Sunday, April 28, 2024
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Sunday, April 28, 2024

Milwaukee Press Club 'Excellence in Wisconsin Journalism' 2020 & 2021 Award Winners

The Pro-Life Casualties are Piling Up

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Republicans are frustrated with their electoral losses. To compound this frustration, Republicans are undeniably losing primarily due to one issue—abortion. Until the matter of abortion is effectively addressed or neutralized, it is arguable that Republicans will continue to fall short at the ballot box. 

Here are two examples.

With an 11-point margin, Justice Janet Protasiewicz overwhelmingly won the April 2023 election, tilting the balance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court toward progressivism. Undoubtedly, her victory was driven by the exploitation of the hot-button issue of abortion, heightened by the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Adding to the complexity, a Wisconsin law dating back to 1849 prohibited almost all abortions. Although the law included an exception for an abortion necessary to save the life of the mother, Democrats distorted the truth in campaign ads, misleading the populace by suggesting that women would be strapped to gurneys, and forced to endure pregnancies with no exceptions. Wisconsinites voted for Janet out of fear.

Tim Michels’ abortion messaging became ammunition for Democrats who depicted him as excessively extreme for Wisconsin during the 2022 gubernatorial race. In his victory speech, Tony Evers asserted, “being boring wins.”

Evers, whose demeanor is duller than the color beige, made a valid point. Once more, Democrats sought to sway voters by employing exaggerated misinformation tactics to instill fear following the Dobbs decision. Tim Michels was portrayed as someone who would actively round up and imprison doctors performing abortions on women who were victims of rape and incest. Hyperbole is anything but boring.

Nationally, we suffer as well. 

The “Come On In” sign at the southern border, courtesy of Joseph R. Biden and his fellow Democrats, has facilitated a $150 billion business in human trafficking, tantamount to human slavery. Babies, separated from their families with no names or identification, are bought and sold like commodities, thrust into horrifying circumstances. These infants will grow up experiencing nothing but forced labor and sexual exploitation as if these atrocities were normal. 

“Coyotes,” human smugglers who often charge upwards of $20,000 to facilitate U.S.-Mexico border crossings, show little to no concern for the vulnerable people they smuggle. The discovery of hundreds of bodies along the border points to deaths caused by hypothermia and dehydration. 

In 2022, almost 74,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses, and this number continues to rise. On average, 150 individuals die from synthetic opioid overdoses every day. China remains the principal source of fentanyl-related substances and precursors trafficked into the United States, much of which crosses the southern border. Coincidentally, Hunter Biden worked tirelessly for many years cultivating “business” relationships with China to rake in cash for the big guy. Gives one pause, doesn’t it.

We are losing our children and future generations to the impact of the trans movement. Children are undergoing sterilization through the use of puberty blockers. Locally, the University of Wisconsin operates a Gender Services Clinic, advocating for “health equity for LGBTQIA+ individuals in the community who have traditionally been marginalized in areas of physical and emotional health rooted in complex systems of stigmatization and oppression.” This is Biden’s America.

There is a stark reality that we must confront: Abortions. Will. Never. Go. Away. The divisive nature of this issue is contributing to the challenges we face as a nation, and holding onto the hope that it will go away is an unrealistic expectation. We cannot risk losing this country by clinging to a pipe dream.

Team Tony, Janet, and supporters are focused on dismantling the judicial and legislative landscape of Wisconsin. While we, pro-life Republicans, continue to stand with our heels dug deeply into the ground, our country is suffering a slow death at the hands of the Democrats. We are complicit.

Wisconsin Republicans can take several strategic steps. First, it is essential to neutralize the Democratic strategy of fear-mongering for votes by countering it with compassion and truth. At a minimum, clear messaging is needed to assure that abortions will always be available for women who are victims of rape or incest.

Additionally, it is crucial to communicate that the health of a mother will never be compromised. This approach aims to prevent Democrats from making unfounded claims, such as Republicans allowing ectopic pregnancies to result in fatalities. Clear communication and a compassionate stance can help reshape the narrative and appeal to a broader audience.

