SquareState - Abortion

Stupidest/Most Hypocritical Republican of the Day: Pro-Life TN Rep told Mistress to get an abortion

Zappatero — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 16:14:33 GMT

Not surprised. Another Republican, another Scott, another hypocrite:

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) told his mistress to get an abortion for the sake of his marriage, despite his pro-life views, in a conversation obtained by the Huffington Post. Rep. DesJarlais, who supported the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" - a bill that included "forcible rape" language in one of its early drafts - demanded that his lover end her pregnancy, saying, "You told me you'd have an abortion, and now we're getting too far along without one."

He'll probably pay cash...

UPDATE: Tape released recently from his own 2000 recording. He's a Physician and, being a Tea Partier, of course hypocritical about the fact that his mother was a government nurse: "Scott's mother was a nurse of 44 years at Fort Meade Veterans Hospital." He just doesn't need or want any part of that government thing no matter how much he benefitted from it.

Over My Dead Body (Literally)

peacemonger — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 04:37:33 GMT

Republicans have declared a War On Women, attempting to take away their right to make their own health care decisions, including the use of contraception for family planning and medical reasons. They've also introduced hundreds of bills into state legislatures across the country which attempt to introduce "personhood clauses", which encroach upon women's reproductive rights. These bills are usually presented in ways that play upon the sympathies of women, by using stories from current events. In Colorado, HB1130 uses the tragic story of a pregnant woman who was hit by a car and killed, to sneak in a definition of life as beginning with a fertilized egg.

As a suburban mother, a former preschool and religious school teacher, and one of nine children raised in a conservative home, I might have fallen for their tactics. Fortunately, I've been paying attention for too long.

If the Republicans were really interested in protecting babies, rather than playing to their base for donations and votes, they would not have exempted doctors from prosecution in the CO bill. Medical malpractice in obstetrics and gynecology is a huge problem, but they exempted doctors in HB1130. Why? Because the AMA is a large contributor to the Republican Party.

If Republicans were really interested in protecting babies, they would be making sure fewer young and poor women were becoming pregnant. How? By covering contraception under every insurance plan in these United States.

If Republicans were really interested in protecting babies, they would be investing more public funding in higher education. Women who go to college are far less likely to become unmarried mothers than women who do not.
I've shared my own traumatic pregnancy story in blogs before. What I did not share was what was going through my head in the minutes between being told my life depended on having a D&C, and actually having one. In a nutshell, I had been a stay-at-home mother of a one-and-a-half year old, married to a graduate student. I was four months into my second pregnancy when I awoke one morning in a pool of blood. At the hospital, I was given an ultrasound and told I was no longer carrying a fetus, but Gestational Trophoblastic disease.

The condition started with a molar pregnancy (hydatitiform mole, a condition where the fetus becomes crowded out by pre-cancerous tumors within the uterus which are fed by pregnancy hormones, resulting in rapid abdominal growth mimicking a normal pregnancy). I was told the ultrasound indicated the fetus was no longer viable, but in very rare instances, sometimes they still can be. Once the uterus fills with the tumors, and bleeding begins, the woman will bleed to death unless she is emergently given a D&C. While I sat waiting for my emergency surgery (I was bleeding heavily at the time), I thought of my conservative upbringing, my previous anti-abortion beliefs, and my own toddler at home, waiting for his Mommy to come home.

I knew I had no choice but to have the D&C because my life depended on it, and even in the very small chance the ultrasound was wrong about the fetus being non-viable, not having one meant certain death for me and the fetus, anyway. Still, my grief over losing a wanted pregnancy, coupled with the terror of waking up in a pool of blood, was second only to my strong sense of guilt. Although I had every reason to believe I was doing the right thing, and I had even fought for the ERA while in college , I was suffering from what mental health experts call "internalized oppression" -- the belief that somehow I wasn't qualified to make my own decisions about my own life.

I could have died that day. I could have bled to death. And if I had, my baby at home would have not had a mother.

Damn Republican legislators for making any woman value her own life less than the "life" of a handful of cells the size of a walnut. Damn Republican legislators for using a woman's personal decisions about her own life to get donors, or votes, for their own political advancement. Damn Republican legislators for valuing women below their own greedy career aspirations and the opportunity to make money as lobbyists later on.

I had that D&C, and received close monitoring from my personal physician, a radiologist, an oncologist, and an endocrinologist for the following year. I was told I might not be able to have more children because the precancerous tumors were very aggressive and advanced, and the inside of my uterus looked like it had been through a lawnmower. Fortunately, a biopsy said the tumors were benign, and I did not have any of them travel to any other parts of my body.

