Sandusky Admits To Showering With Kids But Denies Being A Pedophile

Jerry Sandusky is making things exceedingly difficult for his legal team. How exactly can anyone defend statements such as admitting to having taken shower with underage kids? And there's no way one can confuse locker room hijinks with engaging in sodomy or other sexual acts that Sandusky is accused of engaging in. That's the tact that his legal team is taking, and that's about the only way to try and spin things. Fact is, his legal team should be locking Sandusky away from cameras and microphones so as to keep him from saying something more incriminating that would make his already bad situation worse.

A defiant Jerry Sandusky denied being a pedophile Monday, breaking his silence to profess his innocence in the Penn State scandal that toppled football legend Joe Paterno.

Sandusky, 67, charged with 40 counts of child sex abuse, admitted to NBC’s Bob Costas to a serious lapse in judgement.

“I shouldn’t have showered with those kids,” said Sandusky referring to the eight boys he’s accused of molesting in incidents dating from 1994 to 2008.

Still, he denied there was anything sexual about it.

“I say that I am innocent of those charges,” Sandusky told Costas an interview that aired Monday night on “Rock Center,” NBC’s new news magazine show.

Pennsylvania prosecutors say Sandusky, Paterno’s long-time defensive assistant coach, lured his victims through his foundation — The Second Mile — a kid-friendly charity he founded in 1977.

Costas asked the married dad of six adopted children, “Are you a pedophile?” Sandusky responded with a terse, “No.”

“I could say that I have done some of those things,” he said of allegations of improper touching detailed in the grand jury indictment. “I have horsed around with kids I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them and I have touched their legs without intent of sexual contact.”

Sandusky’s lawyer Joe Amendola said many of the allegations stemmed from misconstrued locker room hijinks.

Meanwhile, the judge who set Sandusky's ridiculously low bail should have recused himself from the case because he was a volunteer at the very charity that Sandusky founded. Judge Leslie Dutchcot allowed a $100,000 bail, rather than the still low $500,000 bail that the prosecutors had called for. This is the kind of case in which bail should not have been allowed.

Widespread Flooding Across New Jersey and Pennsylvania As Rivers Rise; NY Seeing Historic Flooding

Overnight we got quite a bit of rain and flooding is resuming across parts of Northern and Central New Jersey flooded out by Irene. Now comes word that 100,000 people are being evacuated in parts of Pennsylvania due to the same rains - remnants from TS Lee. There's major flooding and problems around Philadelphia, including mudslides closing the Schuylkill Expressway and major flooding expected along the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers:

Major flooding is feared later today on the northern half of the Delaware River and in Trenton emergency officials were preparing to evacuate residents of low lying neighborhoods.

Havertown declared a state of emergency. Evacuations were under way at a condominium development in New Hope.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning in effect until 11:15 a.m., citing dangerous" conditions.

Even as the rain started to ease by 6:30 a.m., and water started to recede in some spots, evidence of the damage from the flash flooding was widespread. Some waterways, however, were expected to keep rising for hours.

The Schuylkill Expressway was closed between the Blue Route to Girard Avenue due to a mud slide and flooding at three different locations.

Suburban motorists were being advised to get off eastbound 76 at the Blue Route and take it south to northbound I-95 to get into the city.

Gov. Tom Corbett has activated the National Guard and hasn't yet issued a separate disaster declaration from those issued following Hurricane Irene but may do so if necessary.

Flooding along the Susquehanna River may crest at the top of levees protecting Wilkes Barre and Kingston.

Officials in northeastern Pennsylvania called for a mandatory evacuation of more than 100,000 residents living along the Susquehanna River on Thursday due to expected flooding. The area was inundated in the historic Agnes flood of 1972.

Luzerne County Management Agency official Frank Lasiewicki told The Associated Press Thursday the river is projected to crest at 41 feet between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday - the same height as the levee system protecting riverfront communities including Wilkes-Barre and Kingston.

Residents were ordered to leave by 4 p.m.

UPDATE:
Flooding for New Hope, PA and Lambertville, NJ are going to be near historic levels rivaling floods during 2005 and 2006. The Flood Warning continues for
the Delaware River at New Hope-Lambertville bridge.

* From this morning to Saturday evening... or until the warning is
cancelled.
* At 2:45 am Thursday the stage was 12.2 feet.
* Flood stage is 13.0 feet.
* Major flooding is forecast.
* Forecast... rise above flood stage by this morning and continue to rise
to near 17.3 feet by tomorrow morning. The river will fall below flood
stage by Saturday early afternoon.
* Impact... at 17.0 feet... water is up to the top of the free bridge
piers.

That means that the area will have been hit by yet another historic level flood. That would put it on par with flooding from 2005, when this photo was taken.

The Catskill reservoirs are pretty much maxed out from the Irene flooding, and there's no additional capacity to divert waters, which means that the downstream rivers are flooding and there's nothing anyone can do about it except to get out of the way.

UPDATE:
The Southern Tier of New York near Binghamton is suffering from historic flooding along the Susquehanna River. The Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers come together in town, and while the town has flood walls that rise 15 feet, the rivers are expected to crest a full foot above that - meaning that significant parts of the city are expected to flood. There are already reports of overtopping in numerous locations and some seepage under and through the levee system is being reported.

The rain-swollen Susquehanna River overflowed retaining walls in downtown Binghamton today, sending water coursing down city streets and leaving officials scrambling to evacuate holdouts who didn’t heed earlier warnings to leave.

