Obama, the nearly aborted president. Where would he be now? Where would America be?

Peter Heck - Guest Columnist /  Perspectives /  May 25, 2011

There's an old African proverb that says, "Who knows whose womb carries the chief."  This simple truth has taken on a powerful meaning recently for every American paying attention.

According to recently secured documents from the Immigration and Naturalization Services, evidence has emerged that President Obama's father, Barack Obama, Sr., apparently paid to send a young Kenyan girl he had impregnated in Massachusetts to London to have an abortion.

Doing the work that investigative journalists of the mainstream media used to do, author Jack Cashill reveals that the foreign press, unlike their American counterparts, are all over the story.

Far from speculation, according to the INS documents, the high school-aged girl was in Massachusetts on an exchange program when she evidently became pregnant by the 29-year-old Obama.  Asian News International notes that this incident occurred prior to 1973's Roe v. Wade decision, meaning, "abortions were illegal in the U.S."

One cannot help but wonder if such a revelation would not cause a man whose own wife describes the heinous butchery of partial-birth abortion as a "legitimate medical procedure" to consider: that could have easily been me.

Let me pause to acknowledge that I don't typically like using these kinds of tactics when discussing the issue of abortion.  The truth is it doesn't matter whether the child being killed is the next Beethoven, Bach, Edison or Einstein.

What makes human life valuable and worthy of protection is that it is human life, bearing the inviolable image of the Creator.  Life is valuable because of what it is, not what it does -- whether that's making beautiful music or being tone deaf, inventing a light bulb and unlocking spectacular scientific mysteries or needing help tying shoe laces...or yes, leading the most powerful nation in world history.

But this unfolding bombshell regarding Barack Obama's family is highly instructive given our president's life-long commitment to defending abortion. 

The simplest scenario arising from the story is this: President Obama had a half-brother or half-sister who, rather than having the chance to thrive and succeed as he has, ended up in a dumpster in London.  The more complex reality for the president to grapple with is that it is not that far of a stretch to assume, given the complexities of his relationship with mother Ann Dunham, that Barack Obama, Sr. might have preferred the same end for our current president.

Such a scenario, beyond offering a brand new perspective on Obama's memoir Dreams from My Father, would provide the most pro-abortion president our country has ever known with the same chilling realization that so many of us born after the disastrous Roe decision encounter: had it not been for the strength and resolve of loving, pro-life mothers, we could have been legally slaughtered.

It was former President Ronald Reagan who is credited with having stated the obvious but enlightening fact that those fighting for abortion rights are those who have already been born.  This disquieting account about his father allows our current president the chance to put himself where his half-brother or half-sister once was...where he once was...and reconsider his tragic position on life in the womb.

As I read the heartbreaking details of this story about a soul deprived of its unalienable right to breathe free, I'm taken back to President Obama's response to Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church presidential forum in the lead-up to the 2008 election.

Asked when a baby gets human rights, Obama cowardly surrendered righteousness for convenience and politics, infamously asserting that, "answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade."

That embarrassing response shouldn't have been a surprise given that just a few months prior, Barack Obama addressed the issue of sex education on the campaign trail.  Speaking specifically about his own daughters, the man who could have been aborted himself proclaimed, "I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."

Like father, like son.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=1352838

Final NC redistricting map in works. Pantano encouraged by chances in a new 13th District

This draft of NC district map is said to be a possible version which might emerge from N.C. Redistricting Committee within a few weeks. Source Photo

Verne Strickland Blogmaster USA DOT COM   May 23, 2011

Excerpts from an article by Patrick Gannon published May 13, 2011 in the Star News

David Wasserman, U.S. House editor of The Cook Political Report – a nonpartisan, online political newsletter – recently posted a sketch of the possible congressional map on his Twitter account, writing that the initial GOP plan in North Carolina "might look something like this."

