A tale of two cities, Philadelphia and Cleveland dominated the news this week with the Kermit Gosnell abortion trial revelations and the decade long child abduction and recovery in Cleveland of 3 women and 1 child. While the ending in the Cleveland case is far more joyous with four live humans recovered literally from the chains of slavery, these cases share gruesome similarities and point to some tough lessons for our culture. The curtain which shrouded both these houses in mystery is now being pulled back and the gruesome details are on display for everyone to see.

The Gosnell trial recited countless examples of governmental inertia and incompetence on the part of Pennsylvania health department bureaucrats who failed to investigate complaints and conduct yearly facility health checkups. For 19 years, Gosnell’s abortion mill was never visited by a health inspector. Complaints were lodged against the clinic by women who had suffered severe complications and were admitted to the hospital as a result of Gosnell’s shoddy procedures and filthy conditions. Yet no one cared to act to protect the  victims at that clinic.

Think of the countless lives that could have been saved had just one government official charged with inspecting this clinic had done their job. The average public servant can make a difference in a life. No one did in Philadelphia when it came to Kermit Gosnell and his house of horror.

Although the details of the Cleveland dungeon are only beginning to leak out, some troubling behavior mirrors the Gosnell case. In 2004, law enforcement responded to a call about a woman screaming at the house on Sycamore St. No one answered the door so the police never returned to follow up on the complaint. We know now that all three teens were being held captive in that house in 2004. Had the police aggressively responded to the complaint, the girls might have been spared another 9 years in captivity. Neighbors claim that they called the police about other disturbances at the house to no avail, but law enforcement disputes these allegations.

Seemingly simple acts by government workers, responding to a 911 call, and investigating unsanitary condition in a health clinic have profound consequences.  Yet, lives were lost mired in governmental complacency.

Looking for missing children requires the active engagement and participation of the public. In fact, the public solves most missing children cases by providing tips and leads to police which result in the recovery of missing children. The public are the eyes and ears for clues to child abduction cases. Oddly enough, outright strangers, people unknown to the child anonymously call a hotline and report a sighting or lead of a missing child. These cases would never be solved without the public as a partner to law enforcement.

There is one major difference between the Gosnell case and the Cleveland case. Amanda Berry, the abducted teen, was able to escape and call 911. The babies born alive in Gosnell’s horror chamber couldn’t call for help.  Both sets of children need the public to care, to get involved, to save their lives. The chains and shackles on the three abducted children confined them to a living hell, and denied them a life. The scissors that severed the spines of the newborn babies denied them life.

Missing children flyers of Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus were posted throughout Cleveland. Neighbors tied yellow ribbons around their trees in memory of the missing teens. Rallies, searches and candlelight vigils were held to encourage action to find these girls. However, the streets around the Gosnell clinic are empty and barren, all the children are missing from the clinic; all the children are dead. However, for the first time, we have seen their picture and they have been named, Baby A-G. Where are the yellow ribbons, rallies, candlelight vigils for them?

They have not died in vain. We have seen their face. We know that they are missing.

I am old enough to remember the initial debate, or rather, non debate leading up to the Roe vs. Wade decision. The pro abortion lobby seized the language, reframed the arguments, and shut down an honest and open discussion about the reality of abortion. Integral in this cultural shift was the willing participation of the mainstream media who provided a news blackout about the reality of abortion.

However, in order to sway popular opinion, a pesky unnerving problem surfaced during the debate. What to do about the photos of aborted babies? The feminists knew that they needed the concerted and cooperative effort by the media. The reality of abortion, i.e. the photos of aborted children must never see the light of day. The horror of those photos would quickly shift public opinion to the pro life side. And so, the photo censorship began. The photo blackout media campaign fueled by the rhetoric of the abortion feminists excoriated anyone who dared to show a photo of these “blobs of cells” in the garbage cans of abortion clinics. I vividly remember the screaming vitriol against any pro life protestor who carried a sign of an aborted baby. The violent attacks against pro life marchers who had their signs ripped from their arms and stomped on the ground.

The blackout mantra from the left was justified because these abortion photos were “vile, profane, inhuman, and disgusting.” Ah, yes, that is the point, isn’t it? The left with the cooperation of the media vilified and demonized anyone who would dare to display the reality of abortion. Not only were the pro life arguments ignored but the powerful evidence of abortion was scrubbed by the media from public’s consciousness.

So for forty years, with only few exceptions, this sophisticated and news driven society has been bereft of the photos of millions of its citizens who met their death on a cold metal table. While we lived in denial of the reality of abortion, we certainly knew or suspected what was really happening in abortion clinics. The previous generation of deniers was shocked into reality by the photos of concentration camp victims. Seeing is believing. Recently, on CBS sunday morning, Elie Wiesel commented on the  concentration camp photos at the Holocaust Museum. “So many children, I now see the pictures of the children. Why the children? My God, why the children?”

Decades later after Roe vs. Wade, the curtain is finally lifted from the culture’s self imposed  abortion photo ban with the Kermit Gosnell trial in Philadelphia.  The gory details, photos and testimony paint a picture of the reality of an abortion mill. The photos are gut-wrenching, shocking, and yes, ‘vile.’ They powerfully expose the lies and rationalizations of the abortion movement.

Pro lifers have been sued, arrested, and hindered each step of the way by the power brokers: the Supreme Court, legislatures, and the powerful complicit media. The pro life advocates knew what none of us wanted to believe.

Fortunately, the new media will not be cowed by the feminist’s name calling and rants. The long awaited photos of abortions are finally on display at the Kermit Gosnell murder trial in all its horrendous and brutal reality. Photos of fully formed aborted babies, fully formed babies with snipped spines, make a mockery of the right to privacy and choice arguments.

The pro life movement has been swimming upstream for 40 years to break through the culture’s abortion denial. We finally saw the truth this week at the Gosnell trial when a worker testified that she saw an aborted baby desperately swimming for its life in its final resting place: a toilet.

