State House budget writers are putting a hold on the budget debate awaiting the outcome of the federal stimulus package vote.

That puts ‘24′ up for debate on the House floor… likely tomorrow.

Abortion proponents are pressing legislators hard to amend the waiting-period bill, giving abortionists an “out” to the entire concept of a “period of reflection” before a woman can have an abortion.

Amendments are one of the greatest concerns of bill sponsor Greg Delleney. He said today that changes to the bill could basically nullify any strides made to extend the waiting period for an abortion from 1 hour to 24.

CALL TO ACTION

When it comes to hearing from constituents, legislators are telling us that conservative voices are outnumbered 3-to-1 on this bill. 

Contact your House member today and tell them to pass Rep. Greg Delleney’s bill (H. 3245) unamended.

If you aren’t sure who your legislator is… sign up on Palmetto Family’s online petition for up-t0-date legislator information.

The House Judiciary Committee spent more time yesterday afternoon debating an abortion waiting-period bill than a woman at a clinic in Columbia, Charleston or Greenville had to wait to abort her unborn child.

Rep. James Smith

Rep. Greg Delleney

How ironic that representatives spent an hour-and-a-half debating Rep. Greg Delleney’s bill (H. 3245) and a Planned Parenthood-backed amendment by Rep. James Smith before finally sending it unamended to the House floor.

The bill, in essence, extends the waiting period for an abortion from 1 hour to 24 hours. The sticking point for the representatives… when the 24-hour clock actually starts.

Currently, before she can have an abortion, a woman must wait one hour either (1) from the receipt of written materials at an abortion clinic or (2) from the time she’s had an ultrasound. When it was passed in the ’90s, the waiting period stopped the practice of abortion-on-demand in South Carolina.

James Smith’s amendment slightly altered the language of the bill, but had it passed, it would have dramatically changed the the law’s effect. Planned Parenthood, through Smith, was trying to give abortionists the leeway to basically perform abortion-on-demand by allowing women to say they had either received written materials in the mail… or that they had viewed abortion information on the DHEC website… 24 hours before coming in.

That would have all but negated the “reflection period” bill supporters are pushing to give women time to think about the life of their unborn child before making this life-changing decision.

Last year, lawmakers tried to require that doctors perform an ultrasound prior to an abortion. That effort was watered down, requiring doctors to only offer the ultrasound, but fears of malpractice and the requirement that doctors determine the gestational age of the baby in the mother’s womb have made pre-abortion ultrasounds routine in South Carolina. 

Rep. Wendy Nanney

So, as it stands now, the clock starts when the ultrasound is performed. As a father who has seen plenty of ultrasounds in my time, I have to agree with the statement that Greenville Rep. Wendy Nanney made during the debate… the statement that should be the rallying cry of this bill…

“Seeing the ultrasound changes you. It makes you think differently.”

H. 3245 now heads to the House for debate… which could become rather contentious… if yesterday’s hearing was any sign.

If you want to stand in support of this bill, please visit our friends at Palmetto Family and sign their online petition in support of this bill.

Despite the fact that my friends have said this could very well be the best season of ‘24′, there is a life-or-death battle in South Carolina that has absolutely nothing to do with Jack Bauer.

As quickly as one episode of the hit TV show unfolds is the amount of time a woman in South Carolina has to wait before one of the most life-changing events in her life takes place.

Of the 20+ states with abortion waiting periods, South Carolina is the only state with a 1 hour period of “reflection”. Every other state, with the exception of Indiana, has a 24-hour waiting period. (Indiana’s is 18.)

So in South Carolina, in time it takes to get your oil changed, have your photos developed, or get new glasses as LensCrafters, you can wait for an abortion. It takes longer to get a marriage license or adopt a greyhound dog in this state than it does to end the life of an unborn child.

Rep. Greg Delleney has introduced House Bill 3245 that extends the abortion waiting period to 24 hours. In fact, his subcommittee takes up the bill today at the State House.

Show your support for this legislation by signing this online petition from our friends at Palmetto Family as they build support for this bill.

And let us know what you think…

It didn’t take long. Day 3 of the Obama Administration, and the US Government is once again funding international groups that promote or perform abortions.

Despite vocal support for the unborn, just one day after the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a single executive order overturning The Mexico City policy opened the flood gates for hundreds of millions of tax dollars to flow to groups like Planned Parenthood across the globe.

Mind you…while the economic foundations of this country are crumbling, banks are losing value right and left, and government bailouts flow out of DC by the trillions… what’s a few hundred million?

It’s everything.

It’s life.

Take a look at this video… and tell us what you think about the life of one child.

Meanwhile, in SC, there is an opportunity for us to stand up for life. Palmetto Family Council is gathering signatures on this online petition to strengthen abortion laws in SC, increasing our state’s waiting period from one hour to 24 hours.

Contact information for the President is…

President Obama
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, DC  20500
Phone: 202-456-1414 or 202-456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2461
E-Mail: comments@whitehouse.gov

While so much of today’s attention is focused on the repercussions of the financial hurricane that is battering the economic coast of the United States, another storm is brewing for the conscience of American health care providers.

Last month the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced new regulations that would strengthen health care providers’ moral and religious rights to not perform certain medical services to which they conscientiously object.

In essence, this regulation says that the Feds can’t say to health care providers, “If you receive federal dollars for your services, we won’t pay you if you don’t perform or recommend certain services that you might not agree with – like abortions.”

Laws are already on the books at the federal level that protect against these types of discriminatory and coercive policies, but as HHS put it in their news release, “[This] proposed regulation would increase awareness of, and compliance with, three separate laws protecting federally funded health care providers’ right of conscience.”

Opponents of this regulation and abortion-supporting health care providers are quick to point fingers at, what they call, “a long line of cynical attempts by the Bush administration to distort science and medicine to fit its religious views and sabotage women’s access to reproductive healthcare.”

They quite adamantly claim that this regulation would, “strengthen physicians’ and other medical workers’ resolve to refuse to provide, mention, or make referrals for abortion, sterilization, and even contraception.”

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt refutes that saying, “This proposed regulation is about the legal right of a health care professional to practice according to their conscience…. Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience. Freedom of expression and action should not be surrendered upon the issuance of a health care degree.”

Today is the final day for comment on this new regulation before HHS decides whether to put it into effect. Let regulators know where you stand on this issue by emailing consciencecomment@hhs.gov or you can submit electronic comments directly to on the HHS regulations website.

We reported earlier today about Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen who compared Gov. Palin to Pontius Pilate on the floor of the House… pretty sick. Then there’s, of course, SC Democratic Party Chairwoman Carol Fowler’s well-publicized belief that John McCain chose Sarah Palin only because her “primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion”… pretty sick indeed.

Todd & Sarah Palin with their son Trig

Consider this yet another example of “sick indeed” for today.

A prominent Canadian doctor is expressing concern that Gov. Palin’s decision to give birth to her Down syndrome baby may have the harmful effect of preventing other pregnant women from aborting their children.

You read that right… the harmful prevention of aborting children.

Now this just isn’t any doctor who said this. It’s the executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada… where 80-90% of Down syndrome pregnancies are aborted every year.

Here’s the story. See for yourself.

by Bob McAlister, in The State

Nikki Haley was shocked. A Democratic official known throughout South Carolina as an enlightened feminist counseled that she should not run for public office because she had two young children. But later on the same day in 2003, Mrs. Haley was in the audience when another prominent Democrat, Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, challenged women to seek office.

Spurred by both encounters, the Lexington resident ran the following year and was elected as a Republican to the S.C. House of Representatives. Some insiders say she has statewide potential.

As we discussed the shameful media reaction to John McCain’s pick of Gov. Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket, Mrs. Haley said she has never publicly told the story of the feminist who tried to keep her out of politics. “That just made me more determined,” she said.

Mrs. Haley is reluctant to discuss the double standard for female officeholders (“I am not a victim and don’t want to sound like one”), but she can relate to the pounding Gov. Palin is taking over whether a mother of five should be vice president.

“Every week I’m asked how I handle my little ones and serve my constituents,” she said. “It’s no different from anybody else’s life. I prioritize with my children and husband and do the best I can and refuse to feel guilty.”

So Gov. Palin is not the first political woman to experience the old double standard. But the brutal and loathsome treatment she’s getting from the national media is unique in American history.

Leaders of the intelligentsia, so progressive and tolerant of liberal women, express faux concern over whether her Down syndrome baby will get enough motherly love. They breathlessly conclude a mom of five just can’t hack it, especially when her 17-year-old daughter is pregnant.

As Helen Reddy sang, “That ain’t no way to treat a lady.”

“It’s unfortunate they are focusing on one aspect of a lifetime full of courage and talent,” Mrs. Haley said. “This is a story we should all feel good about.”

The mainstream media and Democratic liberals — excuse the redundancy — are not feeling too good nowadays.

John McCain found a woman for the ticket who has done everything that political feminists spent the last 30 years saying a modern woman should do, except abort her children, and she has done it brilliantly.

This gun-totin’, fish-catchin’ machine steamrolled her way through the corrupt good old boys in Juno and landed in the governor’s office with an 80 percent approval rating. She charmed the big-oil lobbyists, picked their pockets and sent the proceeds back to the taxpayers.

She has managed a balanced budget while balancing the needs of her family with her official responsibilities.

So why do the libs feel so bad?

They were the ones supposed to break the glass ceiling, because they owned the women’s movement. Then The One arose to lead His children to the Promised Land, along the way charging over and through the would-be ceiling breaker, who wasn’t even considered worthy of being The One’s No. 2. An old bald guy took her place.

And they don’t feel too good about what came out of St. Paul this week. The day after Gov. Palin took the GOP convention by storm, polls showed more than half the American people thought reporters were trying to destroy Mrs. Palin, and 24 percent said that makes them more likely to vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.

Score one for the people, who know a media scam when they see it.

I’m guessing the American people have made three discoveries during the Palin rollout:

1. If a woman is pro-life and doesn’t hate men, the chattering class won’t give her an equal playing field.

2. Her daughter’s pregnancy is nobody’s business.

3. A woman who blew up Alaska’s good-old-boy network and shoots bull moose at point blank range is not intimidated by a bunch of sissy reporters who think moose is a dessert.

Mr. McAlister is a public relations consultant and was an adviser to Sen. John McCain in the S.C. presidential primary.

Note to readers: The writer of this story requested to be anonymous because of his top-level position in government. But he knows of which he writes

It’s been a tough few days for the national media.

In a fit of rage they have torn off the mask. And like the phantom haunting the opera now wholly revealed, they know, we know, who they really are.

And it ain’t pretty.

It’s long been a delicate dance. Americans are a trusting lot and we want to believe in the reporters we invite into our homes via our televisions and internets. Folks like former CBS correspondent Bernard Goldberg, have been warning us for years about the bias – about out-of-control newsroom elites looking down on Middle-America.

But it took Sarah Palin to rock their world enough to rock ours.  Because in excoriating Sarah, Big Media showed Middle America once and for all what they really think about us.

The first thing we now know in a powerful way is really, only ONE woman counts. And her names are: Soledad and Campbell, Diane and Katie. Yes, they are more than one but they stand utterly united in their disgust and bewilderment for any woman who stands not for the sacred right of abortion. Watching their bitter coverage, it occurs to me that these women may never have encountered other breathing females who might consider any alternative to their pro-abortion mandate. After all, we certainly don’t see these women on their networks as a part of any kind of balanced reporting, so they’re always stunned and I think, a little sad, when they’re forced to breathe the same air.

We also now know because only ONE woman counts, it is perfectly acceptable for the Big Media to have two sets of questions: One for ONE woman; the other for conservative woman. It goes something like this:

Question to ONE woman:
How is it that you are so brave to balance both a family and a career and do both so well?

Question to Conservative woman:
What makes you think you can possibly juggle a home, kids, and a demanding career? And really, is it fair to try?

Question to ONE woman:
How do you rock those pantsuits everyday and still manage to stand up for reproductive rights and all women everywhere?

Question to Conservative woman:
So what’s up with the hairdo? Isn’t it true you neglected your prenatal vitamins and had your abnormal kid on a plane? Really, so how come your qualified?

I noticed over at CNN, Soledad O’Brien and Campbell Brown got particularly offended by the glare of the public spotlight turned back on them. Soledad was very insistent that newsmakers (because that’s what these reporters have become) need to ask these questions of Governor Palin and examine the record. Problem is, Soledad, you don’t feel compelled to ask the good senators on your team (that would be the Democratic ticket) the same riveting questions. To turn into CNN during the DNC was to see a network gushing with pride for its candidates done good. I don’t recall Soledad pondering the toll Obama’s time away from his daughters is taking on them and whether, really, he’s up for the task of balancing it all? Meredith, over at NBC, what do you think? Ever lob that bomb at the home team? Nah, didn’t think so. Just chucked it at the sister. So much for The View. But Joy is proud, no doubt.

All this brings me back to Sarah and us.

Big Media wants to destroy Sarah Palin for a number of reasons: she gets in the way ultimately of them controlling the election – and not us.

She stands for the old-fashioned values of patriotism, God, family, and life, that the media elites not only despise – they fear. It is human nature to fear and despise what you do not understand. It is also the opposite of so-called liberal open-mindedness.

They hate Sarah because she loves America. And frankly, most Americans love America. And America loves winning – whether it’s in Iraq or on the ice rink.

But the media always has and always will love a loser. And Sarah Palin may be a lot of things – but she’s certainly no loser.

Obama is an exciting figure at an exciting time, but like FDR’s devoted press corps who conspired with him to deny the American people the real story about his crippling disability (most Americans never knew FDR was in a wheelchair) Obama’s infatuated Big Media is avoiding Obama’s story while inventing story lines on Sarah Palin. That is not only dereliction of duty is reveals a deep distain for ordinary Americans and our judgment.

In the end, they hate Sarah because Sarah is us.

Now that the masks are off, it’s time to clear the air and either turn them off or demand more of us next to them. America will be better for it.

by Bob McAlister

Gov. Sarah Palin

The story is being told at the Republican National Convention that when McCain’s aides warned Gov. Sarah Palin of the attack dogs waiting for her in the media, she replied: “Do you know the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom? Lipstick.”

When you’ve blown up the corrupt good old boy network in Alaska, chopped through ice to catch salmon and shot a raging bull moose at point blank range, Chris Matthews and perky Katie must seem like toothless mutts. This pit bull has teeth, folks—very nice teeth—and gives every indication of being ready to kick butt.

She’s already won the first round by exposing political feminism as an empty, hypocritical, pathetic fraud. I use the words “political feminism” because it is the corrupted version of real feminism. Pure feminism untainted by leftists and socialists does not reside in a political party, and it insists on the dignity and value of every woman everywhere.

Sarah Palin is everything that political feminists have held up as a role model. She literally came from Alaskan backwoods to achieve the highest office in the state, and she had to plowNew  through a bunch of white boys to get there. She did it while being a wife and mother.

She’s done everything that political feminists say a woman should do except she has not killed any of her babies.

But they’re after her. They hate her because she is an accomplished woman who succeeded without hating men and worshipping at the altar of abortion. They hate her because she’s an outsider. They hate her most because she just might help McCain beat The One. And they’re willing to go where no man (or woman) has gone before to keep it from happening.

Example: Tuesday’s front page of the New York Times, which reported, with faux concern, “With five children, including an infant with Down syndrome and, as the country learned Monday, a pregnant 17-year-old, Ms. Palin has set off a fierce argument among women about whether there are enough hours in the day for her to take on the vice presidency, and whether she is right to try.”

The Times made sure to quote twice as many critics as supporters, of course, and the only “fierce argument among women” is the one ginned up by biased reporters scared to death that a down-to-earth woman is altering the political landscape.

Let’s say, just for argument, that the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee was the mother of five children. I know, that’s improbable (see paragraph 5 above), but let’s pretend. And let’s say that Dr. James Dobson suggested the woman in question could not possibly be a good mother and vice president at the same time. Anybody out there doubt the outcry from liberals? Hurricane Gustav would have been relegated to page 8-Z, Andrea Mitchell would have hit menopausal rage and Maureen Dowd would have had an accident in her pants.

Breaking news, as they say. I stopped writing this to watch Rudy Giuliani on the Today show, and he just ripped Meredith Viera, who got testy. Rudy looked the lady straight in her sagging eyes and said it was despicable for the media to ask whether a woman could be a good mother and vice president at the same time, something they’d never ask a man. Meredith got that deer in the headlight look and, because her words weren’t on the teleprompter, just mumbled. After Rudy left, she called in White House reporter David Gregory to save her, and he said bluntly it’s not the media pushing the story.

That’s a lie. David Gregory is a liar. It is only the media pushing the story, the media and Obama supporters.

I’m betting the only vice presidential candidate in history who has field dressed a moose will rock tonight’s convention by ripping into liberal carcasses and stripping the bones bare. Just wait and see.

Bob McAlister is President of McAlister Communications and former Chief of Staff of SC Gov. Carroll Campbell.

There has been a ton of speculation that John McCain may be considering a pro-abortion Vice Presidential nominee (bringing responses and pontifications at Politico, Hot Air, Rush, just to name a few).

I’m with the Hot Air folks on this one. A pro-abortion nominee like Lieberman (or Guiliani, or Ridge) would be an unmitigated disaster for McCain, perhaps the one last way he could derail his own campaign and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. As a strategy, it would lead to the wholesale departure of the Republican base, (more than making up for any gains he would make with independents) and the resulting low-base turnout could lead to a filibuster-proof majority in the US Senate – for the Democrats.

With those specters looming, do not expect the delegates at the Convention to go quietly on this point. I’ve been talking to some of my fellow delegates and alternates from around the state and around the country, and they do indeed have the stomach to fight their own nominee on this one. Remember: the delegates hold the power at the convention – and we can nominate someone of our own choosing to go up against a pro-abortion VP nominee. Alert pro-life Republican delegates are already organizing for a possible convention uprising if the need arises. Speculation centers around the same list of pro-life Governors that McCain has been said to be considering – Palin, Jindal, Romney, Pawlenty, and yes, Mark Sanford.

Hopefully, Senator McCain won’t make the pro-abortion VP mistake, and will instead choose a running mate who can secure his base while he tacks to the middle in the general election campaign (which he does without really trying, frankly). With a 5 point lead (according to Zogby this morning), Senator McCain would be wise to secure his base and consolidate the lead with less than 3 months to go.