“Sasharusha” blogs “back to the whole fetus= parasite thing. That is how I see them. I don’t see them as cute and cuddly. I see them as terrifying and scary. I see pregnancy the same way. Here are some examples on how pregnancy is a parasitic relationship:”
TV star Cybill Shepherd went on a radical feminist bender on Friday’s CBS This Morning, touting that there really is a “war on women” manifested by the “attack on Planned Parenthood.” . . .
The far left actress made her devotion to the pro-abortion cause clear, and hinted that pro-lifers were so extreme that they would try to kill her: “Abortion is our constitutional right. We should keep it legal. . . .”
That’s right, Cybill: A “woman’s right to choose” is guaranteed by the “Penumbras and Emanations” clause of the Right to Privacy Amendment.
Two medical ethicists connected to Oxford University are arguing in Oxford’s Journal of Medical Ethics that babies have no moral status, and can be killed because they are only “potential persons” rather than “actual persons.” They also argue that if a newborn is disabled, it can be killed.
The journal’s editor, Prof Julian Savulescu, director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, said in their defense, “The goal of the Journal of Medical Ethics is not to present the Truth or promote some one moral view. It is to present well reasoned argument based on widely accepted premises.” When asked about the threats made against the article’s authors, he casually categorized them as “fanatics opposed to the very values of a liberal society.”
A porn studio in California has selected a pro-abortion research group formerly affiliated with the Planned Parenthood abortion business as a recipient of its donation.
Girlfriends Films operates a monthly charity program that has made donations to legitimate community groups but also to the Planned Parenthood abortion business. Now, the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute was selected to receive a gift of $1,000 from the porn studio.
“Typically, we see an upsurge in anti-abortion violence . . . when the anti-abortion movement kind of thinks it was on the verge of victory, and then finds itself somehow thwarted. . . . When there’s frustration among the anti-abortion forces, violence often results.”
— Michelle Goldberg on MSNBC, April 2, 2012
What do we know about Francis Gerald Grady, the man police have charged with Sunday’s firebombing incident at a Planned Parenthood office in Grand Chute, Wisconsin? Not a whole lot yet.
In July 2008, Grady was arrested for reckless driving with a revoked license — he had apparently been twice convicted of DUI — and pleaded no contest in April 2010. He was represented in that case by a public defender. In August 2010, Grady was charged with “resisting or obstructing an officer,” and pleaded guilty a year later, when he was sentenced to a year on probation.
Grady’s most recent offense, prior to the Planned Parenthood incident, was when he was arrested on Dec. 26 with resisting or obstructing an officer. The district attorney formally filed that charge on Friday — Grady was scheduled for a May 3 court appearance on the charge — and two days after the charge was filed, Grady is alleged to have attacked the Planned Parenthood office in Grand Chute.
Grady’s “bomb” was reportedly “built of a plastic bottle and chemicals that included an incendiary agent,” and was described in news accounts as a “small device” that did “minor damage” to the empty office. About an hour after that Sunday evening incident, Grady got into a traffic accident. He was subsequently identified as a suspect in the Planned Parenthood attack based on surveillance video.
This is most of what we know so far about Francis Gerald Grady, whose address is N4110 Highway E #1, Kaukauna, Wisconsin. If I had at my disposal the resources of a major news organization — such as MSNBC or the Daily Beast/Newsweek, which employs Michelle Goldberg — I believe I could dispatch a journalist to Outagamie County, Wisconsin, with an assignment to produce an in-depth feature on Grady, whose lengthy career as a petty criminal has finally brought him national notoriety.
In fact, unless I start seeing some such in-depth reporting PDQ, I might even be tempted to make that trip myself, and I guarantee you within 72 hours of my arrival in Outagamie County, I could produce a few thousand words with photos and videos that would be well worth the effort. But I’ve got other matters to attend to now. My wife and I still haven’t filed our taxes, and figuring up the travel expenses is going to be a time-consuming headache. Plus, there’s still a presidential campaign underway in nearby Pennsylvania, not to mention the fact that I’m going to have to deal with the hassles related to my recent campaign-trail encounter with the vigilant police officers of Livonia, Louisiana.