A picture tells 50 million words.

On August 15, 2012, Grey Lady, announced the hiring of its new CEO, Mark Thompson, formerly Director General of the BBC.

Thompson started work at the NY Times on November 12,2012 and his hiring is causing pain and discomfort for the Grey Lady.

For 30 years, Mark Thompson served in various jobs at the BBC, and finally as its Chief since 2004. Mark Thompson is a curious choice as President of the NY Times, the American media’s self appointed arbiter of ethics and child protection.   It is looking ‘curiouser and curiouser’ that Thompson’s arrival brought plenty of baggage from across the pond, namely the ghost of Jimmy Savile, the BBC’s prominent TV celebrity.

From the moment of Savile’s death on October 29, 2011, his morbid secrets are being unearthed and the BBC is reeling with charges that its most famous and long time television and radio personality, Jimmy Savile, was a serial child rapist throughout his long career at the BBC.

Despite his popularity and renowned charity, Savile concealed his very dark and depraved conduct. Around the time of his death, BBC reporters were investigating charges that Savile molested underage girls for a BBC documentary.  However, in December, 2011, the expose was suddenly cancelled by a BBC editor before airing.   Thompson who headed the BBC from 2004-2012, was the chief company executive when the investigative program exposing Savile’s child predation was dropped and never aired. Thompson said that he was not involved  in killing the BBC “Newsnight” Savile investigation and claims he never knew about the substance of the allegations against Savile. However, several BBC executives have been forced out over the cancellation of the documentary with charges of coverup at the BBC.   When another media outlet aired its own documentary about Savile in October of 2012, his cover was blown as now some 450 victims have stepped forward alleging that Savile molested them when they were children, some even describing sexual abuse on BBC premises.

Critics charge that BBC covered up Savile’s alleged crimes which police say took place over six decades and were on an “unprecedented scale.” The chief of the Scotland Yard investigation said, Savile was “undoubtedly” one of the most prolific sex offenders in recent British history.

On October 12, 2012, Thompson claimed that “during my time as director general of the BBC, I never heard any allegations about Jimmy Savile.” Interestingly, Thompson’s career at the BBC coincided for  nearly 3 decades with Savile’s career.  Thompson was Director General during the last performance of Savile on the popular BBC program, Top of the Pops, in 2006.

Several British government inquiries are ongoing looking at the following questions:

Did the BBC ignore the rumors of Savile’s predatory behavior with underage girls because he was a star and generated enormous revenue?

Were young children sacrificed on the altar of fame by the BBC?

Was the BBC documentary cancelled because executives were fearful of opening up a pandora’s box of children victimized by Savile?

These questions beg another: Why would the NY Times hire the head of a media empire whose staff buried an expose about one of the most prominent media personalities who was a serial child predator?

Surely, the NY Times learned the many lessons it espoused in its voluminous coverage of the Catholic clergy abuse scandal. Coverups often trump the actual crime.

Recently, the Times’ holier-than-thou drumbeat continued as Frank Bruni, NY Times, Op-Ed columnist penned, “Suffer the Children” published on Sept. 10, 2012, three weeks after the NY Times announcement that Thompson has been appointed its president and CEO. In this NY Times Op-ed Bruni moralizes about the child abuse scandals at the Catholic Church, Penn State and the Boy Scouts:

Just how flagrant does a pedophile need to be before the people around him contact the police?

Now, Mr. Bruni, that is a great question for Mr. Thompson.

Bruni’s editorial lectures institutions, like the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts, and Penn State….

“One is that institutions have a potent impulse to avoid public scandal, and do an execrable job of policing themselves. To protect their reputations or simply to avoid conflict, they minimize even the most destructive behavior. They convince themselves that they can handle it on their own. And they persuade themselves that their mission, be it the inculcation of religious faith or the scoring of touchdowns, trumps the law’s mandates.”

Ah, yes, Mr. Bruni, do those lofty standards apply to the NY Times and to the BBC, Mr. Thompson’s former employer?

Mr. Bruni continues with his sage advice to the minions…

“Another is that for all the lip service that we pay to the preciousness of children and the importance of their futures, they remain the most voiceless members of our society.”

Ah, yes, lip service to the preciousness of children, does that apply to British victims of a media behemoth, the BBC?

Mr. Bruni continues to pontificate…

“Many don’t know or understand what their rights are; many don’t have the maturity or mettle to exercise them. They depend on the vigilance and good faith of adults, which is to say they depend, all too often, on a fiction.”

Ah, yes, vigilance and good faith of adults are critical for those who run companies that make millions from personalities who secretly prey on children, like perhaps the BBC.

“And a third is that we’re as likely to turn away from sexual pathology as confront it. It confounds and discomfits us. It suggests the tenacity of willful ignorance and deliberate evasion, even when the price is nothing less than the ravaged psyches of vulnerable children.”

Well, let’s hope that the NY Times has no employees with a sexual pathology that sexually preys on children.  Was your new boss willfully ignorant or deliberately evasive when it came to Jimmy Savile at the BBC? Will he evade allegations of prominent personalities at the NY Times?

Apparently, this fog of scandal was known to the Board of Directors of the NY Times during the negotiations with Thompson. They were assured by Mr. Thompson that he was totally unaware of Jimmy Savile’s deviate and criminal predilections.

With the media pressure building, this week Arthur Sulzberger, Chairman of the NY Times Board of Directors told Bloomberg News that Chief Executive Mark Thompson’s connection to the BBC’s Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal “hasn’t made things easy.”

Welcome, Mr. Sulzberger, to the challenging world of ethics and the media scrutiny of institutions that compromise child protection.  You should know better.

There sits the Grey Lady in her lofty glass tower, expounding and dictating ethical standards for us all.

There is an old saying, “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”

© Elizabeth Yore-2012 All Rights Reserved.

