Noteworthy Net-Worthies, from a seemingly bottomless well:

President ‘Prompter’s prompter prompted Prime Minister Brian Cowen of Ireland to precisely parrot President ‘Prompter’s previously ‘Prompted press pronouncement.

PC Police are purging Patrick from St. Patrick’s Day by shamefully shilling it as Shamrock Day (HT Tim Graham at NewsBusters). Primary Patrick-purging perps include the Disney Channel, card shops, and a children’s museum in California.

Israel is really a problem for Charles Freeman, who railed against the “Israeli lobby” upon realizing that he is really not going to be chairman of President Obama’s National Intelligence Council.

From the Words Fail Dept., out of CNN — “Senate Banking committee Chairman Christopher Dodd told CNN Wednesday that he was responsible for language added to the federal stimulus bill to make sure that already-existing contracts for bonuses at companies receiving federal bailout money were honored.” This is after he spent Tuesday wailing about AIG’s bonuses.

From the “We Want This?” Dept., via AFP at Breitbart — “Britain apologises for ‘Third World’ hospital.” The people who should read the whole thing are those who believe that further socializing/nationalizing health care will have positive effects. Some key phrases found: “patients drinking out of flower vases”; “patients wandering around the hospital and patients fighting”; “screaming out in pain because you just could not get pain relief”; “400 and 1,200 more people died than would have been expected in a three-year period.”

Totally predictable — “The firestorm over bonuses paid by insurance giant American International Group has triggered alarm at other financial firms, threatening federal efforts to draw private investors into economic recovery programs.”

In case you missed it — “The Debt Star: This Is Not the Hope You Were Looking For.”

From the Further Comment Unnecessary Dept. — “The speaker of the House told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants recently that enforcement of immigration laws in the United States is ‘un-American.’”

Little-known point relating to the previous item, from NPR in 2006 — “According to a recent study, 45 percent of illegal immigrants came here on a legal visa, and then overstayed that visa.” Nancy Pelosi must be pleased as punch that we’re not enforcing the law against millions.

From last weekend, out of the “When Did ‘New’ Get Redefined to ‘Two-Plus Years Old’?” file — “Obama’s New Tack: Blaming Bush.”

From Omaha, Nebraska:

Posted: March 15, 2009 08:05 PM
Updated: March 15, 2009 08:05 PM

66-year-old Pat Dugan now knows life is too short. Last December, he was playing racquetball with his son Matt at an Omaha YMCA when his heart went into cardiac arrest, and he fell to the floor.

“We had just got started, and the lights went out,” said Pat Dugan. He had no pulse, so his son attempted CPR. “I did take CPR in 8th grade and then at college, so I somewhat knew what to do,” said Matt Dugan. But it wasn’t enough, so Matt called for help. “We’re prepared to deal with it, but it’s not a weekly or monthly deal,” said Deb Munger, YMCA Aquatics Director.

The YMCA staff quickly brought out a defibrillator to shock Pat’s heart, and had him breathing by the time Omaha firefighters arrived on scene. “Because of her training, and the people here at the YMCA, he’s alive today,” said Omaha fire Cpt. Steve Vonderharr. “You just appreciate people that do things they don’t have to do,” said Pat.

Nine years ago, the same thing happened to Pat’s brother, Mike. Except he was working out at home, and nobody was around to give him CPR. “If somebody was there, they could have saved his life,” said Pat. Now, Pat is on a mission to share his story, and stress the importance of CPR certification. “It’s a short class, very interesting, and you feel good when you leave it because you know you can do it,” said Pat. ….

Go here for the rest of the story.

…. and it isn’t even law yet:

Health care overhaul cost may reach $1.5 trillion

Your lungs may work just fine, but the estimated price for universal health care could take your breath away. Health policy experts say guaranteeing coverage for all Americans may cost about $1.5 trillion over the next decade. That would be more than double the $634 billion ‘down payment’ President Barack Obama set aside for health reform in his budget.

It’s only the beginning if they get their way. And there will be rationing nonetheless, as there already is in Massachusetts.

________________________________________

UPDATE: Separately but typically, the damage estimate on cap-and-trade carbon taxation (all to bow down to what is one of the biggest hoaxes in human history) is really triple what’s advertised –

President Obama’s climate plan could cost industry close to $2 trillion, nearly three times the White House’s initial estimate of the so-called “cap-and-trade” legislation, according to Senate staffers who were briefed by the White House.

