The man who secretly taped Planned Parenthood workers is facing more legal trouble, and now so are his attorneys.

It was not I who was handcuffed, manhandled, and kept in a holding cell Wed afternoon last week--it was the 1st Amendment. @PPact @AGBecerra pic.twitter.com/UWfpr1yztO

— David Daleiden (@daviddaleiden) April 13, 2017

Nice try, but no it was just you.

Courtesy of Buzzfeed: 

The anti-abortion activist behind the videos accusing Planned Parenthood of selling “baby parts,” as he put it, could be going to prison. And now his criminal defense lawyers could join him. 

Late last month, David Daleiden and his team of criminal attorneys allegedly flouted multiple injunctions and court-issued seals by posting more shocking videos of abortion providers and identifying 14 of the John/Jane Does participating in the state criminal complaint against him and his recording partner Sandra Merritt. Those names were previously under a court seal. 

This apparent defiance of court orders may end up landing Daleiden and his criminal attorneys in contempt of both state and federal court, potentially resulting in fines and jail time — and disbarment for the lawyers. 

Daleiden’s work once caused multiple congressional investigations and nearly shut down the government. Two years and multiple lawsuits and legal hurdles later, the 28-year-old and his Planned Parenthood investigation have faded out of the headlines.

That's true, the last I wrote about Daleiden was back in March when California charged him, and one of his assistants, with invasion of privacy.

Now it appears that he is once again on the wrong side of the law:  

A federal court issued a preliminary injunction in a now two-year-old civil lawsuit brought by NAF, blocking Daleiden, his lawyers and any third party from releasing any new footage or names of those filmed until the case is closed. US District Judge William Orrick granted the injunction in February, 2016 in response to NAF’s claims of “death threats and severe harassment” against its employees. After the state of California brought a separate criminal case against Daleiden and Merritt in March of this year, the list of names of those accusing them was placed under a confidential court seal as well. Daleiden and his criminal attorneys published the videos and the list of names anyway. 

And last week, Daleiden’s criminal defense lawyers hired a criminal attorney of their own. That attorney, Vicki Ileen Podberesky, did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

So now this guy's attorneys have have a lawyer of their own?

Now why does that seem so familiar?

This guy is a scum sucking POS.

And I would not spend five seconds on him if he were not a prime example of the kind of guerilla tactics the Right Wing uses these days and attempts to pass off as "real journalism" while attacking actual established media outlets as "fake news."

California charges two anti-abortion activists with illegally filming Planned Parenthood employees.

David Deleiden

Courtesy of Time Magazine: 

California prosecutors on Tuesday charged two anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood with 15 felonies, saying they invaded the privacy of medical providers by filming without consent. 

The charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress come eight months after similar charges were dropped in Texas. 

State Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a longtime Congressional Democrat who took over the investigation in January, said in a statement that the state "will not tolerate the criminal recording of conversations."

Prosecutors say Daleiden, of Davis, California, and Merritt, of San Jose, filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person. The 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy. 

Daleiden said in an email to The Associated Press that the "bogus" charges are coming from "Planned Parenthood's political cronies." 

"The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners," Daleiden said.

Actually what the majority of the public knows is that these people are political operatives who used doctored videos to damage and organization which provide a myriad of health care services to women all across the country.

If you have forgotten about these assholes, here is your reminder.

Essentially these folks tried to do the same thing to Planned Parenthood that James O'Keefe's carefully edited videos did to ACORN.

In the end however, besides smearing the reputation of Planned Parenthood, they were unsuccessful in destroying the organization. (Not that the conservatives are not still trying.)

Hopefully in a blue state like California these smear merchants will receive the justice they so richly deserve.

The guy behind those bogus Planned Parenthood videos admits he used a stillborn fetus to portray an aborted one, and Dr. Jen Gunter has more on that video which supposedly defends Carly Fiorina.

Courtesy of AATTP:

Daleiden admits that the image is that of a stillborn baby, but insists it was only used to show what a fetus at that gestational period looks like. 

It is quite clear about halfway through the video that Cuomo’s attempts are futile because Daleiden is simply not going to agree that he sees how using the photograph out of context is misleading. Perhaps using one of the hundreds of thousands of images available of live fetuses in that same gestational period would have made your claim a little more credible. 

Daleiden responds by saying: 

“It’s the same baby, whether it’s born dead or alive, whether the organs are harvested or not.” 

To which Cuomo says, in a “don’t play dumb” tone: 

“It’s also completely irrelevant to the point you’re trying to make, which is, ‘Look at what they do to these babies.’” It was born stillborn. It was not aborted. Doesn’t that matter to you if you’re talking about abortion?” 

Daleiden repeats again that it’s the “same kind” of fetus. 

Cuomo, still trying to drill through the thickness of Daleiden’s skull, says: 

“My point is context. You’re saying, ‘what they do in abortions,’ that wasn’t an abortion. That’s my point.” 

So the guy finally admits to using false imagery as a means to manipulate the emotions of the viewer.

