Sibby Online

Cecilia Fire Thunder flip flops

As I posted earlier, the Argus Leader reported on the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s decision to ban abortions on the Pine Ridge Reservation. So far, I have heard of no plans by Planned Parenthood to take this to court.

The report also contained a denial made by Cecelia Fire Thunder, co-chair of the falsely named group [South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Family] that filed the petitions to put the abortion ban to a vote:

Fire Thunder said the idea never was to open a clinic that performs abortions - she never used the word "abortion," she said - but rather to open a women's health facility that would provide family planning information and emergency and traditional contraceptives.

Kevin Woster put up a Mount Blogmore post that shows, based on a previous Bill Harlan report, that Fire Thunder may have attempted a John Kerry flip-flop:

Fire Thunder calls the council’s action an "ambush." She now tells the Argus that her idea was never to open an abortion clinic, but rather to open a women’s health facility that would offer family planning information and emergency and traditional contraceptives.

That’s not what she told Journal reporter Bill Harlan, however, in a Journal story that ran March 24. Here are the first couple paragraphs of that story:

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecelia Fire Thunder says a clinic on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation could provide abortions if South Dakota’s new abortion ban goes into effect.

"We’re working on it," Fire Thunder said in a telephone interview Friday. "This is a free-choice issue. If I were in that situation, I’d want somewhere to go where I’d be taken care of."

Here is more from the Harlan report:

The new South Dakota law bans all abortions except to save the life of the mother — with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Fire Thunder said the state law would not apply to the reservation. "We’re a sovereign nation," she said.

The new law is set to go into effect July 1, but a court challenge almost certainly will delay it, and opponents of the law are already gathering signatures to put it on the ballot in November.

Fire Thunder, in fact, is one of 15 co-leaders of the new South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, which on Friday announced a statewide campaign to overturn the new law.

This group’s lack of honesty doesn’t stop with its name.

Note in her denial that she said she never said the word abortion. Here is what was reported in the Indian Country Today on May 12^th:

In all of her contacts with the press or public, she never mentioned the ''A word,'' as she calls it. ''It is very emotional,'' she said.

''It's a hard enough decision to make, and how many women are strong enough to make that decision and stick by it? So when a woman makes up her mind, she doesn't need someone to undermine her decision. I'm just here to love you and hold your hand and support whatever decision you make,'' she said.

''My grandmother and other Lakota women would talk about when everyone remembers a woman who had the medicine to terminate a pregnancy.

''In my culture we have a goddess, the White Buffalo Calf Woman. It's a feminine power and that's who I am. I need to honor the feminine power - so the goddess is making me do this,'' she said with a laugh.

OK. Then there is this from LifeNews:

Fire Thunder is a longtime abortion advocate and formerly worked at an abortion business in California.

Abortion banned by Oglala Sioux

The South Dakota Oglala Sioux decided not to wait for HB1215 and banned abortions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation yesterday:

The Oglala Sioux tribal council banned all abortions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and suspended President Cecelia Fire Thunder on Tuesday, charging that she solicited donations on behalf of the tribe for a proposed abortion clinic without the council's approval.

"It was unauthorized political activity," said Will Peters, a tribal council representative from the Pine Ridge district. "It's just a matter of failing to communicate not only with the governing body but with the people that she was elected to serve."

Peters made a motion to suspend Fire Thunder indefinitely, and when that failed, voted to suspend her for 20 days until an impeachment hearing could take place. That motion passed.

Looks like this could spell trouble for Democrats who had been largely supported by the Native American vote:

Some in the tribe were outraged when Fire Thunder, responding to Gov. Mike Rounds' signature on a bill that would ban most abortions in South Dakota, said she would work to open a Planned Parenthood clinic on the reservation, beyond the reach of state law. Many believe abortion to be against Lakota values.

Planned Parenthood issued a press release thanking Fire Thunder, but said it had no plans to open a clinic in Pine Ridge or anywhere else in South Dakota.

Today, the tribe banned abortions on the reservation.

"I do not feel comfortable telling a woman what she can or can't do with her body," Peters said. "Yet at the same time, I share the cultural viewpoint that life is sacred."

The biggest impact on Democrats will be on Representative Stephanie Herseth whose re-election is being challenged by Bruce Whalen, member of the Oglala Sioux. His wife Carol was quoted in the Argus Leader report regarding the abortion issue:

Carol Whalen, an abortion foe from Pine Ridge, agreed with Krebs.