A top economic aide to Mr. Obama told a group of Senate staffers last month that the president’s climate-change plan would surely raise more than the $646 billion over eight years the White House had estimated publicly, according to multiple a number of staffers who attended the briefing Feb. 26.

“We all looked at each other like, ‘Wow, that’s a big number,’” said a top Republican staffer who attended the meeting along with between 50 and 60 other Democratic and Republican congressional aides.

All of this assumes that anyone will feel like producing anything under this onerous regimen.

Bob Owens (HT Michelle Malkin) suggests some perspective, and an appropriate focus for righteous indignation (bold is mine; link was in original):

Barack Obama’s lack of leadership in a down economy has now hit crisis proportions, as his claimed inability to block millions of dollars in bonuses for executives of bailout recipient AIG has caused even his supporters to turn on him (Note: Tim Geithner said that he’s taking it out of the company’s hide; see this post from early this morning for details and implications. — Ed).

But while the ire of Congress and the media focus are on the $165 million that AIG paid out in bonuses to their executives, the president is hoping you won’t notice the $100 billion in taxpayer bailout dollars that AIG paid out to other banks, including $58 billion to foreign banks and $36 billion given to French and German banks alone.

The Obama administration is allowing AIG to bail out the rest of the world with your tax dollars.

So by all means, the president is happy to have you railing at “evil” but relatively small potatoes AIG executive bonuses, as it points your outrage away from his own far more costly executive abuses.

Meanwhile, CNBC’s Rick “Tea Party” Santelli gave proper instruction on the relative importance of certain letters:

From a report on Santelli’s appearance by the Business & Media Institute:

“Now think about it this way – maybe I’m missing something, but the outrage seems to be about ‘M’s – millions of dollars, right? Hundred and sixty five dollars, OK?” Santelli said, as he drew a large capital “M” on a sheet of paper. “I would think that it should be looked at as a pretty big positive because when you go from the ‘M,’ maybe you should try to go to the ‘B’s – which is the billions of dollars. And maybe that’s going to even enlighten for the ‘T’ – trillions of dollars.”

“Squawk Box” co-host Becky Quick suggested the outrage wasn’t over the $165 million amount, but the “rewarding of bad behavior.” Yet, Santelli thought the bonus issue was being used to resonate with the average American, instead of attempting to examine the much larger pools of money.

“Don’t you think that this dynamic – the average guy reading his newspaper – is really starting to be in-tune with this?” Santelli said. “And, I think bonuses really strike a chord as to the dynamic you’re talking about. But there’s many degrees of intensity if one really wants to shine the light on the money that’s being scrutinized. You know, there’s ‘M’s, there’s ‘B’s, and then there’s ‘T’s.

The federal government alone spends more than twice as much as those AIG bonuses every hour, every day, 24-7-365. In fact, under Obama’s new budget, it will only take Uncle Sam 24 minutes and 6 seconds to spend that much:

Where’s the (properly placed) outrage?

From Livingston County, Michigan:

Friday March 13, 2009, 2:14 PM

Police are praising the actions of two men who may have saved the life of a disabled Fenton man after his minivan caught fire on busy US-23 near I-96 just outside Brighton Friday morning.

Edward Gren, 40, of Livingston County’s Parshallville, and another motorist who hasn’t been identified, helped save 50-year-old Kevin Conkey of Fenton from a fire that engulfed his vehicle, said State Police Sgt. Mark Thompson of the Brighton post.

“They not only alerted him to the fire, but stuck around and rendered aid, which is what any good citizen should do,” Thompson said.

It happened in the southbound lanes of US-23 in Brighton Township at about 6:15 a.m.

Gren was driving behind Conkey’s vehicle when he noticed flames and smoke coming from the undercarriage near the gas tank, so he sped up to alert him, Trooper Karla Aguzzi said.

After Conkey pulled to the shoulder of the road, Gren also pulled over – a decision that may have saved Conkey’s life, police said. Conkey, who is paralyzed from the waist down, likely wouldn’t have been able to safely escape his vehicle or get to his wheelchair in the trunk, police said.

“I was panicking, I would’ve fallen out at the level of the flames, and (Gren) pulled me out,” Conkey said.

Gren said: “(Conkey) said ‘I can’t move my legs.’ He grabbed me around the neck and I scooted him out and took him onto the embankment.”

After he moved Conkey, Gren went back for his wheelchair and even returned a third time for a box of Conkey’s personal effects.