That's not something we didn't already know but it is nice the POS finally admitted it.

As for that video we talked about yesterday which supposedly PROVES that Carly Fiorina is not a big fat liar, well my new favorite OB/GYN Dr. Jen Gunter examined it again and discovered this: 

Today I viewed it again on a very large screen and noticed the width of the bed. It is clearly a labor and delivery bed, procedure/operating tables (used for clinic abortions and in the operating room) are much narrower. Also the part of the stirrup that is visible in the upper left is typical of a labor and delivery bed. As I was going through it frame by frame I noticed movement on the right side close to the minute mark. There is an African-American man who is sitting and moving back and forth as if he is wiping the brow of the woman on the table and comforting her. His face is clearly visible in the right upper corner at the 54 second mark. And of course that is what happens at premature deliveries, support persons come in. Partners don’t get to come back for abortions, that’s not how it works. I took a screen shot to be sure, but I feel wrong about posting it. Anyone who doesn’t believe me can look for themselves. 

As for the “poking and prodding” of the premature fetus that enraged many people on Twitter it looks as if the operator is inspecting for any grossly visible defects, but it is also possible he is describing a fetus at the 17-18 week developmental stage to the person who was illegally taping the premature delivery. Maybe the operator was asked to describe things? As there are no obvious defects this is unlikely an induction of labor for genetic reasons, also those happen at a later gestational age (around 20-22 weeks). 

Why wasn’t a blanket given to the baby? If the mother declined to hold her baby after delivery then typically nothing additional would be done and the body would go to the morgue or pathology for autopsy depending on the plans/circumstance. It is also possible no one offered the patient the option to hold and that would be sad. However, not everyone is brave to hold their baby in that situation. It took me over an hour to work up the courage when my son was born prematurely at 22 weeks and died. 

But all I can say is this is a premature delivery and it is despicable that it was held out as an abortion.

So we have the creator of the initial anti-abortion attack videos admitting that he used deceptive images to manipulate the viewer, and an actual doctor calling bullshit on the video that supposedly vindicated Carly Fiorina's  histrionic claims of seeing an aborted baby kept alive so that its brain could be harvested.

At this point I would usually simply say "We're done here." But knowing the cognitive dissonance which infects the Right Wing that is in fact very unlikely.

Another win for Planned Parenthood in Utah.

Courtesy of The Salt Lake Tribune:  

A judge on Tuesday blocked an order issued by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to cut off federal money going to Planned Parenthood in the state after the release of secretly recorded videos by a California anti-abortion group. 

U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups issued the temporary restraining order during a hearing, allowing the money to keep flowing while the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah seeks a longer-term injunction. 

Planned Parenthood sought the emergency order a day after suing Herbert. It said some programs would have expired Wednesday if the money was blocked. 

Herbert acted on his personal and political agenda when he cut off funding to the organization following the release of the videos, said Peggy Tomsic, a lawyer for the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah.

State by state, lawsuit by lawsuit, Republicans are getting their asses handed to them over their overreaction to those doctored videos.

It is just sad that Planned Parenthood has to waste time and money defending themselves against what is clearly a partisan attack inspired by phony videos that were proven false almost the moment they first appeared.

Group releases video called "Carly Fiorina was right." Video proves no such thing.

Courtesy of Slate: 

The video, titled "Carly Fiorina was right" (warning: extremely graphic), was provided by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. They are the group that provided an image of a fetus, moving slightly, that is used by the Center for Medical Progress in one of their videos. This new video shows the context: The fetus is pulled from a woman and placed in a bowl. At no point does anyone say, "We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain." There is no sound. There is no indication that we are inside a Planned Parenthood–affiliated clinic. 

The only new information this video adds is the revelation that the fetus came out of a woman's body. If that surprises you, then you have no right to weigh in on debates over women's health care.

Okay so I am going to provide a link to this video right here for those who want to see it for themselves.

For those who do not let me just say that what it shows is a view between the legs of what appears to be an African American woman having a small, almost fully formed fetus removed. Yes it is graphic. And yes it will probably disturb some people.

However it really does nothing to support Fiorina's claims about seeing a video which shows "a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain."

This video does not show that.

So what does it show?

For the answer to that we turn to Dr. Jen Gunter:

It is easy to see how someone who has no obstetrical training might think this could be something other than a previable premature delivery. Cunningham’s statements clearly show he is no medical expert and isn’t in the position to explain it. However, I am. 