Two years and eleven ultrasounds later, I gave birth to Jonathan Lincoln. His name means, "A gift from G-d". Two years after that, I gave birth to Jordan Eric. Every day since then, I privately thank G-d for ending that pregnancy before I had to do it myself. Every day, I thank G-d for giving me all three of my children. Every day, I thank G-d I made the right decision; the decision to save my own life --- with no looking back.

I am adamantly pro-choice because of the many situations where it is unwise or dangerous for a woman to continue a pregnancy, and I will fight to the end for every woman to make her own health care decisions.

At the same time, I am no ogre; I do feel compassion for a fully developed fetus that could live outside the womb if it were delivered. We must find ways to have a civil, intelligent dialogue that balances the needs and rights of a woman, the educational, psychological, financial and health care needs of an infant after birth, and scientifically-proven fetal development. We cannot have this discussion as long as American society refuses to care for women and children, and continues to deny them the basic necessities of life -- food, shelter, health care, clean air and water, etc. When all sides can come together in reason, committed to caring for every person on this planet, and absent from religious dogma, maybe we'll make some headway on this issue. Until then, we must always protect a woman's right to choose.

To the Anti-choice Republicans in the CO State Legislature, if we have not yet met, I look forward to the day we do. When that happens, I will look into your eyes and ask you, "Would you really have let me die?"

Join me and thousands of other women on April 28th at 10am for a March and Rally Against the War On Women At Civic Center Park. Someday, the life you save, may be your own. www.unitewomen.org

BREAKING: "First Degree Homicide of the Unborn Child bill" Passes Second Reading At CO State House

peacemonger — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 08:11:00 GMT

Horrible news for women's rights from the state House tonight.

From State Rep Daniel Kagan(D) regarding HB 12-1130:

"...we were unable to prevent the Republican majority in the House from passing on second reading the First Degree Homicide of the Unborn Child bill. Under some circumstances, it makes both termination of pregnancy and the use of the morning after pill a homicide. It also confers personhood on a newly fertilized egg."

Squarestate readers may believe this bill will be stopped in the Senate. Tea Party legislators have been successful in passing 135 bills nationwide to limit women's reproductive rights this year. To assume it cannot happen in Colorado is a dangerous assumption.

Please call your State Representatives and demand justice for Colorado women. Tell them to vote "No" on this bill, which is a partial step toward completely outlawing abortion in Colorado. http://www.leg.state.co.us/cli...

Also, save the Date: March Against the War on Women, April 28th, 2012, at the Denver Capitol.

2012: The War On Women's Bodies, and How To Respond Legislatively

peacemonger — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:35:18 GMT

Pro-zygote, anti-woman bills are being presented all across the nation, in an effort to awaken the evangelical Republican base before the election of 2012. Most of these bills have been written by, or championed via Personhood USA.

In Oklahoma, our not-so-distant neighbor, Senate Bill 1433 states a fetus "at every stage of development (has) all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state." If Senate Bill 1433 becomes a law, all forms of abortion and various forms of contraception could potentially be considered murder, and therefore illegal.

Democratic State Senator Constance Johnson, attempting to make a point, attached
an amendment to the Oklahoma bill that would ban the spilling of semen in any location other than a woman's vagina. Unfortunately, Senator Johnson then withdrew her amendment, which would have made masturbation illegal.

A like-minded State Senator, Democrat Jim Wilson, also added an amendment to the same bill, requiring the biological father of the child to be financially responsible for the mother's welfare during the entire pregnancy (put your money where your mouth is, conservatives!), including housing, utilities, food, transportation, and all medical care expenses. As you may have guessed, this amendment also failed.

A similar bill to Oklahoma SB 1433 was defeated at the polls in Mississippi in November, 2011. Clearly, the point still needs to be made, and not just in Oklahoma.

In CO, their strategy is a little different. Personhood USA is once again attempting to amend the Colorado constitution through a statewide initiative, similar to the earlier Amendment 62. Amendment 62, in a nutshell, said a fertilized egg is legally a separate and distinct human being, and aborting one is murder. We know from previous elections in Colorado, this initiative will probably not pass. Voters have resoundingly defeated similar bills twice.