The 7th Congressional District as it exists today would basically be cut in two. One new district along the coast would be strongly Republican. The other would be a minority-dominated – and largely Democratic – district inland along the South Carolina border, including McIntyre's hometown of Lumberton.

If the final outcome of North Carolina's ongoing redistricting process looks anything like that map, it's possible that most ballots in Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties in the 2012 elections wouldn't include McIntyre's name.

Instead, the new configuration would concentrate Republican voters along the coast into a new 13th District, opening the door for a GOP candidate to represent the majority of the residents in the three counties.

"This map as it stands would be very favorable for a conservative candidate," said Ilario Pantano, a Wilmington Republican who plans to run for Congress again in 2012 after losing to the Lumberton Democrat McIntyre last year.

On the Republican side, Pantano, a former Marine, and Tim Wilkes, a Brunswick County resident, have announced their intentions to run for Congress in 2012. Both would live in that new 13th District. McIntyre has also said he will run again, but he could face a choice of which district to run in. Congressional candidates don't have to run in their home districts.

The GOP-leaning 13th District, according to the map, would include all of New Hanover County, except for a strong Democratic and African-American area in the downtown Wilmington area. It would include all of Brunswick County, except for the far northern sections, including Northwest. And it would include all of Pender County, except the western part.

The 13th District would also include all of Onslow County, which votes Republican, and Camp Lejeune, where Pantano was stationed twice as a Marine.

"I know their issues intimately," Pantano said. "I've lived their life."

That district also would include all of Duplin County and parts of Wayne, Johnston, Sampson and Cumberland counties.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20110513/ARTICLES/110519836

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is one possible new congressional district map that is being circulated online. No official proposals have been made in the legislature. Courtesy photo.

Obama campaigners make beaucoups tracks across State for their man in 2012.

Verne Strickland Blogmaster    USA DOT COM / May 22, 2011

Obamacrats are plowing, planting and hoping for bumper yield of suckers in 2012. Can we spoil their party? Let's give it a go.

Submitted by robchristensen on 2011-05-20 18:11

Tags: Under the Dome | Debbie Wasserman Schultz | Kathleen Sebelius | Tammy Duckworth

The administration of President Barack Obama continues to lavish attention on North Carolina as we get closer to the 2012 election year.

On Monday, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, will join Congressman G.K. Butterfield in meeting with hospital officials, doctors, patients and other key health officials at East Carolina Heart Institute at Pitt County Memorial Hospital.

She will be highlighting the Partnership for Patients program which is designed to reduce preventable injuries and complications.

On Thursday, Tammy Duckworth, an assistant secretary for Veterans Affairs, will speak to the Wayne County Middle College High School graduation in Goldsboro. She is a decorated Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost both her legs in Iraq. The school was chosen as one of six finalists in Obama's Commencement Challenge which recognizes schools that excel in preparing students.

Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was in Raleigh this past Wednesday to meet with party leaders.
Earlier this month, First Lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, the wife of vice president Joe Biden visited the Marine's Camp Lejeune.

http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/obama_surrogates_at_work

Ilario Pantano: Masada shall not fail again -- unless Obama says so! National Review Exclusive.

Pantano Article Responding to Obama's Betrayal of Israel Featured by National Review
We are honored to announce that Ilario's article, "Masada Shall Not Fall, Unless Obama Says So" written in response to Obama's betrayal of Israel has been featured by the National Review. The National Review and National Review Online "are America’s most widely read and influential magazine and website for Republican/conservative news, commentary and opinion."  Ilario's article, pasted below in its entirety, may be found online at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/267892/masada-shall-not-fall-again-unless-obama-says-so-ilario-pantano




A shocking, sobering and uplifting essay on Israel's past, present, and future. And where we fit, if at all.

By Ilario Pantano / May 23, 2011

As 18-year-old Marines in the first Gulf War, we joked that “Onward, Christian Soldiers” was the Kuwaiti, Bahraini, and Saudi national anthem. Today it would be ’N Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye.”