The Susquehanna’s water level was higher than 25 feet this morning, above the 25-foot record set in 2006 and more than 11 feet above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. It was expected to rise another foot or so this afternoon.

Water started coming over the city’s retaining walls about 10 a.m., less than 12 hours after officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for sections near where the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers converge, Broome County emergency services manager Brett Chellis told The Associated Press.

“It’s getting worse by the minute,” Chellis said.

In downtown Binghamton, water coursed down city streets and climbed halfway up trees and streetlamps on a plaza at Confluence Park where the two rivers meet.

These floods are even higher than the historic 2006 flooding. The Susquehanna isn't expected to crest until later today more than a foot above the 2006 record in Binghamton, 2 feet more than the 2006 record in Vestal, and you can repeat the situation downstream.

The situation is much the same up and down the Southern Tier Expressway (I-86/Rt. 17) corridor that is a major East/West route through New York, as well as I-88, which runs between Binghamton and Albany. SUNY Binghamton is serving as an evacuation center for some residents, and the town of Oneonta (also home to a SUNY School) is seeing major flooding.

In sum, we're seeing major flooding, major interstate highways blocked, flooded, or washed out, and the worst of the flooding is still to come as some of the rivers have yet to crest. Flash flood warnings are in effect for parts of PA, NY, and NJ.

UPDATE:
There have been some incredible photos taken of all the flooding. Hershey Park is pretty much underwater and places that have never experienced this kind of flooding before are seeing floods and all kinds of damage from this storm system. We're talking massive and pervasive damage to infrastructure throughout the region.

UPDATE:
Rainfall totals from the past 24 hours are impressive in the NYC metro area and the totals are rising in some places. Rainfall levels in parts of upstate New York are still coming in and are in the process of being updated.

Prosecutors File Intention To Seek Death Penalty Against Abortion "Doctor" Gosnell

Prosecutors have filed papers with the intention of seeking the death penalty against Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia-area doctor who ran an abortion clinic that was straight out of a horror movie and who carried out illegal late-term abortions, committed infanticide by killing live-born babies, and killed several of the women who sought abortions at the clinic.

Prosecutors yesterday filed paperwork that enables them to seek the death penalty against Kermit Gosnell, the abortion doctor charged with murder for the deaths of one woman and seven viable babies born alive in his West Philadelphia clinic.

But three of Gosnell's staffers also accused of killing babies caught a break: Prosecutors filed for a 60-day extension to get more time to mull whether they'll seek executions for co-defendants Lynda Williams, Steven Massof and Adrienne Moton.

The extension suggests that they'll lean on the trio to get more evidence against Gosnell.

Prosecutors filed the notice of aggravating factors, noting that he's accused of multiple murders and that his alleged victims were younger than 12, Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said.

Attorney Jack McMahon, who represents Gosnell, said that the death penalty "makes no sense."

His attorney will claim that just because Gosnell is old that he shouldn't be subjected to the death penalty, and while the cost of a death penalty case is expensive for the state, the seriousness of the charges do merit such consideration. Moreover, the court could still rule that he gets life in prison rather than the death penalty should it deem it the more appropriate punishment if found guilty.

Several of his employees are going to have to wait a while longer to find out if they too are going to be subject to criminal charges with a death penalty proviso.

Gosnell, who had claimed that he was impoverished, turns out to own multiple properties and is quite well off, including finding stashes of cash:

And when investigators in Philadelphia searched his massive, three-storey brick Philadelphia home they are alleged to have discovered $240,000 in cash and a gun in a filing cabinet in his 12-year-old daughter's bedroom.

This month’s grand jury report revealed that Gosnell earned $1.8 million a year from his illegal operations.

Gosnell continues to claim that he did nothing wrong and that he was merely providing critical health services to an underserved community.

The case highlights multiple failures at the state and local level to investigate and regulate abortion providers and to take steps to end Gosnell's career years earlier before he could have turned his offices into a house of horrors. One can only hope that the state of Pennsylvania takes action to improve the regulation of these clinics, improve oversight, and to improve the methods by which complaints can be investigated so that someone like Gosnell can't continue to act with impunity for years on end. After all, Gosnell's practice was shut down not after complaints about his illegal abortions, malpractice, and murder, but because the prosecutors executed warrants relating to Gosnell operating a pill-mill. It was in the course of carrying out that warrant that the investigators and prosecutors determined that Gosnell was operating outside the bounds of law and decency.

Then, there's the issue that Gosnell worked not only in Pennsylvania, but in Delaware. Several of his associates at an office in Delaware have been suspended by the Delaware authorities due to ongoing investigations into Gosnell's activities in that state.

Gosnell's Curious Reaction To Patient Deaths

It's impossible to know what the hell Kermit Gosnell was thinking when he was carrying out his sick and twisted take on providing abortions to poor and immigrant women in a Philadelphia "family planning center", but his reaction to the death of one of his patients is startling in its audacity.

Physician Kermit Barron Gosnell had an unusual reaction to the death of Karnamaya Mongar in November 2009. The next day, he applied to join the National Abortion Federation, whose membership is often seen as a badge of quality.

To prepare for a site visit, Gosnell and his wife, Pearl, frantically cleaned the facility, replacing bloody recliners and temporarily hiring a professional the clinic had long lacked: a nurse.

His failed effort to bluff his way through the application appalled prosecutors. But worse, they said, "he made no effort to address the grave deficiencies in his practice that had caused Karnamaya Mongar's death."

