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Rick Santorum takes on liberal celebrities on The View

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Unborn Baby - 10 weeks old
Unborn Baby – 10 weeks old

GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum decided to go on a very liberal show called The View to talk about social issues. The View is a very popular show, and the hosts are very used to discussing all sorts of controversial issues. Would Rick Santorum be able to defend his views against the liberal hosts?

Here’s the 7.5-minute clip:

And Life News has a transcript of the most interesting part of the discussion:

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: So, Rick, you’re one much the most conservative candidates in the race. You want to ban all abortions, defund Planned Parenthood, ban gay marriage. Oppose same-sex unions. And yet, you want to govern all of the folks in the United States? Or are you just governing from — [ laughter ]

RICK SANTORUM: Well, my response is that people that have a different point of view, would you ask them the same question?

GOLDBERG:  Yes. I ask everybody —

SANTORUM:  But, I mean — but the point is, if someone has a different point of view, does that mean that they are only going to govern for people who support all those things?

GOLDBERG: That’s why I ask.

SANTORUM: The answer is to, of course not.

GOLDBERG: So, how will you say to your constituents who may be gay or may find themselves in a position with something like Planned Parenthood, what will you replace it with if you take it away?

SANTORUM: Well, first off, I’m for reallocating every dollar that goes to Planned Parenthood and put them in women’s health centers that actually provide more comprehensive services than Planned Parenthood does. Planned parenthood, for example, doesn’t provide mammograms. Now, I know people say they do, but they don’t. In fact —

GOLDBERG: Yeah, they do.

SANTORUM: In fact, Cecile Richards said yesterday in the hearing that, in fact, they do not. In fact, there are no Planned Parenthoods that provide any mammogram services. They basically provide abortion, contraceptive, STDs, things — and pregnancy tests. That’s it. There are much more comprehensive women’s health care centers. I spend a lot of time in Iowa. And in Iowa, there are 213 women health’s centers. Thirteen Planned Parenthood centers. So, If you said we were going to take the Planned Parenthood money, reallocate it to, actually, clinics that do provide a whole host of other women’s health services, women are probably going to get a more holistic health screening at those places than they would at Planned Parenthood.

What’s neat about this is how Hollywood celebrities and journalists basically form their worldview by listening to the words of the people they agree with, and never checking anything out for themselves by listening to the other side. So, Goldberg walks into a debate talking about Planned Parenthood doing mammograms on camera, and is corrected by Rick Santorum quoting Cecile Richards, the CEO of Planned Parenthood. That’s going to leave a mark.

To her credit, she is at least talking to people on the right. That’s not something I that happens often in academia, where the professors went out of their way to not engage with scholars who disagreed with them. They seem to not be able to handle the strain of having to listen to views they don’t hold. There seems to be a real dearth of critical thinking on the left, in general. But at least The View hosts had courage to listen to someone they didn’t agree with, and to be civil.

News

Speaker candidate Kevin McCarthy vows to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood

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Well, this is unexpected good news.

The Daily Signal reports.

Excerpt:

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy further separated himself from outgoing Speaker John Boehner Tuesday night, vowing to fight to the end for conservative policies if he takes the chamber’s top seat.

Fox News’ Sean Hannity pressed McCarthy hard on conservative frustration that accelerated Boehner’s demise, repeatedly pointing to the House’s failure to unravel Obamacare despite holding majorities in both chambers and its “power of the purse” authority.

“You voted 50 times to repeal Obamacare, but there’s a constitutional power you guys have that you don’t use, and it seems all Obama has to do is mention, ‘We’re going to shut down the government and blame Republicans,’” Hannity said.

McCarthy promised a different course should he clinch the speakership in October.

He committed to pursue the string of battles conservatives have waged against congressional Democrats and President Barack Obama, including defunding Obamacare, Planned Parenthood, and executive “amnesty” and stopping the Iran nuclear agreement.

He did not detail specifics but said he would lead the fight with a “strategy” and a greater inclusion of the conservative lawmakers who helped topple Boehner from the speakership.

“Every Republican should have a voice here, and that’s going to be the fundamental difference: I believe in the bottom-up strategy,” McCarthy said.

This is not the first report I heard about his outreach to the most conservative Republicans when he was majority leader. Even the so-called Freedom Caucus that forced the more liberal Boehner to resign seemed to be OK with the conservative credentials of Kevin McCarthy.

The ultra leftist New York Times has more in this article from June 2014, when they were writing about his role as majority leader:

When he was the leader of Republicans in the California State Assembly — an ideologically diverse group of lawmakers often choleric toward both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrats who controlled the Legislature — Kevin Owen McCarthy was known as the guy who could help bring a bill across the finish line. Gently, almost as if no one could see it.