Michelle Goldberg and MSNBC, however, have no such excuse. On Monday night, MSNBC turned this Wisconsin incident into a politicized drama, with Goldberg contextualizing it as the “anti-abortion movement” feeling “thwarted,” with “frustration among the anti-abortion forces” leading to an “upsurge in anti-abortion violence.”
Really, Michelle? Now that police have a suspect in custody, are you going to follow up on that angle, and explain how Francis Gerald Grady exemplifies the phenomenon you described? Have the producers at MSNBC booked you for tonight, so you can talk about Grady as part of the “anti-abortion movement” and the Republican “War on Women”? Or have you already booked your flight to Wisconsin, so you can give Newsweek and MSNBC exclusive coverage from the scene of the crime?
Somehow, I don’t think we’re going to get any of that kind of actual journalism from Michelle Goldberg or Lawrence O’Donnell or anybody else in the liberal media who was so eager to jump to a preordained conclusion about this incident, playing a primetime propaganda game of pin-the-tail-on-the-Republican.
Hell, no, they won’t follow up. Goldberg, O’Donnell, MSNBC, Newsweek — now that there are actual facts to report, these worthless lying scoundrels are going to drop this story and flush it down the Memory Hole as if it never happened. They ought to be indicted for fraud merely for calling themselves “journalists.”
Grand Chute Police Chief Greg Peterson said investigators in the case learned that Grady may have been involved in past protests at the office. The information was so far unconfirmed, Peterson said, but it is being looked at closely by the team of local and federal investigators handling the case.
“There was some indication that surfaced at some point that he has been involved in some of the demonstrations,” Peterson told TPM. But the chief described the information as coming from “someone who didn’t have direct knowledge,” so there was still more work to be done.
OK, so there is at least some secondhand hearsay pointing toward a connection between Grady and pro-life protests. I’ve made some phone calls, and intend to follow up on this angle. And it is with tremendous chagrin that I admit the necessity of hat-tipping . . . Charles Johnson.
Integrity: I got it. Like Paul F–king Anka, baby.
UPDATE II: Mark Leland of WLUK-TV reports that in his first court appearance today, Francis Grady offered to plead guilty and “also asked the judge if he knew how many babies were being killed at the clinic”:
According to the criminal complaint, Grady used a hammer to break a window of the clinic and then poured gasoline inside, lighting the room on fire.
After being arrested, the complaint states Grady admitted to officers, “I lit up the clinic.”
Grady appeared in court wearing a neck brace, and offering to plead guilty “today.”
The judge set a preliminary hearing for April 19.
Francis Grady, 50, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Sickel he planned to plead guilty, but Sickel ignored the statement and scheduled Grady for an April 19 preliminary hearing.
At one point, Grady interrupted him to ask, “Do you even care at all about the 1,000 babies that died screaming?”
Grady told his lawyer, public defender Tom Phillip he was fired for interrupting Sickel, prompting a woman from the back of the courtroom to call out, “Shut up, Frankie.”
“My sister told me to shut up,” Grady said to Phillip. . . .
Outside the courtroom, Grady told a Green Bay Press-Gazette photographer, “I just want to give one wink to my girlfriend.” When a reporter asked him why he had planted a bomb at the clinic, Grady corrected him, saying, “There was no bomb, it was gasoline.” He said he did it because “they’re killing babies there.”
I just got off the phone with the Grand Chute police chief. I’ll have more news about this case later.
Police and federal investigators suspect a Brillion man who has an extensive criminal record was responsible for planting the homemade explosive that ignited a Sunday fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic.
The 50-year-old man was jailed early Tuesday morning for violating terms of his probation, though police have not yet recommended charges related to the bombing at the clinic at 3800 N. Gillett St. The man’s criminal history includes convictions for cocaine possession and delivery, resisting or obstructing police, bail jumping and disorderly conduct, court records show.
The FBI says 50-year-old Francis Grady is charged with arson of a building used in interstate commerce and intentionally damaging a facility that provides reproductive health services.
