BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

FATIMA, Portugal:

Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday called abortion and same-sex marriage some of the most "insidious and dangerous" threats facing the world today.

In an effort to deflect attention from the pedophilia among Catholic priests and the clerics who ignored this horror and obviously forgetting that Jesus said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

Pope Benedict is attempting to regain the moral high ground, even though the stature of the Catholic Church is lost.  As long as the men who denied what they knew to be both morally wrong and criminal are still part of the Church's hierarchy, relevency will be impossible to attain.

The most "insidious and dangerous" threats facing the world are pedophiles who defied the trust, defied the law, and raped and molested innocent children, and who were allowed to continue this abnormal perverted, criminal, behavior by those who knew it was happening! Cover-ups and lame attempts at deflection will not undo or replace the facts!

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

If I could add one war movie to the White House movie theater collection, it'd be Rambo: First Blood Part III. 

Over the weekend, my boyfriend and I spent 102 minutes of our lives watching the final installment in the Rambo trilogy. Instead of what I expected -- an adrenaline-soaked, action spectacular from my embarrassingly short-sighted but thoroughly patriotic countrymen -- I got an incredibly prescient lesson in power and terror.

At the time of its release in 1988, Rambo III was widely panned. Not only is it pretty corny, but audiences must have thought that the way Russians were portrayed -- like stupid, sadistic drones -- seemed anachronistic by the late 1980s. Perestroika was already in place and the film was released some 17 months before the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. Back then, the film must have looked like an artifact of a bygone era. Watching it now, it seems like a bizarre back-to-the-future exercise.

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

Watching Newt Gingrich's dance between old school Repuglican and tea-party Repuglican as he attempts to be relevant is a hoot! Newt is yesterday's bad news. He has no real influence in today's world. Newt and the Repuglicans are the Party of "Just say NO" to anything and everything and that is a cop out. It's the lazy man's way of not doing the business of the American people. Whenever and wherever he's seen, all I can think of is "wimpy, wimpy, wimpy!"

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White 

You'd think I'd have already learned my lesson during the healthcare debate. You know, the lesson that the Democratic Party will throw women's rights overboard at every opportunity?

Meet Connie Saltonstall, the woman who broke the camel's back for me. Or perhaps you remember her? She was responsible for getting the reprehensible Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) out of our hair by challenging his reelection from the left, until she was taken out by an increasingly misogynist Democratic Party. 

She recently dropped out of the primary race, and did not mince words in explaining why:

...the Michigan Democratic Party has preemptively anointed Gary McDowell as their Democratic candidate. They are replacing Bart Stupak with another Upper Peninsula, Anti-Choice, Anti-Women’s healthcare rights candidate. 

...I cannot support a party that endorses candidates who vote to restrict women’s legal rights and access to healthcare. It is time for Democrats to stop compromising on this issue.

The Michigan Democratic Party ignored the amazing response to Saltonstall's candidacy -- her proven and rapid ability to raise huge amounts of money and gain major endorsements -- and began grooming this McDowell character for Stupak's seat.

NARAL Pro-Choice America points out that McDowell showed his incredible hostility toward women when he "voted to ban a safe abortion method, without exceptions — even in the cases of rape, incest, or to protect the woman’s health."

MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Thou, straggler into loving arms, 
Young climber up of knees,
When I forget thy thousand ways,
Then life and all shall cease.
-- Mary Lamb," Parental Recollections," 1809 

BuzzFlash,

Hard to believe that this incident happened in Massachusetts, after that state took the lead of intelligent and common sense laws for their people. This week, I read about the Catholic church turning away a child because of his parents and lucky to have such caring parents.

We all are children living on mother earth.

BUZZFLASH DISCUSSION

The recent disclosure in the media that the government has put an American citizen on their "CIA kill list" has drawn criticism as well as support from legal and security experts. 

While citizenship does not play a role in targeting enemies in a traditional war, we all know that this is not a traditional war. The kill list is considered a necessity in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the American citizen in question is far from the battlefield in Yemen. Still others say that the idea of a battlefield is antiquated and not applicable in this situation. 

The notion that the government can get around the illegality of assassination by creating such lists should send a chill down freedom-loving Americans' spines. Yet, some argue targeted killing could help avoid the collateral damage associated with a traditional invasion. 

What do you think about the administration's decision to put an American on a CIA kill list? What does this mean for President Obama's professed desire to protect civil liberties and fight a war which he no longer calls a War on Terror?

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

Welcome back to GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Jeff Sessions has a history of hypocrisy when it comes to the Supreme Court; just last year he was so busy accusing then-nominee Sonia Sotomayor of racism that he forgot about his own racist past. But now it's a new year and a new potential justice. Has the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee finally learned to grow up and judge a nominee on their merits?

Yeah, we weren't really expecting that either.

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

John McCain at his poor pitiful worst, just plain "dang" pathetic. His political future looks wretched and his actions are ridiculously inadequate!  It's absurd what some men will do to try to survive!  Why even some of the most conservative members of his party are gasp, "laughing" at McCain:

Rep. Shadegg And The Morning Joe Crew Laugh At McCain's 'Danged Fence' Ad

Embarrassing!

BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

When I first watched this video, I thought it was satirical. Check it out; you'll see why:

"Geez, Wonkette has gone a little far with their mockery of southerners' love and protection of their own ignorance," I thought. "But come on. No one would actually use a belief in evolution as the main reason to oppose a candidate for state-wide office, even in Alabama!"

I was more incorrect than I thought I could be. Not only is belief in evolution a worthy slur against a candidate, but it is a slur that the Alabama Teachers Union is comfortable hurling.

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

Ah Pope Benedict, you still don't get it:

According to CNS' John Thavis, the pope said: The church has a profound need to relearn penance, to accept purification, to learn on the one hand forgiveness but also the necessity of justice...

We have to relearn these essentials: conversion, prayer, penance.

It is "essential" to call the police when you discover a pedophile has been using the priesthood to abuse and violate children! It's that simple: Have the criminals arrested.

You can always hear their confession in jail, and their penance can be never, ever having the opportunity to defile, sexually assault or rape children again! A life sentence is too short for such an individual.