Here are all the issues with the video from start to finish: 

1. It is illegally and clandestinely shot. I feel very badly for the poor woman in question and wonder why Fiorina and our elected officials are not as outraged as I am about her violation and exploitation. I had second thoughts about watching it myself given the lack of consent from the woman, however, I felt if I could end the conversation about it faster by weighing in. Time magazine or Slate have links. 
2. The prep of the patient. The physician (I’m assuming) pours surgical prep/cleaner on the woman’s perineum. We don’t do that anymore for spontaneous deliveries or for abortions that involve induction of labor. This tells me this video is at least 15 years old or from another country. 
3. The delivery. It is a spontaneous delivery as the operator waits for the fetus to be expelled. This is what we do with a previable premature delivery. If this were shot mid way through a 2nd trimester abortion (meaning the Laminaria in the cervix, which are osmotic sticks that help the cervix dilate, had just been removed) it is highly unlikely the operator would have waited for a spontaneous expulsion. 
4. The cord is clamped on the fetal side. If this were an abortion it would just be cut. Really. No one ever does this with an abortion as it serves no purpose. 
5. Waiting for the placenta. The clamp is left on the placental end and at the end of the video the placenta still hasn’t delivered. If this were an abortion the placenta would be removed with suction immediately, no one would wait 11 minutes. Ever. Every abortion clinic has a suction machine. 
6. There is no proof this video is in a Planned Parenthood clinic never mind in the United States. This could easily be an operating room. 

Instead of wasting tax payer dollars over highly edited videos our government should be investigating who illegally taped this woman’s delivery. If Cunningham says he didn’t take the video then of course he also can’t be sure what was going on. He can’t have it both ways.

So according to Dr. Jen this video likely does not even show an abortion, much less one that ends with a fetus having its brain harvested.

Simply put Carly Fiorina is a liar. And no evidence, and certainly no video, has shown that statement to be false. 

Missouri becomes latest state to admit that after spending tax payer money to investigate Planned Parenthood, they could find nothing wrong.

Courtesy of Mediaite:  

Planned Parenthood did not mishandle fetal tissue and was not engaged in wrongdoing in Missouri, the state’s Attorney General Chris Koster concluded Monday. 

An investigation into the women’s health organization was prompted after the Center for Medical Progress, a pro-life group, released videos allegedly showing top Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of fetal body parts. Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said the videos were “heavily edited,” but apologized for the “tone” expressed by some of her employees in the videos. 

“Koster’s investigation examined in detail the tissue-handling practices of Planned Parenthood’s Missouri surgical facility and concluded there was no evidence that the facility engaged in unlawful activity,” according to a press release. 

In addition to interviewing multiple Planned Parenthood employees in the St. Louis area, investigators also combed through thousands of pages of documents related to the “process for the disposal of fetal tissue,” the attorney general’s office said. They concluded that, after an abortion procedure, fetal tissue was carefully transported to a pathology lab, and was subsequently destroyed in an incinerator by a “waste-disposal company.” 

“The evidence reviewed by my investigators supports Planned Parenthood’s representation that fetal tissue is handled in accordance with Missouri law,” Koster, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We have discovered no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis facility is selling fetal tissue.”

So now Missouri joins Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, and South Dakota in wasting tax payer money on a witch hunt that found no witches.

Which isn't actually surprising, especially since the only two states where Planned Parenthood has fetal tissue donation programs is in California and Washington.

I swear these people are so dumb that they give dumb people a bad name.

Planned Parenthood protesters follow Carly Fiorina around campaign stop throwing condoms at her. No glove no love Carly. Update!

Courtesy of ABC Los Angeles:  

Planned Parenthood protesters threw condoms at Carly Fiorina today while she campaigned at a tailgate party for the Iowa Hawkeyes. 

The protesters, some of whom were affiliated with the women's health group and others who were supporters, were dressed in pink and waved pink pom-poms as they followed the Republican presidential candidate around the tailgate, chanting "Carly Fiorina offsides for telling lies" and "women are watching and we vote." 

Some people in the crowd supporting Fiorina shouted back at the pink-clad protesters, "So do we!" 

Fiorina has been having a war-of-words with Planned Parenthood ever since last week's debate when she made the claim that an undercover video from the conservative Center for Medical Progress showed a fully-formed fetus being kept alive to harvest its brain.

You know I don't necessarily think this is helping, but I have to admit, it's kind of funny.

And it's not like Firona doesn't deserve it, after making that garbage up about those Planned Parenthood videos and refusing to correct herself after so many journalists called her out on her misinformation.

And apparently she STILL has no intention of admitting her mistake:

"Oh I support women's health". 

"You need to ask yourself some questions [like] why is it that fetuses are butchered alive to harvest their brains. Why?"

Yeah that's what we need in the White House, yet another idiot whose opinion cannot be changed by new information, or the debunking of their old information.

Update: Fiorina was again given the opportunity to correct this today on Meet the Press: 

“There is no evidence that the scene you described exists,” Todd said. “Are you willing now to concede that you exaggerated that scene?” 

“No, not at all,” Fiorina responded. “That scene absolutely does exist. And that voice saying what I said they were saying, ‘We're going to keep it alive to harvest its brain,’ exists as well’.” 

“Planned Parenthood will not and cannot deny this because it is happening,” Fiorina continued. “It is happening in this nation. And taxpayers are paying for it. Planned Parenthood desperately wants everyone to think this isn't going on. Because when Americans realize it is going on, whether they are pro-life or pro-choice, they are horrified. This goes to the character of our nation and it must be stopped.” 