Elizabeth Yore is the former Special Counsel at Harpo, Inc.where she served as Oprah Winfrey’s Child Advocate. She was also the former General Counsel at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Yorechildren.com, twitter: @elizabethyore

Churchill’s admonition is a challenging call to moral action for all Generals, Presidents, and leaders of institutions.  It’s a sober reminder to embed virtues, rather than paramours, in the military and other institutions.

Virtues of honor, integrity, fidelity are viewed as irrelevant and outmoded by the erudite and sophisticated American ‘Kardashian Kulture.’ The shameless media drumbeat espouses that the personal sins of consenting adults are inconsequential to society. After all, they are consenting adults, freely choosing to make mistakes and no one should hold them accountable. No one gets hurt, right?  Not unless, the safety and lives of soldiers on the battlefield and citizens are in danger with a distracted and bemused commander. Not unless, a marriage dissolves and children suffer.

Where is honor and duty when a married Four Star General engages in a battlefield tryst while soldiers are dying in two wars? David Petraeus’ ignominious fall from grace is epically reckless by publicly disgracing three institutions, the military, the CIA, and marriage in one fell swoop.

How many solemn oaths did he violate when he embedded Mrs. Paula Broadwell?  The repository of the nation’s secrets was, himself, the sentry of his own insidious secret.

This Four Star General is not the sum of his medals, nor the depth of his military experience. As Andre Malraux observed, “man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.” So, too, David Petraeus is defined by his own personal secret, bereft of fidelity to his marriage, his storied military career, and his CIA career.

The brilliant military strategist of the Iraq surge will undoubtedly rebound and enjoy a second chance in the “no consequence” society. Private behavior of “consenting adults” nor matter how risky, dangerous, and scandalous, is of no concern to the public says the media.  Like other famous scandal rebounders, the Petraeus’ collateral damage harms the culture and its institutions, not the miscreant. Who pays the price for his personal transgressions? Private sins reverberate throughout the culture and leave scar tissue on future generations.

Virtue no longer matters and is routinely marginalized, minimized, and scoffed at by the entertainment and cultural elites. Tell that to the millions of parents who were confronted with the constant media narrative of President Bill Clinton’s outrageous and immoral behavior in the Oval Office.  Recall how the press told us to mind our own business, not the President’s.  The elites defined the scandal as a silly distraction and unworthy of investigation since it was the President’s personal life. Despite having perjured himself, damaged the dignity of the office, mocked his marriage, corrupted the children of the world with his salacious lesson in oral sex, it was much ado about nothing. Thanks to Clinton’s personal peccadillos, questions are still reverberating at the nation’s dinner tables, as small children ask, “Mom, what is oral sex?”

No consequences to the culture? Don’t be fooled by the media. When a President  repeatedly protests that oral sex isn’t sex, it has profound consequences to the culture. According to CDC data, the increase in oral cancer is attributed to the popularity of oral sex and the HPV virus.  Not surprisingly, the scandal’s consequence and burden is borne by America’s teens.  Typically, Bill Clinton is now reinvented as the honorable senior statesman and global humanitarian.

In the last year, Americans learn that the vaunted members of the U.S. Secret Service  procured prostitutes in Columbia while in the service of Presidential protection. Another institution falls. Congress, also, did not escape scandal when Congressman Anthony Weiner was caught sexting nude photos of his genitals over the Internet. When leaders of government violate their oath of office and display heinous conduct, the rank and file are given license to mimic the deplorable behavior.  It’s open season for sex scandals.

Welcome to the “no consequences culture.”

Why are fidelity and honor to family, country, and work, so integral to our culture?

When the leaders of the country, despoil their hallowed positions, the culture is diminished and damaged. Children learn that sacrificial and honorable service to country is meaningless. Children learn that oaths and vows are disposable. Children learn that sex is a commodity to be devalued, cheapened, and exploited. Children learn that solemn oaths of office and marriage are a sham.  Children are the silent victims of infidelity and the unintended victims and audience of consenting adults wreaking havoc and pain.

Semper Fidelis, always faithful will never sell a reality show. Fidelity is portrayed in the media as boring and an old fashioned virtue. It only matters when soldiers are in the trenches taking on enemy mortars. It only matters when innocent children need parents to be faithful to each other always and everywhere.

Carved on the entrance wall at the CIA building in Langley, Virginia are 103 stars representing each one of the CIA heroes who died in the service of their country. The identities of the unnamed stars remain secret, even in death.  These anonymous warriors served valiantly and bravely without fame or fortune. Churchill would admonish us to honor their singular star, rather than the sexploits of a four star.

Noteworthy is the mission of the CIA engraved and embedded on the lobby floor at Langley:

”Ye shall know the truth and it shall set you free.” John 8:32

Now that’s a virtue to be embedded in our nation’s heart and soul.

© Elizabeth Yore-2012 All Rights Reserved. Elizabeth Yore is the former Special Counsel at Harpo, Inc.where she served as Oprah Winfrey’s Child Advocate. She was also the former General Counsel at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

In the final campaign week, this election season sunk to a new low with the release of the pro Obama ad created by Goodby Silverstein & Partners agency, entitled “Children of the Future.”  The haunting black and white ad features robotic children mouthing a leftist ideology creed, singing that a Romney administration will kill all polar bears, make strip mines fun, promote poison air, pursue endless wars, etc. The ad is creepy, highly exploitive of children and exposes the crass and insidious tactics of the liberal elite.

Spoiler Alert! When the Left starts using children in political ads, they are panicking about polls in Democratic political circles. When all else fails, bring on the children as your mouthpiece.  Not only are the children lip synching leftist rants, but they also assign blame. Aha, the blame game in the lyrics is especially treacherous and instructive. Whom do the children blame for the dirty air and dead polar bears. The racist tea party? No. The evil Republican Party? No. Dimwitted Independents? No.

The children dutifully sing lyrics that point the finger of blame at, surprise, the left’s latest scapegoat:

Mom and Dad, We’re blaming you!

The new class of scapegoats fashioned by the liberal left is gaining momentum.

