Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Let there be snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Let’s finish the job.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

This fight is for everything.

After roe, women are no longer free.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

I really should read my own blog.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / The War On Women / Delightful News

Delightful News

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A grand jury has indicted David Daleiden and another videographer:

A Harris County grand jury today decided not to take any action against Planned Parenthood in Houston. But two people who used undercover videos accusing the group of selling fetal tissue have been indicted.

The sting videos recorded last April alleged that Planned Parenthood illegally profited from donations of fetal tissue. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office investigated those allegations for more than two months, along with the Texas Rangers and the Houston Police Department.

In the end, a grand jury has cleared Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast of breaking the law.

“It affirms 100% what we have said from the very beginning, and that is that Planned Parenthood follows local, state and federals laws and extremely high medical standards, and our first priority is patient care,” said Rochelle Tafolla, with Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. “These individuals broke the law and committed fraud in order to spread lies about Planned Parenthood and today they’re going to be held accountable for breaking those laws.”

Both David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt have been indicted for Tampering with a Governmental Record, which is a felony. Daleidan was also indicted for Prohibition of the Purchase and Sale of Human Organs, meaning he illegally offered to purchase human organs in the video recording. A violation of this section is a Class A misdemeanor.

“We were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast,” said Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson. “As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us. All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case.”

In Texas, no less.

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  2. 2.

    chopper

    meaning he illegally offered to purchase human organs in the video recording. A violation of this section is a Class A misdemeanor.

    god bless america, where illegally offering to purchase human organs is a misdemeanor.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    Hahahaha.

    I respect their decision on this difficult case.”

    In other words, I don’t respect their decision, but can’t do anything about it.

  6. 6.

    Tommy

    @chopper:

    god bless america, where illegally offering to purchase human organs is a misdemeanor.

    Glad I wasn’t the only person that did a double take when I read that.

  8. 8.

    Linnaeus

    I’m no lawyer, but I’ve heard it said that a decent prosecutor generally has little trouble getting an indictment from a grand jury. So, either 1) that statement isn’t accurate, 2) the Harris County prosecutor isn’t that good, or 3) there really was no there there, except for the evidence against the videographers.

  9. 9.

    geg6

    Wait…this grand jury was supposed to be investigating Planned Parenthood for illegal acts but ended up indicted Daleiden and minion??? Seriously??? In Texas???

    Wow. This not only made my day; it makes my entire week!

  10. 10.

    Tommy

    @Linnaeus: The phrase is any decent prosecutor can get a ham sandwich indicted. Which is why so many of the white cops killing an unarmed African American before a grand jury and there isn’t an indictment is so troubling.

  14. 14.

    smintheus

    You’d have thought that even these clowns, while they were spending years setting up an elaborate con like this, might have had the sense to investigate whether it’s a crime to offer to buy human tissue. But no, they are that stupid.

  17. 17.

    Tommy

    @Elizabelle: And clearly a key point. I didn’t watch the entire videos, but small parts. But folks I trust did and told me they were all bunk. Highly edited. Par for the course for people like this. I tend to like to think the best of people and organizations. Not so much on the far right that will always think the worse of us and they’ll believe anything.

  18. 18.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    I found this:

    It seems Texas doesn’t take kindly to anyone falsifying identifications in order to pretend they are “investigative reporters.”

    I still don’t know what the governmental record is but it’s a felony.

  19. 19.

    a different chris

    I served on a grand jury many years ago, and it’s dead easy for the jurors to figure out what the prosecutors want in each case. And it’s hard to describe the pressure of being in a courthouse, surrounded by cops and judges and lawyers, and then going against the D.A.’s wishes. The jurors are completely under their control, in their ‘house’, an unfamiliar and potentially hostile place. They even feed the jurors lunch every day. In that situation there doesn’t need to be any overt intimidation to get the jurors to fall into line.