Rather than try to clean up his practice and cease performing illegal late term abortions - those in the third trimester that were illegal under Pennsylvania law, he made an cursory effort to join a professional group that would give him credibility where none existed.

The NAF refused him entry citing irreparable errors and problems. That should have been a red flag for anyone involved, but Gosnell preyed on his patients - knowing that they weren't sophisticated enough to know whether Gosnell was skilled or licensed to perform abortions and whether he was engaging in proper sanitary conditions.

That it was abundantly clear to investigators when they raided his office on unrelated pill mill charges that Gosnell did not give a rat's ass about sanitary conditions, or patient health beyond collecting the fee for the abortion procedures is obvious. What isn't obvious is how Gosnell was able to get away with this for so long.

Gosnell had an earlier run-in with health officials after carrying out a test of a new abortion device in the early 1970s, but no charges were filed. And as the years went on, his reputation fell in proportion to his need to court out-of-state patients for his practice:

In 1972, he played a prominent role in a scandal over an experimental abortion tool called "the super coil," designed for use in the second trimester.

California psychologist and activist Harvey Karman had developed the coil. Gosnell tested it on 15 poor women who had taken a bus from Chicago on Mother's Day weekend because they couldn't get abortions elsewhere.

Federal and city health officials later found that nine of the women had suffered serious complications, including a punctured uterus. One needed a hysterectomy.

Gosnell was not charged, but Karman spent two years in court battles with Philadelphia District Attorney Arlen Specter before getting cleared.

In his early years, Gosnell had a good reputation in part because he made house calls.

But he was also known for pushing the limits. His methadone clinic once employed 25 people, Edmonds said, before it unraveled.

State tax liens piled up against the clinic through the 1980s and 1990s, and it folded.

Gosnell also became more reckless in his abortion practice, which was hit by a $41,000 federal tax lien.

He couldn't get doctors to refer patients because of his declining reputation. So he increasingly relied on attracting women from out of state. He even provided a bed in the clinic for overnight stays, the grand jury report said.

And when the State Health Department did receive complaints about Gosnell, they closed the files without so much as carrying out an investigation - even when the patient involved died.

Gosnell carried out abortions that other clinics wouldn't touch - primarily because they were illegal. His was a case of a licensed abortionist carrying out illegal late-term abortions in conditions no better than the back-room abortions that pro-choice advocates contend would occur should abortions become illegal.

Will anyone in Pennsylvania heed the lessons to be learned from this case and make sure that abortion/family planning centers are adhering to the law and providing proper care to their patients?

Inexcusable

As investigators continue poring over the long and horror-filled record of Kermit Gosnell's abortion practice, the excuses and obfuscations by state officials are coming out in Pennsylvania. Gov. Tom Corbett has called for an investigation into how the Pennsylvania Health Department and State Department failed to investigate and otherwise catch Gosnell for years on end. He's given a one-week deadline to get answers.

"I was flabbergasted to learn that the Department of Health did not think their authority to protect public health extended to clinics offering abortion services," Rendell, a former Philadelphia mayor and district attorney, said in a statement. " ... I immediately directed them to inspect these facilities. It was simply preposterous that the department took this position, ever."

Health inspectors sporadically inspected the Women's Medical Society in West Philadelphia for 13 years after it opened in 1979. The clinic had not been inspected since 1993, according to a grand jury report this week. Authorities allege workers used unsanitary equipment to induce labor in women with late-term pregnancies, snipping babies' spines and keeping body parts in jars.

The report says state officials ignored horrific conditions during the terms of six governors and 10 Health secretaries. It details a gruesome litany of failures and refusals to uphold even basic public health guidelines and lays out a long list of regulatory failures.

A spokeswoman for Corbett said Thursday that all of Pennsylvania's 22 registered abortion providers were inspected in September and November.

The grand jury said the Health Department and other agencies — including the Department of State, which oversees the Board of Medicine — have allowed Gosnell's clinic to operate nearly unimpeded since the late 1970s. It was not closed until authorities raided it as part of a drug bust early last year.

The Health Department "decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all," the grand jury said.

The department has not commented on the report, referring inquiries to Corbett's office.

Health Department lawyers changed their opinions and advice "to suit the policy preferences of different governors," the report stated. The department dropped its policy of annual inspections in the mid-1990s under Gov. Tom Ridge, who supported abortion rights, it said. Ridge has not commented on the report.

A Health Department lawyer testified about a 1999 meeting of high-level state officials "at which a decision was made not to accept a recommendation to reinstitute regular inspections of abortion clinics," citing concern that routine inspections would lead to "less abortion facilities, less access to women to have an abortion."

Rendell said he "had no knowledge" of the policy. He said the department "never reached out to me to discuss what the policy should be."

Corbett said he discussed the grand jury's findings with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, telling him that "there's been a fumble on this since 1979."

Complaints against Gosnell date back to 1983, and yet there was no state action to stop Gosnell from carrying out infanticide (killing babies born alive and later murdered), illegal late-term abortions, and butchering women left and right. The state Health Department's response? People die:

The report details a sweeping pattern of negligence, with no inspector stepping foot inside the clinic for more than 16 years. Even the death of Karnamaya Mongar, a Bhutanese refugee who died after a procedure in 2009, was ignored.

Janice Staloski, a Health Department official, declined to investigate the death, saying the department had no authority to do so, the report said. The department’s chief counsel, Christine Dutton, defended the agency’s actions to the grand jury, stating bluntly, “People die.”