“I think (Gren) is a true hero,” Conkey said.

But Gren called Conkey the hero.

“He’s kind of a hero himself, when you consider what he’s been through, his condition,” Gren said. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.

Sherrod Brown’s Bluster:

March 17, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, today called on American International Group (AIG) Chairman and CEO Edward Liddy to immediately renegotiate contacts to prevent $165 million in bonus payments to AIG executives.

“AIG’s actions are a slap-in-the-face to hardworking Ohio families,” said Brown. “Bonuses at companies like AIG—companies relying on taxpayer funds to stay afloat—are an outrage. I hope AIG executives voluntarily return these bonuses. If they don’t, I will push to have them recouped through the U.S. tax code.” …..

Brown first condemned AIG’s proposed bonus payments on November 14, 2008.

“Paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to the employees of a company that is essentially insolvent smacks of greed, arrogance, and worse,” Brown continued in his statement.  “We shouldn’t be financing one dime of bonuses for AIG employees whose actions took the form of reckless endangerment.”

(Aside — “Hundreds of millions” means “$200 million or more.” Brown can’t count to two. This puts him in an even worse position than Barack Obama, who can’t count to 50, and Joe Biden, who can’t count past three.)

Wait. A. Minute.

Tax Cheat Tim Geithner was one of the guys who thought it was okey-dokey to throw money at AIG, apparently without conditions:

Geithner worked with Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke on the government-engineered sale of Bear Stearns Cos., the bailout of American International Group Inc. and the decision not to prop up Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc.

In the real world, the above means that Geithner did the detail work.

Prudent lenders write bonus caps into loan agreements. Apparently Tax Cheat Tim didn’t. Now, under instructions from Dear Leader “to use the government’s leverage to pursue ways to ‘block these bonuses,’” Geithner has said that he is going to take the bonuses back from the company, but not (yet) from the individuals who may have collected these bonuses.

But here’s the sad part: While we haven’t been paying enough attention, AIG has been nationalized anyway, since Uncle Sam “now holds a(n) 80 percent stake in the company.” The left pocket (actually, the far-left pocket) is in essence collecting from the right pocket.

Please, please, note that Geithner can make his bonus pullback stick NOT because he can do so under the government’s lending and/or investment contracts with AIG (if there even ARE any), but ONLY because he has the awesome powers (oh, excuse me, “leverage”) of Uncle Sam to cover for his incompetence. Who would dare oppose this takeback? Tax Cheat Tim is also Tyrant Tim.

Now let’s get back to the normally invisible Sherrod Brown, who SOBer Porkopolis notes has been thoroughly busted:

(Brown is the same Senator who) was shuttled back to Washington D.C. by Obama on a White House provided plane to cast the deciding vote on the Spending Stimulus Bill.

It was Brown’s vote that put into law the provision guaranteeing the payments (emphasis added):

(iii) The prohibition required under clause (i) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts are determined by the Secretary or the designee of the Secretary.

Y’know Senator, if you would have read the bill before your vote, you would have caught this. Your histrionics after you voted into law bonuses you condemned only shine a bright light your proactive refusal to do the job Ohioans elected you to do, which requires at an absolute minimum a working knowledge of legislation you support.

The mislabeled “stimulus” package is law because of Sherrod Brown’s deciding vote. If he didn’t have time to read and understand the bill, he should have demanded more time, or voted against it on principle. He didn’t. He just waved it through.

Five words of advice, Senator: Own up, or shut up.

From Abilene, Texas:

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The last thing Walter Wheat remembers from the night of Feb. 21 is getting up to leave Abuelo’s Mexican Food Embassy.

He didn’t make it far.

He passed out.

Wheat wasn’t lightheaded or having a heart attack. He was suffering an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The aorta — the main vessel that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body — ruptured.

What saved his life, he and his wife, Dorris, are convinced, were three Abuelo’s employees who performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him until emergency responders arrived.

The former city councilman is quick to call those three employees — Jessica Shafer Grant, Courtney Henry and Jeff Womble — heroes. He knows he’s lucky to be alive — the survival rate for this type of aneurysm is about 20 percent.

“God was on my side,” said Wheat, who was in the hospital until March 2. “He told me, ‘I’m not finished with you,’ and I hope I don’t let him down.”

Walking by from waiting tables in a different section of the busy restaurant, Grant began CPR when she was told Wheat had no pulse.