"What is important is that the citizens elected a vast majority of pro-life legislators to serve,'' Whalen said. "These men and women, Democrats and Republicans, heard the testimony, read the evidence, and debated for three years. They decided that the current system of abortion-on-demand was extreme and harmful to women's health ... and after learning the truth, the citizens will, too."

Looks like the far-left extremists of the Democrat Party have set up their Party for a major set back in November.

Abortion petition misrepresented

The AP is reporting that the abortion ban is going to a vote:

Opponents of an abortion ban passed by the South Dakota Legislature turned in more than 38,000 signatures Tuesday to refer the measure to a statewide public vote in November.

The report also pointed to how the signatures were obtained:

Unruh said there have been questions about whether signatures were collected properly, and supporters of the ban plan to comb through the names to make sure they're valid.

Here is more from a comment posted at Mount Blogmore:

I think alot of South Dakotans are going to be a bit po’d once they realize they were duped (again). I know those that I have talked to are. Awhile back when questioned about the wording of the petition, SDCHF flat out denied that the petition made any reference to repealing the bill, but rather simply putting it on the November ballot. Many South Dakotans signed this petition thinking that’s all it was - an effort to get it on the ballot - not in any way, shape or form to somehow show they were in support of the bill being repealed. Bright and early this morning what does the SDCHF say?????

"… the names of nearly 38,000 South Dakotans who are calling for the repeal of the extreme abortion legislation enacted by the South Dakota legislature and signed into law by Governor Mike Rounds on March 6."

7 people that I have talked to so far have said if this had been presented to them prior to signing, they never would have touched the petition. None of them realized their names would be publically ‘flashed’ as supporters of the bill being repealed.

The AP report tells how the truth will prevail:

Unruh said supporters of the abortion ban are getting ready to launch the "Fleet for Little Feet," a recreational vehicle turned medical and counseling center that will help rural women facing unexpected pregnancy. The bus will also park outside malls, college campuses and the state's abortion clinic in Sioux Falls.

"There won't be any more discussion of 'Well, what will the women do in these rural towns?' The bus will come there and do free ultrasounds, free pregnancy tests," Unruh said.

Here is more from a press release I received:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 30, 2006
Contact: Lara Thomas
Phone: 605-335-5568

Education on the Harmful Effects of Abortion Begins

"The women of South Dakota are no longer suffering in silence. Because the governor signed the Bill to Protect Women and Children, and because the pro-abortion rights groups are challenging the legislation, women are coming forward to say, ‘My abortion hurt me,’" stated Leslee Unruh, upon hearing word that a group will be filing signatures on a petition to keep abortion-on-demand legal in South Dakota. "We’re glad this effort will give us the opportunity to educate the citizens, just as we educated the legislators, about how abortion hurts women."

"This group claims to want healthy families, but they ignore the scientific evidence which shows that after an abortion women are at increased risk for substance abuse, depression, anxiety disorders, alcoholism, physical abuse, insomnia, emotional distress, infertility, hemorrhaging, miscarriage, serious infection, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt, and sudden death," said Karen Nelson, state coordinator for Operation Outcry, a coalition of post-abortive women.

Nelson continued, "First, Planned Parenthood has sued to stop enforcement of an informed consent law, under which doctors would tell women about the negative effects of abortion. Now, they collected signatures, telling many of the people they approached that the petition was to protect their right to vote. When will the deception end?"

"I know people who were mislead by the out-of-state petition collectors about the intent of the petition. This is especially true on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation," said Carol Whalen, who participated in a pro-life rally on the reservation today.

"What is important is that the citizens elected a vast majority of pro-life legislators to serve. These men and women, Democrats and Republicans, heard the testimony, read the evidence, and debated for three years. They decided that the current system of abortion-on-demand was extreme and harmful to women’s health. To protect families, they voted to pass the Bill to Protect Women and Children, and after learning the truth, the citizens will too," concluded Whalen.

###

For more information and details, visit www.SDAbortionBan.org

Durbin goes anti-American again

From NewsMax:

The number two Democrat in the Senate is urging the House of Representatives not to repudiate a provision in the immigration reform bill that would force the U.S. to consult with Mexico before building a border fence.

"To think that we would build a fence without any conversation or consultation with Mexico - that doesn't make sense," Sen. Dick Durbin told "Fox News Sunday."

