President-elect Barack Obama may not hold prolife views, but his life story bears witness to the truth of the prolife movement’s values and beliefs:

Griffin Bell was a truly great man, and he will be dearly missed by his family and friends.

I was fortunate enough to meet and interview Judge Bell while working on an essay about his tenure on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which you can read here. I cannot even begin to describe what a generous and warm person he was during our brief time together. Indeed, one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received about my writing was from Judge Bell, who loved the essay I had written about him.

The United States has lost a great patriot, and the South has lost one of her modern-day heroes. 

Please take a moment today to say a prayer for Judge Bell’s family and friends. 

God Bless you Judge Bell. Requiescat in pace.

Y’all can guess what I think of David Frum’s suggestion that the only way for the GOP to remain competitive is to “change” on “abortion” and be “less overtly religious . . . and less polarizing on social issues [translation: staying true to prolife principles].”

Let me make something clear to Frum and his D.C./NYC Rockefeller Republican wine-sipping elitist buddies: The GOP is doomed without social conservatives. We didn’t lose this election because the GOP is too socially conservative. We lost it because, inter alia, we selected a wishy-washy moderate Republican to be our standard bearer.

I can count the number of times John McCain spoke about abortion in this election on one hand. It is simply ridiculous for Frum or anyone else to suggest that voters rejected McCain or our party because of abortion or other social issues.

It could be, David, that voters rejected McCain and the GOP this election cycle because we’ve been spending like Democrats for the past eight years. It might also be that we have failed as a party to articulate a vision for the country in the same way that President-elect Obama has done. These seem to me to be the most likely reasons, but Frum is apparently convinced that the SoCon wing of the GOP is what prevents the party from future electoral success. And I know he is not alone in thinking this.

Well, to Frum and his ilk all I can say is “have at it.” I hope y’all enjoy being in the permanent minority. Because if you think for one moment that people like me will remain in the GOP if the party abandons its prolife principles, you’re sadly mistaken. I will gladly take my leave, and watch Rome burn from the sidelines.

For reminding voters of what’s at stake in this election.

You can listen to the interview here.

Senator Obama barely knew the guy, I tell ya.

Exhibit A.

(LvJay)

Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University is, hands down, the most eloquent voice of the pro-life movement; and his latest essay, “Obama’s Abortion Extremism,” is nothing short of a masterpiece. Here is just a taste of Professor George’s must-read compilation of Senator Barack Obama’s radical views on abortion and embryonic stem cell research:

What kind of America do we want our beloved nation to be? Barack Obama’s America is one in which being human just isn’t enough to warrant care and protection. It is an America where the unborn may legitimately be killed without legal restriction, even by the grisly practice of partial-birth abortion. It is an America where a baby who survives abortion is not even entitled to comfort care as she dies on a stainless steel table or in a soiled linen bin. It is a nation in which some members of the human family are regarded as inferior and others superior in fundamental dignity and rights. In Obama’s America, public policy would make a mockery of the great constitutional principle of the equal protection of the law. In perhaps the most telling comment made by any candidate in either party in this election year, Senator Obama, when asked by Rick Warren when a baby gets human rights, replied: ”that question is above my pay grade.” It was a profoundly disingenuous answer: For even at a state senator’s pay grade, Obama presumed to answer that question with blind certainty. His unspoken answer then, as now, is chilling: human beings have no rights until infancy - and if they are unwanted survivors of attempted abortions, not even then.

Read the entire piece, and email it to everyone you know (especially those who claim to be pro-life and currently support Obama). Voters need to know just how extreme Obama is when it comes to abortion and other “culture of life” issues.

As many of y’all know, National Review Online is down right now. Well, my good friend Ramesh Ponnuru and I have been emailing one another throughout the debate, and I asked him if I could post his thoughts on Governor Palin’s performance. He graciously agreed, so here they are:

Any conservative who was white-knuckled going into this is relaxing by now. There were some points where she was a bit more platitudinous than one would ideally want, but overall–she’s cleaning up. Biden is sighing more as the night goes on, and I can see why.

I could not agree more. Well done, Governor Palin! You did us proud.

