South Capitol Street

CNN's 7 pm Eastern hour program John King USA was the only program on Monday and the following morning on Tuesday that mentioned the March for Life in Washington, DC. Anchor John King mentioned the pro-life demonstration only in passing, and omitted crowd numbers and footage from the March. CNN.com's write-up on the annual event downplayed the number of attendees as merely in the "thousands."

King led his evening program with a brief about an Illinois court ruling that former Obama aide Rahm Emanuel was ineligible to run for Chicago mayor. After playing a sound bite from Emanuel, the CNN personality then gave moved on to the March for Life, and added illegal immigration to it as an "emotional issue:"

KING: And anti-abortion activists stage a March for Life here in Washington. It's a big annual event, but we'll map out how the major fights over emotional issues, like abortion and immigration, this year are in the states, and we'll debate Colorado's proposal to copy the Arizona immigration law.

The anchor read this brief into the camera, without showing any footage from any point during the March.

Thirty-five minutes later, King raised the abortion issue again, but instead of mentioning the demonstration earlier in the day, he focused on the pro-life victories on the state level. He devoted just under 30 seconds to his brief, and spent the rest of the 9-minute segment to a debate over a proposed law in Colorado targeting illegal immigration:

KING: The new Republican majority in the House has new policy proposals, but a lot of the action, especially on tough issues like abortion, immigration, is out in the states, especially after the big conservative gains in the 2010 elections. Let's take a look. Here are some anti-abortion trends in state governments. If you see yellow here, that means the governor and the legislature are both anti-abortion. The blue states- the governor is anti-abortion, and there have been a number of developments in legislative proposals in these states. We've told you about those before. We'll keep an eye on them.

Eric Marrapodi's article about the pro-life walk on CNN.com on Monday evening mentioned how "thousands of abortion opponents joined Monday afternoon in a cold march on Capitol Hill," but as NewsBusters's Tom Blumer noted earlier on Tuesday, "around 10,000 Catholics…met to pray for an end to abortion at a pro-life vigil Mass in D.C. on the eve of the annual March for Life." Most, if not all of those, attended the following afternoon, and that morning, "more than 27,000 young people attended [a Mass at the Verizon Center and a "parallel event" at the D.C. Armory], which began after dawn and included readings by youths in hooded sweatshirts and jeans, contemporary praise music and dozens of priests hearing confessions in the sports arena's dining area," as the Washington Post reported on Monday. So just between those three events (with some possible overlap), tens of thousands of people attended, if not over 100,000, if you go by pictures of the event.

On the other hand, Marrapodi stated near the end of his article that only "about 15 abortion rights supporters stood outside the Supreme Court building as the march unfolded. They chanted and held signs of their own, imploring the court and Congress to keep abortion legal." This demonstrated that he at least knew better than former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, who was completely out of the loop as to "which side is represented the most" at the 2010 March for Life.

NewsBusters.org – Exposing Liberal Media Bias

CNN's 7 pm Eastern hour program John King USA was the only program on Monday and the following morning on Tuesday that mentioned the March for Life in Washington, DC. Anchor John King mentioned the pro-life demonstration only in passing, and omitted crowd numbers and footage from the March. CNN.com's write-up on the annual event downplayed the number of attendees as merely in the "thousands."

King led his evening program with a brief about an Illinois court ruling that former Obama aide Rahm Emanuel was ineligible to run for Chicago mayor. After playing a sound bite from Emanuel, the CNN personality then gave moved on to the March for Life, and added illegal immigration to it as an "emotional issue:"

KING: And anti-abortion activists stage a March for Life here in Washington. It's a big annual event, but we'll map out how the major fights over emotional issues, like abortion and immigration, this year are in the states, and we'll debate Colorado's proposal to copy the Arizona immigration law.

The anchor read this brief into the camera, without showing any footage from any point during the March.

Thirty-five minutes later, King raised the abortion issue again, but instead of mentioning the demonstration earlier in the day, he focused on the pro-life victories on the state level. He devoted just under 30 seconds to his brief, and spent the rest of the 9-minute segment to a debate over a proposed law in Colorado targeting illegal immigration:

KING: The new Republican majority in the House has new policy proposals, but a lot of the action, especially on tough issues like abortion, immigration, is out in the states, especially after the big conservative gains in the 2010 elections. Let's take a look. Here are some anti-abortion trends in state governments. If you see yellow here, that means the governor and the legislature are both anti-abortion. The blue states- the governor is anti-abortion, and there have been a number of developments in legislative proposals in these states. We've told you about those before. We'll keep an eye on them.

Eric Marrapodi's article about the pro-life walk on CNN.com on Monday evening mentioned how "thousands of abortion opponents joined Monday afternoon in a cold march on Capitol Hill," but as NewsBusters's Tom Blumer noted earlier on Tuesday, "around 10,000 Catholics…met to pray for an end to abortion at a pro-life vigil Mass in D.C. on the eve of the annual March for Life." Most, if not all of those, attended the following afternoon, and that morning, "more than 27,000 young people attended [a Mass at the Verizon Center and a "parallel event" at the D.C. Armory], which began after dawn and included readings by youths in hooded sweatshirts and jeans, contemporary praise music and dozens of priests hearing confessions in the sports arena's dining area," as the Washington Post reported on Monday. So just between those three events (with some possible overlap), tens of thousands of people attended, if not over 100,000, if you go by pictures of the event.