Dutton's callous disregard for the state's obligation is astounding and shows an institutional disregard for the lives of those living in Pennsylvania. A thorough housecleaning must be carried out to deal with this crisis - and that's exactly what the Gosnell case has revealed.

Meanwhile, Delaware has "swiftly" suspended Gosnell's record since the Pennsylvania indictment was handed down. Sorry, but where was Delaware in checking to see whether Gosnell was properly accredited and operating in accordance with basic health and sanitary regulations? Gosnell maintained a practice in Delaware - working in an office there once a week.

Until at least 2009, he typically worked one day a week at Wilmington's Atlantic Women's Medical Services Inc. That year, the National Abortion Federation made the rare move to reject Gosnell's Philadelphia clinic as a member because it did not meet their standards and the deficiencies were not correctable, according to the grand jury. The federation did not report whatever it found to be objectionable to state officials, according to the grand jury report.

Yet, Delaware officials have an out that Pennsylvania officials don't. Delaware law apparently doesn't allow the Department of Health and Social Services to inspect abortion providers or any other medical doctors, according to agency spokesman Carl Kanefsky said Saturday, which is itself an amazing situation.

I find that absolutely astounding. These practices involve serious medical procedures that put lives in jeopardy if done incorrectly. It can lead to major complications and deaths, and yet the Delaware law doesn't permit inspections.

That has to change - and soon.

It's inexcusable that states do not have proper oversight of family health practices where abortions are carried out. People should be justifiably outraged over the failure of the state to carry out regular inspections that would have caught Gosnell's malfeasance years ago - before an investigation into an unrelated pill mill operation opened up the house of horrors to the light of day.

States across the country should reexamine their own inspection protocols for all health facilities to make sure that all facilities where medical procedures are carried out are regularly inspected and that procedures are in place to shut down those that are carrying out illegal procedures (such as Gosnell's late term abortions), operating in unsanitary conditions, and otherwise engaging in shoddy practices that put lives at risk.

Tales of Horror Continue Emerging In Gosnell Abortion Case; UPDATE: Bail Denied

New details continue emerging on the sick and twisted case of Kermit Gosnell. Victims say that they were scarred for life, and their harrowing tales highlight the malfeasance and evil that lurked in Gosnell's offices:

FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD Robyn Reid didn't want an abortion. But when her grandmother forcibly took her to an abortion clinic one wintry day in 1998, Reid figured she'd just tell the doctor her wishes and then sneak away.

Instead, Kermit Gosnell barked: "I don't have time for this!" He then ripped off her clothes, spanked her, wrestled her onto a dirty surgical stretcher, tied her flailing arms and legs down and pumped sedatives into her until she quit screaming and lost consciousness, she told the Daily News yesterday.

Nicole Gaither got an abortion from Gosnell in 2001. After four days, she said, the pain was so bad she could barely walk. She returned to the clinic, where, she said Gosnell blithely told her he'd left fetal remains in her.

"Stand up! It don't hurt that bad!" he yelled at her, she said, before suctioning - without any medication - her insides.

In 2001, Davida Johnson changed her mind about aborting her 6-month fetus after seeing Gosnell's dazed, bloodied patients in his recovery room, she said. But in the treatment room, Gosnell's staffers ignored her protests, smacked her, tied her arms down and sedated her into unconsciousness, she said. She awoke no longer pregnant.

Because of the stigma attached with abortion, some of these young women had no where to turn, and the state authorities were unresponsive.

As I noted yesterday, Gosnell's case would not have come to light except for an independent investigation into Gosnell operating a pill mill. It was when investigators searched his offices, that the horror show came to light.

Former employees said that Gosnell at least nominally complied with state notification requirements, but that by 2008 Gosnell was ignoring the rules, and was carrying out illegal late-term (3d trimester) abortions with no regard for the patient's lives.

The Inquirer's editorial is stinging in its rebuke of Gosnell and the state:

The grand jury said that a man who can only be described as a back-alley abortionist pulled in as much as $15,000 per night. His patients were mostly low-income, minority women who lacked health insurance. Many came from out of state.

If the charges are true, Gosnell and several former employees at his Women's Medical Society should have the book thrown at them. The doctor also is under federal investigation for an allegedly illegal prescription-drug operation.

It's even more disturbing that the state, which could have shut down the clinic or revoked Gosnell's medical license, ignored complaints repeatedly. Gosnell's clinic was inspected in 1989, 1992, and 1993. Deficiencies were found each time. Yet state evaluators reapproved it without requiring corrective action.

The state Health Department decided after 1993 to stop inspecting abortion clinics for "political reasons," the grand jury concluded. That occurred during the administration of Gov. Tom Ridge, a supporter of abortion rights.

As a result, nail salons in Pennsylvania received tougher government scrutiny than Gosnell's clinic.

The grand jury recommended that the state Health Department license abortion clinics, obviously a needed step. Abortion services are medical care, and providers should be held to the same standards as nonhospital, ambulatory surgical facilities.

Now Gosnell and several of his employees stand accused of multiple counts of murder, and the DA says that he likely committed hundreds of murders by delivering hundreds of babies alive, and then killing them in a ghastly, immoral and illegal manner to perform the late-term abortions.

UPDATE:
The judge denied Gosnell and his cohorts bail, which is entirely sensible considering the alleged crimes - multiple murders, and the fact that he amassed a significant fortune in carrying out those abortions.