Still, Coloradans are concerned about what is happening all over the country, and it is merely a matter of time before our state legislature will be handed an anti-choice bill here. According to NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado, which released a 2012 study of pending legislation all over the United States:

The report shows that states enacted more than twice as many anti-choice measures in 2011 as the previous year, and the legislative landscape could open the door to even more attacks in 2012.
"The findings in this report should spur every American who values freedom and privacy into action," Keenan said. "Last year, we predicted that our opponents would ignore the public's call to focus on the nation's immediate challenges, such as the economy. Sadly for women, our predictions came true at near-record levels. Lawmakers waged a War on Women, and as a result, women in many states will see more political interference in their personal, private medical decisions. In some cases, women could lose access to reproductive-health services they currently have."
Keenan said 26 states enacted 69 anti-choice measures in 2011, the second-highest number since the organization started tracking such data in 1995. The record is 70, set in 1999. Since 1995, states have enacted 713 anti-choice measures.
Keenan said two pro-choice governors, Mark Dayton of Minnesota (D) and Brian Schweitzer of Montana (D), vetoed anti-choice bills and kept 2011 from breaking the record for state-level attacks. NARAL Pro-Choice America dedicated the publication to these gubernatorial champions.
The outcome was quite different in other states. For instance, while former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas (D) vetoed eight anti-choice bills over the course of her tenure, her successor, Gov. Sam Brownback (R), signed five anti-choice bills into law in his first year in office. Kansas tied with Arizona and Florida for enacting the most anti-choice measures this year.

Colorado needs to stand together to defeat the latest incarnation of Amendment 62, and be ready when the next pro-zygote bill is presented at the state legislature, as well. As a concerned citizen, I respectfully offer the following tips to our state legislators, when faced with a piece of anti-choice legislation.

Attach any of these as amendments: 1) The mother is allowed to claim the zygote as a dependent on her taxes, 2) Give the zygote a vote beginning with the next election, as interpreted by the mother (pray for twins ladies -- you'll get three votes), 3) Give the zygote the right to collect Social Security, food stamps, and other "entitlement" resources, 4) Give the zygote residential status beginning at conception, 5) Attach an amendment saying fathers owe child support beginning at conception.

The persistence of the evangelical right to strip women of their personal, private decisions regarding the health of their own bodies is not funny. Personhood USA, and its supporters, are incredibly persistent. As progressives, we need to also be persistent in protecting the rights of women everywhere. Sometimes, it takes a little humor, or a little shock-value, to wake some people up to the serious ramifications of ill-thought out legislation. In this regard, Colorado is at least as clever as her neighbors, is she not?

"Bipartisanship" In Action

WeatherDem — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:52:33 GMT

How successful has the bipartisanship only strategy of governing by "Democrats" worked for Americans? Pretty damn well ... if you're a Republican Teabagger. One only need look at recent developments to see just how well this strategy has worked to enact liberal policies:

Michiganders face lower unemployment insurance payments and stricter eligibility rules.
Kansas is trying to become the state with the fewest abortion-licensed facilities: 0. Remember, abortion is a legal medical procedure. Other states are trying to ban this legal procedure, regardless of rape, incest, or health of the mother. Are the Teabaggers screaming that this is a prime example of a big, intrusive government limiting freedom? Hell no, they're not. They have a Black Man in the White House to delegitimize.

Democratic "leaders" are seriously considering ending Social Security and Medicaid. Perhaps they're volunteering to do it just so the Republican Teabaggers won't have to.

The cost of illegal, undeclared, unpaid invasions and occupations the U.S. has perpetrated since 2001? $3.7 trillion. Perhaps those Democratic "leaders' should work to stop the occupations. That could just stop our hurtling into greater and greater debts and deficits.

Atmospheric CO2 concentrations set another record high this year: 394.35ppm. The globe was the warmest in 2010 than at any other point in recorded history - and likely at any time in tens of thousands of years. 2010 and 2011 have seen more extreme weather events as a result of climate change than at any point in recorded history. These conditions will only get worse as long as Democrats keep acting "bipartisanshipy" with Republican Teabaggers and never stand up to the dirty energy industry.

So to all the pro-"centrists": how well is the country doing? This list took less than 5 minutes to assemble. There are hundreds of other similar examples. Maybe it's time Democrats demanded their elected officials do what they promise on the campaign trail or go work to elect a different Democrat. This is what voting for the lesser of two evils has brought us. We're still walking down the path toward evil. It's time to do something else.

On Reopening For Business, Or, What? No Flying Cars?

fake consultant — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 11:05:41 GMT

So I took a bit of a break this past month, and I figured by the time I came back y'all would have things sorted out: people would be surely by flying around with jet packs by now, God would have sent fires and floods to smite the unrighteous, and, if I really got lucky, Barack Obama would have "grown a pair".

And now that I'm back, debt negotiations are about to commence between that same Barack Obama and the Republican Congressional Leadership, things like Social Security and Medicare cuts are apparently on the table in order to protect tax cuts for the rich, and certain quarters of the Republican Party aren't even trying anymore to hide their racism.

All of which suggests that I shouldn't be looking for a jet pack anytime soon.

But there is some good news: God is apparently working hard, and states like Oklahoma and Arizona and Florida and Georgia and Texas have been alternately aflame or aflood, apparently as a result of their unrepentant behavior...and on the economic front, New York City's Stonewall Inn is going to make a ton of money this summer hosting weddings.