It was just a few years after that first war where the U.S. liberated Muslims from other Muslims that I was in Israel training as a young Sniper. The antiquity, the resolve, and the true grit of the place had always fascinated me.

The Israeli people have a kind of cultural toughness that only comes when entire limbs of your family tree have been sawed off. When parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles have been exterminated before your eyes, you have a deeper appreciation for security than the average Joe. The sense of history and mission is reinforced by the swearing-in ceremony of IDF soldiers who, after climbing to the top of Masada, declare before God that it “shall never fall again.”

I have stood at the top of Masada, and looked out to see the desolate landscape where the Romans once laid siege to the Jews. Today, after Obama’s infamous Middle East speech, all of Israel stands there, alone and abandoned.

At best, Obama has established a framework for dismantling the Jewish state as we know it. At worst, Obama has accelerated the likelihood of a regional war, which may or may not have been inevitable, by forcing Israel into a display of force to Iran.

America has definitively demonstrated that we are not serious about protecting our tiny ally. And like the others that this administration has betrayed, from the Saudis to the Poles, the Israelis will be forced to make their own “arrangements.” 

As 200 North Korean nuclear engineers are busy developing Iran’s missile and nuclear-warhead capabilities, Israeli commanders are reviewing maps and plans. First to go would be the recently activated Bushehr facility, which the Russians just put the finishing touches on this month.

Then there are at least eleven other sites that would need to be hit, including Natanz. That figure does not include other Iranian missile-launch facilities such as those being built in Venezuela. I pray we are not counting on the Israelis to hit those, too.

We can hope that it stops with airstrikes, but some of us know that once you let slip the dogs of war, there is just no telling what will happen — especially when hot war with Israel might be the only glue to help the mullahs maintain power in Iran as the gale of the “Arab Spring” continues to blow.

The biggest disappointment for me personally is that none of this comes as a surprise. Of course there was no mention of Israeli natural-gas shipments being turned off by the new Egyptian government, which we will supposedly subsidize.

Naturally there was no outrage that Hamas, when not busy pursuing “peace” with Israel or calling Israel’s creation a “catastrophe,” is busy calling Osama bin Laden a “hero.”

While none of Obama’s speech bears repeating, this statement from Hamas does: “We regard this [killing of Bin Laden] as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood. We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs.”

The Left might want you to forget that this is the same Hamas that Israelis are supposed to trust with their lives, but I won’t.



I’m not surprised by the silence, spelled C-O-W-A-R-D-I-C-E, from the likes of Rep. Anthony Wiener, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. They have made their bed.

Eric Golub nailed the point in the Washington Times: “It is time for Jewish liberals to realize that they can no longer be both. Either their religion is Judaism or liberalism. Either thousands of years of religious tradition means something or it doesn’t. The days when Jewish liberal women care more about abortion than Israel needs to end. The days when liberal Jews consider global warming to be the real Holocaust needs to stop. The Democratic Party of old is dead.”

Where is the Church? Where are the defenders of the faith, now? What has happened to their tongue?

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
Isaiah 62.1

What does it mean for a society when we can quote more lines from Charlie Sheen and Arnold Schwarzenegger than we can from the scriptures? Has the relentless anti-Christian, anti-faith messaging of the mainstream media finally broken the backs of Main Street? Have we grazed on the moral equivalency offered up by our sitcoms and our gossip magazines to the point where we are so bloated we don’t even have the strength to push away from the table?

Are we, the believers, satisfied to be beaten into submission when the Left calls defending traditional marriage “hate speech”? Is it okay with you when defenders of the unborn are mocked and called extremists in the same breath as the Taliban? “Tolerance” has become the new code word for intolerance.

The purveyors of political correctness have made standing for nothing more honorable than standing for something. Christ was nailed to a cross for us, but today we are afraid to step out of our comfort zone to tell the truth. Is that what it means to be a practicing Christian or Jew in the 21st century?