Asked why he felt such consultations were necessary, the top Democrat explained: "Good fences make good neighbors, too. And remember that when it's all over there will be cities across the border from one another in the United States and Mexico. And you'll find in most instances they'll try to find a level of cooperation.

"We ultimately want to have the cooperation of the Mexican government," Durbin insisted.

An amendment slipped into the Senate bill at the last minute by Sen. Chris Dodd mandates consultations with Mexican officials before any fence construction begins.

It reads:

"CONSULTATION REQUIREMENT -- Consultations between United States and Mexican authorities at the federal, state, and local levels concerning the construction of additional fencing and related border security structures along the United States-Mexico border shall be undertaken prior to commencing any new construction, in order to solicit the views of affected communities, lessen tensions and foster greater understanding and stronger cooperation on this and other important issues of mutual concern."

The bipartisan culture of corruption

From NewsMax:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid accepted free ringside tickets from the Nevada Athletic Commission to three professional boxing matches while that state agency was trying to influence him on federal regulation of boxing.

Reid, D-Nev., took the free seats for Las Vegas fights between 2003 and 2005 as he was pressing legislation to increase government oversight of the sport, including the creation of a federal boxing commission that Nevada's agency feared might usurp its authority.

He defended the gifts, saying they would never influence his position on the bill and was simply trying to learn how his legislation might affect an important home state industry. "Anyone from Nevada would say I'm glad he is there taking care of the state's No. 1 businesses," he told The Associated Press.

"I love the fights anyways, so it wasn't like being punished," added the senator, a former boxer and boxing judge.

Senate ethics rules generally allow lawmakers to accept gifts from federal, state or local governments, but specifically warn against taking such gifts _ particularly on multiple occasions _ when they might be connected to efforts to influence official actions.

"Senators and Senate staff should be wary of accepting any gift where it appears that the gift is motivated by a desire to reward, influence, or elicit favorable official action," the Senate ethics manual states. It cites the 1990s example of an Oregon lawmaker who took gifts for personal use from a South Carolina state university and its president while that school was trying to influence his official actions.

"Repeatedly taking gifts which the Gifts Rule otherwise permits to be accepted may, nonetheless, reflect discredit upon the institution, and should be avoided," the manual states.

Several ethics experts said Reid should have paid for the tickets, which were close to the ring and worth between several hundred and several thousand dollars each, to avoid the appearance he was being influenced by gifts.

Two senators who joined Reid for fights with the complimentary tickets took markedly differently steps.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., insisted on paying $1,400 for the tickets he shared with Reid for a 2004 championship fight. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., accepted free tickets to another fight with Reid but already had recused himself from Reid's federal boxing legislation because his father was an executive for a Las Vegas hotel that hosts fights.

In an interview Thursday in his Capitol office, Reid broadly defended his decisions to accept the tickets and to take several actions benefiting disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff's clients and partners as they donated to him.

"I'm not Goodie two shoes. I just feel these events are nothing I did wrong," Reid said.

Reid had separate meetings in June 2003 in his Senate offices with two Abramoff tribal clients and Edward Ayoob, a former staffer who went to work lobbying with Abramoff.

The meetings occurred over a five-day span in which Ayoob also threw a fundraiser for Reid at the firm where Ayoob and Abramoff worked that netted numerous donations from Abramoff's partners, firm and clients.

Reid said he viewed the two official meetings and the fundraiser as a single event. "I think it all was one, the way I look at it," he said.

One of the tribes, the Saginaw Chippewa of Michigan, donated $9,000 to Reid at the fundraiser and the next morning met briefly with Reid and Ayoob at Reid's office to discuss federal programs. Reid and the tribal chairman posed for a picture.

Five days earlier, Reid met with Ayoob and the Sac & Fox tribe of Iowa for about 15 minutes to discuss at least two legislative requests. Reid's office said the senator never acted on those requests.

A few months after the fundraiser, Reid did sponsor a spending bill that targeted $100,000 to another Abramoff tribe, the Chitimacha of Louisiana, to pay for a soil erosion study Ayoob was lobbying for. Reid said he sponsored the provision because Louisiana lawmakers sent him a letter requesting it.

Abramoff, a Republican lobbyist, has pleaded guilty in a widespread corruption probe of Capitol Hill. Reid used that conviction earlier this year to accuse Republicans of fostering a culture of corruption inside Congress.