On the other hand, Marrapodi stated near the end of his article that only "about 15 abortion rights supporters stood outside the Supreme Court building as the march unfolded. They chanted and held signs of their own, imploring the court and Congress to keep abortion legal." This demonstrated that he at least knew better than former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, who was completely out of the loop as to "which side is represented the most" at the 2010 March for Life.

NewsBusters.org blogs

Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) has finally issued an executive order barring discrimination in state-based employment, after allowing his predecessor’s EO to briefly expire. Like former Gov. Ted Strickland’s EO, the measure prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin (ancestry), military status (past, present or future), disability, age or sexual orientation, but does not include protections for gender identity — which Kasich specifically promised to extend during the gubernatorial campaign. (The measure does add a new category for genetic information.):

Kasich had said in response to a Dispatch questionnaire that he would continue Strickland’s 2007 order, and the question specifically mentioned gender identity.

Asked why Kasich decided to omit it, spokesman Scott Milburn replied: “The governor is opposed to discrimination in state employment and has made that clear in this executive order in the way that he feels is most appropriate.”

As Autumn Sandeen of Palm’s House Blend notes, “So apparently it’s now ‘appropriate’ to discriminate against those state employees in Ohio who were who were once protected by the gender identity provision of the previous governor’s antidiscrimination order.” “Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t help but feel that Republican Governor John Kasich threw a bone to social/religious right conservatives — he singled out a very small minority population that were once protected by the state’s antidiscrimination policy, and has now has left them vulnerable. The chances of a large and effective enough protest against the change of policy means he gives his socially conservative base something to be pleased about that won’t be effectively countered by a broad coalition of people on the left. ”

The Ohio House passed a measure prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in, but the legislation never came up for a vote in the Senate. The state does not offer non-discrimination protection for LGBT employees.

Wonk Room

Q&A WITH JOHN JENKINS

I caught up with John Jenkins sometime after he got back to his school in Mississippi about 5 p.m. Sunday. He had just gotten home from his official visit to Georgia and had fallen asleep watching the NFL playoffs. I woke him up. He was tired. Real tired.

John Jenkins (Photo by Georgia247Sports.com)

But the big nose guard went on to explain that he was happily exhausted. He described his trip to UGA as “awesome.” Nevertheless, it was not awesome enough to elicit an on-the-spot commitment.

“No, I didn’t commit,” said the 6-foot-4, 340-pound nose guard from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. “But I had a great time.”

So with the real news out of the way, I proceeded to ask Jenkins about the nuances of his visit and his plans going forward. Here’s a quick review:

Q: What was the most enjoyable part of the visit for you?

A: “I really liked going to the basketball game. Those boys are good. They’re underrated. And I enjoyed going to Coach Richt’s …

AJC College Sports Recruiting

Speaker of the House John Boehner of course still represents a district-Ohio’s 8th.

In the latest edition of his Constituent Mailbag, Speaker Boehner answers a question about cutting spending.

Technorati tags: john boehner congress government gop politics news ohio

Marathon Pundit

There are three doctors serving in the US Senate-all of them are Republicans. John Barrasso of Wyoming, one of the three, gives today’s Weekly GOP Address.

The good doctor talks about appealing ObamaCare:

As a doctor, I have taken care of families for over a quarter of a century. I know that this law is bad for patients, it’s bad for providers — the nurses and the doctors who care for those patients — and it’s bad for taxpayers…. Your health care decisions should be decided in your doctor’s office — not a Washington office. Nothing should come between you and your doctor…. Republicans will fight to repeal this job-destroying law and replace it with patient centered reforms.

Technorati tags: government Republican health universal health care Wyoming barrasso senate senate obamacare medical

Marathon Pundit

January 20th is always historic in some sense given that we’re marking the anniversary of every Inauguration that has taken place since 1936 This year, however, is particularly significant in that we mark the 30th Anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s Inauguration, and the 50th Anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration, which includes one of the most well-known Inaugural Addresses in recent memory:

The night before, though, Washington also saw the most star-studded pre-Inaugural gala up to that point as Kennedy’s friend Frank Sinatra brought most of Hollywood to Washington with him:

Outside the Beltway

John Calipari meets the media after Alabama rushes out to a 20-point lead over his Cats, then hangs on to win 68-66.

John Clay’s Sidelines

Terrence Jones just put up a couple of tweets defending his coach, John Calipari, over the coach’s language last night.

Update: The Big Lead has the video.

John Clay’s Sidelines

With today’s (symbolic) vote in the House of Representatives to repeal the Affordable Care Act, we’re once again seeing evidence that our elected officials don’t really understand the Constitution, or don’t care to. Today’s example comes from Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, who came up with what may be the most bizarre argument ever presented in Constitutional Law:

“Well, when you start off with the preamble of the Constitution you talk about the pursuit of happiness. You go to the 14th amendment – it’s equal protection under the law and we have not repealed the 14th amendment. People have a right to have health care. It’s not a privilege but a right,” Lewis responded.