It is not enough that we have allowed God to be chased out of the classroom, the courtroom, and the fox hole. Now, with the surrender of Jerusalem, we are allowing God to be chased out of the Holy Land. Don’t just sit there shaking your head.

A Tunisian man doused himself with gasoline over his street cart. What will you do to defend your faith and our Holy Land? While you search deep to figure that out, make a commitment with me now that “Masada shall never fall again.”

— Ilario Pantano is author of Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.

USA DOT COM will be on point June 3-5 at NCGOP convention in Wilmington.

HOMETOWN CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE ILARIO PANTANO WILL PLAY PROMINENT ROLE.IN THIS HISTORIC MEETING.

By Verne Strickland May 23, 2011

Looking forward to covering the NCGOP convention June 3-5 here in Wilmington, where conservative Republican candidate Ilario Pantano will join a star-studded speaker's roster at the Opening Banquet on Friday night, June 3, at the Wilmington Convention Center. 

Our Wilmington hero will be in good company, as the banquet headliner is United States Congressman Allen West, known for igniting conservative faithful. Also on the evening program are Whitney Deann Jezek-Power of Semper Fi Fund, John Falkenbury of USO-North Carolina, and NCGOP Vice Chairman Tim Johnson. Get all the convention highlights at USA Dot Com.

Please turn out to support the NC Republican Party and our stellar cast of candidates!

Go to the NCGOP official website for complete registration and convention details: 

http://www.ncgop.org/

China even has Hollywood spooked; MGM playing footsy with the Communists.

Feature referred by Pantano for Congress

Without Beijing even uttering a critical word, MGM is changing the villains in its 'Red Dawn' remake from Chinese to North Korean. It's all about maintaining access to the Asian superpower's lucrative box office.

By Ben Fritz and John Horn, Los Angeles Times

March 16, 2011

China has become such an important market for U.S. entertainment companies that one studio has taken the extraordinary step of digitally altering a film to excise bad guys from the Communist nation lest the leadership in Beijing be offended.
When MGM decided a few years ago to remake "Red Dawn," a 1984 Cold War drama about a bunch of American farm kids repelling a Soviet invasion, the studio needed new villains, since the U.S.S.R. had collapsed in 1991. The producers substituted Chinese aggressors for the Soviets and filmed the movie in Michigan in 2009.

   About this series: Reel China 

But potential distributors are nervous about becoming associated with the finished film, concerned that doing so would harm their ability to do business with the rising Asian superpower, one of the fastest-growing and potentially most lucrative markets for American movies, not to mention other U.S. products.

As a result, the filmmakers now are digitally erasing Chinese flags and military symbols from "Red Dawn," substituting dialogue and altering the film to depict much of the invading force as being from North Korea, an isolated country where American media companies have no dollars at stake.

The changes illustrate just how much sway China's government has in the global entertainment industry, even without uttering a word of official protest. Although it's unclear if anyone in China has seen "Red Dawn," a leaked version of the script last year resulted in critical editorials in the Global Times, a communist party-controlled paper.

That followed postings of pictures on China's popular Web portals Sina and Tiexue in late 2009 of the "Red Dawn" set showing actors posing as Chinese troops and mock propaganda posters of the U.S. Capitol building smashed by a hammer. The posts received tens of the thousands of views. "When does it come out?" read one Chinese comment. "There is no hope for theatrical screening [censorship], wait for pirated version."

An MGM spokesman said that no one at the studio has had discussions with Chinese government officials about "Red Dawn."

Hollywood has learned the hard way that besmirching China's image on-screen can have long-running implications for the many arms of a modern media conglomerate. In the late 1990s, Walt Disney Studios, Sony Pictures and MGM all faced a temporary halt in their business dealings in the country after releasing the movies "Kundun," "Seven Years in Tibet" and "Red Corner," respectively, which were critical of the communist government.

Today, China is far more important to the Hollywood studios, despite the government's policy of allowing only about 20 non-Chinese films into theaters each year. In 2010, China was the fifth-biggest box office market outside of the United States, with $1.5 billion in revenue.