Secondly, as a representative democracy, elected officials must genuinely consider the will of the people they represent. Understanding that there is a red line for many concerning gestational age, it is imperative to determine Wisconsin’s specific threshold. Data such as the 2021 CDC national statistics, which indicate that 94% of abortions were performed at or before 13 weeks gestation, can help determine Wisconsin’s red line. In Europe, the red line is 15 weeks. This approach ensures that legislative decisions align with the preferences of the majority of the state’s residents.

Third, Republicans need to shift the narrative and hold Democrats accountable for spreading misinformation. Democrats must be made aware that baseless lies about Republican candidates’ stances on abortion will be met with strong pushback. It is crucial to clarify that Republicans do not advocate for punishing abortions with capital punishment, nor do they support government-mandated pregnancies.

In contrast, an aggressive education program should highlight that the Democrats’ stance includes supporting near-term abortions and that near-term abortions do, in fact, exist.

Additionally, informing the public that aborted babies born alive have been left to die is essential. In 2020, 773 abortions were performed where the babies would likely have survived outside the womb, as reported by the Charlotte Lozier Institute for Abortion Reporting. Having Republicans in office is essential for addressing and potentially abolishing this practice.

During the second presidential primary debate, the endorsement of a 15-week federal abortion ban by both then-candidate Tim Scott and candidate Ron DeSantis was met with praise from a leading anti-abortion organization. Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, expressed gratitude to Scott and DeSantis for advocating protections for babies under 15 weeks’ gestational age “while keeping states free to be as ambitious for life as possible.”

Democrats have been perceived as extremists, and their policies have resulted in numerous casualties. Despite this, they have proven highly effective, consistently winning elections. If we Republicans continue to have a very narrow scope of what it means to be pro-life, we will be complicit in the increasing body count. We need to bend. As a pro-life mother of two, I want to remain as ambitious for life as possible, not only as a champion for the unborn, but also for those already born who fall victim to progressive policies. Please, Republicans. Let’s start winning.

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Wisconsin Pro-life Groups Tell Supreme Court There’s No Right to Abortion

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s pro-life groups are unified in telling the Wisconsin Supreme Court it is not the court’s job to create a right to abortion.

Wisconsin Right to Life, Wisconsin Family Action and Pro-Life Wisconsin all filed a joint brief with the court that argues there is no right to abortion and add that if there is to be one, that decision is up to lawmakers.

“The Supreme Court is not the proper venue to create health and safety law nor the proper mechanism to add a constitutional amendment. The legislature is the proper body to weigh the policy considerations and create law, not the court,” Wisconsin Family Action president Christine File said.

“Finding a right to abortion in our state constitution, where there clearly is none, would be the most extreme form of legislating from the bench,” Dan Miller, state director at Pro-Life Wisconsin, said. “The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled in Dobbs that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. Nothing in Wisconsin’s constitution or the history of our state would remotely suggest such a right. We implore the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reject Planned Parenthood’s radical and self-serving plans.”

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin in February asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide if there is a right to abortion in the state.

The Supreme Court has accepted the case, and the filing from Wisconsin’s pro-life groups is in response to that case.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty also filed a brief in the case.

“There is no right to an abortion in Wisconsin’s Constitution. No judge, justice, or lawyer should be creating policy for Wisconsinites out of thin air. Reversing Roe v. Wade through the Dobbs decision rightfully placed the abortion issue back where it should have been all along – in the halls of state legislatures,” WILL Deputy Counsel Luke Berg said. “That’s where the debate and conversation must remain.”

The court is expecting responses from everyone involved in the case by today. The court has not said when it expects to hear oral arguments.

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Prosecutors Begin Laying Out Case Against Trump to Jury

Federal prosecutors on Monday began laying out what they say is election fraud in 2016 by former President Donald Trump.

Trump, 77, is the first former U.S. president to be charged with a felony. Prosecutors and defense attorneys presented their opening statements to the jury of five women and seven men.

Prosecutors said Trump corrupted the 2016 election, The Hill reported on Monday.

"This case is about a criminal conspiracy and a cover-up," Manhattan prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said. "The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 election, then covered it up."

Trump will spend four days a week in court in New York for the next six to eight weeks on state charges that he disguised hush money payments to two women as legal expenses during the 2016 election. Judge Juan Merchan has not scheduled trial days on Wednesdays.

