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Democratic Vendetta
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
We are witnesses to an abuse of power by government that represents a test of our democracy. Anyone who fails to rally to the cause of the Americans victimized in this case should be discredited.
Though I have not been shy about criticizing President Trump when I think he deserves it, he is not involved.
I refer to the Kafkaesque malfeasance by Xavier Becerra, attorney general of California. Becerra, for many years a Democratic congressman, is using his office to hound two citizen journalists. They came into his sights because their videos exposed the sickening reality behind the euphemistic surface of Planned Parenthood. Becerra and other abortion rights absolutists found this embarrassing. Why do I call it Kafkaesque? Because David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, who went undercover to reveal the law breaking of Planned Parenthood, now find themselves, not Planned Parenthood, accused of 15 felony counts by the State of California.
Their crimes? Recording people without their consent. The editorial board of the LA Times, to its credit, has called this a “disturbing overreach.” And Kevin Drum of Mother Jones, while condemning Daleiden’s politics, has defended his rights, saying “This was a legitimate investigation, and no level of government should be in the business of chilling it.”
Xavier Becerra is no stickler about secret recordings. In 2012, he relished the release of Mitt Romney’s surreptitiously recorded comments to donors in which he mentioned the “47 percent.” Romney had joked that if he were Hispanic, he’d win the election. Xavier Becerra didn’t seem concerned about Romney’s privacy rights when he rushed to the microphones to denounce the Republican: “The insult of all insults, Mitt Romney says if he was Latino he would win the presidential election, as if being Latino would have given him any advantage to win the White House.”
Could there have been a political motive? Consider that the prosecution began under Becerra’s predecessor, Kamala Harris (now California’s junior senator), whose website urged Californians to “support Planned Parenthood” (recusal anyone?) and who was not above sending police to raid not just Daleiden’s office, but his home, in search of video footage.
Let’s review. When the Daleiden videos were first released in 2015, they were so damning that Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards felt the need to release a video apologizing for the “tone and statements” of a PP executive. That was Dr. Deborah Nucatola, who said this about the techniques she uses to preserve body parts for donation (and sale): “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
Daleiden’s group recorded dozens of hours of video at several abortion clinics. It’s a disgrace that no prosecutor followed up with charges against Planned Parenthood based on the evidence Daleiden obtained. The explicit haggling over the price of body parts should have been enough to at least get started.
And it is a scandal that most of what Daleiden documented is legal. I personally will never forget the images of those tiny baby parts being picked over with a tweezer on a light table. How atrophied does your human sympathy have to become to push human remains (excuse me, “tissue”) about as if they were frog cadavers? And the callous insouciance of the Planned Parenthood doctors and other employees who spoke of getting “intact calvariums” (heads) and other specimens was enough to nauseate a neutral observer.
That’s why Planned Parenthood has circulated the false story that the videos were “deceptively edited.” Alexandra DeSanctis debunked that fiction. Planned Parenthood has resorted to lies about its grisly trade for many years. Recall that in 1995, Ron Fitzsimmons acknowledged that the entire abortion industry, of which he was a part, had “lied through [our] teeth” about partial birth abortion.
The lying is a civic hygiene problem. But what is happening to David Daleiden goes beyond that. This is a political vendetta and thus a malicious prosecution. Yes, California law forbids recording a person without his consent. But there are exceptions, as the LA Times editorial noted, in cases of public interest. Thus, ABC News, among others, has done covert investigations of various entities without risking retaliation from the attorney general. Animal rights activists who’ve gone undercover to reveal the mistreatment of chickens have not been prosecuted. But then, baby chicks are defenseless.
Published in General
The Democrats have been willing to do this sort of thing for years. I expect it will only get worse :(
Abortion is the most important thing to the Democrats. It is more important than anything else. They must be allowed to kill human beings. It is the lack of soul at the center of their party and their way of life.
Daleiden and Merritt must punished. Their true crime is apostasy for questioning the holy sacrament of the progressive religion, namely abortion.
Absolutely disgusting. As a nation, we should be demanding Becerra’s head on a platter… and whoever extracts it need not be careful what to crush, as there don’t appear to be any “good bits” in there.
This is a great piece.
If ABC news and Animal rights activists can do this then so can anyone.
When the LA Times and Mother Jones are closer to the side of a Conservative than a Democratic Attorney General, the AG has clearly over reached.
He’s lobbying for the Planned Parenthood Piece Prize.
Abortion is the Democrats’ Holy Grail.
Even if the recording were illegal and one would certainly go to prison for it, it is something that must be done. The actions of abortionists are no less barbarian than that of any of histories cruelest regimes. I do not suggest that the recording should be illegal, I only suggest that even if it is, it must be done. Right is right to do even when it is illegal and punishment will certainly befall the one who does it.
I admit that I did not understand the level of commitment that some people have to abortion until those tapes came to light, and I had friends who refused to watch them because they were “edited,” even though you could access the full tapes on-line.
