Geithner Under Siege: Calls Mount for Treasury Secretary to Resign
Fueled by the furor over AIG bonuses, the first calls have begun for embattled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to resign -- forcing President Obama to divert attention from the nation’s economic ills to defend the No. 1 official responsible for healing them. Two key GOP congressmen called for Geithner’s resignation Wednesday after offering a blistering critique of a series of missteps leading up to his handling of the controversial insurance giant’s executive bonuses. “Quite simply, the Timothy Geithner experience has been a disaster,” Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., said in a statement. “The Treasury Department is in disarray.” Mack was joined later in the day by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. A terse message on Issa’s Twitter page announced that he is “calling on Sec. Geithner to resign!”

White House admit cap-and-trade energy tax is triple the size they claimed!
The White House budget estimate of $646 billion in higher energy taxes under the guise of cap-and-trade always looked like a lowball. Now the deputy director of the White House National Economic Council, Jason Furman, is giving us a glimpse at the real number, telling Senate staff the energy tax scheme would actually raise "two-to-three times" the budget's official $646 billion revenue estimate. Dow Jones reports that 5 people at the meeting confirmed the statement. That would mean the actual tax hike would run well into the trillions, roughly between $1.3 trillion and $1.9 trillion between fiscal years 2012 and 2019 by Furman's own estimate. Remember that these are just the costs for the first 8 years of a 40 year program that gets much more expensive over time. This is the final knock-out blow for a wobbly U.S. economy, and the more people learn the facts the more strongly they'll oppose it.

American Legion Leader Strongly Opposed to Obama’s Plan to Charge Wounded
The leader of the nation's largest veterans organization says he is "deeply disappointed and concerned" after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases. "It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan," said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. "He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it."

Anger Over AIG Bonuses Depletes Obama's Political Capital
President Obama's apparent inability to block executive bonuses at insurance giant AIG has dealt a sharp blow to his young administration and is threatening to derail both public and congressional support for his ambitious political agenda. Politicians in both parties flocked to express outrage over $165 million in bonuses paid out to executives at the company, demanding answers from the president and swamping yesterday's rollout of his efforts to spark lending to small businesses. The populist anger at the executives who ran their firms into the ground is increasingly blowing back on Obama, whom aides yesterday described as having little recourse in the face of legal contracts that guaranteed those bonuses. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, peppered with questions about why the president had not done more to block the bonuses at a company that has received $170 billion in taxpayer funds, struggled for an answer yesterday afternoon.

Oops: Caterpillar lays off after Porkulus passes and Obama visit to Plant
Last month, Barack Obama challenged Congress to pass his stimulus package at a visit to the Caterpillar plant in East Peoria, Illinois, claiming that the company’s CEO assured him that it would allow Caterpillar to rehire laid-off workers. CEO Jim Owens disputed that, saying that the stimulus wouldn’t have enough effect, and that more layoffs would come regardless of whether Congress passed the bill. So who was right? Today, Caterpillar Inc, the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, notified an additional 2,454 workers in three states on Tuesday that they were losing their jobs as the company continues to try to bring production in line with plummeting demand.

Liberal Illinois Governor to Raise Income Tax by 50%
Gov. Pat Quinn today acknowledged he plans to raise income taxes in the wake of a Chicago Tribune story that he is considering a 50 percent increase on individuals. He declined to confirm details in the Tribune report, which said he is looking at raising the personal income tax from 3 percent to 4.5 percent as well as increasing personal exemptions. Residents leaving Illinois soon to follow!

Time for a Real Change: Repeal the Corporate Income Tax
Entrepreneurs are among America's greatest resources. These individuals try to change the status quo because they expect to use resources to create higher value than those resources are currently pro­ducing. This takes investments, and investments are risky. The return to these investments is the economic growth that they create, which is profit. Yet the gov­ernment often taxes these profits twice, once at the business level and then again when the profits are distributed to individuals. This double taxation not only dampens the incen­tive to invest, but also obscures who actually bears the burden of these taxes. Corporations are often per­sonified and demonized, but a corporation is a legal entity, not an actual person. Because a corporation is made up of a group of individuals but is not actually an individual, corporate taxes are really taxes on the stakeholders in the corporation.