The “bomb” was reportedly “built of a plastic bottle and chemicals that included an incendiary agent,” and was previously described as a “small device” that did “minor damage” to the empty office.
Grady seems to have the proverbial police record “as long as your arm,” and we don’t know what inspired him to commit this particular crime. The dope-dealing bail-jumper would seem to be an unlikely agent of a Republican “War on Women,” as MSNBC portrayed this crime.
A man with a criminal record — he was out on probation — has been taken into custody in connection with the incident in Grand Chute, the Appleton (Wisc.) Post-Crescent reports:
Police say they have identified the person who placed a homemade explosive device that went off Sunday and damaged Planned Parenthood’s Gillett Street clinic.
Police said today they identified the man after reviewing surveillance footage.
The man was booked into the Outagamie County Jail on Monday evening on a probation violation. No charges have yet been referred to prosecutors. . . .
Police say a witness saw a white sport-utility vehicle leave Planned Parenthood at the same time flames were seen coming from the building.
Detectives corroborated that information through security video, which also showed distinctive markings on the vehicle.
Investigators learned a similar vehicle was involved in a crash in a neighboring community after the Planned Parent incident was reported and was towed from the scene. . . .
UPDATE: The same information is reported by Green Bay’s WLUK-TV, but no name of the suspect yet. If we have any readers in Wisconsin — especially Outagamie County — who can help provide information in the comments, your assistance would be appreciated.
UPDATE III: Just spoke to Sharon Froberg, an assistant editor at the Appleton Post-Crescent, who says their policy is not to name suspects until they have been charged. Their cops reporter is working to track down the suspect’s age, etc., and also to find out what he was on probation for, Ms. Froberg says. The newspaper’s staff have noticed the increased traffic to their site and are working to update the story as soon as possible.
BASTIAN, FREDERICK DANIEL M W 4/2/2012 2:32:00 PM
BELGUM, JUSTIN JAMES M W 4/1/2012 7:55:00 PM
COOPER, JEREMY MICHAEL M I 4/3/2012 12:47:00 PM
FELTON, TIMOTHY DWAYNE M B 4/2/2012 5:05:00 PM
GRADY, FRANCIS GERALD M W 4/3/2012 1:19:00 AM
JACKELS, ROBERT LEE M W 4/2/2012 10:12:00 PM
JOHNSON, TROY LEON M W 4/3/2012 12:32:00 PM
KHATIB, KAMEL MOHAMED M A 4/2/2012 1:30:00 PM
LESKO, ROBERT WYATT M W 4/2/2012 10:35:00 AM
ROBINSON, ANDREW ALEXANDER M B 4/2/2012 12:16:00 PM
SIRTOFF, SCOTT JAMES M W 4/3/2012 12:21:00 PM
STAPLES, SIDNEY SCOTT M B 4/2/2012 3:19:00 PM
TODOROV, HRISTO RUMENOV M W 4/2/2012 12:15:00 PM
VANCE, CHARLES ADRIEN M W 4/2/2012 6:50:00 PM
VANDENBERG, RANDY JOSEPH M W 4/2/2012 12:26:00 PM
So it would seem the suspect must be one of the 15 names on this list.
Police located the suspect on Sunday night and have detained him at Outagamie County Jail. They did not release details about his age or appearance and said no charges have been filed.
Because we do not yet know the name of the suspect, nor any information about his motive, it is impossible at this point to say whether the alleged bomber is actually a Republican. Meanwhile, TPM Muckraker notes the mystery surrounding the unnamed man:
Authorities have not released many details of the person they arrested except to say he was a man and was currently being held in a local jail on a probation violation. They stopped short of calling him a suspect in the bombing.
Uh, yeah. Hasn’t been charged, but they say he and his SUV with “distinctive markings” match video at the crime scene. Call me crazy, but I’ve got a hunch maybe the perp’s not a Republican.
UPDATE VII: Now a Memeorandum thread. I’ll be looking forward to the “Republican War on Women” update on MSNBC tonight.