That gives us a lot to talk about...so let's get right to it.

Pessimism is cowardice. The man who cannot frankly acknowledge the "Jim-Crow" car as a fact and yet live and hope, is simply afraid either of himself or of the world. There is not in the world a more disgraceful denial of brotherhood than the "Jim-Crow" car of the southern United States; but, too, just as true, there is nothing more beautiful in the universe than sunset and moonlight on Montego Bay in far Jamaica. And both things are true and both belong to this, our world, and neither can be denied.
--From "On Being Black", by W.E.B. DuBois

We gotta start with the most "WTF?!?" news first: Personhood USA is a group that figures the only reason we want to make sure that abortion rights are protected for women who are raped, either by members of their own family or others...is because we really don't understand how wonderful it can be for women to enter motherhood in this way, or for those children to enter the world; all of which presumably means that for these folks, the dark cloud of rape and incest has a silver lining that the rest of us never really think about.

To help make the point, and to help advance legislation that basically says that as soon as two sets of haploid chromosomes become a diploid a child is born (this to try to criminalize abortion in the State), Personhood Mississippi sent their representative, Rebecca Kiessling, on a week-long "Conceived in Rape Lecture Series".

"I am not the rapist's child!", Kiessling declares in a written statement, which I personally think is going to be tough to sell to some poor kid who's been forced by law to sit down at Thanksgiving dinner next to his father and grandfather - and there's only one guy sitting there. Especially in a State that isn't exactly big on providing mental health services to these victims.

But let's move on to happier subjects:

I live in Washington State, and for the past several years Democrats in what you might think is an aggressively liberal State are fighting a losing battle to keep it that way; much of this, frankly, rests on the shoulders of Governor Christine Gregoire, who, not unlike many other Democratic leaders nationally, has simply not chosen to take the fight to the Republicans.

But this may change, as Congressman Jay Inslee is apparently going to announce his candidacy for the State's top office on Monday.

I have to confess that I personally am looking forward to this, as Inslee has been pushing a lot of issues that I care about over the years, including real health care reform and an energy policy that tries to remove Saudi Arabia from their position as America's "best frenemy forever".

I don't have the exact quote handy, but I once saw Inslee, on the floor of the House, describe a Bush budget as having the same effect on someone as it would be if you hit them over the head with their own artificial leg, and I've been a fan ever since; if he takes that attitude to the campaign and governing we'll be the better off for the effort.

The number of states looking to screw over their workers is growing fast, and so far Barack Obama hasn't been able to locate those "comfortable shoes" he said he'd be putting on so he could march right alongside those same workers.

I want to be helpful here, Mr. President, not mean...so maybe you might want to check out the Nike Factory Store over there at the outlet mall in Potomac Mills, which is out in Virginia just a bit past Arlington National Cemetery. (It's right next to the Burlington Coat Factory and that Japanese place in the food court). I have shopped at one of those Nike stores a time or two, and they have lots of comfortable shoes - and boots, too, which are really great for marches.

Now I like these right here - but I wouldn't pay $120 for 'em; instead, I'd wait for them to drop to below $50...but workers in Wisconsin and Ohio and Michigan and New Jersey don't have that kind of time, so if I were you I'd pay the extra money and treat it as a campaign expense or something...and then I'd actually fulfill my promise and get out and wear those shoes, before the Republicans start running that pesky YouTube video as a campaign ad...which, sooner or later, they probably will.

When Osama Bin Laden was killed just a mile or so from Pakistan's military academy we all wondered how it was possible for the world's most wanted man to be there and, somehow, no one in authority knew about it.

And now (alleged serial killer, notorious Mob boss, FBI informant, and "Next Most Wanted Man") Whitey Bulger was just captured a few blocks from the Santa Monica pier, in an apartment he rented for 15 years, which just happens to be 4.5 miles from the FBI's Los Angeles field office up on Wilshire Boulevard.

Just sayin'.

Not a word from me about Anthony Weiner. Instead, go read what K.Flay had to say about all this, as she has it exactly right. (If you visit she will also, out of the kindness of her heart, hook you up with lots of her music, free of charge, which is très sweet.)

Olbermann is back, if you did not yet know, on Al Gore's Current channel, which means you probably have to go to the website to see him (unless you have either DirecTV, or Dish, or a cooperative cable company), but it's worth the effort.

Since Current lacks content, he can be seen "on air" at nearly any hour of the day (the "official" time: 8 PM weeknights on the East Coast, 5 on the West), which reminds me of "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" in a couple of ways (much respect, "Vanguard"); we'll be watching to see how that shapes up over time with great interest.