A number of Hollywood studios are deepening their business ties to the world's most populous nation. Disney is building a theme park outside Shanghai, Sony Pictures co-produced the recent "Karate Kid" remake with the government-affiliated China Film Group, and News Corp.'s Fox International Productions recently made the Chinese-language hit "Hot Summer Days" there. Even independent studios like Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment will release their films "Killers" and "Red" in China in coming months.

 Dan Mintz, whose DMG Entertainment is a leading producer and distributor of movies in China, said the "Red Dawn" story dramatizes how Western companies can fundamentally misunderstand how the nation works. If the picture had gone out without redacting the Chinese invaders, he said, "there would have been a real backlash. It's like being invited to a dinner party and insulting the host all night long. There's no way to look good.... The film itself was not a smart move."

Mintz, who met with the producers of "Red Dawn" to offer some suggestions on how they could proceed, said that doing business in China requires a partnership approach. "The more you reach out, the better your relationships will be," Mintz said. "This is bigger than a single film."

The "Red Dawn" remake follows several teenagers in Spokane, Wash., who fight invading Chinese forces allied with Russia in the near future (in the original film, the Soviets partnered with Cubans). The roughly $60-million production stars Chris Hemsworth, who will become much better known to moviegoers this May when he plays the title role in the superhero event picture "Thor."

MGM had been set to release "Red Dawn" in November, but the debt-laden studio filed for bankruptcy the month before and emerged under new leadership at the end of the year. New chief executives Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum are seeking to sell both "Red Dawn" and the horror film "The Cabin in the Woods," the last two pictures produced under a previous regime, as they try to reshape the 87-year-old company.

China will be an important market for the studio as it goes ahead with plans to produce two movies based on "The Hobbit" and James Bond sequels. The last Bond movie, 2008's "Quantum of Solace," grossed $21 million in China.

In the last few weeks, MGM has begun showing "Red Dawn" to potential buyers at other studios. Several people who have seen the movie but requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record said they couldn't risk distributing it given the potential blowback in China.

The feedback led to MGM's decision to make the highly unusual changes. Although it's common to reshape movies in the editing room, there's no known precedent for changing the nationality of an entire group of characters.

People close to the picture said the changes will cost less than $1 million and involve changing an opening sequence summarizing the story's fictional backdrop, re-editing two scenes and using digital technology to transform many Chinese symbols to Korean. It's impossible to eliminate all references to China, the people said, though the changes will give North Korea a much larger role in the coalition that invades the U.S.

"We were initially very reluctant to make any changes," said Tripp Vinson, one of the movie's producers. "But after careful consideration we constructed a way to make a scarier, smarter and more dangerous 'Red Dawn' that we believe improves the movie."

Representatives for director Dan Bradley did not respond to requests for comment.

If MGM is unable to find a distributor for the movie, it could end up going direct-to-DVD or could even be shelved, never to be seen by the public.

"Red Dawn" is not the only piece of entertainment to swap out Chinese villains for North Koreans recently. The video game "Homefront," which was released this week and features a script by John Milius, writer of the original "Red Dawn," was also originally intended to feature a Chinese invasion. For business reasons, publisher THQ changed the occupying forces to North Korea.

A representative for MGM said it's hopeful the unusual changes will have a simple result: turning "Red Dawn" from a complete write-off into a movie that can find an audience and make money.

"MGM has been working with the film 'Red Dawn's' director and producers to make the most commercially viable version of the film for audiences worldwide," said Mike Vollman, executive vice president of worldwide marketing. "We want to ensure the most people possible are able to experience it."

Times staff writer David Pierson in Beijing contributed to this report.

ben.fritz@latimes.com
john.horn@latimes.com

McIntyre grumpy about possible split of Robeson County in redistricting. GOP says prospect makes sense.