First Lady Michelle Obama seems to be mirroring the Children of the Future theme of demonizing parents. Mom and Dad aren’t concerned about the future of their children. During her visit to the battleground state of Iowa this week, First Lady Michelle Obama made a direct pitch to the youth, by asking underage voters, to help President Barack Obama win reelection:

“Here’s something that I always remind young people, because I’ve met so many young people over these four years who said — told me — my parents and grandparents were not going to vote for Barack in 2008 until I talked to them and I told them what this election means for my future, and because of that conversation they voted for him. Now, that’s the power that young people can have,”

The First Lady pleads that parents must listen to their children’s political acumen and vote for Barack. It worked in 2008 and it will work in 2012. If you don’t vote for Obama, as the song goes,

Mom and Dad, We’re blaming you!

The First Lady sounded like she was going to start singing the new campaign ad, Children of the Future, as she highlighted the political power of 10 year olds:

“It doesn’t matter how old you are. I’ve had 10-year-olds who are on a phone bank — 14-year-olds. I mean, I’m telling you, there is power because this is your future and you can tell people that they don’t have to wait until November the 6th to cast their ballots.”

Is this the architect of the Let’s Move child anti-obesity campaign urging children to sit in a campaign office and make phone calls on behalf of her husband? Incredibly, the First Lady is urging children to tell their parents and grandparents to vote for Barack Obama because only the children, truly care about their future.  Here’s the left at work again, pitting child against parent. The not so subtle message from Michelle is that children are smarter and wiser than adults because they supported Barack Obama. Let’s drive a wedge between child and parent. It’s the oldest political strategy, ‘divide and conquer.’

Mom and Dad, We’re blaming you!

These tactics, as well as the message, reveal the panic in the democratic party.   Desperate times call for desperate measures,“when all else fails, let’s use the kids.”

Americans have been inundated with the Blame Bush excuse for the last four years. The Master Uniter of 2008 has pitted rich against poor, black against white, the 1% against the 99%, now has a new class of villains: the parents.  Class warfare has devolved into generational warfare. It’s the smart kids against the dumb parents. Shocking? Hardly.

This is the administration that promotes abortion on demand for children without parental consent. This is the administration that promotes mandatory comprehensive sex education starting in the kindergarten irrespective of parental objections. Parents are banished to the sidelines while the State takes over the proper education, health care, and political indoctrination of the children. The ‘brave new world’ of the left fashions a world where the State dictates the beliefs of the child, and undermines parental authority and the institution of the family.

But the children of the future song forgot to mention the left’s hallowed right of reproductive rights (read: abortion on demand). Was that an oversight?

Perhaps, children singing about the benefits of abortion begs the obvious uncomfortable question that the left avoids at all costs.  Even the left sees the hypocrisy of children espousing the beauty of abortion. Even the Left fears the obvious duplicity of children taunting their parents for bringing them into the world.  Fear not, the Left has plenty of champions who will mouth the glories of abortion. Step up, Hollywood star, Lena Durham who espouses the loss of virginity with casting the first vote for Obama. Lest we forget, there is always the ever-entitled Sandra Fluke and her free contraceptives.

The brave new world is upon us, as children are used as political tools by the State and pitted against their parents.

Hey, kids, the blame game is a ruse, don’t fall for it.

© Elizabeth Yore-2012 All Rights Reserved. Elizabeth Yore is the former Special Counsel at Harpo, Inc.where she served as Oprah Winfrey’s Child Advocate. She was also the former General Counsel at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and General Counsel at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Virginia.

During the Democratic Convention (Sept. 3-6), the political pundits chuckledthat Secretary of State flew the coup and headed as far away from the DNC convention as possible. The commentators speculated that Hillary didn’t want to be around her husband, Bill, when he gave his speech, nor her commander in chief, Barack Obama. For personal and political reasons, Secretary Clinton planned a prolonged diplomatic trip which coincided with the convention and stretched from August 30th through September 9th. Her strategy to avoid her two nemesis turned out to be a reckless and ill-advised decision.

As the Secretary of State took flight during the weeks leading up to September 11th, Al Qaeda was planning its fatal attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Hillary’s wanderlust is breathtaking. The U.S. Department website proudly touts the nearly million miles logged and 110 countries traveled by Secretary of State during 376 travel days.

One would expect with 2000 members of the Diplomatic Security Service stationed around the world at embassies and consulates that Madame Secretary would assess staffing levels for the all important and dangerous September 11th anniversary date.

Ah, but no, Madame Secretary wanted to get out of Dodge. So, on August 29, 2012, Hillary flew to the strategic Cook Islands, a quaint group of Polynesian islands, for a nice little holiday at the taxpayer’s expense. She stayed on the islands for 3 days, no doubt negotiating some high level diplomatic agreement.

With 169 American embassies abroad, as well as 137 consulates and 60,000 American diplomats and their families living in dangerous countries, one would expect that Madame Secretary would spend a few weeks leading up to the significant 9/11 anniversary date, meeting with her staff, talking to Ambassadors, reviewing cables to ensure that every safety precaution is in place in the American diplomatic community.

But, no, Hillary didn’t want to be on American soil during the Democratic National Convention. She couldn’t watch Bill and Barack getting the adoring attention of the Democratic Party. Attention that she felt she deserved and was denied in the 2008 campaign.  So, she jetted off in her State Department plane to Polynesian paradise where no U.S. embassy or consulate exists. With its tiny population of 11,000 and beaches, the Cook Islands boast as the perfect honeymoon destination.

Americans working abroad for the U.S. State Department would have expected that the Secretary of State request a briefing and serious appraisal of hotspots, danger zones, vulnerable outposts and a thorough threat assessment for all American diplomats and their families. After all, everyone understands that anniversary dates are important milestones for terrorists. But no, the Cook Islands needed her diplomatic skills.