AP recently reported that Reid also wrote at least four letters favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients around the time Reid collected donations from those clients and Abramoff's partners. Reid has declined to return the donations, unlike other lawmakers, saying his letters were consistent with his beliefs.

Senate ethics rules require senators to avoid even the appearance that any official meetings or actions they took were in any way connected with political donations.

Native Americans to protest abortions

From Saturday’s Argus Leader:

When she announced this spring that she intended to build an abortion clinic on the Pine Ridge reservation in defiance of the South Dakota Legislature's passage of a bill in March banning abortions, Oglala Sioux Tribal President Cecilia Fire Thunder drew her people into a controversy that has taken on national dimensions.

Now tribal members and the tribal council are making it clear they are uncomfortable with that, and that they do not unanimously support Fire Thunder's abortion stand.

On Tuesday, opponents of an abortion clinic at Pine Ridge will gather at the powwow grounds at 10 a.m. and march to a tribal council meeting to demonstrate their opposition.

The council that day will take up two resolutions banning abortions on the reservation, and also might deal with claims that Fire Thunder violated tribal ordinances and should be removed from office.

Fire Thunder, who was suspended by the council for nearly three weeks earlier this year but successfully fought off an impeachment effort, could not be reached Friday for comment.

Kevin Woster also noted Fire Thunder’s lack of access:

Somebody asked me this week what ever happened to the idea by Oglala Sioux Tribe President Cecelia Fire Thunder to build a women’s health clinic featuring abortion services on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Newshound or not, I had to admit that I didn’t have a clue. I tried to find out a few weeks back, but Fire Thunder ignored a string of my telephone calls seeking her response to comments by a former tribal judge that such a clinic would violate tribal code.

I called every day for a week, both at her office and on her cell phone - which soon became useless because the mail box was full. Fire Thunder was in the office when I called at least a couple of times. And I left her messages on her voicemail before it filled up. She never called me back.

I left messages for her assistant as well. She never called me back, either.

I felt like an Argus Leader reporter trying to get through to the governor.

So where is the Argus Leader’s outrage the Fire Thunder is against open government? Are they afraid that they will harm their position on diversity?

Back to the Argus report. Looks like the Native Americans are planning a ban of their own:

Come Tuesday, Will Peters, a tribal council member representing the largest Oglala Sioux tribal district, Pine Ridge, said the council's judiciary and health and human services committees will introduce legislation banning abortions on the reservation.

"The pressure for the tribal council as an entity to weigh in on this has been very intense," Peters said.

Constituents and fellow council members are disturbed on several points, he said. Some are opposed to abortions. Some think Fire Thunder usurped council authority in announcing she would build a clinic and solicit donations for it.

And others are dismayed that the tribe has become the focus of a rabid anti-abortion campaign.

"We are very disturbed at what we view as negative press directed towards our tribe. Some of it has taken on a racial flavor I find appalling," including references to "the Sioux scalping their own," Peters said.

I think the "the Sioux scalping their own" is in reference to a Jill Stanek column I posted.

Immigration bill debate deconstructed

Rush Limbaugh has some interesting analysis of the dynamics impacting the immigration reform debate:

RUSH: Now, folks, as I say, I've got all this figured out, and when I told you this wasn't about immigration, I was right; and when I told you that what this is really all about is the Democrats wanting and needing some new victims, I was right; and when I said this was all about politicians, particularly Democrats wanting new voters, I was right. But I was not a hundred percent right. I was close. To sum this up -- very simply -- what this bill is, this is not an immigration bill. What is being done here is being done under the guise of immigration reform. What this is, is a huge attempt by certain politicians, mostly moderate and liberal Democrats and moderate Republicans, to expand the federal government, to increase the numbers of people in poverty in this country by importing them via this immigration bill, which will set up the need to expand the "social safety" net in this country, which will then empower those who believe in big government.

…

If they can't come to an agreement in the conference with the Senate, moderates are going to blame House conservatives for this failure. I think what's happening here, in addition to all that I've said, is that moderate Republicans are trying to destroy conservatives and conservatism. By moderate Republicans, let me give you some names: John McCain, Arlen Specter. We'd have to throw Senator Lindsey Graham in there now, and some of the Republicans in the administration, some of the Republicans in the White House. I think they have been steaming over the conservative wing taking over the Republican Party. The elites in the Republican Party we've heard from on this debate, and they are trashing all of you as a bunch of unsophisticated boobs.

