Archive for July 11th, 2008

(I wanted to blog about this earlier, and just forgot with my vacation last week.)

My good friend, State Senator Jim Merritt has taken on a good fight.

Merritt said that he and State Rep Mike Murphy plan to introduce a bill that would amend the murder statute to include a fetus at any state of development.

“The expectation of a child is a remarkable feeling… to have that stolen from you is just tragic,” Merritt said.

Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi has been calling for longer prison sentences for people convicted of harming a fetus during crimes against pregnant women since the arrest of a man who allegedly robbed a bank in Indianapolis and shot a bank teller. The man, Brian Kendrick, allegedly shot bank teller Katherin Shuffield, who was five months pregnant.

Kendrick has been charged with the shooting and faces four to 16 years if he is convicted.

Merritt and other supporters hope to change the feticide law during next year’s legislative session.

(Read more after the leap) (more…)

What is it with Democrats and the First Amendment? More and more they are becoming zealous in their attempts to stifle free speech that conflict with their beliefs. Earlier this week, Nancy Pelosi decided it was time that elected Congressmen only use “approved” sites to post messages potentially eliminating the use of Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and blogs cutting off other forms of contact between them and their supporters and constituents. Now that was just an edict that has since blown up in her face.

But the Democrat mayor of Hammond, Thomas McDermott, has literally taken it further through actual censorship by deletion of comments on the Northwest Times message board.

Via the Northwest Times:

Times columnist Mark Kiesling and Online Editor Yuri Victor researched the vaporization of comments on The Times message boards, at http://nwi.com, and traced the Internet protocol address of the offenders to the Hammond city government.

McDermott says this IP address could apply to any of hundreds of computers. But the IP address is clearly that of Hammond’s city government.

The mayor was quick to criticize Kiesling, who brought to light these actions by McDermott supporters. He has been less quick to criticize the supporters who have been censoring the comments on the message boards.

Chris Hedges, a blogger up in the Region had this to say:

(Read more after the leap) (more…)

Congressman Burton let his followers know he filled out a questionnaire on health care and it is posted for all to see HERE.

On his view of the health care system in general he believe significant changes are needed.

On addressing the cost of healthcare:

“I believe we can make a serious dent in health care costs if we focus on three initiatives; ending the medical liability crisis through reasonable limits on non-economic and punitive damages; reducing overhead through updated medical billing codes and greater use of digital health care records; and, lowering prescription drug costs through an international market regime (sometimes called reimportation) – with appropriate safeguards to ensure the pedigree of the drugs from manufacturer to consumer. In the interim, tax breaks – such as credits or deductions for health insurance premiums - and savings initiatives like Medical Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts can help more Americans purchase health insurance and take control of their health care dollars.”

[Emphasis Mine - ed.]

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When Barack Obama’s opposition to a bill that would ban infanticide was discussed on CNN, an Obama supporter replied that “the American people want to talk about gas prices”. Both Republicans and Democrats think they can use high gas prices to their advantage this election season and both will be talking a lot about them in the coming months. Certainly, the high cost of gas (reaching $4.00 a gallon and climbing) drives up the cost of everything else and threatens our economic stability.

But are gas prices the most important issue in this election? Far from it.

The most important issue we face in 2008 is the same as it was in 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004. The most important issue we face is the fact that fifty million people have been killed by a procedure deemed a “constitutional right” by the Supreme Court and that 1.2 million continue to die annually. To bring it down to the local level, the most important issue we face is that several people were killed yesterday in Bloomington, and it was completely legal to kill them. The most important issue we face, of course, is abortion.

(Read more after the leap) (more…)