UPDATE VIII: Wisconsin Radio Network interviews the police chief, and gets this: The suspect was involved in a crash in the nearby town of Kaukauna about an hour after the report of the incident at Planned Parenthood. The white SUV “had very distinctive markings,” said Grand Chute Police Chief Greg Peterson, and the suspect had “physical characteristics that were similar in nature . . . general physical characteristics” that matched the surveillance video at the Planned Parenthood office.
Watching MSNBC can be a weird experience. About 3 a.m., unable to sleep, I was flipping around the channels and happened onto Ed Schultz — who reminds me of every mean drunk I ever knew — going on and on about the alleged Republican “War on Women.”
I had the sound muted on the TV (because my wife was asleep) and what I was watching made no sense. What the heck was this about?
Why was there a Planned Parenthood logo at the bottom corner of the screen with the word, “FBI”? And why were they showing a statement by Rick Santorum condemning violence? Curious, I got up and did a Google search and found this Associated Press story:
GRAND CHUTE, Wis. — Police say a homemade explosive device damaged a Planned Parenthood clinic in eastern Wisconsin.
Authorities say someone placed the small device on an outside window sill about 7:40 p.m. Sunday at the clinic in Grand Chute, near Appleton.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin CEO Teri Huyck said in a statement that there was minimal damage to an exam room and that the clinic will reopen Tuesday. No one was in the building at the time.
That’s all there is to it. A “small device” that did “minimal damage” at an empty office — in Wisconsin, two days before the Republican primary.
So while this is enough to make Ed Schultz devote his Monday show to haranguing us about a Republican “War on Women,” I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe this was actually some kind of hoax.
The FBI is investigating, and I’ll be eager to learn the result of their investigation because — call me a crazy conspiracy theorist — it seems rather illogical that if some kind of Cheesehead Misogynist Militia wanted to terrorize women, they’d do so with a “small device,” causing “minimal damage” at an empty office.
TWO DAYS BEFORE THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY.
You catching my drift here?
Anyway, I hope the FBI cracks this case quickly, because MSNBC is achieving new heights of absurdity in playing connect-the-dots with this rather oddly timed incident, jumping to outlandish conclusions without any evidentiary basis. Here is Michelle Goldberg on “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell:
Again, call me crazy for suspecting that this is some kind of hoax, but the logic just doesn’t work. If this was actually done by an anti-abortion extremist, wouldn’t this person realize that they were committing a federal crime? And if you were going to commit a federal crime, would you risk imprisonment for a “small device” that did “minimal damage”?
TWO DAYS BEFORE THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY?
OK, maybe Wisconsin is home to America’s lamest anti-abortion extremists. It’s possible. Can’t rule that out.
After a three-month investigation, Sowande Omokunde, the son of U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, Michael Pratt, the son of former Milwaukee Mayor Marvin Pratt, Lewis Caldwell, and Lavelle Mohammad, from Milwaukee, and Justin Howell, from Racine, were each charged with a felony count of criminal damage to property.
Notice that it took a three-month investigation before there were any charges filed in that case. It may be months before we have any idea who committed this crime at the Planned Parenthood office, and therefore all this “War on Women” hype on MSNBC is ridiculously premature. Via Steve Ertelt at Life News, here is Rick Santorum’s statement:
“Violence is never the answer, and I will always condemn any and all violent attacks against our fellow Americans. In this country, we resolve our differences through political discussion and free and fair elections — never by violence. This upcoming election is about restoring freedom and liberty in America, and a key part of that is to restore a culture that values human life and the dignity of all Americans. While we can and should work to defund Planned Parenthood and push back against government mandates that force Americans and religious institution to violate their faith, violence against our fellow citizens has no place in a freedom-loving America.”
Violence is never the answer, and neither is voting for moderates from Massachusetts. On, Wisconsin! Vote for Rick Santorum!
According to a new scientific study, Republicans hate new scientific studies, but it is a scientific fact that Republican women have vaginas, and evidence suggests they know how to use ’em.
That’s right: Research indicates that the vagina functions as part of what scientists refer to as the “reproductive system” and that certain activities involving the vagina can result in women becoming so-called “moms,” a process by which something known as a “baby” actually comes out of a woman’s vagina!
With these scientific facts in mind, the latest scandalous headlines:
