h/t Right Wing Watch.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) is not exactly known as a towering intellect, although he's a panderer to wingnuts par excellence. Just days *after* he assured an FDL crew that he knew that Obama was born in Hawaii, he told a town hall audience that he wanted to file a lawsuit demanding that Obama produce his long-form birth certificate. It would appear Franks has calculated that there are votes in them thar wingnuts, because his statement at the Take Back America conference over the weekend is clearly tapping into that angry, violent undercurrent:

Obama's first act as president of any consequence, in the middle of a financial meltdown, was to send taxpayers' money overseas to pay for the killing of unborn children in other countries...there's almost nothing that you should be surprised at after that. We shouldn't be shocked that he does all these other insane things. A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can't do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity.

You stay classy there, Trent. Remember when the GOP lost their minds because one of the Dixie Chicks said only that she was ashamed of being from the same state as the president? How in the world can they justify such over-the-top nastiness now? If the majority party wasn't so gutless, I'd think a formal censure in the House would be considered.

John Amato:

Calling Obama an enemy of the people puts a big fat target on his back. These elected officials are acting like militia members who fly to DC in black helicopters and are helping to plan a violent act against him. It's dangerous and disrespectful and he should be called out publicly for his behavior.

(Beccah Beushausen photographed near her home, Wednesday, June 10, 2009. (David Pierini / Chicago Tribune / June 10, 2009)

Wow, this is pretty despicable. Woman captivates thousands in anti-abortion movement with false story of difficult pregnancy

The unmarried mother's story about giving birth to a child diagnosed as terminally ill in the womb hit a major nerve on the Internet.

Every night for the last two months, thousands of abortion opponents across the nation logged on to a blog run by the suburban Chicago woman who identified herself only as "B" or "April's Mom."

People said they prayed that God would save her pregnancy. They e-mailed her photos of their children dressed in pink, bought campaign T-shirts, shared tales of personal heartache and redemption, and sent letters and gifts to an Oak Lawn P.O. box in support.

As more and more people were drawn to her compelling tale, eager advertisers were lining up. And established parenting Web sites that oppose abortion were promoting her blog -- which included biblical quotes, anti-abortion messages and a soundtrack of inspirational Christian pop songs.
By Sunday night, when "April's Mom" claimed to have given birth to her "miracle baby" -- blogging that April Rose had survived a home birth only to die hours later -- her Web site had nearly a million hits.

There was only one problem with the unfolding tragedy: None of it was true.

Not the pregnancy, and not the photos posted on the blog of the supposed mother and Baby April Rose, swaddled in white blankets. The baby was actually a lifelike doll, which immediately raised the suspicion of loyal blog-followers.

"I have that exact doll in my house," said Elizabeth Russell, a dollmaker from Buffalo who had been following the blog. "As soon as I saw that picture, I knew it was a scam."
--
She had expected only a handful of friends to read it, but when her first post got 50 comments, she was hooked.

"I've always liked writing. It was addictive to find out I had a voice that people wanted to hear," Beushausen said.

"Soon I was getting 100,000 hits a week, and it just got out of hand," she said. "I didn't know how to stop. ... One lie led to another."

So the lie isn't the problem, but the fact that she got addicted to blogging made her continue on. What a sad and disgusting tale. Using a phony story to whip up the anti-choice movement is pretty vile. A woman has the right to choose in this country, but the religious right will do anything it can to try and take that right away. You never hear them talk about the mother in any of their debates. It's like the woman is only a "vessel" to carry a child and doesn't exist in any other manner. "Bring the vessel here." "How dare the vessel speak out."

Hullabaloo calls them moral midgets.

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KCTV5 exposed Phil Kline for being a typical conservative crook in a the above video clip, and C&L had a hand in exposing it to the media in KS.
Logan Murphy wrote this back on 11/28/07:

Kansas City CBS affiliate KCTV5 conducted a 6 month investigation of Phil Kline, the religious zealot and rabid anti-abortion District Attorney of Johnson County, Kansas that has now caught fire on blogs nationwide, earning C&L a nod for our coverage. The investigation uncovered some dirty secrets about Kline's true residency and his apparent lack of work ethics -- and now he's running for cover...read on

cjonline:

Thousands of Kansans opened their mailboxes Thursday to find a solicitation letter from former Attorney General Phill Kline that invokes physician George Tiller and Planned Parenthood while seeking contributions for a campaign against abortion rights.

The five-page mailing from Kline was placed into circulation by an Ohio company May 27, a spokesman for Kline said, which would have been four days before Tiller was shot and killed at a church in Wichita.

“There was no way to foresee what was going to happen,” said spokesman Brian Burgess. “I think it’s fair to say the timing is unfortunate.”

Kline, who filed criminal charges against Tiller while serving as attorney general, targeted the solicitation at former political supporters. He is trying to eliminate $200,000 in personal legal debt that piled up during the past six years. The letter also says cash was needed by Life Issues Institute, an anti-abortion organization in Cincinnati affiliated with Kline, to “launch more aggressive battles on the national front.”

“I need your support,” Kline says in the piece. “Your contributions will help us continue this fight and defray our legal expenses.”
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Monnat said Kline’s pursuit of Tiller wasted millions of dollars in public resources. It would be improper for the public to pay an additional price for Kline’s failed campaign against the late doctor, he said.

“Phill Kline now wants to con taxpayers into paying him the attorney fees generated by the investigation of his bamboozlement,” Monnat said. “This solicitation is a tasteless piece of propaganda that ought to make Kansas citizens glad the voters of Johnson County ridded this state of Phill Kline.”

He's the lowest of the low, and that's not only coming from me. The people of Johnson County booted him out on his head as he lost his re-election bid. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Like Randall Terry, Kline is looking for the anti-choice movement to bail him out. He's another component of the assassination equation here as well.