HATCHET : Obama the Liar
Posted on Thursday, August 21, 2008
Now we know how Barack Obama reacts when he is caught in a lie. He angrily defames his accusers by calling them liars in return. That's exactly what he said about the National Right to Life Committee when they unearthed voting records showing Obama opposed requiring medical care for babies born alive after a botched abortion.
When people previously questioned Obama on his vote against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in the Illinois legislature, Obama simply said that the bill was really an effort to counter Roe v. Wade. Obama said that he supported a national bill with similar intent that passed the U. S. Senate (before he got there ) unanimously.
I find it ironic that a "legal scholar"like Obama would think that a state law could "undermine"a Supreme Court ruling. If Roe v. Wade was a proper judicial interpretation of the law, then how could a state law that allegedly flies in the face of that ruling do anything but be struck down ? Either way, Obama said that people were "lying"about his record.
National Right to Life, the leading pro-life activist group, released proof by way of voting records from the Illinois Senate that Obama did oppose the bill. The documents that NRTC found show that Obama voted against language that was nearly identical to the U. S. Senate bill (which even the most pro-choice Senators voted for ). The facts point to two conclusions: Either Obama was lying or ignorant of how he voted. I don't think the intelligent Obama can plead ignorance.
When confronted about the record, here is what Obama said: "Well and because they have not been telling the truth. And I hate to say that people are lying, but here's a situation where folks are lying. I have said repeatedly that I would have been completely in, fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported, which was to say that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born - even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion. That was not the bill that was presented at the state level. What that bill also was doing was trying to undermine Roe vs. Wade."
Here is the exact text of the bill Obama voted against: AN ACT concerning infants who are born alive. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly: Section 5. The Statute on Statutes is amended by adding Section 1. 36 as follows:: Sec. 1. 36. Born-alive infant. (a ) In determining the meaning of any statute or of any rule, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative agencies of this State, the words "person, " "human being, " "child," and "individual "include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development.
(b ) As used in this Section, the term "born alive," with respect to a member of the species homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after that expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.
(c ) Nothing in this Section [the bill ] shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being born alive as defined in this Section.
Abortion rights is a sacred cow for Obama. He talks about compromise and getting people together, but he clearly has decided that inconvenient babies, even ones born, should be subject to termination at the request of the mother - an extreme position, not a compromise one.
When asked "at what point does a baby get human rights," here is how Obama replied. "Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade."
Obama wants us to believe that he would actually do more to reduce abortions than President Bush. He said," The fact is that although we have had a president who is opposed to abortion over the last eight years, abortions have not gone down, and that is something we have to address."
Not sure where Obama is getting this one from. An article this January in U. S. News and World Report ran with the headline "U. S. Abortion Rate Falls to Lowest Level In Decades. "The article reports," The U. S. abortion rate has reached its lowest level in three decades... The actual number of abortions dropped to a new low, with 1. 2 million abortions in 2005, compared to a high of 1. 6 million abortions in 1990."
Obama seems to play fast and loose with the facts, hoping to portray himself as someone who an anti-abortion voter could cross the aisle for. He's slick, but not that slick.
Apparently, the truth is above Obama's pay grade as well.
Lucas Roebuck is a former managing editor of the Northwest Arkansas Times and the Siloam Springs Herald-Leader.
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