Todd accused Fiorina of ducking the issue, saying “the footage you describe at best is a reenactment.” Fiorina hit back, and criticized Todd for not asking Hillary Clinton about the issue when she sat for an interview earlier in the day. 

“Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck,” Fiorina said, talking over the anchor. “Do you think this is not happening? Does Hillary Clinton think this is not happening? So sad that you missed the opportunity to ask Mrs. Clinton why she said, ‘Late-term abortions were only performed for medical purposes.’ That is patently false. This is happening in America today. And taxpayers are paying for it. That is a fact. It is a reality. And no one can run away from it.”

And there you go. THAT is what it takes to be third in the polls right now.

The group behind those Planned Parenthood videos is being ordered by the courts to turn over documentation and raw footage.

Courtesy of Politico:  

Two courts have ruled in as many days that anti-abortion activist David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress must turn over private documents and submit to questions about how they orchestrated their video sting of Planned Parenthood. 

The rulings could require Daleiden to turn over paperwork and details of his operation, such as how he got into National Abortion Federation conferences. They also say he must provide the full, raw footage he collected of some of his meetings while posing as an executive of a fictitious tissue procurement firm. 

Opponents hope that those could show that he violated laws to obtain footage. 

The videos, which purport to show that Planned Parenthood makes a profit from selling fetal tissue from aborted fetuses — allegations the women's health provider denies — have set off a furor and led to calls to strip the group of government funding.

The suits were brought by the National Abortion Federation and StemExpress, a group that was featured prominently in the videos.

Considering who these plaintiffs are it would seem that they are unafraid that the unedited footage and documents will damage Planned Parenthood or abortion providers in any way, but believe instead that it will likely prove that this Center for Medical Progress used questionable editing techniques and possibly illegal tactics to gain gain and alter the footage that they used in their hit pieces against PP.

Gee I wonder what their conservative defenders will say when it is proven that this whole thing was a hoax and a manipulation of the facts?

OB/GYN's expose Carly Fiorina's claims of an aborted fetus kicking its legs in those doctored Planned Parenthood videos as false.

Courtesy of Dr. Jen Gunter's blog:

This weekend I posted about my hypothesis that the 3rd Planned Parenthood video deceptively shot and edited by the Center for Medical Progress did not contain video of a “fully formed fetus” (Carly Fiorina’s words), I believe it is a premature delivery. I reached that conclusion from 25 years of clinical practice in OB/GYN. I decided to ask nine other OB/GYNs what they thought about the clip, meaning I put a lot more effort into getting the facts than the politicians who voted to defund Planned Parenthood. All nine OB/GYNs agree with me. Several are OB/GYns who have done advanced training in family planning and so are experts in the field. 

We all agree the video clip is highly unlikely to be from an abortion. We all agree it is likely a premature delivery. We all agree it can’t be from a Planned Parenthood clinic. 

Here’s why: 

• The cord is clamped. No one ever clamps the cord in a 2nd trimester abortion. Ever. No one has seen it and no one has even heard of it happening. If you want to see the image where I point out the clamp, click here. I know it disturbs some so I’m not reposting. 
• The condition of the skin. Fetal skin is very fragile at 18 weeks, but here it is perfect. There is also no bruising. With 2nd trimester abortions, even when the purpose is to deliver intact (which is rarely the case), there is some instrumentation and this always leaves marks. If this were an induction of labor there is almost always bruising and skin maceration. Inductions are only done for malformations and none are present. 
• The gestational age. Likely 18 weeks, maybe 20 weeks. At a Planned Parenthood an abortion at this gestation would be a D & E. Inductions don’t happen at Planned Parenthood. 

The evidence suggests this is a premature delivery. The perfect condition is typical of a rapid but atraumatic delivery, such as cervical incompetence or a second twin.
It is always nice when a person with actual knowledge and facts to back them up is able to bitchslap conservative bullshit right back at those that are propagating it.

Dr. Gunter has more revealing information on her blog as well, such as the fact that the  organization which originally provided the  clip stands behind it, but is unwilling to reveal how they came by it or where it is from.

How convenient.

Carly Fiorina doubles down on her claim that she saw a "fully formed fetus, with its legs kicking" in the doctored Planned Parenthood videos.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

“Do you acknowledge what every fact checker has found?” Fox News host Chris Wallace asked the candidate on Sunday. “As horrific as the scene is, it was only described on the video by someone who claimed to have seen it. There is no actual footage of the incident you just mentioned.” 

“No, I don’t accept that at all,” Fiorina shot back. “I’ve seen the footage. And I find it amazing, actually, that all these supposed fact checkers in the mainstream media claim this doesn’t exist, they’re trying to attack the authenticity of the videotape, I haven’t found anyone in the mainstream media who has ever watched these things.” 

“I mean, they will claim that somebody watched it for them,” she continued. “I will continue to dare anyone who wants to continue to defund Planned Parenthood, watch the videotapes.” 

