Dr. Donna Campbell on the Predatory Abortion Industry

Well said Dr.:



Highlights:

•  Wendy Davis doesn't speak for the majority of Texas women.

•  For all their talk about "keeping the government out of a private decision," pro-abortion advocates "sure want government money" to support abortion.

• "If an abortion center closes, it's because the millions of dollars flowing through the abortion industry are placing profits over people."

Author's Note: We were at the press conference Megyn Kelley referenced; Dr. Campbell showed up in scrubs because she had just finished a 72 hour ER shift.

Read More

Abortion Industry Victims Share Testimony in Austin

This morning, Cahnman's Musings attended a press conference sponsored by Texas Justice Foundation, a non-profit that helps women recover from abortion.  The Justice Foundation is submitting 900 written testimonies in two volumes in support of the pro-life legislation in front of the Texas Legislature.  At the press conference, seven women shared their stories of horrific abortion experiences that the legislation under consideration would prevent.

Before the press conference, a pro-abortion protestor briefly attempted to interrupt.  She was screaming something about patriarchy.   She didn't speak long enough for us to even pull out our cell phone.

(Author's note: The written word cannot do this testimony justice.  Unfortunately, the video footage of this event in the Senate Archives is not compatible with this website's software.  Thus, our written notes will have to suffice.)

First up was Molly White, of Texas Operation Outcry.  She told how the clinic staff lied to her then left her to bleed out in an alley.  Since her abortion, she's had two miscarriages, 1 stillborn baby, and a hysterectomy.

Next up was Myra Myers.  After her abortion, the abortionist told her "Good news, you no longer have a baby."  Need we say more?!?

After that was Penny.  Unfortunately, we didn't write down her last name.  During her abortion, the attendants didn't allow her to see the ultrasound.  She had been pressured and lied to by the father.  She wanted "to protect women from being led down the same devastating path" she had been.

Patricia Luck-Graham, a star high-school athlete, was forced to abort by her parents when she was 16.  She then had multiple abortions in college.  She said, at the time, people kept asking her 'you're a star athlete, what are you going to do with a baby?!?'

Toni McKinley was drugged against her will by an abortionist who performed the procedure while she was out cold.

Julie Ziglar Norman, daughter of famed business coach Zig Ziglar, told how she began getting free birth control at 14.  When the birth control ultimately failed (which, by law of averages, it eventually will), she had two secret abortions at age 25 and 27. Her abortionist told her: "I love stupid women like you."

One line stood out: "During the thirteen years I hid from my abortion I became very pro-Choice; otherwise I would have had to admit to myself that I killed my own child."  Unfortunately, we didn't write down who said that.

After the women spoke, Representative Steve Toth and Dr./Senator Donnna Campbell briefly addressed the crowd.  Representative Toth said that the Harris County D.A. refusing to investigate the late-term abortion facility recently uncovered in Houston. 

Dr./Senator Campbell, who had just driven in from a 72 hour shift in the emergency room, is the mother of four adopted children.  As an emergency room physician, she's treated scores (if not hundreds) of abortion victims.  She discussed how the practice of medicine has always treated the unborn child as a patient, except when "a predatory abortion industry" wants "to protect their cash cow."

Cahnman's Musings highly recommends you watch the whole thing, via the Texas Senate archives, here.

Read More

EXCLUSIVE: Colorado Republican Shares Hard Learned Lessons for Texas

(Author's Note: Sean Duffy is in the center of the picture, next to Santorum)

Today, Cahnman's Musings was blessed to speak for 45 minutes with Sean Duffy former deputy Chief of Staff to former Colorado Governor Bill Owens.  Almost a decade ago, Sean Duffy was a source of ours when we worked with Robert Novak.  During that time, the left was in the early stages of its takeover of Colorado.

Since the election of 2012, as the left has announced its intention to use the Colorado model in Texas, Cahnman's Musings thought back to those conversations we had with Sean Duffy in 2004 many times.  In 2004, there was something happening on the ground in Colorado that we did not understand at the time.  Having been on the front-lines of those battles, Sean Duffy shared his thoughts with Cahnman's Musings:



Highlights: 

Education -- Early in their rise to power, the left demagogued Education.

• In the Early 2000's education in Colorado was a mess.  Amendment 23, passed in 2000, created a mandate in the state constitution that required the state to spend at least inflation PLUS 1% on education.  This chaotic policy environment gave the left an opportunity to operate in Colorado in a way that doesn't exist in Texas today.

• In discussing education: "Moms and Dads like substance....There's ways to deal with this [education] in a substantive way where you can get Moms and Dads to focus."
• Author's Note: In Texas, that means School Choice, School Choice, and School Choice.

• "If we fight over dollars we lose, if we fight over substance we win."
•  Author's Note: I think that's the most important line in the whole interview.

Tactics of the Left

• The left likes to "create chaos and drop a piano on someone's head."