Next up, perhaps the best story of "taking your enlightenment where you find it" in history:

So the Dalai Lama walks into a bar and tells the bartender:
"Make me one with everything"

Does everyone remember that guy in Florida a few weeks back who said God wanted him to burn the Qur'an, so he went out and burned him some?

Has anyone noticed that, just a few weeks later, Florida is now so overwhelmed with fires that they are running out of people to send to fight them...and that most of them, evidently, were started by lightning?

So...does that make you more or less likely to be an atheist - or a comic - or do you find that compassion in the face of the bad karma of others is the right way?

In our final comment today, we offer congratulations to New York's LBGT community, who, thanks to the passage of marriage equality legislation, are now just as free to be just as miserable as any other married couple in the State. In your honor, we'll close out today's story with a joke, courtesy of the great Henny Youngman:

So the wife and I are laying in bed, and she looks over at me and says: "What's the matter, honey? Can't you think of anyone else either?"

On Open-Source Entertainment, Or, Today, Jon Kyl Meets Twitter

fake consultant — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 09:57:04 GMT

So Arizona Senator Jon Kyl went and did a stupid thing the other day by claiming on the floor of the Senate that 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is related to abortions, and that, by God, we need to cut that Federal funding for abortions, and we need to cut all Federal funding for Planned Parenthood-and we need to do it today.

Of course, that 90% claim was total hooey; it turns out that only 3% of Planned Parenthood's work relates to abortions. (The Federal funding for abortions part is, too; the Hyde Amendment made such funding illegal decades ago.)

When confronted, Kyl's office released a statement claiming the Senator's comments were "not intended to be a factual statement".

Sir Rev. Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA, decided to have a bit of fun with Kyl, and he challenged his audience to Tweet their own "Not Intended To Be A Factual Statement" about Kyl.

I decided to compose a Tweet of my own...and then another...and before I knew it I had an entire story's worth; that's why, today, we'll be taking a taking a short break from the daily grind to have a bit of fun with a man who truly deserves it: Jon Kyl.

...I decided to celebrate Jon Kyl's ground-breaking excystplanation last night by tweeting round-the-clock nonfacts about him:
"For the past ten years Jon Kyl has been two children in a very convincing Jon Kyl suit" and "Jon Kyl calls all Asians 'Neil' no matter what their name is".
Both of which would be libelous if I hadn't added the hashtag notintendedtobeafactualstatement.
Well, Nation, you picked this up and ran with it, using my hashtag to tweet your own nonfacts as an uprece-tweeted rate of 46 per minute!
Which, incidentally, is the rate at which Jon Kyl catapults puppies into the sea.
--Stephen Colbert, speaking on the "Colbert Report", Wednesday, Apr 13, 2011

So I did a bit of math, and if Colbert is correct about that "46 a minute" thing then about 65,000 tweets went up in the 24 hours following his announcement, and they're still going up fast; check out #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement at Twitter to get a feel for what I'm talking about.

Two Tweets by other writers sort of "bookmark" the types of missives that have been presented; Ben Cobb, writing as @MoltenPanther, Tweeted...

Jon Kyl started a squirrel farm to form a massive squirrel army in preparation for the coming apocalypse.

...and John Q, writing as @PencilName, wrote:

During an emergency, Jon Kyl can be used as a flotation device.

So with that in mind, here's a few of my #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement submissions:

Jon Kyl's head once served as a landing light for Senator James Inhofe at the Eufala, Alabama airport.

Jon Kyl listens to Radio Disney--and doesn't know those are cover songs.

Jon Kyl likes KFC better than Popeye's.

It used to be John Kyl...but he lost the "h" in 1979 after a night of drinking, and now he can't find it.

"The KylBot AZ Mark II v.3.6505 is experiencing software malfunctions. Please try again later..."

Kyl's head brushed against Trump's hair on an airport runway last night. 450 passengers aboard, 0 injured.

On Saturday nights, John Kyl likes to dress up as a giant pretzel and get "stuffed in an M&M"

Why is Kyl so crazy? He gets 5 cents per page view every time he's in The Onion--and he needs the money.

Jon Kyl once caught Larry Craig eating Cheeze Whiz right out of the can.

Jon Kyl once impersonated Flip Wilson so he could appear in the movie "Uptown Saturday Night".

The most popular strain of medicinal marijuana in the United States today is "Jon Kyl".

Jon Kyl can see Russia from his house.

Jon Kyl's Malcolm X poster is covered by a Robert Mapplethorpe poster...so that no one will ever know...

Jon Kyl once snorted coke, but the bubbles really hurt his nose.

215,856 of Jon Kyl's constituents signed a petition asking him to start smoking.

Jon Kyl's iPhone has a dial.

Joe Arpaio is blackmailing Kyl with whatever's on his original birth certificate.