Me, too, and I think there's a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party going on right now, and the conservatives who are largely the majority membership of that party are under assault. I think that it is perfectly clear, at least to me, that that's what's happening. You can look at this this way. Let me make it easy. We're back to 1976. This is Ronald Reagan versus Gerald Ford. This is Barry Goldwater versus Nelson Rockefeller. This is the compassionate conservative Republicans -- i.e., the moderates -- versus the conservatives. That's all tied into this. There's so many things being done here at once, and this whole immigration bill is simply a rubric to disguise the true intent.

RUSH: You Republicans in the House have to understand what's going on here. You are being targeted for destruction, and you are being targeted as the bad guys if you don't go along with what the Senate has done in this so-called immigration bill. There was a press conference yesterday that nobody covered. We even joined a number of website video units hoping to find coverage of it. It was a love fest. I don't have any audio of this for you yet. It was a love fest. Senators McCain, Hagel, Graham, Martinez and Specter, were backslapping and thanking Senators Kennedy, Reid, and Durbin, congratulating each other over what a great thing they'd done with this immigration bill, and McCain said this

He said, "The most important message, probably, is to those 11 million people who are out there living in the shadows without the protection of any of the laws of our society, millions of whom are being mistreated and not given, not receiving their God-given rights. To them we will provide a path to citizenship so you can come out of the shadows and educate yourselves and feed your families and become very profitable and very important members of our society." That is just patently absurd, folks. This bill -- I'm going to tell you, if you Republicans, if you lose in November, it's not going to be because of you, if you stand strong here.

If Republicans lose in November, it's going to be because of the moderates in the Senate and elsewhere in the House, and because of missteps taken by the administration, not because you stand up for your conservative principles. If you stand up for your conservative principles, that will not be why you lose.

…

These senators do not want to control immigration. They want to expand it. They don't care whether it's illegal or legal immigration. What they did was vote in favor of changing our society so as to massively empower the federal government. The federal government will have far more control over wages than before. Entitlement programs are going to have to expand in order to accommodate all these new arrivals and their children. Taxes are going to have to go up in order to pay for all this.

Wealth will be redistributed from the middle class to a new class of poor that we are welcoming in here as Senator McCain has so excitedly said in his press conference yesterday. That is exactly what this is about. It's all being done under the rubric of immigration reform. What we're actually doing is importing poverty in order to enhance big government. It is precisely what is going on here. I cannot emphasize this enough. We went through all the details of this bill. You can't possibly assume from reading this that this is actually -- or conclude that this is -- about immigration. It just isn't, and I have been right about that from the get-go.

The editors at National Review have a little editorial today on their website. The Senate wouldn't even vote down the earned income tax credit for illegal immigrants that bop in here as a result of this. So you watch what happens. If this bill remains as is, the impact on the legal system incalculable, the impact on the economy, on the bureaucracy, local and federal level public services, the entitlement crisis. It is a massive, massive pro-poverty bill. Bring in some people here in poverty; get a number of new victims. Our economy is doing well, and there are fewer and fewer victims, fewer and fewer people in poverty. We need this. It's the country club Republicans and the blue-bloods trying to take back the party from the conservatives.

Focus South Dakota ads exposed

Mount Blogmore posted links to the Focus South Dakota web site that contained two new ads they had prepared in opposition to HB1215. But then Bill Harlan announces this:

NOTE: GOT A CALL FROM JEFF MASTEN OF FOCUS SOUTH DAKOTA. THESE ADS WERE UNAPPROVED DRAFTS. SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSTED ON THEIR SITE.* THEY HAVE TAKEN THEM DOWN. (I’M LEAVING UP THE VIDCAPS, DESCRIPTION AND YOUR COMMENTS.)

FINAL CUTS COMING SOON, MASTEN TELLS ME. BH

Earlier I confronted Bill Harlan with this:

Did you note the disclaimer:

"Reproduction of this material without written permission is strictly prohibited"

So did your buddy, Bill Fleming, give you permission to put those two pictures up?

Fleming certainly wouldn’t have a problem with some free promotion, now would he? [Note: Fleming, owner of Hot Pink Ink which received over $240,000 from Focus South Dakota during the 2004 election cycle, denied any involvement with the ads.]