“And anyone who wants to challenge me first is going to have to prove to me that they watched it.”

Okay well I accept that challenge as I watched the unedited versions of the tapes (These are the ones that Fiorina claims has the footage.) when they first came out and I saw nothing like what she described. 

I also watched this additional video which DOES show a fully formed fetus on a tray (Starts at around the 5:58 mark). However this was NOT filmed inside of a Planned Parenthood facility and there is no talk of keeping it alive to "harvest its brain" as Fiorina suggests.

And there are others who have made themselves sit through the video as well and they also did not find the footage that Fiorina claims was in those first videos released by the anti-abortion group.

It is really no surprise that Fiorina currently finds herself in second place in the GOP polls.

After all it seems that Republicans love a good liar, as evidenced by Trump's rise to the top. So why wouldn't they also appreciate Fiorina playing fast and loose with the truth?

House Republicans vote to defund Planned Parenthood. Government shutdown in 3..2..1

Courtesy of MSNBC:  

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed on Friday the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, 248-177. The bill strips the women’s health provider of its funding for contraception, pap smears, and testing for sexually-transmitted infections, unless it stops performing abortions. 

President Barack Obama has vowed to veto the bill, setting the stage for a possible government shutdown. Some congressional Republicans have vowed not to vote for any budget that includes funding for the organization. 

“Planned Parenthood can get their money back if they fully commit to what they talk about, women’s healthcare, and stop performing abortions for this year,” said Rep. Diane Black. Her fellow Republican of Tennessee, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, also a vocal supporter of the bill, declared, “If there is reason to investigate, there is reason to withhold taxpayer funding during that time.”

Well actually there is no reason to investigate, as evidenced by the five investigations in five different states which found nothing wrong.

According to The Hill the vote went down mostly along party lines:

In a 241-187 vote, nearly all Republicans and two Democrats approved legislation that would block Planned Parenthood's federal funding for one year, giving time for Congress to fully investigate claims of wrongdoing by the provider. 

Lawmakers also passed a bill tightening restrictions on abortion doctors who violate infant protections in a 248-177 vote. 

“What we’ve learned about Planned Parenthood is appalling, barbaric and indefensible,” Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Pa.) said. 

What "we've learned" is that conservatives are easily manipulated by doctored video and hyperbolic posting on Facebook.

Of course this was the plan all long when that group, Center for Medical Progress, and their conservative backers, created those doctored videos in the first place.

They know full well they are dealing with a bunch of barely literate mouth breathers who will follow the shiny object every time. And so they have. 

Nancy French gets so incensed over Miss Tennessee's pro-Planned Parenthood answer that she puts on her Bristol Palin skin suit and goes on the attack.

What Bristol is doing while Nancy French attacks people using her name.

So the other night apparently there was a pageants of some kind on TV.

I don't like to see women objectified so I skipped it. (Is anybody buying that?)

But anyhow as it turns out one of the hosts, Vanessa Williams (Who was robbed of her own Miss America crown after an ex-boyfriend released nude photos of her to Penthouse magazine), asked Miss Tennessee a question about Planned Parenthood funding.

Miss Tennessee, responded with this:

"I don’t think Planned Parenthood funding should be cut off. The $500 million that gets given to Planned Parenthood every single year goes to female…care. It goes for scanning for cancers, it goes for mammograms…and if we don’t give that funding to Planned Parenthood, those women will be out of health care for reproductive causes.”

 Well now she did it.

In response there was the predictable backlash from the Right.

Which of course mean that Nancy French cannot be far behind.

And oh is SHER pissed!

Courtesy of Brancy's blog under the headline "Miss Tennessee Tells Planned Parenthood’s Lies on the Miss America Stage": 

There are so many things wrong with this, where do I even begin? 

First, Planned Parenthood does not preform mammograms. Not a single Planned Parenthood clinic offers mammograms! (To be fair, sure why not, Miss Tennessee IS incorrect about the mammograms. However if you visit the Planned Parenthood website you will see that THEY don't claim to provide them either. And they are in no way responsible for people misinterpreting that fact.) So many articles and fact-checkers have debunked this myth yet still Planned Parenthood supporters keep proclaiming it as fact. It’s just not true! 

Secondly, Miss Tennessee has bought in, hook line and sinker, to Planned Parenthood’s main talking point that women won’t be able to get health care if Planned Parenthood were to close. Again, this is a lie! The Alliance Defending Freedom released a super helpful map recently that shows that for every 1 Planned Parenthood Clinic there are 20 other women’s health facilities that do not perform abortions and are ready to provide healthcare to women in need! (Of course many of them provide misinformation in order to scare women away from birth control and the Morning After pill, not to mention perfectly legal abortion services, but why quibble?)