• The left systematically took out key Republicans in the state legislature by demogoguing particular votes and spending multiples of what had previously been spent in state legislative races; they knew who to pick off.
• Author's note: In Texas, my educated guess is that Donna Campbell and Giovanni Capriglione are the two most likely candidates.
• In a hilarious and ironic turn of events, this point might be the silver lining of Joe Straus' leadership. If there's one thing members of the Texas House know how to do, it's raise money and campaign.  No vulnerable Republican in the Texas House will ever lack for money.

• The left has "an extraordinary ground game"
• "The Left loves to go door-to-door."
•  Day in, day out, door-to-door organizing.
• Teachers "literally go door-to-door."
•  "We just don't do that"...."[W]e don't cultivate neighborhoods the way the left does."

•  Ken Salazar 2004:
• Ran as a moderate and was well liked.

•  "The spend a lot of time ripping our guys' heads off and we don't do as well in terms of finding the 1 or 2 message points that really unravels somebody in the public mind."

 Differences with Texas:

• Texas conservatives already have the seven capabilities; we can get a LOT better in how we deploy them, but we're building from a solid foundation.
• "This is the bread and butter of the left; they stand up organizations that do each of those things and they fund them."
• Intellectual Ammunition: Texas Public Policy Foundation.
• Mobilize for elections: Anyone who volunteered for Ted Cruz knows how many people were block-walking in 100 degree heat heading into that LATE JULY runoff!
• Pursuing investigations: Who uncovered CSCOPE?!?
• Strategic Litigation: Does the name Greg Abbott ring a bell?!?

•  Colorado was never the Republican stronghold that Texas is today.
• Bill Owens was the first Republican governor in 25 years.
• Ken Salazar was an incumbent state Attorney General before he was elected to the U.S. Senate; in Texas terms that would be like having Joaquin Castro serve alongside Rick Perry.
• In Texas, by contrast, no Democrat has won statewide office since 1994.

•  Entrepreneurs in the Minority communities.
• Texas conservatives have people like Rafael Cruz.

How you beat the left:

• "You've gotta get into the specifics of where the dollars are going and pound the crap out of them!"

Finally, via e-mail, Sean Duffy shares his thoughts on how conservatives, in general, can improve our messaging:

I just think we do so much better when we use emotion, and strong compelling narrative to back up our points.  Whether in charter schools or school choice, folks are moved by the plight of eager mothers who are fighting to get their kids educated.  We are moved by entrepreneurs who succeed despite humble beginnings.  More and more, it’s the narrative that has to be developed to bolster our policy points…particularly in the new media environment.

 Bottom Line: Texas conservatives must always remain vigilant, but we're a LOT better prepared for this fight than the left thinks we are.

Read More

BREAKING NEWS: Rick Perry Caves on Obamacare

Sigh:

Governor Rick Perry reverses position on Medicaid Expansion
by,
Abe Rill Phuelez
April, 1st 2013

Austin, TX -- Citing a need to 'embrace political moderation' and fear of 'being called mean by Democrats,' Texas Governor Rick Perry today reversed his position on expanding Medicaid under the 2010 Federal Health Care Law.

"In 2012, Mitt Romney decisively won independents and the results speak for themselves.  Texans should embrace political moderation to achieve similar results," Perry said.  "As Governor, I fear being called mean by Democrats so much that I would rather expand a bankrupt Medicaid program."

Medicaid expansion will split Texas Republicans.  Representative David Simpson and Senator Donna Campbell issued a joint statement calling the move 'heartbreaking and inexplicable.'  Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, by contrast, hailed Perry's decision as "the best news I've heard all session."

Battleground Texas Reacts

Jeremy Bird, President Obama's handpicked choice to rebuild Texas Democrats, echoed Straus' sentiments.

"Battleground Texas is ecstatic Governor Perry has joined the tradition of former Virginia state senator John Chichester and former Colorado Governor Bill Owens by preemptively expanding government" said Bird. "As we recently made clear, Battleground Texas does not yet posses the resources we need to win.  Medicaid expansion is the taxpayer financed slush fund of Battleground Texas' dreams."

Former George W. Bush speechwriter Mark McKinnon called the move 'a strategic milestone' for Democrats.  "The long-term objective of the Democrat party is subvert traditional American virtues of individual sovereignty and self-reliance and to replace them with a spirit of fear and dependence on Caesar.  Any system that traps another million souls in a substandard health-care system is a slam dunk win for Texas Democrats."

Julian Castro salivates

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the political figure most widely expected to benefit from Medicaid expansion, issued the following statement:

"I am delighted Governor Perry chose to reject common-sense Medicaid reforms like Federal block granting in favor of the mother of all payola schemes for Texas Democrats.  Socialized medicine will allow me to establish a protection racket for a statewide run in a way that felony corporate contributions never could.  Medicaid expansion will be Julian Castro's personal Tammany Hall.

Tea Party activists were too busy fighting among themselves to comment.

Read More