Joseph Booker, a former Mississippi abortionist, is facing judgment in the aftermath of a botched abortion that left a woman in a coma. But an attorney tells OneNewsNow he hasn’t shown up for either scheduled court hearing.

Dashica Thomas had an abortion in 2003 and filed suit nearly two years later. Attorney John Reeves details his client’s allegations against Booker and the then-Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

“[He] performed part of [the abortion] and left part of the fetus inside of her, that she developed severe toxic shock and almost died,” Reeves explains. “She was in ICU for some many days at a hospital after they had to finish the procedure.”

As for why Booker started the abortion and abruptly stopped midway, the Hinds County attorney says testimony presented in the last hearing provides the answer.

“His own assistant, who had worked there for him for some time, got out of it and had turned her heart away from that and felt as though she should come forward with the truth,” Reeves accounts. “She testified that he couldn’t see what he was doing, that she basically was having to follow him around in the clinic to tell him what’s going on and tell him what the instruments were showing, and we found that to be alarming as well.”

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Read More at OneNewsNow By Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow

The mysterious killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist this week has led to speculations about the real motives behind these coordinated operations. This latest is the fourth of its kind in the past two years.

As the news of the assassination broke out, a number of well-known pro-Iran lobbyists started to blame Israel, the U.S. and the main Iranian opposition group the Mujahedin-e Khalq, MEK, for the killing.

Richard Silverstein an American-Jewish blogger who supports Iran’s nuclear ambitions to be “legitimate” got the headlines in Iran’s state-run media. The assassination was a “joint Mossad-MEK operation,” he wrote. The story was based on an uncorroborated claim by his “confidential Israeli source”. A similar thing happened in November 2011 when an explosion at a base of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards killed 17 Guards members. Silverstein then claimed that explosion was a joint venture by the Mossad and MEK. His only proof was an unnamed Israeli source. When pressed whether his ‘source’ had ever broken such stories before? Silverstein replied “I’d rather not be more specific.”

Trita Parsi, a U.S.-based Iranian lobbyist with well-established links to Iran’s authorities, who helped the regime launching a massive campaign to maintain the MEK on U.S. Terror list last summer, was quoted in the Iran’s state-run media, parroting the claim of a joint Israel-MEK operation.

European Courts tasked with investigating the terror designation on MEK, having looked through all secret materials, did not find evidence linking the MEK with any violent acts since they had declared an end to military operations in 2001.

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Read More at OfficialWire By Abbas Rezai, OfficialWire

The Euro-mess took another turn for the worse over the weekend following news that Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the debt of a flock of European countries, most notably France. Last night markets weakened across Asia as once again the rest of the world looked at Europe and wondered just how those people were going to get out of this debacle.

As Via Meadia readers know, while Franco-German politics are not the root cause of the eurozone’s woes, the deep division between Germany and France over the way a European monetary union should work is crippling the eurozone and has prevented a clear strategy from emerging to cope with the worsening, deepening and widening crisis.

France wants the ECB and the currency union to look like the French state writ large: a strong, centralized authority that supports the big corporations and banks at the heart of the French economy, eliminates the interest rate differential between Germany and France, and accepts external devaluation and internal inflation as reasonable ways to solve chronic budget and adjustment problems.

Germany wants a tight money policy for the eurozone, forcing reform and efficiency on “lazy” Club Med peoples through the impartial and predictable enforcement of firm and inflexible rules.

This is an old policy disagreement; what makes it important now is that overcoming the crisis in the eurozone requires Europe first to decide what kind of money it wants: a French or a German system. The danger of default, not merely in minor countries like Greece, but in large European economies like Italy and even, in a worst case scenario, France, pushes Europe toward answering the question it has long avoided: whose vision will shape Europe’s future?

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Read More at The American Interest By Walter Russell Mead, The American Interest

With one caucus and one primary completed, there is a stampede of media analysts and Republican operatives rushing to proclaim Mitt Romney as the de facto Republican nominee. Despite the fact that only a fraction of the delegates have been chosen and voters in 48 states have yet to cast a vote, there is a definite push to call this political ballgame early.

Why the rush to crown a nominee? A prolonged primary battle with not harm Romney or whoever wins the nomination, it will only make the GOP nominee stronger. A hard fought Democratic Party campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2008 certainly helped Barack Obama become a better candidate.

In contrast, Republicans have not seen a vigorous nomination contest since the epic 1976 race between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately, the GOP favors Establishment candidates who have previously lost and are running for the second or third time. Republicans like to clear the field for the candidate that insiders believe has earned a spot at the top of the ticket. This flawed strategy has given the party two nominees who were major losers: Bob Dole and John McCain.

Thus, we enter the 2012 contest with a front runner, Mitt Romney, who lost in 2008 and never stopped running for president. With a massive war chest and a plethora of party leaders pushing for his nomination, the Massachusetts flip-flopper has plenty of momentum. Media analysts and commentators are already claiming that the race is over and the country will be subjected to a Romney versus Obama race this fall.

At this point, it is way too early to end this primary contest. Voters in the South clearly think differently on most issues than the more liberal electorate in Iowa and New Hampshire. Usually, a moderate candidate like Romney would not do well in a conservative state like South Carolina; however, voters will be influenced by media coverage painting Romney as the eventual winner. Voters like to side with a winner and not “waste” their vote. Romney will also have a huge financial advantage and a Super PAC ready to spend $7 million touting his candidacy.

 Read More at Western Journalism By Jeff Crouere