I know where Lemmywinks is tonight--and so does Jon Kyl's colon.

If Jon Kyl was a chicken-fried steak at Denny's he would give you diarrhea the next morning.

Jon Kyl's skull recently committed suicide. It was leading an empty life.

Jon Kyl never got that "Mulva" joke.

Powdered Toast Man once told Jon Kyl to go butter himself.

Jon Kyl once tried phone sex, but he didn't have enough lube, so he had to quit.

Jon Kyl's favorite kink is to dress up like a fence and play "Border Crossing".

From 1977 to 1981, Jon Kyl appeared onstage as Tommy Chong. Cheech Marin was never told of the deception.

Jon Kyl used whiffleball bats for his entire Major League Baseball career.

On his days off, Kyl plays Carl on "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".

Jon Kyl provides sanctuary for up to 800 illegal immigrants at a time in his at-home underground bunkers.

Wendy Williams' wig head Shakeetha has a restraining order out on Jon Kyl.

Jon Kyl once had Hansen's Disease--but then he got his "Mmm Bop" removed.

If Jon Kyl was in "Star Wars" he'd be known as Luke NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement-Walker.

Jon Kyl's Danny has never met its Dingo.

Jon Kyl once tried to Baskin his Robbins.

Jon Kyl's brain has seen the news reports, and now it doesn't want to come back from vacation.

Every defibrillator in Arizona recently signed a letter refusing to revive Jon Kyl.

If John Boehner's tears ever touch Jon Kyl, he'll dissolve.

So there you go: now that we've started the day out with a bit of fun, why not waste a bit of your boss' time and direct a few Tweets of your own to Kyl?

And don't forget: be smart, be funny, and be sure to add #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement to those Tweets-because after all, you don't want to be out committing libel now, do you?

Idaho To Force Rape Victims To Carry Their Assailants Baby

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:08:32 GMT

There is something about a woman's ability to control her reproduction that the Republicans and Teahadists just hate. There is nothing reasonable about it, there is no way to give it respect or credence as a deeply held view. That they claim a moral justification based on their religion does not make it any less a violation of the rights of an adult human to decide when and if they will reproduce.

Which does not stop these people who claim to love the freedom of the United States from trying to inject the law into every uterus in the nation, by putting tighter and tighter restrictions on abortions. This time it is the Idaho State Legislature.

They have passed a bill that would make the performance of an abortion on a woman who is twenty weeks pregnant a felony in Idaho. To make matters worse, they have not included any exceptions for rape, incest, fetal deformation or the mental or psychological health of the woman. Only if the pregnancy is going to kill the woman is there any exemption.

You might think that I am Christian bashing when I say this about religion but let me give you the quotes from a couple of legislators that supported this heinous piece of woman hating legislation. From the Think Progress article:

"Is not the child of that rape or incest also a victim?" asked Rep. Shannon McMillan, R-Silverton. "It didn't ask to be here. It was here under violent circumstances perhaps, but that was through no fault of its own."[...]
The Idaho bill's House sponsor, state Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, told legislators that the "hand of the Almighty" was at work. "His ways are higher than our ways," Crane said. "He has the ability to take difficult, tragic, horrific circumstances and then turn them into wonderful examples."

Yeah, you read that right. These assholes think that God will make the trauma of carrying your rapists baby all better. Because you know that so many things are fixed by God, like blindness or poverty or an incestuous parent. Oh, wait, that's right! These things are not fixed by some invisible sky friend. Most of the time when horrible unfair things happen to people, it is just something they have to live with, regardless of what Ms. McMillan and Mr. Crane prattle on about.

There was only a single Republican who voted against this bill and we should give credit where credit is due, that takes guts in Idaho. Not that it mattered the vote was 54-15 in favor.

While there are some pro-life Democrats out there in elected office, lets be clear there is only one party that wants to treat woman as baby factories and that is the Republican Party. They want to shame the sluts, they want to punish women who get pregnant even if they were sexually assaulted. After all they must have been asking for it, no?

This kind of shit makes my blood boil. It verges on inhuman. There is one little bit of irony in this stance of making women bear the consequences of being raped. It is quite like the barbaric laws in some Islamic nations where a raped woman is punished for the crime more often than the perpetrator. You would think that the folks in Idaho would spun up to be so close to the scary Muslims that they probably hate.

In then end extremists are extremists and they always look more similar than not. There can be no better term for them than Teahadists.

The floor is yours

South Dakota To Make Killing Abortion Docs "Justifiable Homicide"

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:58:45 GMT

One of the ways that the anti-choice activists ply their trade it to intimidate doctors who provide abortions. They put out wanted posters, they show up at their houses, they even make up rhymes like "Tiller the baby killer" and repeat them again and again and again. Then some of their wacked out number actually attack and in cases like Dr. Tiller kill them.