Yet, he had the audacity to ask why he wasn't able to post bail. Moreover, he doesn't consider the late term abortions - illegal under then (and current) Pennsylvania law - or the delivery of live babies and killing them outside the womb - to be murder:

"Is there some cause to believe I'm a risk or might flee?" he asked District Judge Jane Rice.

Rice explained to Gosnell, 69, that there is no bail for murder - and he was facing eight counts of it.

"Is it possible you could explain the seven counts?" he asked, while on closed-circuit television from Police Headquarters. "I understand the one count because of the patient who died but not the others."

The others were for babies who were born alive and viable, well past the state law allowing abortions for the first 24 weeks, and whose spinal cords he allegedly cut with scissors.

Investigators Accidentally Uncovered Gosnell's House of Horrors

The sickening case of Kermit Gosnell just keeps getting worse. Every time you think this is as bad as it gets, some new revelation comes out that proves even worse. Not only did state regulators and investigators fail in their duty to protect women from this guy's sick actions, his house of horrors was discovered by accident. Investigators weren't looking into botched abortions when they finally visited his offices. They were looking into claims that he was running a "pill mill" there, giving out prescription medications to anyone who would pay. It's once they got inside that Gosnell's evil emerged:

Semiconscious, moaning women sat in dirty recliners and on bloodstained blankets. The air reeked of urine from the flea-infested cats permitted to roam the clinic. There was blood on the floor and cat feces on the stairs. One investigator likened the scene to "a bad gas-station restroom."

That was just the tip of the iceberg as the grand jury report notes as Gosnell allegedly murdered babies that were born alive during botched late term abortion procedures. Gosnell allegedly carried out abortions at all times during the pregnancy regardless of state law restrictions. He paid no attention to sanitary conditions and his patients suffered horribly and needlessly as unlicensed and unskilled assistants aided Gosnell in his his procedures.

State regulators failed to stop Gosnell for years. The grand jury report slams regulators across multiple state administrations and law enforcement agencies that should have done their due diligence to investigate multiple claims against Gosnell over the years.

Not only should the AMA and the individual specialty boards better police their own members, but the state department of healths/ licensing boards must do a better job weeding out the bad doctors.

They need to better investigate claims of malfeasance and take action in a prompt manner. Gosnell was able to practice for years on end without any state official reviewing his case files or even going to his offices to see the horrendous conditions for themselves. The state of Pennsylvania failed to protect these women from Gosnell botching abortion after abortion and putting lives in jeopardy - to say nothing of murdering those babies that were born alive after botched abortions.

Some states are moving ahead with online databases to review license statuses and disciplinary records, but that effort is limited should a doctor move around the country one step ahead of the regulatory agencies. A doctor in NJ could move over to PA or NY to continue practicing.

What's probably needed is a multistate compact that requires mandatory reporting and licensing issues to all states and allows states to coordinate their efforts to weed out bad doctors.

That would also help go to reduce the cost of health care since bad doctors are more likely to engage in medical malpractice and have complications arise from their procedures.

The District Attorney prosecuting the case, Seth Williams notes that the seven murder charges is probably only the tip of the iceberg and that Gosnell and his nine associates likely murdered hundreds:

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams charged Dr. Kermit Gosnell and nine associates with seven counts of murder involving babies, but said hundreds of others likely died in the squalid clinic that Gosnell ran from 1979 to 2010.

The defendants face first-degree murder in the cases of seven babies for which there is substantial evidence, Williams said. The babies were born alive and viable, he said.

"My comprehension of the English language can't adequately describe the barbaric nature of Dr. Gosnell," Williams said at a news conference.

Williams said he may seek the death penalty for Gosnell, 69, who with his associates was arrested on Wednesday.

Gosnell was charged with murder, infanticide, conspiracy, abortion at 24 or more weeks and other charges.

Pennsylvania law prohibits abortion after 24 weeks except to save the life of the mother or avoid serious health risk to her.

Philadelphia Doctor Arrested Over Murder of Patients and Botched Abortions

This story is wrong on several levels and indicates a failure of Pennsylvania medical officials and investigators to properly treat complaints about the doctor's malfeasance for years on end. If these claims are true, the doctor, Kermit Gosnell, should have been kicked out of the profession years ago before he could do any more harm to women. Prosecutors have finally indicted Gosnell on the murder of a female patient and seven babies that were born alive:

A Philadelphia abortion doctor has been charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a woman patient and seven babies that prosecutors say were born alive and then killed with scissors.

The charges against Dr. Kermit Gosnell follow a long grand jury investigation.

District Attorney Seth Williams said state regulators ignored complaints and failed to visit the clinic since 1993.

Williams said the women were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell's Women's Medical Society, which was shut down last year.

Gosnell has been named in at least 10 malpractice suits, including one over the death of a woman who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus.

Pro life groups will cite this as a reason to make abortion illegal, and pro choice will cite this as a reason to keep it legal with better oversight - to prevent back room abortions that engage in unethical, illegal, or medical malpractice.

What this case seems to indicate is a state that was indifferent to complaints and that investigators/regulators did not even visit the clinic since 1993. This allowed the doctor to carry out abortions that put womens' lives at risk and carried out multiple botched abortions.

Making abortions illegal would increase the likelihood that women will visit doctors who botch abortions putting their lives in danger.