Commerce pick tied to China cash
Commerce Secretary nominee Gary Locke, whose job would include approving sensitive exports to China, has performed legal work for companies doing business with Beijing and was forced to refund several political donations that he received in the 1990s from key figures in a Chinese influence-buying investigation. The former Washington state governor is expected to face questions about both issues during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Senate aides and an Obama administration official familiar with the vetting told The Washington Times.

Pelosi Tells Illegal Immigrants That Work Site Raids are Un-American
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants and their families that enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced, is "un-American." The speaker, condemning raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, referred to the immigrants she was addressing as "very, very patriotic."

Teens' abortion technique: Drink poisonous veterinary mixture
Some teens in rural America are now self-inducing abortions with chemicals intended to abort livestock, reports one of the nation's oldest and most influential pro-life organizations. Anderson reported getting numerous calls and visits to her pregnancy care center from teens who either had taken the drugs or were worried about friends who had taken them. The drugs, kept on farms for management of livestock under the names Prostaglandins, Cystorelin, Factrel, Gonadorelin or Lutalyse, were being ingested orally in large quantities, even though animals are treated by injection, the alert said.

Oklahoma Votes for Resolution Condemning Obama Pro-Abortion FOCA Bill
The Oklahoma state House has joined legislatures in other states passing a resolution condemning the Freedom of Choice Act. That is the Congressional bill pro-life advocates expect to be filed soon to make unlimited abortions for any reason throughout pregnancy the national law. Top abortion advocates in Congress have indicated they plan to introduce FOCA soon and make it a top priority. Drawing the ire of state legislators, FOCA would also overturn hundreds of pro-life laws states have approved that have helped reduce abortions to record levels.

Cuban Missile Crises Back: Russia wants bombers in Cuba and Venezuela
Russia could use bases for its strategic bombers on the doorstep of the United States in Cuba and Venezuela to underpin long-distance patrols in the region, a senior air force officer said Saturday.

Vatican Official Says No Communion for Pro-Abortion Obama Nominee Sebelius
A leading Vatican official says pro-abortion Health Secretary nominee Kathleen Sebelius should refrain from taking communion. The call comes after Sebelius' own bishop asked her to voluntarily not present herself for the sacrament because of her own pro-abortion views. President Barack Obama nominated Sebelius for the top health post and pro-life organizations strongly oppose her nomination because of her lengthy pro-abortion voting record. The reaction from the Catholic Church to Sebelius' pro-abortion record has been anything but pococurante. Archbishop Raymond Burke, the prefect of the Apostolic Signature, is calling on her to refrain from taking the sacrament until she reforms her views.

Obama Urban Czar in trouble over non payment of services
The White House told urban czar Adolfo Carrión on Wednesday to pay the architect who did work on his Bronx home more than two years ago. The Daily News reported that Carrión, the former Bronx borough president who is now the White House urban policy director, had the architect draw up renovations in early 2007. That work came as Carrión's office was reviewing the architect's plan for a housing project. Carrión still hasn't paid for the work, raising questions about whether it was a freebie done to win approval of the project.

Another Obama Pick Withdraws Name
A prominent New York attorney has withdrawn from consideration for the No. 2 job at the Treasury Department, the second person to drop out of the running for the post, a Democratic source said Thursday.

Obama's Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth
It is simply wrong for commentators to continue to focus on President Barack Obama's high levels of popularity, and to conclude that these are indicative of high levels of public confidence in the work of his administration. Indeed, a detailed look at recent survey data shows that the opposite is most likely true. The American people are coming to express increasingly significant doubts about his initiatives, and most likely support a different agenda and different policies from those that the Obama administration has advanced. Polling data show that Mr. Obama's approval rating is dropping and is below where George W. Bush was in an analogous period in 2001. Rasmussen Reports data shows that Mr. Obama's net presidential approval rating -- which is calculated by subtracting the number who strongly disapprove from the number who strongly approve -- is just six, his lowest rating to date.

Obama Calls Singer Jessica Simpson Fat
Apparently, President Barack Obama thought that Jessica Simpson's weight was something he needed to make fun of during his pre-Super Bowl interview with Matt Lauer on NBC Sunday. Seriously. Obama called Jessica Simpson a fatty on national TV. Lauer displayed for the audience the cover of a recent issue of the tabloid entertainment magazine US Weekly that featured the President's wife and daughters and also had an insert photo pushing a story about singer Simpson. As he viewed the cover, Obama decided to smack the singer down for "in a weight battle." So much for Presidential decorum!