By Bob Shiles, Staff Writer
The Robesonian May 15, 2011 
                                                                                                                                                        
Verne Strickland Blogmaster                               The Robesonian

U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre

slideshow

LUMBERTON — U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, fresh off his closest election since he won the District 7 seat in Congress, might have a steeper hill to climb in 2012 — if Republicans in the General Assembly get their way.

 

According to an online article published earlier this month on politico.com, state Republicans are targeting districts now represented by McIntyre and U.S. Reps Larry Kissell, Brad Miller and Heath Shuler — all Democrats — as potential majority Republican districts.

That could mean Robeson County, which is now entirely in McIntyre’s district, could be split into two separate districts. McIntyre doesn’t like that idea, saying it will water down the county’s clout in Washington, D.C.

“We need to keep Robeson County moving forward, and we want to keep Robeson County united as one county in a congressional district,” he said in a statement. “It is critical that Robeson County not be split apart, which would only diminish our voice in expressing our needs and concerns in Washington. Our county’s citizenship and needs are unique, and any effort to split those up only hurt our efforts to move forward with economic progress.

“Many Robeson County citizens have expressed concerns about redistricting to me, and they do not want Robeson County to be split two or three ways with a congressman from Charlotte, Goldsboro, or Morehead City. Putting us in a district with folks from Charlotte, Goldsboro, or Morehead City will diminish our views, needs and our communities of interest here in Robeson County and all of Southeastern North Carolina,” said McIntyre.

The highly political process of redistricting sets legislative boundaries for the next 10 years based on the last census. This will be the first Republican-controlled General Assembly to lead redistricting since Reconstruction.

Gary Strickland, the former chairman of the Robeson County Democratic Party, also worries about a fractured Robeson County.

“It would be best to keep our district the way it is. I don’t think we need to split Robeson County,” he said.

“If we were mixed up with a more conservative Mecklenburg County there would be a lot of static in our voice when it comes to voting. … We would have to woo two different congressmen.”

The current District 7 also includes parts of Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Sampson, Duplin, New Hanover and Pender counties.

Phillip Stephens, the chairman of the county Republican Party, said there are several unofficial maps circulating, some showing District 7 being expanded to the east, west, or north.

Stephens said that because of Robeson County’s size and large Democratic population, it can easily swing an election and negate the vote of two or three smaller counties.

The GOP leader said that Robeson County Republicans are lobbying for “common sense” district lines based on the region’s values and beliefs, not party designation.

“We’re keeping our eyes on the Republicans now more than the Democrats,” Stephens said.
Stephens said that because redistricting is a “political process” that occurs only once in a decade, it’s difficult to identify who holds the heavy hand in the process.

“We’re finding no one seems to know where the center of power is in redistricting,” he said. “I don’t think there is one person, Democrat or Republican, who knows how all of this is going to turn out.”

Stephens said there is a chance that local Democrats and Republicans will both be unhappy when the process is complete.

“We want to make sure that Robeson County is adequately represented, and that means by someone who is familiar with Robeson County,” Stephens said. “We don’t want to be represented by someone far distant from the county, whether he’s a Republican or Democrat.”

Stephens supported Ilario Pantano, a Republican who is from the North but has adopted Wilmington as his home, against McIntyre in last year’s General Election. McIntyre won with about 54 percent of the votes, his closest election since his first in 1996. Pantano has indicated he would run again for the District 7 seat.

According to reports, state Rep. David Lewis, a Republican from Harnett County and the senior chairman of the House Redistricting Committee, has said that draft maps will be ready by mid-June. He also has said that an unspecified number of public hearings will be held afterward.

State Rep. Garland Pierce, a Democrat who represents Robeson, Hoke and Scotland counties, serves on the House Redistricting Committee. He cautioned that the process is in its early stages.

“We’re hearing all kinds of scenarios,” he said. “Until we get the maps, everything is just speculation.”

Bob Shiles can be reached at (910) 272-6117 or bshiles@heartlandpublications.com.