However, nobody in the general public had seen the real ad until the game. You know, the one feminists and pro-abortionists went crazy over because Tim and Pam Tebow, along with CBS, were allegedly pushing a radical pro-life agenda. So after seeing the pre-game ad, I was prepared for anything- you know, maybe a mention of God or perhaps even a a hug between a mother and her son?

Turns out I was wrong. Tebow actually tackles his mother- which is pretty funny, no matter what the fruitcakes say- while she is expressing concern about his safety and toughness. She then pops up before he does and “lectures” him about interrupting her sharing their story. He apologizes, stands to her left with one hand on each shoulder, and asks her if she still worries about him. She says that she does, because he’s “still not as tough as I am.”

All in all, this is a knockout, home run, touchdown, hat trick, whatever you want to call it, for Focus on the Family and the pro-life movement. Whether intentional or not, by not releasing the ad’s content until the Super Bowl, Focus on the Family let the crazies on the left run wild with speculation. The pro-life movement now looks kind, gentle and loving, if you even picked up on the sub-text of the ad. Focus on the Family, which has the background of the Tebow ad on its main page, in particular looked like a non-controversial organization to those who have never heard of it. The only mention of the organization is a few seconds at the end directing people to the Tebow’s story on Focus on the Family’s main page.

However, the victory does not end there. The Tebow ad has been discussed for some time on blogs, in articles, on The O’Reilly Factor, The View, The Laura Ingraham Show, Megyn Kelly’s “America Live” and of course on the websites of Life News and Planned Parenthood. Why? Because feminists and pro-abortionists went off the deep end to take the ad down. Had they waited for the commercial to come out before making a statement, they could have attacked from a base of knowledge. Had they ignored it, the ad might have caused a piffle of notice among Super Bowl watchers and been promptly ignored. However, by taking the path more traveled by attacking the ad with every weapon possible as soon as possible, they guaranteed the ad would be carefully observed by millions of Super Bowl commercial watchers.

When it comes down to it, the pro-life movement is increasingly in line with the views of Americans, especially young Americans. By making the Tebow ad a mainstream point of discussion for many days before the Super Bowl, pro-abortionists have made themselves look both the fools and out of touch with mainstream America, and placed the pro-life movement squarely in touch with the softer, kinder side of Americans, who by and large only want what’s best for everyone. This ad, or more precisely the pro-abortion reaction to it, will most certainly guide Americans to the side of the abortion debate that is truly about helping women and children, and helping families make the right decisions about life.

*This was originally published at Race42012.com

In the last couple of weeks, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been hammered by Erick Erickson of RedState and Michelle Malkin for not fighting to the very finish on the recent Senate passage of a health care reform bill. On the one hand, these criticisms are of delaying tactics would only have slowed the vote by twelve hours, which would have done nothing in the halls of Congress but would have, as Ed Morrissey points out, given the media less time to cover the vote?s aftermath. On the other hand, if the Republican leadership had held firm on the many opportunities they had to slow things down, for example by following Senator Judd Gregg?s (R-NH) advice, and Senator Tom Coburn?s (R-OK) wish to read every part of the Senate bill, among other tactics to slow the bill, senators would have had to go home for Christmas a) without a bill, and b) to face their constituents, the majority of whom dislike the Democratic versions of health care reform and whom are increasingly against them as time goes on.

Senators Gregg, Coburn and Jim DeMint (R-SC), among many others, have been vilified for their articulate and unyielding opposition to health care reform and other Democratic measures. However, they are also the poster children for what Republicans should be about- namely, being the party of ?No, But Here?s A Better Idea.? All of these senators, along with other Republicans, have jammed the Democrats but also offered their own solutions to the various issues facing America. They have also worked with Democrats in a bipartisan fashion on a case-by-case basis.

When it comes to dispelling the myth that Republicans have been, and are being, merely obstructionists, let’s start with Senator Judd Gregg. On the one hand, Gregg voted for Secretary Geithner?s nomination, nearly accepted a position as President Obama?s Commerce Secretary, offered support for the bipartisan Wyden-Bennett bill and has worked with Democrat Kent Conrad (D-ND) on a debt commission. On the other, Gregg has hammered Obama on debt, passed around a virtual handbook for Republican obstructionism and taken the lead on opposing Democratic reconciliation. Additionally, however, Gregg has offered his own bill as an alternative to the Democratic proposals.

Senator DeMint is probably most famous for his Waterloo statement and his numerous delaying tactics on health care reform (see here and here for examples). However, he has also worked with self-declared socialist Independent Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on halting the Bernanke nomination and bringing transparency to the Federal Reserve. As a representative of the Party of ?No, but here?s a better idea,? he too has put forth a health care alternative to the Democratic proposals.

Lastly, we have Senator Coburn. Coburn has slid in two gun amendments this year to two Democrat-supported bills, halting the DC voting bill in its tracks. He has also held up funding for veterans because he wanted to use unused stimulus funds for the benefits and loudly opposed the stimulus package. He also forced a reading of Senator Sanders? single-payer amendment to the Democratic bill. However, at the same time, he has maintained a friendship with President Obama, pushed a transparency bill with then-Senator Obama (D-IL) into law in 2006 and sponsored a Republican alternative to the Democratic health care bills on, of all places, Huffington Post. In fact, he wrote on Huffington Post not once but twice. This is a guy who clearly wants his message to get out to all Americans, not just his constituents or fellow conservatives.