Texas Governor Says No to Stimulus Aid
From the center of a Houston hardware store, Gov. Rick Perry ignited a debate about Texas job cuts, business taxes and President Barack Obama’s so-called economic stimulus program Thursday by rejecting the federal government’s offer of $555 million in aid to the unemployed. The action now moves to the Legislature, which can bypass Perry and take the offer as long as it changes state laws and blocks Republican Perry’s potential veto.

Bishop thanks ‘patriotic’ Catholics for thwarting ‘legislative attack'
Declaring that the defense of religious liberty is "genuine patriotism," Bishop of Bridgeport William Lori has thanked the Catholics of Connecticut for helping derail a senate bill he called a "legislative attack." The bishop also rebuked the bill’s sponsoring senator and said he has no business interfering with the Catholic Church or any other church. The Connecticut Senate’s S.B. 1098 targeted the Catholic Church for financial reorganization and would have stripped Catholic bishops and pastors of their governing roles. Though the bill was withdrawn on Tuesday, thousands of protesters attended a Wednesday rally against the bill.

Orange County rescinds contract with Planned Parenthood, citing abortion issues
Citing Planned Parenthood’s links to abortion, the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to rescind the organization’s $290,000 contract, which would have funded a sex education program. The 5-0 vote followed a long debate and many comments from the public.

Obama Upsets Another Ally: Brazilian President Upset Over Snub
Brazil has become a major U.S. trading partner, with cautious economic policies that have helped it weather the crisis better than almost all other major economies. With huge new offshore oil finds and abundant ethanol, Brazil could be key to helping wean the U.S. off Venezuelan crude and shift to cleaner energies. Still, the White House made several moves interpreted as snubs by the Brazilian media. Silva aides said the trip was pushed forward from Tuesday because of the St. Patrick’s Day holiday - making Latin America once again look like an afterthought. Then, the White House announcement misspelled his name as “Luis Ignacio” and put “Lula” - a nickname that decades ago became a legal part of the Brazilian leader’s name - in quotes.

Controversial Conn. legislators propose and withdraw ‘Anti-Religion' Bill
The Connecticut legislators who sponsored a quickly withdrawn bill targeting the Catholic Church for financial and organizational restructuring have now introduced and hastily withdrawn a “disastrous” bill which would legalize assisted suicide in the state. Senator Andrew McDonald (D-Stamford) and Representative Michael Lawlor (D-East Haven), co-chairs of the State Judiciary Committee, first made headlines with their sponsorship of S.B. 1098. The bill was quickly removed after it provoked Catholic outcry for its provisions, which would have removed the ability of bishops to govern their dioceses and pastors to head their parishes.

Video Shows More Planned Parenthood Abortion Centers Hiding Statutory Rap
Two more Planned Parenthood abortion centers have been caught on camera covering up potential cases of statutory rape. These are the fourth and fifth Planned parenthood facilities where staff members have failed to provide proper followup on underage girls who have possible become victims of sexual abuse. The latest expose' is part of a campaign orchestrated by UCLA student Lila Rose and others to determine if Planned Parenthood centers are following proper state reporting laws. Two videos caught staffers in Indiana failing to follow up on sexual abuse and a third had staffers.

Obama Sends UN Population Fund $50 Million, Abortion Backers Want More
The American economy is in turmoil but the Obama administration sent a $50 million check yesterday to the United Nations Population Fund. That's the pro-abortion group that has been accused of supporting and working in concert with Chinese family planning officials. There, the Chinese population control program has relied on forced abortions, involuntary sterilizations and other human rights abuses to enforce its rule that most couples may have no more than one child.

Cardinal George warns Obama against moving U.S. towards despotism
Cardinal Francis George has issued a video message asking Catholics to tell the Obama Administration to retain a conscience protection rule for pro-life health care workers. Its preservation is vital to keep the government from “moving our country from democracy to despotism,” he said.

Sheriff Joe tells liberal congressmen to butt out
House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) told CNSNews.com he is going to invite Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio to testify in his committee about alleged abuses by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in its enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. But a spokeswoman for Arpaio told CNSNews.com that the sheriff who has not yet received an official invitation to testify but has “no intention” of appearing before Conyers’ committee.