One would hope and expect that Secretary Clinton would be firmly ensconced in her office watching and communicating with embassies around the world during the heightened danger of the infamous September 11th anniversary. Americans would expect that in the weeks preceding the anniversary of September 11th, the Secretary of State would confer with her Diplomatic Security Service to ensure that all embassies/consulates and personnel are protected and have the necessary security measures. Surely, this priority shouldn’t be left to a career foreign service bureaucrat, like Charlene Lamb. Intelligence 101 demands that  the looming threat of 9/11 terrorism is a a top priority for any Secretary of State. As they say in the Navy, this requires ‘all hands on deck,’ that is, if you believe in terrorism.

But if you rename terrorism as an ‘overseas contingency operation’ and believe that Al-Qaeda ended with the death of Osama Bin Laden, then it makes sense to ignore the September 11th elephant in the room and fly off for Mai Tais and coconuts in the Cook Islands. No reason to fret over the pesky unrest in the Middle East, Al-Qaeda is defeated.

Hillary had more important concerns than the safety of her staff. She didn’t want to be anywhere near Charlotte, North Carolina. So, for her own personal and political interests, she chose to  get out of town while the planning for the attack of Benghazi was well underway.

Here’s the travelogue of the Rick Steves of the State Department according to the State website:

• Hillary left Washington on August 29.
• From August 30 until September 9th, Hillary was galavanting from the Cook Islands to Indonesia, China, Timor-Leste, Brunei, and Russia.
• She left Russia sometime late September 9th or 10th
• With a 12 hour trip from Russia to Washington, D.C., Hillary probably arrived in the United States jet lagged and groggy around September 10 or 11th.
• Was she even in her office on September 11th? Certainly, she had no time to check on the safety and status of the embassies, consulates and thousands of Americans abroad who were already experiencing September 11th in their respective country time zones.

While the traveller in chief hopped around the globe, the consulate in Benghazi was in the crosshairs of Al Qaeda.

When an administration diminishes a war on terror and renames it as an ‘overseas contingency operation,’ intelligence briefings are not a priority. While Hillary was on the other side of the world, President Obama attended his last intelligence briefing on September 5th. Who was watching the intelligence? Americans expect the President to keep the country and its diplomats safe. But no, the critical week before 9/11 he was off on the campaign trial.

So while no one was paying attention, the so-called defunct Al-Qaeda planned the murderous assault on a U.S. Ambassador, 2 Navy Seals and a state department official.

Conventional wisdom in Washington is that Hillary is a very hard worker.  Jet setting around the world is not the hallmark of a great Secretary of State. Rather, ‘fostering conditions for stability and progress for the benefit of the American people and people everywhere’ is the mission of the Department of State. The cables and earlier attacks from Libya demonstrated an unstable and dangerous place for Americans which demanded an attentive Secretary of State, not a globe trotter.

It’s not glamorous sitting at your desk reviewing cables, intelligence reports, and assessing staff levels. Hillary relegated those mundane, yet critical tasks to Charlene Lamb, a career foreign service bureaucrat. Tragically, Ms. Lamb made the wrong decisions, and 4 Americans are dead.

Fewer frequent flier miles and more frequent hours at the office might secure a safer world for Americans.

© Elizabeth Yore-2012 All Rights Reserved.

Elizabeth Yore is the former Special Counsel at Harpo, Inc.where she served as Oprah Winfrey’s Child Advocate. She was also the former General Counsel at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She worked with the brave and courageous agents of the Diplomatic Security Service of the U.S. Department of State who saved American children around the world.

President Teddy Roosevelt first coined the phrase, “Bully Pulpit.” He described the White House as a “bully pulpit.”  He meant the phrase in positive way, as a powerful platform from which to advocate an agenda and policies. In Roosevelt’s day, the word bully meant superb, unlike its current meaning. Roosevelt acknowledge that the office of the President, has a distinct advantage to advocate his views with his bully pulpit.

Vice President Joe Biden’s behavior at the Vice Presidential Debate in Danville Kentucky demonstrated the modern day version of the bully pulpit. His conduct was a more of a demonstration of modern bullying, than a civilized dialogue of ideas about the future of America.

As a nationally ranked debater in high school, I learned the immutable rules of debate etiquette.  A debate should always reflect the respectful exchange of ideas. The purpose of a debate is to persuade the audience of the power of your position. Since the time of the ancient Greeks, debates served to elucidate the truth and thus, to expose the intelligence and character of the debater. Debaters are judged on the quality of their presentation. Are they facile on their feet, knowledgeable, well-prepared, sincere, and honest? Do they have a grasp of the facts which support their argument? Moreover, debaters are not only rated on the substance of their arguments, they are also ranked on the their delivery, comportment, and debating etiquette.

These rules guide all debate etiquette, yet they were woefully absent from the Vice President Joe Biden’s performance during his televised debate with Rep. Paul Ryan.

The hallmark of a good debater are:

• Never use slang words. Words, such as, ‘malarkey’ make the debater look unintelligent and ill prepared. Sound familiar?
• Never be patronizing or condescending to your opponent. Why? Respect is the hallmark of intelligence. Arrogance is a transparent disguise for weak arguments.
• Never be mean, brutish, or dismissive of your opponent. Why? It makes the debater look like a bully, and nobody likes a bully.
• Never be rude to your opponent, such as laughing or rolling eyes while your opponent is talking. Why? It makes you look desperate to distract from the powerful and persuasive arguments of your opponent. Sound familiar?
• Address your opposing colleague by their given name, not some diminutive, such as “my friend.” Demeaning another, only demeans you.

Debates are critical and valuable in a free democratic society. They serve as an important forum so that the electorate may be educated about the beliefs and policies of its politicians.  Ideas matter.  The courteous presentation of ideas provides unfiltered information to the public so that they can make an informed decision on election day.  An educated body politic is the hallmark of a democratic republic.