  24. 24.

    petesh

    Note that the prosecutor was essentially forced into taking Planned Parenthood to the grand jury, so any weasel words he has today are probably aimed at his boss.

  25. 25.

    coin operated

    I understand that the DA is a Republican. Might help stem some of the crazy that will come as a result of this indictment.

  28. 28.

    bystander

    Grand jury doesn’t usually determine whom should be charged but rather whether an individual identified by the DA should be charged. Unless this was some fact-finding grand jury, the DA had to show cause for charging Daleiden.

  29. 29.

    Tommy

    @a different chris: Very interesting. I got called for jury duty once. I didn’t serve on the jury, my number was not called. But I felt somewhat intimidated. If somebody broke the law I could easily convict. But for the lack of a better word the “power of the state” was clear. Beyond a reasonable doubt is a high bar. I was somewhat fearful I’d get seated and be the lone standout of innocent.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Well, that indictment won’t keep Greg Abott from his duty:

    Abbott’s office noted in a statement that Paxton and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission still are investigating the videos.

    “Nothing about today’s announcement in Harris County impacts the state’s ongoing investigation,” Abbott said. “The State of Texas will continue to protect life, and I will continue to support legislation prohibiting the sale or transfer of fetal tissue.”

    http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Harris-grand-jury-indicts-pair-behind-Planned-6782865.php

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @Elizabelle:

    Speaking of Cruz, via wonkette

    [I]t turns out the U.S. senator from Texas and his family appear to be insured after all.

    A campaign spokeswoman said Cruz’s insurance policy was indeed cancelled but that he didn’t realize his provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, had automatically transitioned him and his family onto a new policy.

  43. 43.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    You know, that’s two lies in two weeks (the other being that donation from Goldman Sachs he “forgot” to complete the paperwork for). I wonder if there will be more and if they’ll continue at a weekly rate.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    The witch hunt is not going so well, though. These are the states that have investigated and cleared PP so far:

    11 states. Kansas, Florida, Ohio, Washington, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri and South Dakota

  46. 46.

    M. Bouffant

    @Kay: Fake gummint I.D.s.

    The organization alleged that Daleiden and others used aliases, obtained fake government I.D.s, and formed a fake tissue procurement company in an effort to gain access to private areas and record private conversations to be deceptively edited to create a false impression.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: That’s a relief. I can sleep at night again.

    Particularly good for Ted, if a fist ever finds its way to his face. Tweet from his former college roommate Craig Mazin (now a TV scriptwriter):

    When I met Ted in 1988, I had no word to describe him, but only because I didn’t speak German. Thank you, Germans, for “Backpfeifengesicht.”

    Us Juicers recognize that word in a heartbeat. Pronounce it well, maybe not.

  49. 49.

    RSA

    @chopper:

    god bless america, where illegally offering to purchase human organs is a misdemeanor

    I’m guessing the law (a state law written in 1985, with later amendments) was to discourage people going around the transplant priority system. Does that sound worth of a misdemeanor? Or more?

  50. 50.

    NonyNony

    @Baud: I for one am shocked – SHOCKED – to discover that Cruz wad lying about this.

    (His campaign’s excuse is that he “didn’t know” that he’d been automatically enrolled into a lesser coverage program by BCBS when he irresponsibly failed to enroll his family himself. So either he’s a liar or he’s a lazy slacker. Either way, at least his kids still have insurance for the year.)

  52. 52.

    Elizabelle

    Another tweet from the Cruz roommate, Craig Mazin. He also says upperclassmen invited him to their parties, out of sympathy for his housing situation.

    Getting emails blaming me for not smothering Ted Cruz in his sleep in 1988. What kind of monster do you think I am? A really prescient one?

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @M. Bouffant:

    Thanks. I wonder if they registered the fake company, too:

    formed a fake tissue procurement company

    I hate how it was covered. How even respectable news orgs were blandly stating they were “selling” fetal tissue. Not true.