Finally, the question that judge Vanessa Williams asked Miss Tennessee shows just how biased the media and Hollywood is on this issue! She made no mention at all of the horrific undercover footage of Planned Parenthood selling murdered baby parts which started the whole funding debate in the first place!  (Okay well at this point I am going to imagine that everybody reading here already knows that those videos that French is citing are highly edited bullshit.) Instead, she chose to push her agenda through a clearly leading and partisan question, with complete disregard for context or truth!  (Translation: "Disregard for context or truth as WE see it!")

It makes me so angry that women who are supposed to represent the best of America use this platform as a way to push the lies of Planned Parenthood and demonize those of us who truly want to protect the rights of women – both unborn baby girls and their mothers!

You know I reread Miss Tennessee's answer a couple more times, and I fail to see where she is "demonizing" anyone.

I mean it's not like she called anybody a liar, or referred to anybody as biased, or accused an organization of illegally profiting from the sale of "murdered baby parts."

Now THAT would be demonizing someone.

The facts are that Planned Parenthood is an organization that helps millions of women and men, and the ENTIRE reason they are under attack is because the Right Wing formulated a plan to misrepresent themselves to obtain video, which they then doctored to create a narrative, and are now using as an attempt to undermine and ultimately outlaw legal abortions in this country.

And Nancy French is a frustrated moralist who has to pose as the unwed, numerously impregnated, daughter of a formerly infamous politician in order to get people to even read the shit that she writes. 

Conservatives plan to shut down the government again unless they stop funding Planned Parenthood. What is the definition of insanity again?

Courtesy of Cleveland.com: 

A conservative House of Representatives faction led by Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan announced Thursday its members will vote against any federal spending bill that contains money for Planned Parenthood, dramatically increasing the chance of an Oct. 1 government shutdown. 

"Given the appalling revelations surrounding Planned Parenthood, we cannot in good moral conscience vote to send taxpayer money to this organization while still fulfilling our duty to represent our constituents," said the statement issued by the House Freedom Caucus, which Jordan heads. 

Jordan and his group are angered by the release of videos that suggest Planned Parenthood profits from selling tissue from aborted fetuses to medical researchers. He and his supporters want to redirect Planned Parenthood's share of federal reproductive health care money to clinics that don't perform abortions. 

The stance by the Freedom Caucus' roughly 40 members will make it harder for Republican leaders who control the House and Senate to a pass a bill to keep the federal government open after current government funding expires on Sept. 30. 

"No one wants to shut down the government, but I believe that Congress should take the money that is currently going to Planned Parenthood and give it to federally qualified clinics that are providing more comprehensive care to women," said Jordan. "If President Obama and Harry Reid want to shut down the government over an allegiance to that one particular organization, instead of funding our troops and funding women's health care, then that's a sad commentary on their priorities."

Okay when this jerkwad talks about "federally qualified clinics that are providing more comprehensive care to women," what he really means is "Religious based anti-choice clinics that push abstinence only education, adoption as the only alternative to an unwanted pregnancy, and of course offer numerous pamphlets that shame women for being such sluts."

I don't think I still need to point out that those Planned Parenthood videos were heavily edited in order to smear Planned Parenthood, but for anybody still on the fence here you go.

If these idiots go through with their threat this will be the second government shutdown under Barack Obama, and like the third or fourth time the conservatives have threatened to do so since he took office back in 2008.

I seriously doubt that the administration is going to buckle under to this kind of hostage taking, especially since their reasons for doing it are based on ignorance and ideology.

Washington Planned Parenthood clinic set on fire as Republicans continue attacks in response to doctored videos.

Courtesy of KGW:

Pullman Fire Department and Pullman Police Department both confirmed a fire at the Planned Parenthood. 

The fire started at around 3:30 a.m. along SE King Drive and caused extensive damage. Police said fire alarms and burglary alarms were tripped at the same time. 

Pullman fire said the fire is suspicious because it happened at Planned Parenthood. 

Around 4:45 p.m., Riordan said Pullman fire investigator Rich Dragoo informed them that the fire was arson. 

"This is an appalling act of violence towards Planned Parenthood, but unfortunately a predictable ripple effect from the false and incendiary attacks that fuel violence from extremists," added Karl Eastlund, CEO, Planned Parenthood of Greater WA and North Idaho.

I think that this fire is undoubtedly the result of those doctored videos, and even though investigations launched in numerous states have found that NO fetal tissue was sold for profit, the politically motivated attacks continue.

In fact Florida Governor Rick Scott decided that since his investigation did not find the evidence he was hoping to find, that he would just withhold that information from the public: 

After the now-discredited videos accusing Planned Parenthood of selling fetal tissue came out, Republican politicians rushed in, demanding investigations and defunding efforts with an eye toward marginalizing or even destroying the women's health care provider. Gov. Rick Scott of Florida was particularly eager, sending a team of investigators into Planned Parenthood clinics in a fishing expedition to find malfeasance. 