The defense from these people is often that they are trying to prevent the "killing of unborn children". This has been rejected by all courts who have had it presented to them but if South Dakota has its way, that will no longer be true in that state. The Republican backed bill House Bill 1171 would make it legal to offer an affirmative defense killing someone if they are attempting to harm the unborn child of any person.

The whole amendment reads :

Homicide is justifiable if committed by any person in the lawful defense of such person, or of his or her husband, wife, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant, or the unborn child of any such enumerated person, if there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony, or to do some great personal injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished.

If the law was just talking about a felony it would not be as much of a problem, there are many states that will add a second count of assault or murder if the woman is pregnant at the time. But it is the great personal injury that makes this a real problem for abortion doctors. That bit of added fluff is very vague and the anti-choice movement has been trying for along to time to assert that great personal injury comes from abortions, even if the woman wants the abortion.

Further, it would be easy to argue that great personal harm to the fetus is the result of any abortion. This whole amendment is designed to backdoor so-called "personhood" for fetus in the Mount Rushmore State. Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard has a nice run down of this issue, you can find it here .

The net affect of this law could be to allow family member or even employer of a pregnant woman who wants an abortion to kill a doctor or nurses who are preparing to perform this legal procedure, even if the woman wants the abortion! If enacted, as seems likely since Republicans control the entire legislature in SD, this amendment would make it much harder for any doctor to even consider performing abortions in that state. As it is there are no abortion providers who live and practice in South Dekota, the only provider is flown in once a week by Planned Parenthood. From the article:

"The bill in South Dakota is an invitation to murder abortion providers," says Vicki Saporta, the president of the National Abortion Federation, the professional association of abortion providers. Since 1993, eight doctors have been assassinated at the hands of anti-abortion extremists, and another 17 have been the victims of murder attempts. Some of the perpetrators of those crimes have tried to use the justifiable homicide defense at their trials. "This is not an abstract bill," Saporta says. The measure could have major implications if a "misguided extremist invokes this 'self-defense' statute to justify the murder of a doctor, nurse or volunteer," the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families warned in a message to supporters last week.

This is the kind of thing that we on the Left should be pointing to when the Right claims they are not encouraging a climate of violence. To provide for an active justifiable homicide defense by singling out fetuses is just throwing fuel on the fire of the very violent anti-abortion movement. The 23 murders and attempted murders of doctors who provide abortion in less than 20 years shows that this is a real issue. To give a clear and active defense to those who would commit such heinous acts really would take the lid off of this. Up to now we can be fairly sure that the idea of going jail has prevented some of anti-choicers from acting out violently. If this law goes into affect it will not be the last state it is introduced in.

Beyond the fact that South Dakota Republicans want to force all women who become pregnant to bear these children (which is just heinous beyond belief) there is also the legal end point of establishing personhood. When does that happen exactly? The forced pregnancy crowd will tell you at conception. The problem there is that most women don't know they have conceived right away. It takes until after their missed period to be detected. Then there is the issue of miscarriages. One in three pregnancies end in a miscarriage. That means that there would have to be coroners reports and investigations of foul play for many of these very natural events. The cost alone would be prohibitive.

It is always worth pointing out that that same people who rail against "Big Government" want to intrude into the wombs of every single woman. They want to control and punish them for sexual activity. It is beyond sick to me. As a man I don't think that I have a whole lot to say about a woman having an abortion. It is her choice, it is her body and carrying a child to term is not a casual thing. It can lead to all kinds of physical complications even if she decides to give the child up for adoption. For men to insist on every woman who gets pregnant have the child is abusive on the face of it.

You might want to take a couple of minutes to write the governor of South Dakota and tell him that you will not be visiting there nor will you spend any money with companies based in his state as long as they are going to make it legal to kill abortion doctors. You can contact him here .

I am just going to leave you with the though that came from a tee shirt my mom had back in the 70's "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament". I think that is being proved very true by the actions of the assholes in South Dakota.

The floor is yours.

Seriously Republicans, When Are You Going To Work On Jobs?

Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:35:45 GMT

It has been a fun thing to shout "Speaker Boehner where are the jobs?" on the blogs and in real life, but the question is starting to become more than rhetorical. The Republicans spent most of 2010 talking smack and outright lies about jobs. You all know the story, they claimed, loudly and constantly, that the stimulus program did not create a single job (a flat lie) while at the same time going to ribbon cutting ceremonies for projects that were going to be built with stimulus money.