“Nobody else was really doing anything, they were kind of scared,” Grant said. “I said I can do mouth-to-mouth.”

Henry started doing chest compressions, and Womble took over for her.

Grant, who works as a full-time dental assistant for Dr. Robert Hawley, knows CPR but had never had to use it. She thought her actions were not helping.

“That feeling, whenever my mouth was over his, it really felt like his soul was leaving his body,” Grant said. “When he started breathing I was just amazed by it.”

Grant rolled Wheat onto his side until emergency medical personnel arrived. After Wheat was taken to Hendrick Medical Center, Grant returned to her table. They had asked for more tortillas, a drink and something else she couldn’t remember.

“They were like, ‘Really? You just saved this guy’s life and you’re worried about us?’” Grant said. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.

I’m not using the person’s name, because it appears to be from a search engine’s user group, but you can rest assured that what is excerpted below is part of what arrived in my e-mail box word for word.

My limited Internet exposure to the PI’s output over the last decade or so at various times gives me reason to believe that this person is correct in his characterizations.

Here goes, after editing out references to specific events that I can’t verify:

Today in Seattle it was announced that the Hearst Corp.’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer, would stop publishing tomorrow, although a smaller online edition will be tried.

Locally, there was a lot of carefully censored opinion on the closure of the Seattle PI: Peoples said it was a great tragedy, a great loss for our community, even a loss of for Freedom of Speech or Democracy.

One comment, repeated again and again, was that it would create a gap in local reporting. If you did not say these approved things, you comment vanished into the memory hole. (In the seventeen years I have lived in this city, I have never heard ANYONE say either local newspaper was any good at all.)

But the Seattle PI (and its competitor the Seattle Times) is not about local reporting, or indeed news of any kind, and certainly never believed in Freedom of Speech, but rather about censorship. The closure of the PI will only create a censorship gap. If 100,000 people no longer read a local newspaper in this region, that will be 100,000 less people reading censored news. Maybe they will open their eyes and see what the PI has concealed from them.

The Seatte PI (and the Times) are filled with columns by Black nationalists, Asian nationalists, Mexican nationalists, Jewish nationalists, Hindu nationalists Muslim nationalists and drip with hatred for the European-American middle class who buy the newspapers.

Gang rights, Gay rights, Illegal Immigrant rights…. celebrations of gang attacks on European-Americans…. and censorship, censorship, censorship….

….. And so why did so few people buy the Seattle PI?

Because we, as a community, despise the PI, and everything it stands for. We, as a community, have killed this Multicult hate organ and it dies a deserved death. May all its minions rot in Hell. May it begin for them with unemployment.

The Death of each such Multicult organ is a blow for freedom. Boycott them all to death.

Boycott. Bankrupt. Fire. Them. All.

Wow. Even it was even 10% as bad as described, the PI got what it deserved — and the Internet, the economy, and other excuses not related to bias had little to do with it.

Vincent Fumo’s chronicle of corruption is extraordinary, even by the “standards” of Philadelphia, PA.

Thus, it’s a journalistic fail that in a story about the convictions of former 30-year state senator Fumo and longtime associate Ruth Arnao, NBC Philadephia (HT Michelle Malkin) did not identify his or her Democratic Party party affiliation.

Here is a portion of NBC Philly’s early-morning story:

Fumo Guilty on All Counts

Guilty is the verdict on all 137 counts for Vince Fumo in his federal corruption trail. His co-defendant Ruth Arnao is also guilty on all counts against her.

It was standing room only as the verdicts were read, capping off a dramatic five-month trial and a dramatic morning.

Attorneys for both sides argued over whether Fumo was a flight risk. The government asked for Fumo’s bail to be revoked saying he had a “strong incentive to flee.” The judge decided not to revoke Fumo’s bail and instead set a hearing for 2 p.m.

Fumo hugged his younger daughter, who was crying. He hugged his girlfriend, Carolyn Zinni, who was also in tears.

The man who once held arguably the most powerful political position in the state, now faces time in federal prison.

….. Fumo is guilty of defrauding the Senate, a charity and a museum of $3.5 million and with destroying evidence. He left the Senate last year after 30 years.

The trial, which started Oct. 22, featured more than 100 witnesses and 1,300 exhibits, made OPM a household acronym and gave us much more than a glimpse of Fumo’s failed relationships as a friend and a father.