Harlan responds:

The Mount: Here’s a concept, Steve. Check facts first. No, I didn’t talk to Fleming about this. I don’t know whether he produced the ads or not because he won’t talk to me about work for clients. A person from Focus South Dakota e-mailed the Web site to me. I don’t know the person and can’t remember the name. I’ll post who it was from later today when I have access to my RCJ e-mail. I took the e-mail as implied permission to link to the sites. I put the vidcap up on the same theory. It turns out the e-mail was sent in error. These were drafts. Focus took the ads down, as I noted at the top of the post. But I’m leaving this post up, with pictures from the ads and with comments from people. You’ll note that includes comments from people who were appalled by the ads. Some conspiracy, huh? BH

Here are some of the comments from those who did get the chance to view the ads:

I am against HB1215. Mostly, because I consider it none of my business. I will vote against it. However, ads like this are over the top. People on both sides of this issue should just state their position.

…

I can’t wait to enjoy these type ads until November. Yuck! Planned Parenthood seems to be well-healed in their pursuit of the repeal. Guess we’d better get used to a long summer.

…

Are you guys nuts!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so offended by these ads. This was done by men with little input from women or what! It is cold, it makes women look like we are all suffering from some kind of mental health problems. There are other ways to go about this! This will make the people of SD mad and turn away from the issue.

Charon Asetoyer, ED Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center

…

Will those in favor of HB1214[HB1215] run ads of aborted children? They might as well fight fire with fire unless Focus South Dakota can come up with something less extreme.

And the person who emailed the ads to Bill Harlan was from "Nate de la Piedra, with a Focus South Dakota e-mail address and a Washington, D.C., telephone number". Google "Nate de la Piedra" and you will find he has a page on a Democrat fundraising web site called ActBlue. You will also find this at the MyDD web site:

cross posted on mydd and dailykos

Kossacks, we need your help. Let me explain.

I, Nate de la Piedra, and other organizers who worked for Governor Deans Primary campaign and organizers who worked for Deans organizers (second generation Deaniacs) are more than willing and able to help out the Ciro Rodriguez campaign but we need some help getting there.

All of us are willing to work for free (or be paid in Tacos) but we are asking the campaign to pay for airfare, some food (yes, we do want to be paid in Tacos) and help us find some supporter housing or a couch.

To be clear, we're not going down there to run a "meetup.com" DEAN program. Most of us are fluent in spanish and we want to use the skills we learned about grassroots and community organizing to help out the Ciro campaign.

And then there is this post at Daily Kos regarding South Dakota’s abortion ban:

We appreciate all the support of the Kossack community, with some of our staffers having worked on Ciro Rodriguez's race down in Texas, we understand the power that the combined netroots can have.

While we have reached 1/3 of signatures, we want to get 50,000 as a show of strength and to prevent the anti-choice organizations from challenging our signatures in court.

While all the petition gatherers are volunteers, it still takes money to buy them snacks and water, run off copies of blank petitions, buy a gazillion pens and so on.

Please consider helping
our cause at Act Blue or if your in South Dakota by joining our team at FocusSouthDakota.com

Feel free to comment with any questions, and we'll try to keep you updated with the info we are getting on the ground.

Nate de la Piedra,
Focus South Dakota

And Focus South Dakota thinks the pro-life supporters are radicals. Here is some excerpts from the link that used to contain the now deleted ads:

The right wing and religious extremists have chosen the battlefield, the terms and the timing. The outcome is up to you.

…

If we challenge the extremists at the ballot now, we will send a message that their first attack on Roe v. Wade will be their last.

…

Your generous support will help fund the critical first stages of our plan, including a statewide petition drive, voter education in targeted legislative districts and anti-extremist messages that will be broadcast statewide as part of the campaign to defeat this unconstitutional law.

Looks like Focus South Dakota has decided to continue the distortions they have become well known for. They claim to be a South Dakota organization, but I have already disclosed their out of state funding. Now they have a DC based Kossack representing Focus South Dakota as they paint others as extremists while promoting ads that most found extreme and over the top. This has got to be the height of hypocrisy.

I say the two ads before they were removed, and I couldn’t believe that they were serious. Here is how Bill Harlan described one of the ads:

A doctor — or at least a guy who plays one on TV — struggles over recommending an abortion to a single, unemployed bipolar woman who can either take medication and risk fetal deformity or go off her meds and risk going nuts.

Here is a response to that garbage from someone who claims to work in the health care field:

Granted these medications have "potential" side effects and other treatments can be tried. The risk of a fetal deformity and the child losing its life is less than if the other route is taken.

