, because, you know, there is a federal ban on them.

So Obama wasn’t against a ban on all late-term abortions. He was against a ban on partial-birth abortion, in which a doctor delivers a part of the baby, sticks a pair of scissors in the back of the baby’s head, and sucks out the baby’s brain matter using a suction catheter.

That would be the procedure that Obama wants to remain available.

Just so we’re clear.

UPDATE: More on Obama’s incredible hypocrisy on this issue here.


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