Taxpayers found out how their hard-earned money was being spent, at times, on dinners Fumo had with a former girlfriend. Her testimony revealed a power-hungry man with a sense of entitlement who often picked up the tab with “OPM,” his acronym for “Other People’s Money.”

Fumo’s and Arnao’s party affiliations are also nowhere to be found in a Philadelphia Inquirer story (“Longtime Fumo associate Ruth Arnao guilty on all counts”).

Most of the rest of the press seems to have done a better than average but far from perfect job identifying Fumo’s party than has been seen in many other cases involving Democrats with criminal or ethical problems:

• UPI.com mentioned Fumo’s Dem affiliation in its second paragraph.
• An initial four-paragraph report from the Associated Press mentions that Fumo is a Democrat in its final paragraph. A later report carried at a Nashville, Tennessee station’s web site saves it for the final paragraph of five. Another AP item whose timing is undetermined has it in the third of five paragraphs. A fourth AP story carried at KDKA has a third paragraph with an odd post-conviction use of the present tense — “The 65-year-old Philadelphia Democrat is charged with defrauding the senate, a nonprofit and a museum of more than $3.5 million, and destroying e-mail evidence.”
• Philly’s Fox TV station (“Jurors Blast Fumo After Verdict”) has it in Paragraph 2.
• PennLive.com’s story (“Fumo guilty charge brings ethics to the forefront”) doesn’t directly identify Fumo as a Democrat. Its 6th paragraph refers to a different Keystone State Democratc scandal, noting that “As news of the Fumo verdict broke, there were new developments in Bonusgate, too. In that scandal, Democratic house staffers are charged with spending working hours doing political work for the Democrats.”
• The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review waits until the seventh paragraph to describe Fumo as “once a powerful Democrat.” Later in the story, the paper did a good “no comment” roundup (“Many lawmakers, particularly Senate Democrats, didn’t want to talk about the verdict”), naming the names and flagging the party of Governor Ed Rendell and Senate Appropriations Chair Jay Costa.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette did the best job with the story of all those I reviewed.

Its headline (“Fumo, powerhouse of Pa. Dems, guilty”) is the only one I saw with Fumo’s affiliation, and it appears to have been the only publication to note that “Twice before, the former state senator and Democratic power had beaten criminal charges.”

Though it goes a bit over the top at one point (“there was no escaping yesterday as jury forewoman Karen White delivered guilty verdict after guilty verdict, her words falling for 13 long minutes like dirt into a grave”), it importantly describes key elements of Fumo’s claims and testimony, portraying an incredibly arrogant man who thought himself untouchable and made OPM (Other People’s Money) a lifestyle — something that in this case, considering how long his fellow party members tolerated his behavior, is properly associated with the Democrats.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

Good news from two far-apart places:

3/13/2009 9:37:24 PM

n an amazing story of two babies who defied death from two different continents have nothing in common except their fate. Two young children in two different corners of the world have survived two grizzly accidents.

In Peru, a six inch metal rod pierced through the head of a little boy Juan. The Peruvian boy was injured when playing with a metal piece of a toy truck which pierced through the back of the eye, grazing the brain. In the National institute of Children’s health, Neuro Suregeon Luis Guitierrez, speaking on the miracle survival said, “The child was attended in emergency and once he was stabilized he was prepared for surgery. The operation lasted approximately two hours and the metal object was removed.”

Meanwhile, in India doctors on Friday (March 13) removed a 4-foot rod from 3-year-old boy’s stomach. 3 year-old Mehul Kumar was injured when he was playing Holi on the terrace of his grandparents’ house. He is out of danger after a three-hour-long operation. The rod was removed and then efforts were diverted to the repair of the vital organs that has been injured. The rod pierced through his body and then broke, resulting in his fall from the roof.

According to sources, Dr Sandeep Agarwal, who led a team of 5 in the operation to remove the rod from the boy’s body declared, “Mehul Kumar is out of danger.” Mehul was playing with colours on the terrace when he suddenly fell on an iron rod left standing on the under-construction terrace. The rod pierced through his body and then broke, resulting in the boy falling from the roof.

He was rushed to hospital from where they were referred to RIMS hospital, where doctors performed an operation to repair vital organ that were injured. …..

Go here for the rest of the story.