On Monday, his defense attorneys said he had done nothing wrong.

"President Trump is innocent," Trump attorney Todd Blanche told the jury. "He did not commit any crimes. The Manhattan district attorney's office should never have brought this case."

Trump pleaded not guilty in April 2023 to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Merchan's gag order remains in place, ordered last month before the trial began. Trump, the nation's 45th president, is prohibited from making or directing others to make public statements about witnesses concerning their potential participation or about counsel in the case or about court staff, district attorney staff or family members of staff.

Prosecutors said Trump's $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels was falsely covered up as a business expense, that the money was to help keep her quiet. Prosecutors say they had a sexual encounter.

Prosecutors also said Trump paid Karen McDougal, a Playboy magazine "Playmate," and reimbursed then attorney and fixer Michael Cohen to cover it up.

"This was a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior," Colangelo said. "It was election fraud, pure and simple."

Reuters reported that Blanche countered that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg should have never brought the case to trial.

"There's nothing wrong with trying to influence an election" Blanche said. "It's called democracy. They put something sinister on this idea, as if it's a crime."

Prosecutors say Trump falsified internal records kept by his company, hiding the true nature of payments that involve Daniels ($130,000), McDougal ($150,000), and Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen ($420,000). Prosecutors say the money was logged as legal expenses, not reimbursements. In a reversal of past close relationships now pivotal to the prosecution against him, both Cohen and Daniels are expected to testify.

Under New York state law, falsifying business records in the first degree is a Class E felony that carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

Even if convicted and sentenced to jail, Trump could continue his campaign to return to the White House. He's facing the Democratic incumbent who ousted him in 2020, 81-year-old President Joe Biden.

Trump faces 88 felony charges spread across four cases in Florida, Georgia, New York and Washington.Trump has said the criminal and civil trials he faces are designed to keep him from winning the 2024 rematch versus Biden.

Waukesha County DA Declines Charges in Brandtjen Campaign Finance Case

(The Center Square) – Another local prosecutor declined to bring charges against a Republican state lawmaker in a campaign funding raising case.

Waukesha County’s District Attorney Sue Opper said she would not file charges against state Rep. Janel Brandtjen. But Opper said she is not clearing Brandtjen in the case.

“I am simply concluding that I cannot prove charges against her. While the intercepted communications, such as audio recordings may be compelling in the court of public opinion, they are not in a court of law,” Opper said.

Wisconsin’s Ethics Commission suggested charges against Brandtjen and a handful of others in a case that investigators say saw them move money around to allegedly skirt Wisconsin’s limits on campaign donations.

Opper said the Ethics Commission investigation was based on “reasonable suspicion and then probable cause.” But she added that those “burdens are substantially lower than proof beyond a reasonable doubt which is necessary for a criminal conviction.”

Opper said the Ethic Commission could pursue a civil case against Brandtjen and the others. She also opened the door to other investigations.

“This decision does not clear Rep. Brandtjen of any wrongdoing, there is just not enough evidence to move forward to let a factfinder decide,” Opper said.

She’s the fourth local prosecutor in the state to decide against filing charges.

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Brad Schimel Says He Won’t Repeat Mistakes of Last Supreme Court Race

(The Center Square) – Judge Brad Schmiel says he’s not going to repeat the mistakes of the last supreme court race in Wisconsin.

Schimel told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber he isn’t going to politicize the race like liberal Justice Janet Protasiewicz, and he’s not going to ignore his campaign like former conservative Justice Dan Kelly.

Schimel said he can run for the court next year without injecting Republican politics into the court.

“I've had plenty of people on our side that suggested ‘Brad, you just got to do the same.’ No. I cannot do that,” Schimel said. “We still have to respect the rule of law. We still have to respect the Constitution. We still have to respect judicial ethics. I'm not going to go out and promise people what I'm going to do. But I will promise people that they can look at my record, and they know that I've done the right thing. That I have put the law above politics. I put the law above my own personal opinions.”

Republicans roundly criticized Protasiewicz for her comments about abortion and Wisconsin’s state legislative maps during the 2023 campaign.

