All via HotAir.

• IRS told pro-life groups that they should stop peacably demonstrating. Where is the ACLU on this? You know: freedom of assembly, something the ACLU proudly defended in Skokie? Are pro-lifers really lower (in the ACLU’s eyes) than actual KKK-hooded neo-Nazis?
• The “Benghazi e-mails were doctored!” canard, refuted.
• Senior White House Advisor Dan Pfeiffer, discussing the IRS and Benghazi scandals this morning, apparently did Obama no good with his over-use of the word “irrelevant”.

UPDATE: There seems to be controversy over Pfeiffer’s remark on the IRS scandal, “The law is irrelevant.” Here is his full quote, for context:

“I can’t speak to the law here. The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again.”

Superficially, Pfeiffer said: The IRS activity was outrageous, regardless of whether it was illegal. Which sounds like taking the high road.

But Washington-speak is notoriously indirect. Pfeiffer may have been saying: The administration/DOJ is giving NO focus to the question of legality, as we intend to have no prosecutions.

To make my view clear: On current information, there should be prosecutions. If the Obama administration won’t send malefactors to court, then the Obama administration isn’t serious about repairing the scandal’s profound moral damage. As Gabe at Ace points out, “…the most obvious of crimes related to the IRS scandal [is] the public release of confidential information, something punishable by up to a year’s jail time.”

UPDATE: Per ABC, Pfeiffer later tweeted “Before folks quoting me out of context get too far ahead of themselves, of course the law matters, IRS conduct is wrong even if legal.”

Again, note Pfeiffer’s posture. While expressing outrage over what the IRS did, he carefully plants the suggestion that it might have been legal – which would mean that no prosecutions are needed. Sorry Mr. Pfeiffer, I don’t think so.

Only days ago, Obama gave a speech in which, rather than warn us against tyranny, he warned us against the people who go around warning us against tyranny.

The IRS revelations only get worse: From the Washington Examiner yesterday (via Ed Morrissey this morning), we learn that the IRS demanded of a pro-life group – under “perjury of the law”, the IRS staffer’s words – that it not engage in legal Planned Parenthood picketing. And required another pro-life group to furnish detailed plans on its constitutionally-protected speech activities.[1]

This is the same IRS that Obama has been beefing up to enforce Obamacare by demanding ever-greater private information of citizens.

The AP snooping scandal speaks for itself. Now from the GP comments, V the K reminds us of something Obama said in 2008:

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

Video here.[2]

In these disparate data points, I see a pattern: Obama wants to be a tyrant – while pretending not to. My question is, do liberals really not see the pattern?

I know that some liberals have begun seeing it – and will, for example, condemn the IRS actions – but others don’t. The other day, I noted Julian Bond saying that he thinks conservative groups deserve the IRS harassment. The execrable Bill Maher has joined the fun there.

Obama maintains his democratic pretense by periodically declaring the goodness of his intentions. For example: yes, the other day he called the IRS actions “inexcusable”.

But a troubled President Nixon, as well as actual tyrants like Chavez and worse, also frequently declared their own goodness. So many of Obama’s other words, policies, and actions of his underlings point in a direction opposite to his self-declared goodness. Do liberals really not see? Or are they part of the pretense; de facto pro-tyranny?

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[1] (I don’t know the ins and outs of these tax-exemption laws, but I thought that as long as a group would refrain from electioneering for parties/candidates, it would get a pass.)
[2] Students of history will note that the Fascists also believed in having powerful civilian, national security forces, and will be troubled by the weird applause that Obama’s liberal audience gave him for proposing it.

You’ve heard the news, now here’s the comment thread on your favorite gay conservative blog. Kermit Gosnell is guilty of three counts of murder re: the babies, and one count of involuntary manslaughter re: his grownup patient who died in a late-term abortion.

With outstanding cluelessness, Planned Parenthood tweeted “The jury has rightly convicted #Gosnell for his appalling crimes, ensuring no woman is victimized by him ever again.” Clueless, because – even apart from the fact that a Gosnell acquittal probably would have made PP breathe a sigh of relief – they made no mention of Gosnell’s main victims (the murdered babies).

NARAL’s statement started in a similar vein to PP, then topped PP by suggesting that conservatives are the real villains:

Justice was served to Kermit Gosnell today…Anti-choice politicians, and their unrelenting efforts to deny women access to safe and legal abortion care, will only drive more women to back-alley butchers like Kermit Gosnell.

Lefties!

FROM THE COMMENTS: Noting another deception in the NARAL quote, V the K says “Gosnell was not a ‘back alley butcher,’ he operated precisely the kind of ‘safe and legal’ abortion mill PP and NARAL champion; state licensed, he advertised in the yellow pages and accepted all major credit cards.”

This will be a rambling non-post, inviting your input (even) more than usual.