Josh Brahm of Right to Life of Central California has done the definitive dissection of the comprehensive media failure in reporting on President Obama’s recent Executive Order (EO) allowing federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Brahm’s “9 Things the Media Messed Up About the Obama Stem Cell Story” (HT to an e-mail from LifeNews.com) is an exceptional magnum opus that must be read in its entirety to be fully appreciated. It identifies each of the nine errors, links to well over 40 specific instances of media bias and/or ignorance, and tell us why those errors are significant. I thought I was reasonably knowledgeable in this subject area until I read Brahm’s work.

(CNS News has reported that the EO will apparently not going into effect until October 1 or later, because the supplemental appropriations bill he just signed [but apparently didn't read] “explicilty bans federal funding of any ‘research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death.’” That fact doesn’t change the correctness of Brahm’s “9 Things.”)

Here are the nine items (absolutely no substitute for reading the whole thing), accompanied by brief quotes from Brahm’s article:

#1. Omitting the importance of iPS cells (induced Pluripotent Stem Cells). “These are adult skin cells that scientists may soon be able to reprogram into embryonic-like stem cells, without killing a single human embryo!”

#2. Omitting that the diseases everyone is talking about curing (diabetes, Parkinson’s, paralysis) have already been treated with adult stem cells. “Perhaps if more Americans understood that this can be accomplished without killing human embryos, maybe this “complicated moral decision” would suddenly not be so tough.”

#3. Perpetuating the myth that stem cell research will likely cure Alzheimer’s disease. “This doesn’t mean Alzheimer’s disease won’t ever be cured. It just means that the cure will probably not come from stem cell research, of any kind. It will probably be a separate area of scientific research.”

#4. Omitting the dangers of HESCR (Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research). “(It is significant) because we just might kill some adult human beings by starting human clinical trials prematurely.” That has happened already overseas.

#5. Confusing or combining reproductive cloning with research cloning. This one was new to me, and is a very important distinction, requiring this excerpt:

There are two different types of cloning: reproductive cloning, and research cloning. The term “reproductive cloning” has been used to describe when a human clone is implanted and delivered as a full term pregnancy. “Research,”
“experimental” or “therapeutic cloning” have been the terms used for the other type of cloning. In this, a human embryo is cloned and experimented upon in his or her first few weeks of life and then killed.

Opinion polls show that the vast majority of Americans disapprove of both types of cloning. (83% against reproductive cloning, versus 81% against research cloning.) (3)

In another poll asking Americans to rate the morality of 16 social issues, 86% said human cloning was morally wrong. In fact, the only social issues ranked lower than human cloning were extramarital affairs and polygamy! (4)

Many media outlets noted that President Obama supposedly condemned cloning, saying “And we will ensure that our government never opens the door to the use of cloning for human reproduction. It is dangerous, profoundly wrong, and has no place in our society, or any society.”

Read that again. Did President Obama condemn all human cloning, or did he only condemn reproductive cloning?

Amazing! We just figured out what practically every other media outlet missed.

By the way, the only reason the list of media outlets that missed this is shorter than the first three on this list is because most of them didn’t mention cloning in their article. Fox News is the only media outlet who mentioned Obama’s remarks on cloning and then explained the difference between reproductive and research cloning.

#6. Creating a false choice that “leftover” embryos will either be used for research or be killed. “Those are not the only choices. Human embryos that are no longer wanted by the family can also be placed for adoption. Organizations like Snowflakes have been helping couples through embryo adoption for years now.”

#7. Dehumanizing human embryos. “It’s much easier to pacify our feelings toward human destruction if the people in question are dehumanized. Who would care about a simple ‘ball of cells?’ But embryologists know that there is so much more going on here than a simple clumps of cells.”

#8. Responding to a Strawman argument that pro-lifers are concerned about embryos being misused in laboratories (other than killing them). “Pro-lifers are not concerned about embryos being misused in a laboratory. We are concerned about embryos being killed in a laboratory. The protocols being followed end with the embryo being killed.”

#9. Bush’s policy restricted tax dollars being used on “all” stem cell research. “President Bush’s stem cell policy did not restrict tax dollars for stem cell research. It restricted tax dollars to be used to kill more human embryos. It allowed tax dollars to be spent on research using the embryonic stem cell lines that had already been created, as well as funding research with adult stem cells. On the contrary, President Obama is the one restricting tax dollars for stem cell research. In fact the only type of stem cell research President Obama seems interested in funding is the very type that has consistently failed to produce any positive results.”

Brahm’s “9 Things” ought to be required reading for those who are in the trenches defending life, but more importantly, for those who haven’t been paying enough attention to this crucial issue.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.

….. Ron Silver.