Six of one

...half a dozen of the other. I can't keep up and I can't keep score.

Below is a collection of some articles I received that make you smile and others that leave you scratching your head.

Parish’s Big Victories

December 21, 2008-January 3, 2009 Issue

When pro-life messages and actions are consistent and regular, pro-life fruits are sweet and abundant. The 4 1/2-year-old parish of St. Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas, is seeing several ripen.

Every Tuesday, in numbers too big to ignore, parishioners plant themselves in front of the city’s one remaining abortion business. They pray the Rosary and offer counseling. Led by their pastor, Father James Farfaglia, they’ve been at it for nearly two years.

Thanks to the work of Bishop Emeritus Rene Gracida, along with a very active chapter of Operation Rescue, three of the city’s four abortion businesses had closed by the time the St. Helena group got a full head of steam. Only one remained. On Jan. 22, 2007, after Father Farfaglia finished the Rosary during the annual diocesan Roe v. Wade protest at this lone business, he asked parishioner and longtime pro-life worker Ray Reeves: What next?

* Full story can be found here and more here.
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Planned Parenthood Staffer Resigns

Saturday, December 20, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS — A Planned Parenthood of Indiana counselor has resigned after an undercover video showed her telling a woman posing as a 13-year-old that she didn't care about the age of the man who impregnated her, the group said Friday.
Two videos shot at the organization's clinics by an anti-abortion group appear to show workers unconcerned about state law requiring anyone learning of sexual acts between an adult and a child under 14 to report them to police or child welfare authorities. A nursing aide seen in the other video was previously fired.

Planned Parenthood said Friday it has enlisted an outside group to help retrain its workers on the legal requirements for reporting abuse.

Planned Parenthood of Indiana's president and CEO, Betty Cockrum, also called on the anti-abortion group Live Action to give it copies of all the undercover video it shot at clinics in Bloomington and Indianapolis that showed a young patient claiming she had been impregnated by an older man.

"It's right for us to see what our staff said and did," Cockrum said.

The steps were announced a day after the Marion County Prosecutor's Office in Indianapolis said it would have a grand jury investigate whether any laws were broken at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Indianapolis.\

"We took swift action. Both employees were immediately suspended," Cockrum said in a telephone interview Friday. "Both are no longer working for us."

Video released by Live Action on Tuesday shows a counselor at the Indianapolis clinic and 20-year-old UCLA student Lila Rose, who was posing as a 13-year-old and says the man who impregnated her was 31.

"I don't care how old he is," the counselor says in the video.

The Indianapolis counselor, who has not been identified, resigned in the middle of the organization's investigation, Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Kate Shepherd said.

The nursing aide fired earlier from the Bloomington clinic made a similar claim in the other video. Both videos were shot in June.

Rose said Friday the group was sending both unedited videos from Indiana to authorities, even though they had not yet been contacted. She also has said her group intends to post the unedited video online.

"Self-regulation has not worked for Planned Parenthood as they have routinely evaded the very Indiana laws that protect children from sexual abuse," Rose said in a prepared statement. She said Indiana authorities should investigate and hold Planned Parenthood accountable for its "criminal activity."

Cockrum denied the two cases indicated Planned Parenthood has a culture of failing to report sexual activity by underage children, as some opponents have alleged. She said her organization conducts audits to turn up abuse cases that haven't been reported.

Planned Parenthood reported 123 cases of suspected child abuse to Indiana authorities in 2007, Shepherd said.

"I'm very serious when I say it's an imperative here. We take this reporting requirement very seriously," Cockrum said.

Planned Parenthood has enlisted Prevent Child Abuse Indiana to help it retrain staff. Sandy Runkle, programs director for the anti-abuse group, said members met with Planned Parenthood on Thursday.

Runkle said it was too early to say what form the retraining would take and who would provide it.

Planned Parenthood employs a staff of more than 200 at its 35 health clinics across Indiana.

Video http://liveactionfilms.org/
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Planned Parenthood makes staff cuts
Funding declines partly attributed to Madoff.

Hit with declines in funding from the economic crisis and the Madoff scandal, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America is laying off around 20% of its staff.
Roughly 30 people were let go earlier this week, according to a source who works for the nonprofit. Executives at Planned Parenthood confirmed the layoffs, but declined to give more details.