The phrase “pursuit of happiness,” of course, comes from the Declaration of Independence, not the Preamble, and has no legal effect in any event. The 14th Amendment argument is simply nonsense.

There are Constitutional arguments in favor this bill. The Department of Justice has made them in four separate cases pending around the country, one would think that a Congressman who has served in office since 1987 would have at least a passing knowledge of them.

Outside the Beltway

John McCain thinks that his friend Joe Lieberman would make a great Secretary of Defense:

Sen. John McCain has the perfect next job for his friend Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who announced Wednesday he won’t run for re-election to the Senate next year: Secretary of Defense.

McCain, who nearly chose Lieberman to be his running mate on the GOP ticket in 2008, called on President Barack Obama to consider the Pentagon post for the retiring senator.

“You know it’s funny you mention it,” McCain said in a phone interview with CNN when asked if Obama ought to consider the move. “I really hope that the president would consider him. I hadn’t thought about it but I sure hope, whatever happens, he will play a major role on national security issues.”

McCain said Lieberman would be qualified for the job, calling his colleague “one of the most informed members of the Senate on national security issues and homeland security issues.”

It isn’t actually a bad idea, but I doubt it will happen given what Lieberman said about Obama during the 2008 campaign

Outside the Beltway

The anchor who once shouted that he “wished he brought a gun to work” after his Magic Screen malfunctioned (h/t Allahpundit), and who works for the network that made “Crossfire” famous (see Doug Powers for an iconic screenshot), is now interrupting his show for real-time p.c. language self-policing of guests who use the term “crosshairs:”

Idiocracy: The new normal.

Or rather, the old normal — only super-sized now and wrapped in a shiny new mantle of “civility.”

Michelle Malkin

Police have revealed that a new chilling surveillance video has surfaced that shows the shooting in graphic detail and reveals a new detail: Judge John M. Roll was a true and until now unsung hero.

Aside from other tidbits that now add some details — the gunman wore earphones as he came up quickly and shot Gabrielle Giffords from less than three feet — the fact now emerges that Judge Roll literally threw himself on top of a Giffords staffer to save him. he did and in the process died of his own wounds:

The chief investigator for the sheriff’s department here has for the first time publicly described the brief and gory video clip from a store security camera that shows a gunman not only shooting Representative Gabrielle Giffords just above the eyebrow at a range of three feet, but then using his 9-millimeter pistol to gun down others near her at a similarly close range.

The video, according to Richard Kastigar, the investigative and operational bureau chief of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, also reveals that Judge John M. Roll appears to have died while helping to save the life of Ronald Barber, a Giffords employees. Mr. Barber, who was near Ms. Giffords when he was shot twice, has left the hospital.

Mr. Kastigar said Tuesday that the video shows Ms. Giffords standing with her back a few inches from a wall when she was shot by the gunman, who approached in “a hurried fashion” with the gun at his side and then raised it and fired a single bullet above her eye at a range of no more than two or three feet.

The gunman was Jared L. Loughner, 22, who has been arrested. He is first seen in the video with the gun hidden, but then he raises it and fires all in a matter of seconds.

The gunman “was very deliberate in my estimation, very calculated,” said Mr. Kastigar, who viewed the video as part of the extensive investigation by the Sheriff’s Department that involves close to 250 people…

Describing the video, Mr. Kastigar said the judge was “intentionally trying to help Mr. Barber,” adding, “It’s very clear to me the judge was thinking of his fellow human more than himself.”

The judge guides Mr. Barber to the ground, shields him with his body, and then tries to push himself and Mr. Barber away from the gunman, who was no more than three to four feet away as he fired, Mr. Kastigar said.

“He pushes Mr. Barber with his right hand and guides him with his left hand. The judge was on top of him and is covering up Mr. Barber, literally lying on top of him, and his back was exposed,” Mr. Kastigar said.

The judge was shot in the back. Ms. Giffords remains in the hospital in serious condition, and doctors said Tuesday that she continued to improve.

When the accounts of this tragic and shocking event are written, they’ll now include Roll as someone who literally threw himself on top of a Giffords staffer to save another human being’s life.

The Moderate Voice

A reader points out that one of the reported subjects of the FBI investigation into John Edwards is the way in which the 527 run by an aide, the Alliance for a New America – its actual independence is in question — hid some of its spending in an private company, Alliance for a New America LLC.

It’s not actually clear that this is illegal. And if Edwards or his aide, Nick Baldick, isn’t prosecuted for this, they may have laid out a roadmap for every 527 that doesn’t want to disclose its vendors. 

"If that holds up, it’s a game changer for 527s," my correspondent notes.

Ben Smith’s Blog

In TDB, John Avlon examines the increasingly ugly, gun-related rhetoric in politics, particularly on the right, and argues that indeed, it can lead to an atmosphere of violence. A clip: Yes, it is now clear that Jared Loughner is a certified nut-burger whose insanity was not inspired by partisan politics. But this incident did not occur […]
The Reid Report