Democrat Lawmaker Convicted of Corruption
Vincent Fumo, once one of the most powerful figures in Pennsylvania politics, was convicted Monday of more than 130 counts of corruption for schemes that defrauded the state Senate and others of more than $3.5 million and allowed him to live a lavish lifestyle. The 65-year-old former state senator was found guilty of all 137 counts against him, which also included obstruction of justice for destroying e-mail evidence. The jury deliberated about the Philadelphia Democrat's fate for about six days after a five-month trial.

Senate Panel OKs Obama's Pro-Abortion Nominee for Office of Legal Counsel
The Senate Judiciary Committee today approved President Barack Obama's pro-abortion nominee for the Office of Legal Counsel. In a party line vote, the committee signed off on Dawn Johnsen, a former NARAL attorney, who will become Assistant Attorney General for the Office of the Legal Counsel. Johnsen is currently a professor at the Indiana University School of Law, but she is also a longtime abortion advocate and was the Legal Director for NARAL from 1988-1993.?Johnsen has come under fire for equating pregnancy with slavery.

Teachers Confiscate Kids Lunchboxes
A primary school has been accused of running a 'mealtime Gestapo' after insisting on inspecting children's lunchboxes for unhealthy food. If pupils are found to have sweets, chocolate, fizzy drinks or full-fat crisps, teachers confiscate them and hold them in the staffroom. The snacks are returned at the end of the day but only if parents ask.

Joe the VP Does It Again!
At an event at Union Station today where Vice President Joe Biden was heralding the $1.3 billion in investments in rebuilding train stations and passenger rails, a microphone picked up one of the former senator's myriad Senate colleagues addressing him, formally, as "Mr. Vice President." That met with Vice President Biden's standard reply. "Gimme a f*&$#ing break," he said, apparently unaware that the microphone was on.

Sen. Dodd: You know, now I remember adding that bonus language
After a day in which Democrats scapegoated Edward Liddy for paying AIG bonuses in which he had no hand in creating, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) finally reversed his earlier denials and admitted that he inserted language into Porkulus that allowed the payouts. Dodd told CNN that the devil Tim Geithner made him do it.

Barney Frank - Your congressional finance chair! Scary very scary!
All those who care about the future of this country should be greatly concerned that Barney Frank, a leftist radical who publicly flaunts his homosexuality, is presently one of the most powerful politicians in America. His recent actions and statements make it amply clear that he will seek to use his present influence to implement as much of his extreme agenda as he possibly can. Given his party's hold on the White House and Congress his efforts may meet with much success.

Shepherd Smith goes Nuclear in Bernie Frank and Chris Dodd!
A fiery palate cleanser from this afternoon’s Studio B. Note the ringing populist note on which it ends. Good enough for Glenn Beck, good enough for Shep!

Pork Money Goes to Microsoft Bridge!
Microsoft Corp., which has $20 billion of cash in the bank, is among the first in the Puget Sound area to benefit from the investment in roads and bridges through President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. Local planners allotted $11 million of $214 million awarded to the region to help pay for a highway overpass in Redmond, Washington, connecting one part of Microsoft’s wooded campus with another.

Two Faced: Dodd Protected Bonuses, Now He Wants Them Out
Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd on Monday criticized the bonuses given to executives of American International Group Inc. and suggested that the government could tax the recipients to recoup some or all of the payouts. But it was Dodd who inserted language known as the Dodd amendment in the $787 billion stimulus bill that allowed all bonuses awarded before February 11, 2009, to be paid to AIG executives. That very amendment, which is now law, is now the chief hurdle to government officials who want to recover that money.

Obama blocks citizenship check on high-security jobs in Kansas – Tiahrt Responds
Contractors who will build the high-security $450 million National National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility in Manhattan will not have to verify that their workers and subcontractors are in the country legally. Likewise, if the state chooses to use money from the federal stimulus package for highway projects, the citizenship status of those workers will not have to be checked. Rep. Todd Tiahrt: 'The Democrat majority should be held accountable.' Topeka lawmakers could step in.

Pro-life bill passes Senate 32-6!
The Women's Right to Know and See Act (H Sub SB 238) is on its way to Governor Sebelius! She will have until March 30 to sign the bill, veto it or let it become law without her signature. Today, the Kansas Senate passed the bill with a bi-partisan vote of 32-6. This is an incredible achievement and we owe so much to those of you who contacted your senators urging them to support the bill. Please take a few minutes to tell your senator "thank you" for their vote in support of the Women's Right to Know and See Act.