“As with many other nonprofit organizations, Planned Parenthood has had to make staff reductions at our headquarters due to the challenging economic times facing our country,” said Maryana Iskander, chief operating officer at the agency. “While taking this action is never easy, we want to ensure the millions of women and men who rely on Planned Parenthood as a health care provider that the reductions will not impact our ability to deliver care to those in need.”

Part of Planned Parenthood’s funding declines stem from the closing of the Florida-based Picower Foundation, which shut down in December because its assets were managed by Bernard Madoff. The $1 billion foundation was one of the few major funders of reproductive rights issues.

Story can be found here.
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Planned Parenthood Letter

From: Planned Parenthood MN/ND/SD Action Fund
Subject: The verse is the story. The verse is the message.

"Politicians never hear the verse; they only hear the chorus."

My friend, songwriter Gretchen Peters, took solace in those words the night her song, "Independence Day," was used to introduce Gov. Sarah Palin to the RNC. She had just finished a performance in Ft. Worth, TX, and her song -- about a woman in a desperate situation -- had been used by a politician who didn't know what it was about, and who doesn't relate to women like Gretchen and me.

She put it best herself: "But the verse is the story. The verse is the message."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D-p-DbsTp8

Gretchen decided to do something remarkable: she donated the proceeds she received from "Independence Day" -- from the moment Gov. Palin took the stage that day until Election Day -- to Planned Parenthood. Supporters like Gretchen -- and like you --are the reason we have a strong, vibrant organization that helps people throughout the world. I can't ever thank you enough.
http://gretchenpeters.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=478&Itemid=46

As always, sincerely,

Cecile Richards, President
Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Gretchen Peters has written and performed for audiences around the world. Last month, she played her hit song "Independence Day" just for Planned Parenthood. Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D-p-DbsTp8
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Independence Day by Gretchen Peters

Well she seemed all right by dawn's early light
Though she looked a little worried and weak
She tried to pretend he wasn't drinkin' again
But daddy left the proof on her cheek
and I was only eight years old that summer
And I always seemed to be in the way
So I took myself down to the fair in town
On Independence Day

Well word gets a round in a small, small town
They said he was a dangerous man
Mama was proud and she stood her ground
But she knew she was on the losin' end
Some folks whispered and some folks talked
But everybody looked the other way
And when time ran out there was no one about
On Independence Day

CHORUS:
Let Freedom ring
Let the white dove sing
Let the whole world know that today
Is a Day of reckoning
Let the weak be strong
Let the right be wrong
Roll the stone away
Let the guilty pay
It's Independence Day

Well she lit up the sky that fourth of July
By the time that the firemen come
They just put out the flames
and took down some names
And send me to the county home
Now I ain't sayin' it's right or it's wrong
But maybe it's the only way
Talk about your revolution
It's Independence Day

CHORUS

Roll the stone away
It's Independence Day
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Remember Catholics for Kerry?
By Donald R. McClarey

Hattip to Jay Anderson at Pro Ecclesia and The Catholic Report. Eric McFadden was the founder of Catholics for Kerry, a group which proudly proclaimed that Catholics should support John Kerry notwithstanding his support for abortion.

After the election McFadden went on to bigger and better things when he was appointed by Ted Strickland, pro-abort Democrat governor of Ohio, in February 2007 to head the Ohio Office of Faith Based Initiatives.

McFadden resigned from that position in October of 2007.

McFadden also served as head of Catholic outreach for the Clinton campaign in 2008. And here we have him making the first comment in this thread, carrying water for pro-abort Obama.

Then we have McFadden writing a public letter attacking Supreme Knight Carl Anderson of the Knights of Columbus for reminding Catholics that Obama and Biden hold views on abortion diametrically opposed to the Catholic Church.

Yesterday he was arrested and charged with running a prostitution ring for 6 years in Columbus, Ohio.

You know, try as I might I am having a hard time being shocked by this story. After continually attempting to rally support for pro-aborts running for the highest office in the land, and doing so under the banner of a Church that views abortion as an abomination, being involved in prostitution during the same time period doesn’t seem like that big of a step to me.

Check out this link for more on the story.

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H/T to Jean, Carley and Ray for all the stories