    Just the hypocrisy of everyone benefiting from the research but then appalled that they get the fetal tissue somewhere. My whole impression of the anti-abortion “movement” is like that- they never grapple with anything real because they’re busy pretending pregnancy and childbirth is greeting cards and flowers.

  58. 58.

    scav

    Will also be amusing to watch the two alternative version of “innocent until proven guilty” play out. While David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt are called as such, it essentially means innocent until I choose to believe the evidence or judge them guilty. Whereas Planned Parenthood clearly is only innocent until they finally get someone to convict as they always knew it would be (see Abbott). Plus, the cries of tyranny and government harassment for going after the heroic (journalists / whistle-blowers / choose your white hat) will be shrill. I mean, it’s not as they they used fake IDs to Vote or anything!

  59. 59.

    Roger Moore

    @Helen:
    I’m not as surprised as you are. There’s a “man bites dog” aspect to this that makes good headlines. It’s also possible that some of the networks that were taken in by the hucksters are enjoying watching them get in trouble.

  64. 64.

    Davebo

    n Texas, no less.

    Well, Houston at least. It would be different in another county but sadly Planned Parenthood has been run out of most of those already.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I sat next to a anti-abortion woman at a Christmas party last year. She’s new at it. She volunteers once a week at one of those fake clinics where they give them incorrect medical information. She was telling me how they have to attend “parenting classes” at the fake clinic to “earn” a car seat or a crib. They can’t even give them a freaking car seat without extracting a price. They can get a free car seat at the county dept of health without enduring six months of scolding lectures and stern shaming from incompetent volunteers and that’s been true for 15 years.

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    @Kay:
    I can’t be the only one curious as to how Carly spins this back to “I know what I saw on the video, damnit! Now ask me something I want to answer.”

    I know, I know, Carly who?

  68. 68.

    Mnemosyne

    @chopper:

    Right-wingers kind of have a history of not checking to see if the thing they wanted to do was illegal before doing it to try and prove someone else was going to do something illegal. I think some idiots got prosecuted in 2012 or 2014 because they tried to vote using fake ID to prove it was possible, which is kind of attempting to rob a bank and claiming you only did it to prove the bank’s security was inadequate.

  69. 69.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: “She volunteers once a week at one of those fake clinics where they give them incorrect medical information.”

    Why is a clinic allowed to disseminate false medical information? Isn’t it amazing how Conservatives are okay with lying as long as it supports their causes? They’re scary.

  70. 70.

    Seanly

    Good news for PP?

    btw, I am fed up with the non-action by the Feds at Malheur. The occupying idiots are getting bolder and are talking about setting up their own court. Are we going to have to wait for those psychos to actually start kidnapping or shooting federal employees before anything is done?

  71. 71.

    MomSense

    This is most unexpected and encouraging.

    Anyone else following the latest from the WHO about the Zika virus? They are expecting it to spread across the Americas. Of course it is a perfect storm of a disease that has been of little interest to pharmaceuticals, climate change, health care access, and devastating outcomes.

  72. 72.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Waldo: Now wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing? Republicans/Conservatives lie like the rest of us breathe. It just comes naturally to them.

    I’m really looking forward to voting in November. Cannot wait to see Rightwing heads exploding all over the place! I’m sure their heads are dizzy from the bad PP news coming out of Texas. They were so sure that they had PP by the balls. Ha!

  73. 73.

    Mike J

    Brian M. Rosenthal Verified account @brianmrosenthal

    NEW: Per the Harris County District Clerk’s Office, an arrest warrant has been issued for Center for Medical Progress founder David Daleiden

    I wanna see the perp walk.

  74. 74.

    Monala

    @Kay: I always find myself sticking up for those places – not for giving people false information about abortion, but about the help they provide. I was pregnant with a wanted pregnancy, and ended up having complications and on bed rest. That same year, my husband had emergency heart surgery and ended up unable to work. A pregnancy center helped us a great deal. They paid our utility bill (about $450, during a horrible Boston winter), and I really appreciate the crib, car seat, etc. they provided. And the classes I had to take were really good, not at all religious, outside of the prayer that was always said at the beginning. Lessons on swaddling, nursing, responding to a baby’s needs – gentle parenting rather than the authoritarian parenting of the Quiverfull types.