Republicans also roundly criticized former Justice Dan Kelly, who lost to Protasiewicz, for his perceived lack of campaigning.

“We couldn’t have put a brighter, more reliable conservative on the Wisconsin Supreme Court than Dan Kelly,” Schmiel added. “But, with the campaign there were some mistakes that were made.”

Chief among them, Schimel said, was Kelly’s decision to reject money from the Wisconsin Republican Party that could have gone toward TV ads.

Schimel said that left Kelly at a huge disadvantage.

“Janet Protasiewicz took almost $10 million from the state [Democratic] Party. Dan took the money too late. He realized ‘Oh my gosh, I'm going to get burned on this.’ By the time he took it the best ad buys were gone, and he wasn't able to spend the money effectively,” Schimel said. “He spent $585,000 on TV. That was what his campaign spent. Janet Protasiewicz’s campaign spent $10.5 million. When you are out-spent 20-to-one on TV, you better just start writing your concession speech.”

Schmiel vowed not to be outspent this time around.

“I have made it clear. I will take all legal, ethical contributions to my campaign because we have to win,” Schimel said. “Because we have to stop standing on this hill of principle that we end up dying on.”

Defund NPR

Multiple Bills Introduced in Congress to Defund NPR

Several U.S. House Republicans introduced multiple pieces of legislation to defund National Public Radio following new allegations of “leftist propaganda” from the taxpayer-funded news source.

House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good, R-Va., Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., introduced similar legislation to prohibit federal funding for NPR, including barring local public radio stations from utilizing money from federal grants to “purchase content or pay dues to NPR.”

Over the years, Republicans have made multiple attempts to defund NPR, citing similar complaints. The latest outrage follows an editorial from former NPR Editor Uri Berliner, who criticized the news source claiming it had "lost America's trust."

Berliner criticized NPR’s coverage of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the COVID-19 lab leak theory and of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop as examples of the outlet’s left-leaning bias. He described “the most damaging development at NPR: the absence of viewpoint diversity.”

Banks took aim at NPR’s new Chief Executive Officer Katherine Maher, who has expressed criticism of the First Amendment in efforts to combat “misinformation.”

“NPR’s new CEO is a radical, left-wing activist who doesn’t believe in free speech or objective journalism. Hoosiers shouldn’t be writing her paychecks. Katherine Maher isn’t qualified to teach an introductory journalism class, much less capable of responsibly spending millions of American tax dollars,” said Banks.

The Indiana congressman continued by describing the news outlet as a “liberal looney bin” under prior leadership, drawing attention to a systemic problem.

“It’s time to pull the plug on this national embarrassment. Congress must stop spending other people’s hard-earned money on low grade propaganda,” Banks lamented.

Good was a bit more reserved in his take-down of the news outlet.

“It is bad enough that so many media outlets push their slanted views instead of reporting the news, but it is even more egregious for hardworking taxpayers to be forced to pay for it. National Public Radio has a track record of promoting anti-American narratives on the taxpayer dime,” Good said in a news release. “My legislation would ensure no taxpayer dollars are used to fund the woke, leftist propaganda of National Public Radio.”

Tenney, a former newspaper owner and publisher, accused NPR of using taxpayer funds to “manipulate” and promote a political agenda controlled by “left-wing activists.”

"I understand the importance of non-partisan, balanced media coverage, and have seen first-hand the left-wing bias in our news media. These disturbing reports out of NPR confirm what many have known for a long time: NPR is using American taxpayer dollars to manipulate the news and lie to the American people on behalf of a political agenda. It’s past time the American people stop footing the bill for NPR, and the partisan, left-wing activists that control it," Tenney said in a news release.

The lawmakers cited the political make-up of the NPR’s D.C. news team, which they say includes 87 registered Democrats and no registered Republicans.

The Center Square uncovered records showing that Maher exclusively donated to Democratic political candidates before her role at NPR. Her largest donation of $1,500 was given to Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello in 2017, and most frequently donated to Virginia state Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, in the amounts of $25 over nine times.

Good underscored the original purpose for the publicly funded news outlet, which he says was “created to be an educational news source and to ‘speak with many voices.’” He added that NPR has now become “a primary outlet for advancing biased and radical media coverage of political and social issues.”

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