That effort may end up backfiring. Politico Florida reported on Wednesday that Rick Scott's office suppressed the findings of the investigators, who found no evidence whatsoever of the alleged fetal tissue sales. The initial press release drafted by Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration indicated that "there is no evidence of the mishandling of fetal remains at any of the 16 clinics we investigated across the state." Emails obtained by Politico through a Freedom of Information Act request showed that the governor's office struck that language from the press release. 

Well I guess we can all look forward to a clinic in Florida suddenly bursting into flames as well, can't we ?

The "controversy" over the videos is also affecting the President's plan to promote Obamacare.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

The Obama administration on Wednesday awarded more than $1 million in grants to Planned Parenthood to help promote ObamaCare, a move that is drawing GOP criticism at a time when the healthcare provider is under congressional investigation. 

Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) blasted the White House’s decision as “unconscionable” in light of allegations of illegal activity in the health provider’s fetal tissue program, which has prompted key Republicans to call for a total defunding of the organization. 

“A growing body of evidence suggests that Planned Parenthood broke federal law and now the Obama administration is thumbing its nose at Congress and taxpayers by using this backdoor maneuver to boost funding for the scandal-ridden abortion giant,” Black wrote in a statement Wednesday. 

She is the lead author of three bills to defund Planned Parenthood, one of which she says has been promised a vote by House GOP leadership.

Actually according to Mitch McConnell the Republicans don't have the votes to defund Planned Parenthood but he hopes that when President Trump, Carson, or Bush take office that will all change.

Which means that the Republicans are going to try and make this issue a central theme during the 2016 election, and that we can all expect more anti-abortion protests, more fire damaged clinics, and more political manipulations by those who want to deny women the right to control their own bodies.

Analysis shows that those Planned Parenthood videos were purposefully altered to give false impression. Gee, really?

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

The undercover Planned Parenthood videos that spurred a congressional investigation were so severely manipulated that they wouldn't hold up in court, according to an analysis by three teams of forensic experts. 

Planned Parenthood hired independent research firm Fusion GPS to investigate the validity of the first five "sting" videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group. 

Glenn Simpson, a partner at the firm and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, assembled three teams of neutral experts to comb through the tapes using special video software. He said the teams found that all of the videos analyzed -- even the supposedly "full," unedited footage the CMP released -- were missing large sections of time and misleadingly altered so that separate conversations appeared to take place in an uninterrupted take. Moreover, the forensic team found that the transcripts CMS released with the videos were frequently erroneous. 

"It appears they commit what I would call 'wishful thinking' about what was said," Simpson told reporters Thursday.

So not only were the videos used to attack Planned Parenthood altered, but even the so-called "unedited" versions, which already undermined the premise that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal tissue for a profit, were changed to push forward a false impression. 

Color me unsurprised.

And yet THIS is what is being used to once again launch an attack against women's access to legal abortion services, as well as cancer screenings and important information about contraception and STD's.

Taking a page from the conservative playbook Planned Parenthood release their own doctored videos.

Courtesy of Americans Against the Tea Party:  

Planned Parenthood has decided to fight back. With support for them growing after the failed attack, they are turning a bad situation into a positive new educational tool to boost their image. 

Planned Parenthood just used the Right’s tactic against them in a newly released, heavily-edited and out-of-context video of their own. It is one in a series I hope, but I think it is the perfect way to give the GOP a dose of their own bitter medicine for once. 

I think the people at PP have finally realized that civil discourse is impossible and have started to do what everyone else is doing to the extreme right wing: ignore them, troll them, humiliate them, and keep on keeping on in spite of them.

Works for me. 

Pennsylvania becomes the most recent state to exonerate Planned Parenthood after launching investigation in the wake of those doctored videos.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

Pennsylvania has found no wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood in the state after a review, according to a letter from the state health department. 

That decision makes it the fifth state to announce that they have found no wrongdoing by the organization in the wake of controversial undercover videos showing officials discussing the price of fetal tissue for medical research. Planned Parenthood says the officials are discussing compensation for expenses, which is legal, and not profit. 

The organization also says it only has fetal tissue donation programs in two states, California and Washington. 

Pennsylvania joins Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts and South Dakota as stated that have conducted reviews and found no fetal tissue sales or violations of the law. 

“Although donation of fetal tissue is lawful under the Abortion Control Act and federal law, our review has found that Planned Parenthood facilities in Pennsylvania do not participate in this practice,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Karen Murphy wrote in a letter to a state legislator. “Moreover, there is no evidence that any Planned Parenthood site in this Commonwealth is involved in the buying or selling of fetal tissue.”

So now there are five states so far that have used taxpayer money to investigate a women's health clinic based on fraudulent videos designed to destroy their reputation and force them out of business.

Not only that but there are also now protests outside of  Planned Parenthood clinics all over the country in response to the videos.

Which, by the way, continue to be released.

Yeah like I said before somebody needs to get a crap sued out of them.

Investigations launched in response to heavily edited videos have shown no wrongdoing on the part of Planned Parenthood. Update!