Gov. Sebelius urged to match ‘record to rhetoric’ by signing ultrasound bill
Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is being urged to sign new state legislation that would require Kansas abortionists to offer women an ultrasound image or heartbeat record of their unborn child before an abortion procedure. One pro-life advocate said the governor’s refusal to sign the bill would “extinguish” hopes she would work to reduce abortions. On Tuesday the Kansas Senate voted in favor of the bill by 36 to 2. The “Woman’s Right to Know Act,” S.B. 238, would also require clinics to post signs saying that coerced abortions are illegal.

Predator program violates law
A Senate committee was troubled Friday by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' plan to expand a state hospital's treatment of sexual predators, and the panel's chairman questioned whether any program there is legal. The program at Osawatomie State Hospital prepares violent sexual predators for their eventual release from state custody. Eight are living there, and Sebelius' proposed budget for the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services would allow four more to be housed at the hospital. Local legislators and residents oppose her plan and are pushing a bill to limit the department to housing no more than six predators in a prerelease program in a single county. The Senate Ways and Means Committee had a hearing Friday. Chairman Jay Emler, a Lindsborg Republican, said he believes the department is violating a 2006 state law by housing any of the predators in Osawatomie.

Prop K gains more endorsements
Proposition K, a plan being considered by the Kansas legislature to limit property evaluation increases to 2 percent a year, has picked up the endorsements of two prominent business groups. The Flint Hills Center for Public Policy, a free-market advocacy group that was an early proponent of the plan, announced Thursday that Proposition K now has the backing of the Wichita Area Builders Association and the Kansas chapter of the Certified Commercial Investment Members.

Kansas congressional delegation ups pressure to get Boeing a tanker contract
The Obama administration is getting pressure from the Kansas congressional delegation to act quickly on awarding a new contract for Air Force refueling tankers. Rep. Todd Tiahrt and Sen. Pat Roberts insist that a decision to build the next generation of tankers is vital to national security and the Kansas economy.

Moran Wrestles Cow Tax
U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran is sponsoring legislation in Congress to help ranchers avoid a “cow tax” tied to possible adoption of federal greenhouse gas regulations. The Kansas Republican said the House bill, identical to a measure introduced in the Senate, would block the Environmental Protection Agency from imposing rules requiring agriculture producers to obtain permits under the Clean Air Act. “I strongly oppose implementation of the ‘cow tax’ for the unnecessary fees it will place on producers,” Moran said. “If the regulation is enacted, livestock producers would be forced to obtain a permit to continue to do business.” EPA regulators have outlined scenarios that could result in livestock producers obtaining permits to operate a farm or ranch with more than 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200 hogs.

Hey Legislature! Taxes do make a difference!
A QuikTrip plans to spend millions of dollars and “move” 100 feet from Kansas to Missouri. “Fox 4’s Rob Low reports from 31st and Southwest Blvd. with why it pays to be on Missouri’s side.” “State line cuts right through the store, but it has a Kansas address.” “Kansas only allows 3.2 beer, no wine or liquor, plus gas taxes are higher, and so are tobacco taxes.” Store manager: “The new store will have the same product selection that we do currently, the difference is this price [for a carton of Marlboro cigarettes] is going to be $5 less.” “The registers will be quiet for 75 days while QuikTrip tears down and rebuilds the new location at a cost of nearly $3 million, but QuikTrip says it’s obviously money well spent.” When it reopens some time in August, “Kansas will lose about $1.4 million in city and state taxes every year.”

Gun sellers can't keep up with demand for ammo
Around Wichita, the supply of ammunition -- particularly for handguns -- is not keeping pace with a strong demand. The demand is emptying shelves at the big discount stores, owners of local shooting ranges and gun merchants say. Despite the slumping overall economy, two Wichita indoor-shooting ranges and a Goddard gun and hunting supply store say they are doing a robust business. Business is good, they say, because of a mix of political and economic factors. On the political front, they say, gun owners and enthusiasts appear to be buying more guns and ammo out of concern that President Obama's administration will push for more gun control.