UPDATE:


The state's culpability in this case is startling in just how they failed the patients who were butchered by this doctor. The 281 page grand jury report is ghastly in its details and catalogs the state's failures nearly as much as Gosnell's physical acts. Ultimately, this case should lead to a major shift in the way the state oversees abortionists because Gosnell was butchering his patients:

Butcher of women
Dr. Gosnell didn’t just kill babies. He was also a deadly threat to mothers. Not every abortion could be completed by inducing labor and delivery. On these occasions, Gosnell would attempt to remove the fetus himself. The consequences were often calamitous – though that didn’t stop the doctor from trying to cover them up.
One woman, for example, was left lying in place for hours after Gosnell tore her cervix and colon while trying, unsuccessfully, to extract the fetus. Relatives who came to pick her up were refused entry into the building; they had to threaten to call the police.

They eventually found her inside, bleeding and incoherent, and transported her to the hospital, where doctors had to remove almost half a foot of her intestines.

On another occasion, Gosnell simply sent a patient home, after keeping her mother waiting for hours, without telling either of them that she still had fetal parts inside her. Gosnell insisted she was fine, even after signs of serious infection set in over the next several days. By the time her mother got her to the emergency room, she was unconscious and near death.

A nineteen-year-old girl was held for several hours after Gosnell punctured her uterus. As a result of the delay, she fell into shock from blood loss, and had to undergo a hysterectomy.

One patient went into convulsions during an abortion, fell off the procedure table, and hit her head on the floor. Gosnell wouldn’t call an ambulance, and wouldn’t let the woman’s companion leave the building so that he could call an ambulance.

Each one of those instances should have raised red flags with the authorities - at the hospitals that treated these patients after Gosnell's "procedures" and by law enforcement, but no steps were taken for years on end.

Thankfully someone finally did put Gosnell's bloody trail of malfeasance to an end by shutting down his clinic.

Getting back to the state's failures, the report sets out that the state purposefully turned a blind eye to Gosnell, because of decisions made by politicians going back to 1993:

Instead, the Pennsylvania
Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions. Better to leave clinics to do as they pleased, even though, as Gosnell proved, that meant both women and babies would pay.

The only exception to this live-and-let-die policy was supposed to be for complaints dumped directly on the department’s doorstep. Those, at least, would be investigated. Except that there were complaints about Gosnell, repeatedly. Several different attorneys, representing women injured by Gosnell, contacted the department. A doctor from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia hand-delivered a complaint, advising the department that numerous patients he had referred for abortions came back from Gosnell with the same venereal disease. The medical examiner of Delaware County informed the department that Gosnell had performed an illegal abortion on a 14-year-old girl carrying a 30-week-old baby. And the department received official notice that a woman named Karnamaya Mongar had died at Gosnell’s hands.

Yet not one of these alarm bells – not even Mrs. Mongar’s death – prompted the department to look at Gosnell or the Women’s Medical Society. Only after the raid occurred, and the story hit the press, did the department choose to act. Suddenly there were no administrative, legal, or policy barriers; within weeks an order was issued to close the clinic. And as this grand jury investigation widened, department officials “lawyered up,” hiring a high-priced law firm to represent them at taxpayer expense. Had they spent as much effort on inspection as they did on attorneys, none of this would have happened to begin with.

But even this total abdication by the Department of Health might not have been fatal. Another agency with authority in the health field, the Pennsylvania Department of State, could have stopped Gosnell single-handedly. While the Department of Health regulates facilities, the Department of State, through its Board of Medicine, licenses and oversees individual physicians. Like their colleagues at Health, however, Department of State officials were repeatedly confronted with evidence about Gosnell, and repeatedly chose to do nothing.

Indeed, in many ways State had more damning information than anyone else.

As this case proceeds, the revelations about Gosnell's actions and the Pennsylvania's failure to act to stop him from butchering his patients are likely to become even more scandalous and heinous.

This report is a difficult read under the best of circumstances, and reads like something straight out of a horror movie.

Plastic bags and mineral water bottles holding aborted fetuses were found stashed in Dr. Gosnell’s clinic. Jars containing the severed feet of babies lined a shelf, the Philadelphia district attorney, Seth Williams, said in a statement.

Dr. Gosnell, a family practitioner who was not certified in obstetrics, performed late-term abortions, after 24 weeks, which are illegal, and employed staff members who were not trained medical professionals, including a teenage girl, prosecutors said. Nine of his employees were also charged.

“It is very important to remember that Dr. Gosnell is presumed innocent,” a lawyer for Dr. Gosnell, William J. Brennan, said. “I would hope there is not a rush to judgment and that he has an opportunity to review this very lengthy charging document.”

In the grand jury document, prosecutors called Dr. Gosnell’s clinic “a baby charnel house,” riddled with fetal remains and reeking of cat urine, with furniture and blankets stained with blood. Medical equipment was broken and supplies were reused.

Sen. Arlen Specter Switching Parties

Well, this isn't much of a surprise. Sen. Arlen Specter has been representing Pennsylvania since January 1981, and he's moved so far to the left that most Republicans simply can't recognize him as a viable Republican candidate in the state. Specter probably realized that the polling isn't showing that he has much of a chance against Pat Toomey in the primaries, despite claiming just a month ago that he was going to remain as a Republican running on a Republican ticket.

Specter is one of three GOPers to have broken ranks and voted for the ARRA of 2009 (aka the porkfest). That didn't win him many friends among fiscal conservatives in Pennsylvania.