Compromise is the art of politics. With a robust two party system, compromise is the only way to avoid gridlock.  Yet, there will never be compromise when one party openly derides another. Ask any children on the playground. Everyone has to play by the rules and treat each other with respect. Apparently, Joe Biden never learned those schoolyard lessons.

Laughing at your opponent, and derisively rolling eyes exposes Biden’s true character;    He is desperately trying to distract the public from Ryan’s persuasive arguments. The American electorate want and deserve an honest and thoughtful articulation of ideas without demeaning drama and empty histrionics. Name-calling or belittling ideas as “marlarkey” is the hallmark of the left. Can we have a civilized debate about abortion? No, pro-lifers are “extreme wackos” and who are conducting “a war against women.” Can we have a thoughtful debate in this country about gay marriage? No, supporters of traditional marriage are dismissed as “homophobes” who spout off “hate speech.” There is a troubling pattern that has emerged in stifling an honest, fact based debate on the important issues of our time. Pope Benedict correctly described it as “the dictatorship of relativism.”

The behavior of the Vice President in his debate with Representative Paul Ryan typified how base, crass, and demeaning the culture has become. Sadly, the Vice President reflects the coarsening America culture. He acted like the loud mouth bully in the school yard who won’t let anyone else talk and makes fun of the smartest kid in class.

Is it any wonder there is an epidemic of bullying in our schools among our children?

The Kentucky debate was touted as the first historic Vice Presidential debate between two Catholic Irishman. Biden’s derisive Colgate-optic white toothy guffaws reminded me of an old Irish Proverb: There’s anger in an open laugh.

© Elizabeth Yore-2012 All Rights Reserved.

Elizabeth Yore is the former Special Counsel at Harpo, Inc.where she served as Oprah Winfrey’s Child Advocate. She was also the former General Counsel at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Remember when sports pundits called the Penn State football program squeaky clean? The famous Paterno creed, “winning with honor” served as the high standard for collegiate football.

Then, the Sandusky scandal erupted. The proud and pristine tradition of PSU is now forever tarnished by its child predator, Jerry Sandusky.

Where and when will the next Jerry Sandusky emerge? Sadly, Sandusky is not an outlier, unique to Penn State. Although he was a prominent defensive coordinator who served under the nation’s most revered college coach, his criminal behavior mimics the classic pedophile profile. Jerry Sandusky, stripped of his title, is your garden variety child perp.

While the country was focused on Penn State, a number of colleges were dealing with their own child sex scandals. The stories are numbingly similar; knowledge of predatory behavior and delays in reporting child predators to law enforcement. It is time for universities to start paying attention or face the loss of reputation and endowment in the process. Here is a troubling lineup:

University of Michigan
The Board of Regents recently ordered an external investigation of the six-month reporting delay of child pornography discovered on an employee’s thumb drive. The employee, Stephen Jenson, was a University of Michigan Hospital pediatric resident. At least eight university employees, including a university lawyer, knew of the child pornography allegedly on Jenson’s computer in May 2011, but did not notify the police. The matter was reopened in November and finally reported to university police after doctors at the University of Michigan hospital read about the Sandusky scandal. Jenson is now charged in a federal criminal complaint with receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography. The U.S. Department of Education is also investigating the University of Michigan for the delay in reporting the crime. Sound familiar?

Citadel University
Recently, officials at The Citadel admitted they did not do enough after learning that an employee who has been accused of sexually abusing at least five boys in recent years, was brought to the school’s attention back in 2007. An internal university investigation was conducted, but police were never informed. Louis ReVille, a 2002 graduate of The Citadel, was hired by the college as a camp counselor for three summers, from 2001 to 2003. According to Citadel documents, he lured boys to his room with pizza and Chinese food to view pornography and performed sex acts. The former coach who once worked as a summer camp counselor at The Citadel military college was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexual abuse crimes involving 23 young male victims. In November of 2011, the school said it had investigated accusations against ReVille in 2007 but took no action.

Sound familiar?

Where children play, predators lurk. Jerry Sandusky’s playground was Second Mile Charity and Penn State. Thousands of disadvantaged and neglected children belonged to the Second Mile Foundation. Jerry had free rein with young boys on the campus and Penn State served as the playground for a dangerous mix of vulnerable children and a powerful predator.

The massive influx of children on college campuses
The size and scope of the population of children on universities is staggering, as Penn State proudly advertises on its athletic department website:

“Parents, are you looking for a way your children can build self-confidence, learn about and develop skills in activities they enjoy, and make new friends in a fun environment. Every year more than 220, 000 youth have memorable Penn State experiences with Penn State faculty, staff, and graduate students who care about helping youth excel. School age youth can choose from more than 95 sports camps and dozens of hands-on programs in arts, theatre, science and engineering.”

Chilling, isn’t it?

Last summer 220,000 children participated in activities when child molester, Jerry Sandusky roamed and showered on campus. Sandusky’s many boy victims certainly never developed more “self confidence” or considered PSU a “fun environment.”

Nearly every university in the United States runs summer youth programs, everything from football to marching band camps. Every summer, millions of children participate in activities and live on college campuses. The recruitment of underage children to participate in and live on college campuses is big business for universities. These children’s camps generate huge revenue and provide a valuable recruitment tool for college teams.

Until Sandusky, the public didn’t realize that universities were rife with children. What are children doing on college campuses anyway?

The mission of universities is to educate young adults, by imparting knowledge and skills in a rigorous classroom setting and to prepare adult students for the world of work. Colleges are not qualified to operate and house summer sports camps for 8 year olds. Yet, colleges opened their doors to children without the training and knowledge to serve and protect young children. These college summer camps are glorified employment agencies for grad students, coaches and professors.

Every university board of trustees and administration should be both vigilant and terrified that one of its employees might be a Jerry Sandusky. Where is the next Jerry Sandusky… Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Pac12? Although you shouldn’t bet on college sports, the odds are great that many schools have a Coach Jerry.

For decades, Joe Paterno was Penn State football. He was the face of the football program. That football icon ended last year and now, Jerry Sandusky is the lasting image in State College, PA.