Leawood has a Tea Party
Clint Anderson sent out an E-mail, “Conservatives, Stand Up!”, to about 30 of his friends about a fourth weekly “Tea Party” in the greater Kansas City area. The word spread from that E-mail for today’s event. Anderson planned his Tea Party to be at the intersection of 95th Street & Mission Rd in Leawood, and about 110 showed up today. Many brought their home made signs. This Tea Party followed the previous ones in Olathe, the Plaza, and Overland Park.

Fairway wants Porkulous Money for Greenspace!
Fairway will spend up to $25,000 in the hopes of getting much more back money it can use in the construction of a new park and possibly for other projects. At its monthly meeting Monday, the Fairway City Council unanimously approved a resolution to hire a California firm that specializes in securing grant funding for cities. Randall Funding & Development Inc.’s first and main task will be to find money to help create a new green space at the corner of State Park Road and Shawnee Mission Parkway. The proposed green space, which would likely include paths and extensive tree plantings and other landscaping but not a playground or sports fields or courts could cost up to $2.5 million. The city’s treasurer, Bob Mapes, was optimistic that with the new massive federal stimulus bill, Randall could be put to work securing funding for other projects.

Senate committee passes gay/transgender bill!
A Senate committee on Thursday advanced a bill that would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, but the legislation’s prospects of going further was up in the air. The committee approved the bill, 5-3. Voting for it were Sens. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, Roger Reitz, R-Manhattan, Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, and Brungardt. Voting against the bill were Sens. Dennis Pyle, R-Hiawatha, Ralph Ostemeyer, R-Grinnell, and Steve Abrams, R-Arkansas City. The bill would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Kansas Act Against Discrimination. That act prohibits discrimination in public accommodations, employment and housing based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Happy 9th Birthday to Sebelius’ Bluestem Fund PAC: Almost $1 million raised.
Nine years ago on March 16, 2000 Gov. Kathleen Sebelius filed the initial Statement of Organization for her Bluestem Fund PAC. The initial purpose of the PAC given was simply the “General interest in ensuring a high quality Kansas Legislature.” Later by 2004 a new Statement of Organization said the purpose was a “Leadership PAC.” Gov. Sebelius’ PAC raised and spent almost $1 million on Kansas politics over the years, mostly with out-of-state money, but she also had a sizable campaign war chest of her own, and had influence over how funds from the Kansas Democratic Party were spent. Gov. Sebelius’ political money and influence have affected all branches of Kansas government, and her unusual Bluestem PAC has given her unusual advantages in Kansas.

Koster turns aside nepotism question on the Funk
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said Wednesday he is not investigating Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser for nepotism, but would do so if the City Council made a formal request. “On an issue like this, I would certainly be interested in hearing from the City Council if they feel so impassioned,” Koster said.

"Secretary Geithner (US Treasury Secretary under Obama) either didn't know about the [AIG] bonuses, and was grossly negligent, or he did know and failed to bring this to the president's attention. Either way, the end result has been a significant waste of taxpayer dollars and he should take immediate responsibility and resign."

- Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)

From Proverbs 15:32
“He who rejects admonition despises his own soul, but he who heeds reproof gains understanding.”

Gospel According to Matthew 5:17-19

17 "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.
18 For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
19 Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

The lead in Monday's Kansas City Star tells the morally deaf in progressive America all they want to hear about a trial that will begin next Monday in Wichita, Kan.

"After years of protest, pleading and petitions, anti-abortion groups today will get what they've long sought: the start of a criminal trial against Wichita abortion provider George Tiller." "Tiller," the Star continues, "faces 19 misdemeanor charges that he had an illegal financial relationship with a physician who authorized late-term abortions that Tiller performed."

The Star reminds us, "Tiller insists that he follows all state laws regarding abortion." And his attorneys repeat the line that the moribund Star and Wichita Eagle have been propagating for years, namely that "the charges were politically motivated," the result of a long-standing "witch hunt."

Tiller should be found guilty on the charges at hand. The consulting physician, Ann Kristin Neuhaus, has been twice branded a danger to the public by the Kansas Healing Arts Board and has no practice at all other than rubber-stamping the death warrants coming out of Tiller's office.

As the all too typical experience of Michelle Armesto-Berge attests, however, this is no more a trial about "technicalities" than Nuremberg was. In May 2003, as she would later testify before the Kansas legislature, the then 18-year-old Michelle Berge, now Armesto-Berge, was pressured by her mother to abort her baby in the 26th week of her pregnancy. "It's murder and I will not do it," Michelle protested, but her mother had other plans. Staff at Tiller's clinic eased those plans along by informing Michelle of a Catholic group that "believed in abortion" and promised baptism for the aborted baby.