Update: Heh. Ramesh just sent me this gem: “Biden thinks Cheney is the most dangerous vice president we’ve ever had? What about Burr?”

While I am a staunch Republican, and a strong supporter of Governor Palin, I am more than willing to admit the obvious: Sarah Palin has not performed well in the major interviews she has done. Why is this? Is it because she’s stupid? I think not. By all accounts, Palin is a quick study and plenty smart. So what gives? Why is Palin struggling so much in these interviews?

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This is, hands down, the most powerful and moving issue ad I’ve seen in quite some time:

God Bless you, Gianna, for your beautiful witness to a culture of life.

Here’s a brief description of the website:

Fidelis announces the launch of a new website - CatholicVote.com – to educate and inspire Catholic voters this fall and beyond. The site includes a powerful video designed to encourage viewers to prioritize the issues of life, faith, and family. In addition to the video, the site contains resources on how to register to vote, research on candidate positions, documents from the Bishops and an invitation to join in prayer.

And here’s the accompanying video, which is the centerpiece of this worthy project:

Barack Obama: “You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said as the crowd cheered. “It’s still a pig.”

You stay classy, Senator Obama.

Well, sportsfans, I don’t know what the McCain folks have planned for tonight, but it’s going to be difficult to top Governor Palin’s speech, which electrified the crowd last night. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it was to be on the floor as a delegate from Georgia.

So, what are we to make of last night and the impact of Governor Palin’s speech? Well, in my humble opinion, I truly believe that Palin will end up being a huge asset for John McCain and the Republican Party. She energizes the base in a way that I haven’t seen since Ronald Reagan (and I am barely old enough to remember or appreciate what that must have been like). We love her. Governor Palin is one of us, and there is no doubt in my mind that she is absolutely committed to fostering a culture of life in the United States. I know that some people wish that she had said more about the issue of abortion (and other life issues), and I would have liked that as well. But I can certainly understand why Governor Palin didn’t directly address the issue of abortion in this particular speech. This was her “coming out” moment, and she had a great deal of ground to cover. That having been said, there was a part of Governor Palin’s speech that dealt with the sanctity of life, and demonstrated her commitment to a culture of life in this country:

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That is all.

Professor Rick Garnett has today’s must-read post. Here’s a taste:

What is at stake in the abortion debate — and, as someone who has known and admired Doug Kmiec for years, I am sorry that he seems to be forgetting this — is not only reducing the number of abortions and helping women considering abortion to find their way to a different choice (though, of course, such reductions and help are important, and one wishes that Democrats for Life had more influence); it as about repairing the damage done to our political community, and to our constitutional order, by a decision that declared that the Constitution itself disables citizens from protecting in law the most vulnerable among us.

This is fantastic news that everyone should celebrate.

(LvJJ)

Nancy “Ardent Catholic” Pelosi was on Meet the Press this past Sunday, making excuses for her radically proabortion views and lying about the Catholic Church’s long-standing, non-negotiable teaching on the issue. Among other things, Pelosi claimed that the Church’s teaching that “life begins at conception” was “like maybe 50 years or something like that.”

Oh really?

Needless to say, Catholics across the United States were horrified by Pelosi’s patently-false statements, and the USCCB, at least three bishops, and one cardinal have taken madam speaker to the woodshed for blatantly misrepresenting the Church’s clear and unequivocal teaching on abortion. My favorite rebuke, by far, is this one by Cardinal Egan of New York:

Like many other citizens of this nation, I was shocked to learn that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America would make the kind of statements that were made to Mr. Tom Brokaw of NBC-TV on Sunday, August 24, 2008. What the Speaker had to say about theologians and their positions regarding abortion was not only misinformed; it was also, and especially, utterly incredible in this day and age.

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.

Wow. Now, that’ll leave a mark.

Pelosi, of course, continues to dig herself into an even deeper hole.

But hey, no need to worry dems. It’s not like abortion is going to be a big issue this fall.

Catholic News Agency has the details.

(LvChristopher)

How sad is it that a dog is able to show more compassion to a just-born baby than a man seeking to become the next president of the United States?