Legends die and legacies linger much longer.

© Elizabeth Yore-2012 All Rights Reserved. Elizabeth Yore is the former Special Counsel at Harpo, Inc., where she served as Oprah Winfrey’s Child Advocate. She was also the former General Counsel at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

27 year old Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrived in New York this week to promote Facebook’s record $10 billion initial public offering. The Facebook hype on Wall Street is tempered by an investigative report on WND.com which has uncovered countless child pornography images lurking in plain sight within the Facebook neighborhood.

The investigation found clearly posted Facebook Groups with the following titles: Kidsex Young, Preteen Lesbians, 10-17 Teen Bisexual, PTHC (or preteen hard-core pornography), 12 to 13 Boy Sex, Young Gay Pics and Movie Trade, Gangbanging, Teen Sex, Love Little Kids, Incest Forever, Men or Baby girls, Sex Little Girls and Nude Teens. Even worse, WND.com also found several graphic photos posted of children being raped and sodomized on Facebook pages.

Facebook announced last year amid a huge publicity blitz, a partnership with Microsoft and its state-of-the art PhotoDNA software which was designed to filter out illegal child abuse images. Facebook even hosted a web conference to detail the wonders of PhotoDNA and assure the public that this technology could block and capture illegal child abuse images before they are even posted on the site.

WND.com determined that the Facebook is serving as a platform for child predators to post and trade child pornography. Despite PhotoDNA, the highly touted Microsoft filtering software, there is an alarming number of Facebook pages and groups that engage in trading and posting child abuse images. These illegal and vile images evaded the PhotoDNA filter and are prominently displayed on various FACEBOOK pages and groups. Not only are the victims in these photos being brutally violated, but each time these photos are traded, shared, the victims are re-victimized. These crime scene photos go viral and the victim’s pain is magnified exponentially by cyber trading. Tragically, child pornography images are growing more violent and involving younger and younger victims.

While PhotoDNA is one resource, it is obviously woefully inadequate to address the tsunami of uploaded photos and the huge influx of child sex abuse photos flooding the Internet. On average more than 300 million photos are uploaded to Facebook per day in the three months ended March 31, 2012. Tragically, every day around the world, predators are photographing the brutal molestation and rape of children. New photos and videos are traded by predators instantaneously via the Internet. Trading child abuse images is the life blood and driving force of the multibillion dollar industry of child predators.

The WMD investigation uncovered countless vile and illegal images, pedophile groups clearly identified in trading child abuse images. If the highly touted software is so cutting edge, so sophisticated, it surely has a gaping hole in its application and implementation. How is it that “KIDSEX Young” was not captured, banned, and filtered out? The vile term is a frequently used search phrase of child predators and known to cyber cops. How is it that clearly child porn photos were posted on Facebook pages and not intercepted by PhotoDNA?

Children are Consumers of Facebook

Child advocates know that predators go where children play, and children are increasingly on Facebook. 20 Million children use Facebook and users are required to be 13 years of age, although age verification is impossible on Facebook. However, Consumer Reports uncovered in their “State of the Net” survey that 7.5 million users are younger than 13. Even more shocking, 5 million Facebook users are 10 years old and younger.

It is terrifying to imagine how many of those children stumbled across the child porn group, “Love Little Kids.” Millions of child users are at grave emotional risk by viewing these vile and obscene child sex abuse images on Facebook. Both adults and children are horribly violated by these photos. Furthermore, millions of children are also unwittingly subject to grooming, luring and molestation by these child predator Facebook users. Facebook’s cyber metropolis is no Mr. Roger’s neighborhood.

How many child sex abuse photos traded among Facebook users?

With 901 million (and counting) cyber citizens of Facebook, safety, not entertainment, should be the primary concern of management. Ensuring child protection will be the ultimate test of Facebook’s continued success and longevity. If children are at risk on the platform, the users will migrate elsewhere.

Did Facebook grow too fast at the expense of safety and security?

On its corporate website, Facebook touts speed and cutting-edge technology:
“We move fast and don’t mess around.We’re leading a social movement by building ground breaking technology that gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected.”

Facebook may not “mess around” but its users do. Posting and trading child pornography destroys children, tarnishes the Facebook brand image, and is by the way, illegal. Enabling the creation by child predators of user groups which seek to seduce, exploit, abuse children and trade child abuse images will ultimately cause the downfall of Facebook.

Here is the stark reality: Facebook does not have the resources to quickly intercept all illegal child abuse images, pages, or predator groups. The network relies on users to monitor and report illegal content, with the backup of its PhotoDNA filter and other filters. Both approaches are flawed, creating security gaps on the platform, and leaving children vulnerable to view, to be lured into, and to participate in these groups. Facebook offers a report link so that anyone can report inappropriate, offensive or dangerous content. However, WND found that Facebook did not respond quickly to remove the photos or content. Community policing is woefully inadequate in the real world as it is in the cyber world. While encouraging Facebook users to monitor and report child pornography and other inappropriate content may sound empowering, it’s like asking children to monitor the registered sex offenders in the neighborhood.

Can Facebook manage and police the world?

Facebook will soon announce the attainment of the goal of 1 billion users. However, the lightening speed growth of Facebook is now exposing its fault lines as it struggles to handle the complex world of 901 million users. Facebook needs more technology, apps, resources, to interdict child pornography and shut down child predator user groups. PhotoDNA is only a tool, not a panacea, to fight the tsunami of child pornography.

Here’s the troubling reality: Facebook is experiencing the same problems that plague cyber cops who are overwhelmed by the Internet-facilitated child pornography pandemic. The commerce and user activity on the Facebook platform is staggering in volume and scope:

• 901 million monthly active users at the end of March 2012.
• Approximately 80% of monthly active users are outside the U.S. and Canada.
• 526 million daily active users on average in March 2012.
• 488 million monthly active users who used Facebook mobile products in March 2012,
• More than 500 million mobile monthly active users as of April 20, 2012.
• 398 million users were active with Facebook on at least six out of the last seven days.
• More than 125 billion friend connections on Facebook at the end of March 2012.
• More than 42 million Pages with ten or more Likes at the end of March 2012.