So, for Specter to remain viable in November, he's switching parties. It also further reduces the GOP presence in the Senate and virtually eliminates the GOP ability to filibuster despite Specter claiming that he would not be an automatic vote on cloture. In other words, Specter's switch virtually eliminates any Democratic party claims that the GOP are obstructionists and preventing policies from being implemented. The numbers were always thin, but now the Democrats no longer have even the threat of a filibuster holding them back.

Democrats are fully in charge and they're responsible for whatever happens - for better or for worse.

Specter is the fifth oldest sitting Senator and has had several serious health issues in the past. Frankly, the state would be better served with Specter retiring, but Specter is insistent on hanging on.

His statement is here:

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.

When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.

Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.

I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.

I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.

I deeply regret that I will be disappointing many friends and supporters. I can understand their disappointment. I am also disappointed that so many in the Party I have worked for for more than four decades do not want me to be their candidate. It is very painful on both sides. I thank specially Senators McConnell and Cornyn for their forbearance.

I am not making this decision because there are no important and interesting opportunities outside the Senate. I take on this complicated run for re-election because I am deeply concerned about the future of our country and I believe I have a significant contribution to make on many of the key issues of the day, especially medical research. NIH funding has saved or lengthened thousands of lives, including mine, and much more needs to be done. And my seniority is very important to continue to bring important projects vital to Pennsylvania's economy.

I am taking this action now because there are fewer than thirteen months to the 2010 Pennsylvania Primary and there is much to be done in preparation for that election. Upon request, I will return campaign contributions contributed during this cycle.

While each member of the Senate caucuses with his Party, what each of us hopes to accomplish is distinct from his party affiliation. The American people do not care which Party solves the problems confronting our nation. And no Senator, no matter how loyal he is to his Party, should or would put party loyalty above his duty to the state and nation.

My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans. Unlike Senator Jeffords' switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change.

Specter may like to claim that the GOP left him, but Specter's own political views have moved to the Left, away from the GOP center.

Massive Legal Scandal In Pennsylvania Results in Convictions

One of the bedrock principles in the country is that the legal system is an impartial and fair one - particularly the criminal justice system where the defendants have protected rights.

In Pennsylvania, juveniles before two judges in one particular courtroom had no chance.

The judges predetermined the outcome, in collusion with a juvenile detention center, amid kickbacks and graft.

In what authorities are calling the biggest legal scandal in state history, the two judges pleaded guilty to tax evasion and wire fraud in a scheme that involved sending thousands of juveniles to two private detention centers in exchange for $2.6 million in kickbacks.

On Thursday, the State Supreme Court ordered that the records be cleaned for hundreds of the 2,500 or so juveniles sentenced by Judge Ciavarella, and in the coming weeks, the two judges will be sentenced, under a plea agreement, to more than seven years in prison.

While the scandal continues to ripple nationally as legal experts debate whether juvenile courts have sufficient oversight, here in Luzerne County people are grappling with more immediate questions: How did two native sons, elected twice to the bench to protect children and serve justice, decide to do the opposite? And why did no one stop them?

Old Friends Hatch a Plan

It all started in June 2000 with a simple business proposition, according to the judges’ indictment and more than 40 interviews with courtroom workers, authorities and others.

Robert J. Powell, a wealthy personal-injury lawyer from Hazleton and longtime friend of Judge Conahan, wanted to know how he might get a contract to build a private detention center. Judge Ciavarella thought he could help.

The two men agreed to meet and, according to prosecutors, somewhere in that conversation a plan was hatched that courthouse workers and county officials would later describe as a “freight train without brakes.”

First, Judge Ciavarella put Mr. Powell in touch with a developer who also happened to be an old friend, Robert K. Mericle, to start work on finding a site. Then, in January 2002 — the month Judge Conahan became president judge, giving him control of the courthouse budget — he signed a secret deal with Mr. Powell, agreeing that the court would pay $1.3 million in annual rent, on top of the tens of millions of dollars that the county and the state would pay to house the delinquent juveniles. And by the end of that year, Judge Conahan had gotten rid of the competition by eliminating financing for the county detention center.

Murtha Seeks Million Bucks To Save Campaign

Go pound sand. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) is going to lose his supposedly safe seat in Congress because he has revealed himself to be an unmitigated jackass who believes that his constituents are racist idiots who will not vote for Sen. Barack Obama on the basis of Obama's skin color. He believes that the residents of his corner of Pennsylvania are racists and rednecks.



People don't take kindly to being called racists, and they will take their ire out on the guy who claims to represent these very folks, Murtha. He's hoping to get someone to donate $1 million so that he can save his seat in the House. Murtha had been ahead in polling up until those inane comments, and since then he's been scrambling to hold on to his seat.

Murtha's opponent is Republican Lt. Colonel Bill Russell (US Army ret.). As far as I can tell, Russell hasn't called his prospective constituents idiots, racists, rednecks, or shot off his mouth and accused Marines of being cold blooded murderers as Murtha did in commenting on the Haditha incident. Murtha is facing lawsuits over his slander and libel of the Marines involved.

That Settles It

So, Hillary Clinton won yesterday's Pennsylvania primary, beating Obama by about 10 points. Did that clear things up for you? Did it settle things?

Hardly.

You've now got more folks than ever demanding that Hillary get out of the Obama steamroller (which is anything but). In fact, the New York Times makes it a point of her getting out of the way on the eve of yet another resounding victory over Obama in a big key state. Is the media so totally in the tank for Obama that they're all but getting out there and kicking Hillary to the curb themselves despite the facts and evidence showing that she's got the right to stick around through the convention?