  75. 75.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Well I hope the aholes go broke from this even if they don’t end up in the big house. I know they’ll be plenty of wingnut welfare but hopefully PP will get their hands on all the wingnut welfare money and use it exclusively for providing abortions.

  76. 76.

    east is east

    Crooks and Liars and Raw Story are invaluable resources. I always visit them first in the morning.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Monala:

    That’s great. Ours here isn’t like that. It’s on a corner close to an actual medical clinic and basically holds itself out as a medical clinic. I’ve spoken to probably ten (very) young women who went there and they didn’t even get referrals to anyone who actually can help them with the practical needs of a baby, like the county health department or Job and Family Services. The “earning the car seat” bothered me because it’s like some weirdly ungenerous twist on a baby shower. This woman had had a couple of glasses of wine and she kept hitting the word “EARNING” like wink, wink, we both know how they have to learn about earning things. I hate when people bring you in to their beliefs when you don’t even offer them any reason to assume you agree.

    I get tired of gifts with strings. I don’t think those are gifts. I don’t even like sports and I like LeBron James because he hands out bicycles to poor kids, no strings. “You need a bike? I have a lot of those!” He knows what a “gift” is. It’s refreshing :)

    I’m glad you got help when you needed it. You’re right to defend that place.

  80. 80.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    Why do I not trust DA Anderson to catch a puppy I’d toss from the second story off a burning building?

  81. 81.

    Mary G

    @Patricia Kayden: Yes! That is a yooge decision -the supremes struck down North Dakota’s fetal heartbeat law that would have limited abortion to within the first six weeks of pregnancy. I can hardly wait to read Rod Dreher for the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments!

  83. 83.

    catclub

    @Tommy:

    told me they were all bunk. Highly edited

    This should get Deleiden and accomplice off – they will claim the video was deceptively edited.

    Or they will be stupid and bring in Carly Fiorina as a character witness..

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mary G:

    I am guessing that a significant number/percentage of women wouldn’t even know they were pregnant until well past the six-week mark.

  85. 85.

    Renie

    regarding cruz and BCBS maybe Richard could let us know if it is common practice for an insurance company, on their own without the subscriber’s approval, to enroll a person into an insurance plan. sounds a bit odd.

  86. 86.

    NonyNony

    @catclub: I don’t get it. Daileden and Co were the ones who edited the video to make PA look criminal. How do they use that as a defense?

    I assume they find a sympathetic jury that just finds them not guilty by virtue of “lying about abortionists shouldn’t be a crime.”

  87. 87.

    Mike J

    @Renie: Richard was saying the reason he knew Cruz was lying was that when the plan he was on was discontinued, the standard practice is to roll him over to an equivalent policy.

  89. 89.

    Calouste

    @Renie: I think they go with implicit approval. I.e. you get a letter saying something along the lines of: “You current plan is going to end. You can choose a new plan blah blah blah. If you don’t take any action, we will roll you into Plan X.”

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @Monala:

    You know that Planned Parenthood offers parenting and infant care classes, right? And childbirth classes?

    They probably can’t pay your electric bill, though, so it was definitely cool of that place to do that for you.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    There’s definitely a place for allowing people to earn something through their actions, like the Girl Scouts selling cookies in order to finance activities for their troops. But it should be clear that they’re doing things to earn whatever it is (a band trip, a bicycle, whatever) through their labor, not to somehow prove themselves worthy of receiving a gift.

  92. 92.

    Randy P

    @srv: Wasn’t the deceptive nature of how this was counted debunked months ago?

    Why, yes, yes it was.

    Fewer people are uninsured than last year. ACA is reducing the number of uninsured every year. How is that a failure?