Courtesy of Mother Jones: 

Completed probes in Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, and South Dakota have spent thousands in taxpayer money but turned up no evidence that Planned Parenthood is trafficking in the sale of fetal tissue. And in most of the other states that have launched investigations—including Ohio, Arizona, Texas, and Kansas—Planned Parenthood affiliates don't even have fetal tissue donation programs, making it hard to believe the states will find any illegal activity related to the practice. In Louisiana, where Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered an investigation in mid-July, Planned Parenthood does not even operate a single abortion clinic. 

"In every state where these investigations have concluded, officials have cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing," Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation, told the Huffington Post. "We've said all along that Planned Parenthood follows all laws and has very high medical standards, and that's what every one of these investigations has found." 

Not every governor has taken the bait. Democratic governors in Minnesota and Virginia have rejected state legislators' pleas to look into the group, saying they won't waste time investigating programs that don't exist in their states. 

"As far as I'm concerned, there's no basis for an investigation at taxpayer expense into a private nonprofit organization that has stated they don't engage in those practices," Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton told local reporters after he received a letter from GOP lawmakers asking him to take action.

Of course other states have simply decided to skip the investigation stage and simply defund Planned Parenthood. However by doing that they may be breaking the law, which of course will result in even more taxpayer money being used to defend their decision in court.

In their attempts to smear Planned Parenthood the creators of these videos have even resorted to using miscarried babies to fool the viewers: 

The latest video intended to cast Planned Parenthood in an unflattering light relies on images of fetuses that were not actually aborted at Planned Parenthood clinics. 

One of the photos (displayed at the video’s nine-minute mark) isn’t an aborted fetus at all. It’s actually a stillborn fetus prematurely delivered at 19 weeks. 

The woman who took that photo, Alexis (or “Lexi”) Fretz, initially published it on her blog — where she also shared the story of grieving her stillborn son, whom she named Walter Joshua. In a Facebook post, Fretz said that she did not give permission for the Center for Medical Progress to use Walter’s photo, though she does not plan to take legal action against the group.

 Okay this is all way past the ick stage.

At this point I dearly hope that after Congress finishes wasting our money on yet another failed investigation into Planned Parenthood, that PP turns around and sues the shit out of those Center for Medical Progress douchebags.

Update: Hey! They might be planning to sue!

Well good for them!

Man arrested in Kansas for bringing homemade bomb into abortion clinic.

Courtesy of CBS News: 

Police say a man is in custody after he brought a small improvised explosive device into a women's health care clinic that provides abortions in south-central Kansas. 

Wichita Police Department spokesman Doug Nolte says officers responded to the South Wind Women's Center around 3:30 p.m. Monday. He says on-site security inspected a backpack the man brought in and found knives and the explosive device. 

Officials told CBS affiliate KWCH in Wichita that the suspect was also carrying a small box wrapped in tape. 

Clinic staff evacuated the building, and a bomb squad was called to remove the backpack. No injuries were reported.

The authorities are investigating as to whether or not the man intended to cause any harm to the clinic or its staff, but since the guy brought a bomb into the same building that Dr. Teller used to work in before he was shot dead, I think it is a pretty good bet that his intentions were not altruistic.

By the way this kind of thing is the predictable byproduct of this most recent attempt to smear Planned Parenthood and abortion providers using those doctored videos.

Some people may write to their Congressman in response, some might create placards and protest outside of clinics, but there is also a fringe group who believes the best way to "save the fetus" is to murder those providing abortion services.

Bristol Palin, aka Nancy French, wants you to know she did not laugh once at that Funny or Die parody of the doctored Planned Parenthood videos.

So this is the Funny of Die video, which in my opinion is pretty damn good.

So good in fact that it has several conservatives upset that it is making a mockery of their attempts to get people really incensed about Planned Parenthood so that they can convince their governors to defund them in their states.

And one of those conservatives is the Sarah Palin paid, Bristol Palin impersonating, Nancy French.

(Wait, is that THREE conservatives?)

Anyhow she put on her best Silence of the Lambs inspired Bristol Palin skin suit and wrote this pouty response: 

Making fun of people who are speaking out for unborn babies, against murdering them and selling their parts is so lame. (Yeah guys it's SO lame!) Imagine if this video was made making fun of abolitionists who wanted to end slavery or civil rights activists working to end segregation. 

The fact of the matter is that Funny or Die has made a clear choice: they support death. They support tearing apart babies’ arms and legs and selling them for a price. “It’s a matter of line items” they say. 

French then links to an article over at the Washington Post, French's now go to newspaper it seems, that through some rather convoluted means tries to poke holes in Planned Parenthood's contention that they only spend 3% of their budget on abortion services. 

Brancy finishes up her tantrum thusly:

Funny or Die has not only chosen to support the death of innocent, they have chosen to mock it. 

They should rename themselves a more accurate title: “We Think It’s Funny Babies Die.”

You can almost hear her stomping her feet as she writes this can't you?

Gee it must be really frustrating when you create a bullshit meme by releasing doctored videos, and then some other group casually sticks a pin in it with just one humorous video.