Instead of educating South Dakota voters, it is obvious Focus South Dakota instead will be feeding South Dakota voters distortions of the truth.

Tim Johnson gives Mexico veto power

Tim Johnson voted in favor of an amendment to the immigration bill that gives Mexico veto power on any plans to build a security fence. Michelle Malkin has the details:

Does the Senate immigration bill essentially give Mexico veto power over our border fences? Hearing this from several readers and sources. Reader Greg writes:

Senator Cornyn gave Lou Dobbs a statement saying the last-minute Amendment SA 41[8]8 says Mexico must be consulted before any fence is constructed.

From F/R thread:

I heard this on Sean Hannity's Fox Radio broadcast a short while ago and just now on "Lou Dobbs Tonight" on CNN:

Arlen Specter, according to Congressman John Kyl of Arizona, slipped a provision into the Immigration Bill the Senate passed today requiring the U.S. to consult with Mexico BEFORE building a wall in any area along the border.

I'm checking into it. If anyone has more specific info, please send along. Update: It's Dem Sen. Chris Dodd's amendment included in Specter's manager's package that passed.

The Senate by Cboldt blog reports:

UPDATE @ 17:16 - Senator Specter notes that the managers package is ready for a vote, he says that it (the package) makes making sausage look good. Senator Kyl asks to speak for one minute on the managers amendment. He says it has been in busy negotiations, right up until now. Federal, state and local entities in the US would be required to consult with Mexican government before building a wall. I predict this amendment, S.Amdt.4188, will pass. Off to find the language that Senator Kyl referred to.

UPDATE @ 17:23 - Found it. Senator Dodd talked against a fence on May 18, and his S.Amdt.4089 contains the following language:

(b) CONSULTATION REQUIREMENT.--Consultations between United States and Mexican authorities at the federal, state, and local levels concerning the construction of additional fencing and related border security structures along the United States-Mexico border shall be undertaken prior to commencing any new construction, in order to solicit the views of affected communities, lessen tensions and foster greater understanding and stronger cooperation on this and other important issues of mutual concern.

UPDATE @ 17:40 - Bonus prediction (the managers' amendment), now four for four. Senator Frist voted against the managers' amendment, for what it's worth.

S.Amdt.4188 - Specter: Managers' amendment, a collection of amendments, including Dodd's S.Amdt.4089 that requires local, state and federal governments to consult with Mexican counterpart authorities before commencing new construction, was PASSED on a 56 - 41 vote.

[Again, Tim Johnson votes against protecting America’s national security.]

In Mortal Danger

That is a title to this must read:

Two years ago, he was as lonely as the Maytag repairman – an obscure congressman trying desperately to raise the visibility of an issue he believed threatened the very security of the U.S.

More recently, he has become a force to be reckoned with, the leader of a powerful House caucus, a Republican who has taken on the president, a man respected for outspoken positions and the political force behind what has become the hottest issue in the nation.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus and the undisputed heavyweight champion of the border security issue in the nation's capital, now tells the whole story of the threats facing the nation, the solutions within its grasp and his own personal quest to awaken the political establishment to the seething discontentment gripping America as a result of illegal immigration.

In his new book, "In Mortal Danger," published by WND Books, Tancredo warns that the country is on a course to the dustbin of history. Like the great and mighty empires of the past, he writes, superpowers that once stretched from horizon to horizon, America is heading down the road to ruin.

English historian Edward Gibbon, in penning his classic "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (ironically published in the year America's Founding Fathers declared independence from Great Britain), theorized that Rome fell because it rotted from within. It succumbed to barbarian invasions because of a loss of civic virtue, its citizens became lazy and soft, hiring barbarian mercenaries to defend the empire because they were unwilling to defend it themselves.

Tancredo says America is following in the tragic footsteps of Rome.

Living up to his reputation for candor, Tancredo explains how the economic success and historical military prowess of the United States has transformed a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles of right and wrong into an overindulgent, self-deprecating, immoral cesspool of depravity.

His recipe for turning things around?

Without strong, moral leadership, without a renewed sense of purpose, without a rededication to family and community, without shunning the race hustlers and pop-culture sham artists, without protecting borders, language and culture, the nation that once was "the land of the free and home of the brave" and the "one last best hope of mankind" will repeat the catastrophic mistakes of the past, he writes.