    You’re probably going to quote these numbers at some point as another sign of failure.

  93. 93.

    Eric S.

    @Renie: I think it is common practice now. My BCBS IL plan was canceled and they rolled me over. The letter informing me the plan was canceled was explicitly obvious that I’d be rolled over if I did nothing.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    @Mnemosyne:

    I probably think about this too much, but I think Girl Scouts is different. The girls belong to an organization that they contribute to and are a part of. That to me is about agency and ownership more than charity.

    Two of my kids were in 4-H and they had heated discussions of what to sell. They vote on everything in 4-H so they voted on that. They owned it – “we’re going to sell the pizza dough mix and the beef sticks”. I feel like that “we” makes it a whole different idea.

    I just kind of bristle at the idea that women who have an unplanned pregnancy also require a lesson in “earning” before they get the car seat. What they lack is options, agency, some room to move. Let them decide if they want to attend a parenting class, like adults.

    The bicycle gift to me is just about fun and joy. Here’s this giant celebrity who wants to give you a bike! Have fun! See ya! :)

  96. 96.

    Steve from Antioch

    The people who ,axe the videos are odious, dishonest, assholes.

    The criminal indictment against them is utter bullshit.

    The glee some have in wanton misuse of criminal prosecutions AS LON AS SOMEONE THE DONT LIKE IS BEING PROSECUTED is worrisome.

  98. 98.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    I’m pretty sure we’re on the same page. With the bicycle, I was thinking of some local places here where they teach you how to repair bicycles and, after you put in X number of hours, you get to build your own custom bike out of spare parts. I think that would probably fall under your rubric of investing time in the organization and not “earning” something that should be a gift.

  99. 99.

    sigaba

    @Steve from Antioch: The falsified government documents (probably some sort of license for receiving human organs) and for attempting to buy human organs. The latter under some sort of pretense, granted, but the law does not generally protect people that break the law under pretense.

    That’s what they’re being prosecuted for. They are not being prosecuted for making a lying video. Nobody should be prosecuted for that, they should be mocked and laughed at, their name should be dragged through the mud, they should for all time bear upon their reputation the epithet “The Liar.” But they shouldn’t be prosecuted, and they are not.

  100. 100.

    Zinsky

    I heard this on the radio driving home from work tonight and almost went into the ditch. This is so perfect that I still can hardly believe it. Now if that walking pile of filth, James O’Keefe could get hit by a speeding semi, that would make for a perfect week!

  102. 102.

    Zinsky

    @sigaba: Haha – that’s good. I am not a violent person, but O’Keefe is one person I would gleefully beat the living shit out of. BTW – I am 6’2″, 215 lbs and quite muscular.

  103. 103.

    laura

    @Patricia Kayden:
    Here in California, they argued that a legislative prohibition against spreading medical misinformation violates their 1st Amendment right of Freedom of Religion. Though knowing it’s untrue undermines their right to ensure a babby gets born and a slutty, slutty, temptress gets her due.

  105. 105.

    PaulW

    while this is good news, in the bad news category the FLorida legislature is trying to pass a bill banning abortion altogether. They’re pretty much in “Screw Roe and Casey” mode now.

  106. 106.

    catclub

    @NonyNony:

    How do they use that as a defense?

    If The video is not a true reflection of events how can it be used to get at what actually happened?
    How many people in shoot’em up movies get indicted for murder?

  107. 107.

    maurinsky

    @Tommy – I went to a meeting a week or two ago and we had a speaker from the DOJ, and we learned that a Grand Jury services for 12-18 months, sometimes 3 days a month, sometimes more. Because of this, most grand juries are comprised of senior citizens, who are more likely to be conservative and racist, I think.

  108. 108.

    Steve from Antioch

    @sigaba: I ag we with you in theory but I don’t see how anyone could think the individual ct,net is anything but pre textual.

    How many people are ever pretty secured for fake Ids used to get my not bars?

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