Obama hasn't won a single big state outside of his own home state of Illinois. Hillary has won all the other big states - from California to New Jersey and New York. Yet, she's still behind in the popular vote and the overall number of delegates based on how Democrats apportion the delegates. One can make an argument that if the Democrats didn't apportion their delegates, this would be over already - with Hillary winning. Then again, things might be somewhat different if Florida and Michigan were counted, but as things stand right now, they would hardly make a difference. That's how close this race is.

This is going to continue all the way to the Democrats convention in Denver.

North Carolina isn't going to change anything either.

Hillary's people are committed to securing the nomination, and they're making a decent case of it - they win the states that any candidate must win in the general election, which is something Obama can't say.

For his part, Obama and his supporters are going to get mighty cranky if they're left at the altar and Hillary somehow manages to finagle the nomination. Many may sit on the sidelines and watch the Democrats lose to McCain rather than vote for Hillary because they will rightly believe that Obama's chance at the Presidency was stolen by back room dealings and that the popular vote supports an Obama candidacy.

Yet, if you scratch the surface, the fact is that both Hillary and Obama are seriously flawed candidates. While Obama somehow manages to inspire people with the incessant mantra of hope and change, some are starting to wake up to the fact that he's surrounded himself with a whole assortment of unsavory characters from his days as a local Illinois politician. Whether it's his racist pastor, Jeremiah Wright, or Tony Rezko, that is sufficient to raise eyebrows. However, his close ties to Bill Ayers should be sending up serious red flags. This was not merely some casual acquaintance.

Ayers is an unashamed and unreformed terrorist who sought to overthrow the US government and whose terrorist group, the Weather Underground carried out a series of bombings before being caught. Obama not only had a fundraiser hosted by Ayers, but both serve on a board together. Obama sought out Ayers and his terrorist wife Bernadine Dohrn and maintained ties to both through at least 2002.

Hillary's campaign has begun pointing out these ties, and all the inconsistencies in Obama's statements, not to mention his lack of experience. All of those things are true - uncomfortable facts to be sure, but true nonetheless.

Of course, the same can be said of Hillary - the FALN pardons, lies, misrepresentations, and lack of experience. The problem is that Obama can't throw those back in Hillary's face without exposing the very same problem that has seen him lose his momentum at a time when he wants to get past them. Yet, he's going to have to do just that if he wants to stay toe to toe with Clinton going into the final batch of states.

Pennsylvania Votes

And who will the winner be? The answer is the perfect legal response.

It depends.

If the margin is sufficiently large enough for Hillary Clinton, she will not only claim victory in the state, but once again claim that she's the only one who can take on McCain and win in the general election in November because she's consistently won big states while Obama has done better in the smaller states.

If it's a narrow margin, Obama will claim victory because he will continue to lead in the number of delegates and the popular vote, although neither Obama nor Clinton have enough delegates to win outright before the convention.

At this point, it doesn't appear that Obama can win the state, and there are reports that he's already left the state. If you're trying to win the state, or at least keep things close, the last thing you want to do is appear that you've given up. It's the same problem that affected Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson in their abortive races for the GOP nomination. Hillary could capitalize on this in her last dash through the state, and gain a bit of momentum as voters go to the polls.

UPDATE:
There's already signs of record turnout among the 8 million voters. There's also reports of malfunctioning voting machines. It's going to be a long day.

UPDATE:
Polls have just closed and results are starting to trickle in. It's still way too early to call a winner, though that isn't keeping MSNBC and others from calling the state for Hillary. The key areas to look at are how the candidates do in Philly and the surrounding four counties. That's a harbinger for how the state will go and what the margin of victory will be.

The most likely scenario is that Hillary wins (indeed, that's the case), but not by a big enough margin to make up the deficit in the popular vote or the delegates. On to the brokered convention they will go.

If Obama somehow makes it close, he could claim to win by losing - with pressure increasing on Hillary to exit stage left. Again, I don't see her quitting because she keeps winning the big states, so again we'd be watching for a brokered convention. I really don't see Obama winning PA outright, but if he did, that would put real serious pressure on Hillary to quit the campaign. I'd put odds on that happening around 5%.

The real big winners out of this whole mess? That's going to be the media outlets - who get yet another stay from the silly season because the Democrats haven't quite gone according to their grand plan to be united before the convention.

Flooding the Zone

The flooding throughout the Middle Atlantic and Northeast continues today, as some areas have begun to see waters recede, though downstream areas are still facing rising waters.

For additional reporting see the following:

New Jersey flooding concerns.

Upstate New York. The Times Union has ongoing coverage, including the washouts of I-88 in Central NY and problems on the Erie Canal, Mohawk River and other tributaries.

Pennsylvania communities are awaiting the cresting Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna Rivers (along with their tributaries). In New Hope, businesses along the historic and picturesque town are flooded out - as is the famous Bucks County Playhouse.

I love going to New Hope and Lamberville for the antiques and shopping, as well as the Delaware River running between the towns. The historic bridge linking the two towns was renovated just this past year.

Some folks are wondering why the Delaware River has flooded out three times in the past two years in such a catastrophic manner. Some point to development upstream. Others point to the release of water from reservoirs in NY. Many think additional flood control will need to be addressed.

Hydrology for rivers and streams in the NYC Metro Area through Eastern PA.