Earlier this morning, as part of her "Defund Planned Parenthood" bus tour, Lila Rose returned to the Perth Amboy, New Jersey Planned Parenthood clinic, the location of the first video she released of Planned Parenthood staffers allegedly helped sex-traffickers.

Lila Rose's bus tour, sponsored by the conservative Susan B. Anthony List, and called "Women Speak Out: Defund Planned Parenthood," is just about over. The tour, which started on March 7 and runs through Friday, March 11, made a number of stops and was intended to cover 13 congressional districts across Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

And, at nearly every stop along the way, supporters of Planned Parenthood were there to counter Rose's anti-Planned Parenthood advocacy.

Abby Johnson, a former director of a Bryan, Texas, Planned Parenthood clinic, and a convert to the anti-abortion cause, has yet to respond to stories that her conversion story is chock full of holes.

Live Action's two most media-centric and public activists, Abby Johnson and Lila Rose, are once again ramping up the heat against Planned Parenthood. Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood clinic director whose conversion from pro-to-anti-choice was greeted enthusiastically by the anti-abortion movement, is challenging Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards to a debate over taxpayer funding for the organization. Rose, meanwhile, according to a LifeNews.com report is leading "a women-led tour across the county to press for revoking its taxpayer funding" for Planned Parenthood.

Between Johnson's story of defection, and Rose's high profile and ethically challenged surreptitious videos trying to entrap Planned Parenthood staffers into illegal behavior (http://www.truth-out.org/gop-legislators-and-anti-abortion-groups -turn-up-heat-planned-parenthood67954), the young women have become two of the most public faces of the anti-abortion movement.

Mike Huckabee, searching for solid ground amongst evangelical conservatives in his possible battle for the Republican Party's presidential nomination, claims that President Obama was raised in Kenya, where there are madrassas, not Rotary Clubs, and he slams actress Natalie Portman for the upcoming birth of her out of wedlock baby.

Over the past few years, America has gotten to know former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee pretty well. During that time, despite his penchant for the Religious Right's social agenda and a series of mean-spirited anti-gay statements, he's seemed like a personable guy: he's affable, somewhat sensitive and has a self-deprecatory sense of humor. He plays the guitar and most of the time plays fair with guests of a different political bent on his Fox News Channel program.

He has even occasionally been willing to butt heads with prominent conservatives, like when he recently refused to get on board the Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Bachmann bandwagon bashing Michelle Obama for waging a battle against obesity. Huckabee would like to be seen as a man of principle; saying what he means and meaning what he says.

Over the past week or so, however, Huckabee appears to have turned his good-natured Dr. Jekyll into a snarky Mr. Hyde.

Last summer, the National Enquirer claimed that Hinn, who runs a huge faith-healing ministry, was involved in a "torrid affair" with Paula White, the head of another evangelical ministry. Now, Hinn is being sued by a Christian publisher that claims he violated the "moral turpitude" clause of their book contract. Despite these travails, Hinn's "Miracle Crusades" continue to draw thousands.

I'm not sure if it's time for Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker to move over and make room for Benny Hinn in the televangelist's wing of the Hypocrisy Hall of Fame, but it's starting to look like Hinn just might deserve a spot.

Last summer, the National Enquirer - admittedly not the most credible source of journalism but one that has gotten this affair-type stuff right on more than one occasion (think John Edwards) - ran a story accusing Hinn, the well-known televangelist and faith healer, of having a "torrid affair" with Paula White, another well-known televangelist.

While Newt Gingrich is going around the country courting conservative Christians and complaining that America is "too secular a society," its "religious belief ... [is being] challenged by a cultural elite," and "God is [being] driven out of public life," his 527, American Solutions for Winning the Future, became the No.1 fundraising committee during the 2010 election cycle.    

Anyone who has even remotely followed the career of Newt Gingrich knows that you can definitely count on a few things from him: He has an opinion on just about everything; he thinks he's the smartest guy in the room; he's prone to making bone-headed statements and then tries to walk them back; his Gingrich enterprises are running 24/7, churning out books, videos, movies, op-ed pieces, websites, tweets, and You Tube videos; he's always raising lots and lots of money for his work; and, the capper, he wants to be your president.

Another thing you can be fairly certain about Gingrich is that these days he will go practically anywhere at any time in order to profess his religious beliefs.

Abby Johnson, a former director of a Texas Planned Parenthood clinic, has been hired by Lila Rose's Live Action, the group surreptitiously video taping visits to Planned Parenthood clinics in order to entrap staffers into illegal behavior, as its Chief Research Strategist.