Facebook is available in more than 70 languages.

The massive Facebook IPO could raise $10.6 billion. Financial experts are calling it the largest global internet offering ever. With the shocking abuses exposed by WND, Facebook needs to commit its new influx of cash to develop technology to ensure safety for children. Let’s be clear, if a neighborhood is not safe with predators roaming undetected, and flaunting their illegal activity, then families will move out. People leave in droves, when institutions don’t protect children.

In the mad rush, to “grow and grow fast” Facebook has left millions of children vulnerable at the unlocked front door of Facebook without a 911 operator. While Facebook prides itself on creating new apps and technology for a more ‘entertaining experience’ for the user, it’s long overdue that Facebook should direct its techies and code writers to create apps and filters that make the Facebook a safer neighborhood for children.

Mark Zuckerberg is found of saying that “if we want to have the biggest impact, the best way to do this is to make sure we always focus on the most important problems.”

Mark, It’s time you focus on safety, and children.

© Elizabeth Yore-2012 All Rights Reserved. Elizabeth Yore served as Special Counsel at Harpo, Inc. Previously, she was General Counsel at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services and the General Counsel and Director of the International Division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The imperious comments emanating from the White House Rose Garden about the Supreme Court’s deliberation of the Affordable Care Act prompted a jaw dropping collective gasp. He said, what?

Did this former constitutional law lecturer really question whether the Supreme Court, an “unelected group of people” could overturn a law approved by Congress?

Did he actually state, “I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented (inaccurate), extraordinary step of overturning (inaccurate) a law that was passed by a strong majority (factually incorrect) of a democratically elected Congress?”

His shocking and ignorant statements still reverberate through the news outlets, the legal profession, and the public. Is he that ill-informed or is he that reckless? The answer bodes danger for the country.

With kingly arrogance, Obama launched a preemptory strike on the Supreme Court. How unseemly for a President, how unethical, for an attorney. Hasn’t the public learned that you can take the man out of community organizing, but you can’t take community organizing out of the man?

Saul Alinsky would be proud.

Ah, take heart, loyal subjects, the King of Hearts decided to play, not the race card, but the populist card.

This isn’t the first royal tongue lashing focused on the highest court in the land. Who could forget when the monarch humiliated his judicial servants during his 2010 State of the Union. As Obama stood above the seated justices, he blasted the majority court for its 5-4 Decision in Citizens United vs. FEC. Welcome to the Obama reign where the rules are changed to suit the king.

It is reminiscent of the rules for Shakespeare’s aspiring King, Macbeth, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.”

In his autobiography, We, the Judges, the very liberal Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas explained the importance of the constitutional checks and balances upon the three branches:

“Those in power need checks and restraints lest they come to identify the common good for their own tastes and desires, and their continuation in office as essential to the preservation of the nation.”

Obama mightily resists all ‘checks and restraints’ on his power in the executive branch. When his desires aren’t fulfilled, he lashes out and creates handy scapegoats. Instead of taking the blame, like a man, he blames his predecessor, or the rich 1%, or Wall Street, or the Catholic Church, or the white policeman, or the “unelected” Supreme Court.

Politics is sport, but in Chicago, it is a blood sport with royal bloodlines.

Even the lower peons in the legal system are chastised by the throne. Lest we forget, the Obama beer summit controversy when a Cambridge police officer arrested Obama’s friend, Harvard’s Professor Henry Gates. Instead of patiently waiting for the wheels of justice to turn, Obama, ever the community organizer, inserted his own ‘taste and desires’ on a situation which he exploited for his own political benefit by race baiting and agitating the base. Never one to let the facts get in the way of a good political firestorm, his words reflect the playbook of a community organizer, hardly worthy of a President:

“I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that [Gates case]. But I think it’s fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there’s a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.”

Arrogantly, Obama’s isn’t bothered that he doesn’t have all the facts, instead demeans the police and whips the crowd into a frenzy by playing the race card.

Saul would be proud.

Attacking the police and courts are classic Alinsky tactics. Community organizers despise the police and the courts because these institutions place limits on their radical agenda.

This is an impatient King. He spares no time for court deliberations, for police investigations, nor for the careful weighing of the facts and law. Why? He insists on dolling out his brand of street justice, using the immense power of his office to shortcut the administration of justice.

Why are these tactics so destructive to the administration of justice?

Millions of American seek justice from the legal system. The judicial system is where complaints are aired, disputes are resolved, and Americans seek justice. Courtrooms replaced the gun duels of the Wild Wild West. Peaceful coexistence exists because the framers crafted a justice system that thrives in courtrooms, free of intimidation, and ex parte communications.

Lawyers, including Obama, are charged with defending the integrity of the judicial system for the sake of their clients, and ultimately, the country.

The political stakes are high for the chief executive. If his signature legislation is found unconstitutional, in the words of Justice Douglas, his ‘continuation in office’ may be in jeopardy.

He is president, not king. He was elected, not anointed. Despite his annoyance, his power is shared with those other two pesky branches of government.

The soaring, hopeful rhetoric of the 2008 campaign has been replaced with the cynical, blaming, threatening demagoguery of a community organizer. It is dangerous, and it is breathtakingly monarchial. The strategy of personal destruction was hidden in the Uniter’s 2008 campaign, but it has reemerged with a vengeance during his presidential reign.

Were we duped by hope and change?

Our founding fathers fled the despotic monarchy of King George III, who famously remarked,

‘Lord Chancellor, did I deliver the speech well?’

‘Very well indeed, sir,’ was the enthusiastic answer.

‘I am glad of that,’ replied the King; ‘for there was nothing in it.’

© Elizabeth Yore-2012 All Rights Reserved.