[…]Politically obsessed (Mr. McCarthy is known for lugging the 1,883-page Almanac of American Politics to read on his almost weekly flights back to California) and manically social (he cannot seem to eat dinner in Washington with fewer than eight guests), Mr. McCarthy is likely to be more focused on deal-making and elections than on pushing proscriptive policy from on high, as Mr. Cantor did.

[…]He keeps in close contact with other Republicans through phone calls, dinners and a strategically placed basketball hoop in his office that encourages drop-ins. “He understands how important family is,” said Representative Renee Ellmers, Republican of North Carolina. “If our spouses are coming to Washington, he wants you to know he has an open door for them, too.” He has the same policy for lawmakers who want to air a grievance, and has a good ear for knowing what their requirements are, reasonable or not, to get to yes on a bill.

So, he’s not primarily a policy guy or a news media guy, he’s a consensus builder. He seems to know how to talk to lots of people and get legislation passed. He seems to be very friendly with everyone, even Democrats. He’s had to work with Democrats a lot. And he comes from a modest background. The only question is whether he wants to pass what the conservative wing of the party wants. What the grassroots voters want. His statements on Hannity make me optimistic.

News

Report evaluates the claim that Planned Parenthood videos were highly edited

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Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood
Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood

The Daily Signal reports.

Excerpt:

A forensic analysis of undercover videos about Planned Parenthood’s abortion practices are “authentic and show no evidence of manipulation or editing,” according to a report released Tuesday by Alliance Defending Freedom.

The analysis was completed by Coalfire, a digital security and forensics firm that has worked on civil and criminal investigations. The firm had access to all audio and video investigative footage recorded by the Center for Medical Progress.

“The Coalfire forensic analysis removes any doubt that the full length undercover videos released by Center for Medical Progress are authentic and have not been manipulated,” said Casey Mattox, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom. “Analysts scrutinized every second of video recorded during the investigation and released by CMP to date and found only bathroom breaks and other non-pertinent footage had been removed.”

According to the report, the videos only omit footage irrelevant to the allegations such as bathroom breaks.

[…]The Daily Signal previously reported that the firm hired by Planned Parenthood, Fusion GPS, has ties to the Democratic Party, including an effort to expose a group of eight private citizens who donated to a super PAC supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign.

How did Cecile Richards respond to the two audits? By saying that “everyone” agrees that the videos were highly edited. This is how politicians talk. “Everyone agrees” but they can’t give an example of who is included in the everyone who agrees. Right now, I’m looking at the scoreboard, and it’s 2-0, with Planned Parenthood trailing. Our side has two reports, your side has none. You’re entitled to your own opinions, Cecile Richards, but not your own facts.

Meanwhile, Richards had to admit today under questioning that she lied about Planned Parenthood doing mammograms.

Excerpt:

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards stated “we do not have mammogram machines at our health centers” and “if you need a mammogram, you’re referred to a radiological clinic, and that’s what we do at Planned Parenthood” during testimony before Congress on Tuesday.

Richards was asked, by Representative Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) “in the annual report, Planned Parenthood’s annual report, says that you are providing over 489,000 breast cancer screenings, and you’ve stated that none of your clinics actually have the mammogram machines. How many of the — how many of your affiliates have those mammogram machines?”

Richards responded, “Well our health centers are part of our affiliates. We have more than 650 health centers. So an affiliate is simply the corporate structure for those health centers.”

Love then cut in to ask “how many of them have mammogram machines?”

Richards answered, “An affiliate isn’t a health center. … I think I spoke earlier, we do not have mammogram machines at our health centers. And we’ve never stated that we did. As I think has been — was mentioned earlier, for women who go for a breast exam, just as I got for my annual, you get a breast exam, and if you need a mammogram, you’re referred to a radiological clinic, and that’s what we do at Planned Parenthood.”

They don’t do mammograms. They do born-alive abortions, where they cut into the living babies to harvest their organs for profit.

Regarding the myth that abortion is “only 3% of what we do“, Cecile Richards also admitted:

Planned Parenthood has long maintained that abortion is only a small part, 3% is typically the number the pro-aborts use, of its business.

[…]Yesterday, under questioning by Representative Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY),  Richards admitted that a staggering 86% of non-government revenue and revealed Planned Parenthood for what it is: an organization devoted to increasing the number of abortions in the United States.

Yes, it’s amazing what sorts of interesting facts come out when a person is under oath, and criminally liable for lies. Then suddenly we find out that everything we’ve been told about Planned Parenthood from the mainstream media was lies.

Every Democrat voter is on board with what Planned Parenthood is doing, because this is a big part of what the Democrat Party stands for. It’s not a bug, it’s working as designed.