In my mind, it is all akin to when John C. Calhoun called slavery a “positive good” for black people, as the argument boils down to the idea that abortion is somehow a “positive good” for the killed babies who weren’t wanted anyhow.
I do not know which group of lawyers will defend the journalists, but I would contribute to their legal fees as a person who believes in free speech, journalism and life.
Surely this demented prosecution is a gift to the Pro-Life cause?
If only. Or, only if we insist.
The most disgusting position with abortion is only the people not aborted get to decide, just like which side of the discussion do you fall in with slavery… slave or slave owner.
In this particular case the liberal dems are asking for a serious backlash… its called martyrdom. As has been mentioned in the thread, this is a stand that has to be made and this case will make the abortion industry, the Democrats and Planned Parenthood into a concrete and visible evil because it will get serious press and the MSM will miss the martyrdom angle and instead try to LOUDLY support the abortion industry, bad move.
In the Peoples’ Republic of California, only good people have Constitutional rights.
I can’t wait to watch Matt Lauer, George Stephanopoulos, and Charlie Rose discuss this injustice on their morning TV programs tomorrow.
California is a rogue state where law has been replaced by PC tyranny. Heaven help anyone who lives there.
You know, Mona…
One good thing Trump could do to be involved with this would be to wait for a conviction and then issue a pardon (if he has the power to do that with a non-federal crime, I honestly don’t know).
Stay on top of this and please keep us in the loop. There has to be something legal we can do to stop Becerra from performing this abortion of Justice.
It is sad that Mr. Becerra, a Catholic (at least from a recent Google search), would stoop to such legal chicanery to protect PP. I find that many of our public figures who claim to be Christian (and Catholic in particular) cling to the “separation of church and state” mantra in their personal support of totally irreconcilable public positions. The moral gymnastics that Christians who support abortion must go through in order to reconcile their consciences must be exhausting.
People who care about the Republic and republican form of government, left, right and center need to stand against this outrageous action by a Public attorney done as favor for a business interest that I am sure has more than paid him off in campaign contributions.
If it was not about abortion but about an oil company can you imagine the reaction of the Left to all of this?
In checking the California Catholic Conference [of Bishops] website, I do not find any statements released by California Bishops condemning Mr. Becerra for his defense of PP. I do not see any condemnation of state legislators who are Catholic for their direct support of legislation supporting abortion. I do not see where any Bishop has denied any California federal or state legislator access to Communion for their direct support of pro abortion legislation.
Until Bishops call out legislators by name, legal abortion will be law and a part of our lives.
funny… they seem to have plenty to say about immigration. Until they can be consistent, people will continue to see them as a joke, and a group of corrupt politicians rather than spiritual leaders.
Can any thing substantive be done until Daleiden and Merritt are brought to trial and convicted? The process is the punishment until then.
I don’t believe that any out of state letters or protests will have any effect, donating money for Daleiden and Merritt’s defense may help, but California seems happy to be condemned by the “wrong people.”
One problem with using the ‘in the public interest’ defense in this case would be there is none in California (I say this with tongue in cheek). Only in the rest of the country and Congress to debate how funds are dispersed. Apparently, there would not be anyone in California who would be interested in this information. However, if it can be seen as damning evidence of the practices of that organization to anyone in California, then one would have to conclude that there would be those who would disagree with the practice (well, they might still not be in CA). This is high-handed intimidation, intended on sending a message to anyone else who would dare to unearth embarrassing stuff on PP.
Charlie Daniels has said on Breitbart that we need to create sanctuary cities for the unborn.
2 things: my husband has a sticker on his truck that reads, Aren’t you glad your mother was Pro-life? Then, I have always been galled by the assertions that “It’s my body (fill in the ergo argument)”…sorry, when you got pregnant you just become a landlady.
He has exommunicated himself according to the Catechism, Bishops can call people out, but cafeteria Christianity is not unique to Catholics. Although heretic cannot be said of non-Catholics, Mr. Becerra if he is indeed a Catholic has excommunicated himself through his actions. He is heretical in his actions.
The Catholic church is very clear on this to Catholics. Anyone who has attended mass ever would know that there is a giant pro-life ethos. However, what do you think about Catholic priests who give the eucharist to Catholics who are known to have this stance? Who are thought to be outside of grace? Communion is not denied to politicians who are very actively working to support the slaughter of children–unless I am mistaken–so there is a mixed signal to both Catholics and others. The excommunication means… nothing. It’s not supported.
They are in a state of grave sin, or if you like mortal sin. Formal excommunication would mean nothing to them. The road to Hell is paved with the skulls of bishops. Or as Padre Pio said to someone that told him they did not believe in Hell, you will believe in Hell when you get there.
Doug Watt– ‘Or as Padre Pio said to someone that told him they did not believe in Hell, you will believe in Hell when you get there.’
There’s a good line from the movie ‘Constantine’ when John Constantine is talking to Angela Dodson/Rachel Weisz as the detective, about the devil:
Angela: “Well, this has been real educational, but… I don’t believe in the devil.”
John: “You should. He believes in you.”