Other ?No but here?s a better idea? Republicans include Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), the numerous Republican co-sponsors of the Wyden-Bennett bill and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

The fact is that Republicans are trying to stop a very bad makeover of a massive portion of America in ways that swing from bad policy to unethical to unconstitutional. For an example of the latter, with respect to David Frum?s recent piece supporting the individual mandate?s constitutionality, he is wrong- an individual mandate is clearly unconstitutional. Other bad components include the Senate bill’s abortion funding, the House bill’s public option and the lack of legitimate tort reform in either bill.

Personally, I think Republicans should have fought tooth-and-nail for a post-Christmas vote on the Democratic health care reform bill in the Senate. They should have offered amendments, yes, as Frum has said- but they have a responsibility to stop the bill first and foremost. That is what the minority is supposed to do with a bill as bad as this one, with as little power as Republicans and conservatives have right now- stop the legislation cold and start over with a bill that includes conservative and free market principles and ideas. Some Republicans are just being the Party of No, but sometimes saying?saying?’no’ is necessary, despite what some Democrats may say.

As I said, it’s not officially over; the above vote merely provided official “cloture.” However, it is merely window dressing to get the bill passed by Christmas Eve, which seems very likely now.

The Heritage Foundation outlines what this bill will do to America’s budget, the unborn and taxes. In short, it’s a bad bill, which we already knew. However, there is still hope. The Senate and House bills must be compromised in conference- where the two chambers make two bills into one- and then voted on again in each chamber separately. The two biggest issues, as far as I see, that could shut down this reform effort are abortion and the public option. The House bill includes the latter, the Senate one does not. The Senate bill, however, allows public funds to be used for abortion and the House one does not. I hope Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) holds strong on his abortion language and kills the bill. A pro-life amendment would help the health care bill that finally passes (if one does) not fund the murder of the unborn.

Fox News has a very revealing analysis about where various monies went to various senators in order to bribe them votes for the cloture vote. As Fox notes in the article, uncertain votes were brought in line as a direct result of how the Senate leadership decided to use our money.

This happened back in July; I remember reading about it. Quite awful, I think.

If you’re pro-choice, perhaps you’ll call your senators to kill the overall bill, since inclusion of this ban will likely cause at least one liberal Democrat to walk away from the bill.

Thanks, and God Bless.

Dustin

First, I ran into two acquaintances in Harris-Teeter a week ago Sunday, and as part of our conversation one of the people- both were women- mentioned that in Freakanomics the point was made that abortion has helped to lower crime, poverty, the welfare rolls etc. because more poor women have abortions than those of other socioeconomic classes. I said that statement made sense, but there were two weaknesses in it. The first was that the ?positive? side of abortion depended on your priorities, in this case murder vs. crime, poverty and welfare. The second was that her statement was analogous to saying black people benefited from slavery because survival of the fittest kicked in to make blacks more athletic in the modern age. (She agreed with me that it was analogous.)

Secondly, in the middle of last week, I got into a long discussion/debate with two Muslim women, one a convert who spent time in the American military before her conversion and the other a lifelong member of Islam who grew up in America. We began discussing Arab and Muslim terrorism against the United States, and particularly the recent shootings at Fort Hood. I made the argument that a high percentage of terrorist attacks against this country have been made by Muslims- see an LA Times article today about the threat of homegrown terrorism- and so I did not find it hard to believe that Americans might be a bit hesitant around someone of the Islamic faith or appearing to be Arabic, and the Fort Hood shootings did not help the Muslim cause in America. The two women made a great case, however, that it was not the fault of the Muslim faith that the Fort Hood shooter went after his fellow soldiers. Instead, they claimed that the man was mentally unstable, and what he said was merely what he knew and how he spoke. The lifelong Muslim said that if a Jew or Christian was to kill a lot of people in a similar manner, she would not blame the Christian faith but would instead chalk it up to mental instability. They also said it was the fault of the Army for not recognizing the man?s mental illness and taking action before he killed his fellow soldiers.

I disagree with that mental illness was the main cause of the Fort Hood attack as opposed to his Muslim faith; but I found their argument very interesting and something I hadn’t considered (that Hasan was merely expressing his thoughts in the way he had been taught) and I definitely agree the Army failed to protect its soldiers.

It’s about time Republicans and conservatives stopped worrying about gay marriage. Economic issues are not only the most important issue facing the country, they are more relevant to most people than two guys living together. Plain and simple. The governors are somewhat ignoring abortion, which is not good- it’s murder, after all- and gun control, but since most Americans are in support of gun ownership, I’m not too worried about that one. Once we get into power, then we can worry about those issues. After all, it’s not about being moderate- it’s about being conservative and appealing to moderates.

Congress.org has five interesting provisions about the bill, as well as a link to the bill itself.

CNN has an article, a political analysis of sorts as well as a link to the bill.

NRTL blasts the bill, according to Politico.

AP, NYT, and NPR compare the House and Senate bills.

Remember- this bill does not include the more-than-quarter-trillion dollar “Doc Fix” bill that failed in the Senate a month ago. So whatever the Congressional Budget Office says…add that to it. The current CBO score is $849 billion, which includes Medicare cuts and raising some taxes, and will reduce the debt by $127 billion. So, in reality, the debt will increase by $118 billion, unless the government and CBO estimates are underestimates, which is generally the case.

Either way, the CBO score is great momentum for Senator Reid (D-NV) with fiscally conservative Democrats- who may ignore the “Doc Fix” numbers for the final vote on the Senate bill- and bad for those of us opposed to many of the Democratic health reform concepts. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, abortion is covered in the bill and there is a public option. This is bad because they are bad ideas, but good because it will allow moderate Democrats to oppose the bill if abortion and the public option are included, as some have said they will do. Whatever else happens, let’s at least hope the public option and abortion are eliminated. Contact your Senators.

One last note: this is the preliminary CBO score Democrats are all excited about. The final one is supposed to be out today.