First, here’s my general position on abortion. Having long believed that both total permissiveness on abortion and a total prohibition of it will lead to some horribly unjust outcomes, and that a line must be drawn somewhere even though the line will be permeable and arbitrary: I would ban late-term abortions – let’s say, I don’t think second-semester abortions should be allowed – while permitting early-term abortions – let’s say, I’d allow first-semester. (Again, I know the “semester” line is unclear and highly debatable; I simply believe that the other lines that people propose are worse.) Also, I favor counseling about the alternatives, and parental notification where the mother is a minor. Finally, I oppose publicly-funded abortions, i.e., I am against our government forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions against their conscience.

Having arrived at the above positions some time ago, I spend little time on the issue of abortion. It’s just not a top one for my interest.

But abortion may interest many of you. This is, after all, a gay conservative blog (and, as a non-conservative on certain issues, I am a guest).

So, what’s up with the Gosnell trial? It’s big right now, in Bruce’s Twitter stream. In my slower-moving way, I gather that:

1. Gosnell did some particularly shocking, immoral late-term abortions; and that
2. The media silence about the trial is shocking and repugnant in itself.

Is that the gist? Or is there more (or less) to it? Re: the media blackout – Is it a conspiracy perhaps, or just the media’s usual left-wing Herd Instinct? Has the trial been getting, say, foreign coverage?

People who have been following the trial, please feel free to inform me (and everybody) in the comments, and to express your informed opinion. I feel that, certainly on a conservative blog, this topic should get some daylight as a comment thread.

UPDATE: Wouldn’t you know, today Yahoo! is rotating a column on the Gosnell trial through its headlines, on and off. I don’t know if that means the wall of silence is cracking, or only that Yahoo! had me profiled as conservative-leaning.

UPDATE: The wall of silence is cracking. Ace has examples of Jake Tapper and Andersen Cooper both teasing some coverage to come. Naturally, and as Ace puts it, Cooper’s “entree into the story is through the prism of ‘not enough government regulation.’” Better than nothing!

I had the honor and privilege to be a part of this year’s March for Life today in Washington, DC.  GOProud organized a group and we were welcomed warmly, despite the frigid temperatures.

Despite the touch of Global Warming, the March was quite personally fulfilling to me.  I’m the one in the back, holding the sign, by the way.

Sometimes life has moments that you aren’t expecting and today was one of them.  Please note Michael, the man in front of me in the yellow coat.  He sought out GOProud today because, “I had to be here today.”  I spent a lot of time listening to Michael today and I hope that my listening was as helpful to him as his story was to me.

Michael spent the last two years in prison and now he’s trying to make things right.  He is gay and pro-life.  He ostensibly served his time because of  his principles.  Let me explain…

Michael’s sister was pregnant and her boyfriend gave her the funds to abort the baby.  His sister refused and instead used the money to buy clothes.  The boyfriend was so enraged that the baby hadn’t been aborted, that he threw Michael’s sister down the stairs, inducing a miscarriage. Michael stabbed the boyfriend in an attempt to help his sister.

I’m not in a position to judge Michael, that’s God’s role.  And I wasn’t told if the stabbing resulted in serious injury or death of the boyfriend.  But there is something admirable about a gay guy taking matters in his own hands to protect his sister from a violent attack.

Michael now makes the money he needs to live in a cheap residence by shining shoes.  After the March was over, Michael — with quite a lot of embarrassment — asked me if he could shine my shoes.  I told him that I appreciated the offer, but that I would give him the money he needed to stay in a warm home without the shoe shine.   He began to cry and we hugged each other.

Life is funny.  Which is why all life is precious.  And why the government should be protecting all rights of self-protection, not trying to restrict them or incentivize death.

[RELATED: Hundreds of Thousands Gather for Record-Breaking March for Life]

-Bruce (@GayPatriot) 

YAY, taxpayer funded murder!!!!

The new annual report released by the national Planned Parenthood abortion business shows it did more abortions in its last year than ever before in its history.

The new report released by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) shows the abortion giant did a record 333,964 abortions on unborn children during the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Those abortions were estimated to have generated $150 million dollars for the “nonprofit” organization.

While the number of abortions reached a record high, only 2,300 Planned Parenthood customers were referred to adoption agencies during the 2011-2012 fiscal year.

Meanwhile, the annual report reveals PPFA generated nearly $1.2 billion in total income — just short of the $1.22 billion mark that was its record for income that it posted in 2010-2011.

PPFA’s income included a hefty and ever-increasing check from American taxpayers. In 2009-2010, government funding reached a whopping $487.4 million. In 2010-2011 the figure jumped to $538.5 million. The total for 2011-2012 reached a staggering $542.4 million, which represents 45.2 percent of the group’s total annual budget.

The lie that Planned Parenthood “does mammograms” that Obama & minions spread is laughable.  But there is no letting the facts get in the way of progressive lunatics.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)