In reality, the Catholic Church considers abortion "murder" and "always morally evil," an article of faith that has so far eluded the ostensibly Catholic HHS nominee and Tiller patroness, Kathleen Sebelius. As Michelle would soon learn, Tiller honored Kansas law about as faithfully as he proffered Catholic doctrine.

Under Kansas law, two independent physicians have to confirm that a woman carrying a viable unborn child could be saved from death or "substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function" only through a late-term abortion.

Not one woman among the five with whom Michelle was being processed, herself included, risked physical or mental health impairment of any sort. The women talked among themselves during their stay in Wichita. "All were there," Michelle testified, "because they were told [late-term abortion] would solve their problems." These problems ranged from unreliable boyfriends to socially ambitious parents.

In other words, Tiller was fully prepared to abort five healthy babies, ready to be born to five healthy mothers, in flagrant disregard of the most serious of Kansas laws. Had Tiller killed five puppies this wantonly he might well have joined NFL star Michael Vick at the slammer in Leavenworth.

Instead, the millions Tiller had contributed to local Democrats earned him a special exemption from state law and even a night in his honor in the middle of the criminal investigation chez Sebelius. Tiller boasts on his website of having performed more than 60,000 abortions of "fetuses over 24 weeks." Evidence suggests that the great majority of these babies were killed with equal indifference to the law.

After Michelle's group watched a video on "Dr. Tiller's legacy," a nurse took her to a private room and prepared her for an ultrasound. When she tried to look at the screen, the nurse abruptly moved the screen away. Michelle was then taken to another room. There a female doctor inserted a large needle twice to make sure she injected the unborn child, "and that," said Michelle, "is when the baby was killed." Only after this procedure was completed did Michelle fill out the paperwork and meet with a counselor, a charge proven by time stamps on her medical records. Michelle also met with a self-identified Unitarian minister who consoled her with the hitherto unknown Christian doctrine, "You have to take care of the ones who are here, not the ones who aren't born."

After the initial injections, Michelle underwent a variety of preparations to facilitate the delivery of the dead baby. A late-term abortion of this kind usually takes three days. Like most other girls, Michelle spent her nights at a Wichita hotel, in Michelle's case with her mother. On her second day, she met casually with Tiller for the first time but only for a few minutes. He talked to her about his own teenage child and how presumably, "if in the same situation, would do the same thing." The next morning, Michelle's fiancé found the hotel at which she was staying. "He begged me not to go through with the abortion," she lamented, "and I told him it was too late." The fiancé was desperately sincere in his affection. Despite the abortion, he later married Michelle, and today the couple has three living children.

By the third day Michelle's labor had proceeded to the point where she was ready to deliver. What follows is not for the faint of heart. "I remember yelling at the nurse and calling her names and telling her I did not want to be on the toilet," Michelle recounted. "I finally birthed the baby, and I distinctly remember seeing the baby on the floor to the left of the toilet." Said Michelle, "That image haunts me daily."

Despite the alleged threat to her health, there was no follow-up care of any kind for the young woman. Nor did Tiller's clinic call to see that there was. Only when Michelle obtained her medical records four years after the abortion did she learn the depths of Tiller's deceit: He had falsely designated her baby "non-viable," a status that requires a lower standard of validation.

For an abortion on a viable baby, one capable of living, a second doctor, one not affiliated with the abortionist, must verify that the abortion is needed to prevent the mother's death or impairment. Even Neuhaus' sham second opinion added time to the process, time that might have enabled a waverer like Michelle to resist parental pressure and halt the process. Michelle's husband believes that if his baby had been properly identified as viable, and a second opinion sought, he might have had time to reach Michelle early enough to save their baby. Theirs was one baby out of 60,000 sacrificed to Tiller's greed, Sebelius's ambition and the media's moral obtuseness.

While Tiller stands trial for these misdemeanors, Sebelius parties her way to the White House, and the man who made the trial possible, the heroic former Attorney General Phill Kline, finds himself exiled to Virginia.

There will not be much justice coming out of Wichita, but any little bit will help. After all, no one much complained when Al Capone was sidelined on tax charges.

Source