What if the heart-wrenching story she's been telling for more than a year about the event that changed her from being a pro-choice advocate to becoming an anti-abortion spokesperson isn't true? As a result of her story, she's gained a measure of celebrity, financial security and has become a sought after speaker at anti-abortion events and a frequent guest on conservative radio and television programs. Now, her story, as explained in her new memoir, has led her to Lila Rose's anti-abortion group, Live Action.  

Welcome to the new world of Abby Johnson.

GOP Legislators and Anti-Abortion Groups Turn Up the Heat on Planned Parenthood

With the new Republican-controlled House, and more anti-abortion legislators in states across the country, Planned Parenthood is coming under increasing attacks from the right. These attacks need to be vigorously countered. However, stories of Planned Parenthood "malfeasance" documented by surreptitious videos taped by phony clients have made the organization even more of a target.

In a recent blog post Paul Krugman piqued my interest in Ettore Gotti-Tedeschi, the Director of the Vatican Bank, or as it is officially called, the Institute for Religious Works.  How does my Church's banker-in-chief view the current economic situation?  

What I learned left me nervous.

The Resurrection of Ted Haggard as Orchestrated By (Wait for It!) ... Ted Haggard

Four years ago, after Pastor Ted Haggard, then one of the most important and influential leaders of the Religious Right, was discovered to have bought crystal meth and to have had a series of sexual encounters with a gay prostitute, he was banished from his church and his hometown. It was a national scandal that recalled the dalliances of televangelists Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. On his way out the door, Haggard signed a lucrative settlement, getting paid handsomely to go off into the wilderness.

He was to retreat into the Arizona desert, get counseling and stay away for awhile. Instead he returned home to Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was given about a $200,000 severance package and was to have nothing to do with his former church - the 10,000 to 14,000-member New Life Church where he pastored for more than 20 years - or its parishioners, but now, he keeps running into them at various spots around town. He was supposed to stay away from the media, but instead he and his wife Gayle appeared in an HBO documentary, on Oprah and Larry King, and had dozens of other media moments. He wasn't supposed to start up his own church, but now he's got St. James church, which he founded last summer in his living room, and is holding forth in a middle school cafeteria. And he no doubt has plans for something bigger.

Oh, how the mighty had fallen, and oh, how the once mighty is picking up the pieces and creating a new brand.

"the military has turned away from a values system based on reason and experience alone. We are instead pursuing a values system that's ultimate source of right and wrong is defined by religious, primarily Christian, principles. This method enables our military to have moral absolutes." - Army Chaplain [then] Lt. Col. Ron Huggler, who professes to have helped revise the Army's Field Manual 22-100, on leadership

Recently, controversy has arisen over the United States Army's "Spiritual Fitness" doctrine and program. Included as part of the Army's mandatory Comprehensive Soldier Fitness test is a "Spiritual Fitness Test", based on Army Regulation 600-63 on Health Promotion, which defines "spiritual fitness" as a component of combat readiness. The Army has claimed the Spiritual Fitness program was inspired by the World Health Organization. But Lt. Col. Ron Huggler, who says he helped rewrite the Army's revised version FM 22-100 manual on leadership (released in October 2006) asserts the US military has turned to the promotion of explicitly Christian principles.

Trying to nudge his way into Republican Party's 2012 presidential sweepstakes, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is out promoting "Courage to Stand," his new book. But no one's buying it!

When Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father" was published in 2004, less than two weeks after introducing himself to the nation with an enthralling speech at the Democratic National Convention, the book caught fire. In November 2009, a little over a year after she accompanied Sen. John McCain down to defeat in the presidential election, Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" became an instant bestseller, and she solidified her position as the most market-friendly conservative in the country.

While Tim Pawlenty probably doesn't anticipate doing nearly as well as either Obama or Palin, nevertheless, these days he's doing the full media Monty promoting his newly released memoir, "Courage to Stand." At the same time, the former Minnesota governor is testing the waters for a 2012 run for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.  Being relatively unknown outside of Minnesota, it is incumbent upon him to create his own narrative, tell his story and get people comfortable with his persona.  Thus far, his efforts have sunk like a stone.

A group led by a longtime gun lobbyist is petitioning the Vatican to make a nineteenth century Passionist seminarian "the patron saint for hand gunners."

I am not making this up. But the lobbyist's case for making an existing saint, Francesco Possenti also a patron for hand gunners, appears to be a fabrication.