They've called everything "Job Killing" from the ACA to the trying to assure the safety of deep water drilling rigs before we had even started to clean up the Gulf of Mexico. It was all about how regulation of any kind was killing jobs. It was all about how if we did not make sure that millionaires and billionaires keep their undeserved Bush era tax cuts that there could not be "certainty" in the market and jobs could not be created.
And you know what the American people bought it, for the most part. They looked around and took a stick the body that actually passed lots of things which would have addressed these issues, the House of Representatives. While the Republicans might think that this was a mandate for their policies (it wasn't) the more likely answer was that the public, dealing with unemployment numbers they had not seen in a generation and persistent unemployment they had not seen in nearly a lifetime wanted to put the people they heard talking the loudest about jobs in the driver seat for a while.

All of which makes it more stunning that the House Republicans have not put forward a single jobs bill. Not one in the whole month of January. Congress can be a busy place, lots of things can be moving forward at the same time, but isn't it strange that the supposed high priority item of jobs for the people has not had a vote?

We've seen votes on repealing the ACA, which would actually cost jobs and is not really what the people want according to all the polling. We have seen proposals on limiting abortion rights. We have even seen a snap vote on a Patriot Act extension, which went down because they could not wait for the regular calendar rules and had to have a 2/3 majority.

If I wanted to be charitable I might say that they were working on it and these were things that they could get going right away. Maybe the committees are hammering something out? Not very likely. What we are hearing from the committees is more of the same. Rep. Darrel "Viper" Issa is talking about subpoenaing all the names and records for every Freedom of Information Act request under the guise of seeing if the Obama Administration is playing politics with them. This is a particularly galling example of the pot calling the kettle black after the criminal Bush years and its countless violations of the Hatch Act.

Then there is Rep. Peter King who claims that he has been told by law enforcement officials that leaders in the Muslim Community are not cooperating with them to identify radicalized people. He plans to hold hearings where no law enforcement official will testify but just Muslim leaders. Can you say McCarthyism?

Then there is Majority Leader Cantor who is saying that his party is going to vote in a budget that will forbid the use of any money to implement the ACA. Which, of course is not going to help with the jobs situation either. Of course Cantor is also the guy that thinks Congress should only have two weeks on then one week off, even in the midst of all the crises the nation faces.

In fact it is hard to see where any Republican is talking about jobs except in the context of saying that X or Y piece of legislation is "job crushing" or "job killing". It seems that Republicans think that the reason we are in the jobs situation we are is all the fault of the Obama Administration. I know they are masters of living with cognitive dissonance but lets remember which administration had a net zero job creation number. That was the Bush administration.

For all the free market and hands off policies of the Republicans and Bush administration the economy netted zero jobs for all eight years. By the end of the Bush administration we were losing nearly 1 million jobs a month. We saw the greatest loss of wealth in this nations history due to lax enforcement and deregulation and that was a Republican plan.

The Republicans have talked and talked and talked about jobs and job creation, but like so much of their rhetoric it is based on articles of faith instead of empirical evidence. I know that Republicans don't value critical thinking very much, how could they hold the positions they do if they did? But when we are talking about the problems of 5% of the population of the nation in terms of unemployment, you would think that this culture war bullshit would take at least second place.

Still, when you have members of Congress who don't understand that their health care is government subsidized or that they are considered government employees it is a little easier to see where this comes from. Not that it makes it any better.

In the end it comes down to having to push them and push them constantly. So, with all seriousness, Speaker Boehner, where are the jobs? When do we get a jobs plan from the Republicans? What is it exactly that redefining rape and limiting abortion rights is doing to put our 15 million plus unemployed citizens back to work? And why is it that you don't want to do the work of the people when you are pulling in nearly three times the national average salary?

The floor is yours

Preaching to the Choir

magpie — Fri, 28 May 2010 00:43:11 GMT

Can I just say it? Catholic hospitals are scary and policies based on Catholic directives threaten women's lives.

From the NYT: A woman with a life threatening pregnancy walks into a Catholic hospital in Phoenix. A committee agrees to save the woman's life by terminating the pregnancy. A nun on the committee gets excommunicated and has "resigned at the bishop's request."

Why?

Because

"The mother's life cannot be preferred over the child's," the bishop's communication office elaborated in a statement.

Why does this matter to Coloradans? After all, it took place in a hospital in Phoenix.

1) Catholic hospitals are merging with secular hospitals. (What is the status of the Colorado Sisters of Mercy merger? I lost track of it.) Archbishop Chaput, Bless his Heart, seems to be on team Phoenix.

2) People try to claim that abortion bans, like Amendment 62 -- Eggmendment Redux-- don't need exceptions for the life of the mother. Yeah, they do. We can't assume that every hospital, lawyer, or doctor will assume that "of course" you save the woman's life -- when good nuns are sent to hell for voting with a committee to save a woman's life.

Scott McInnis: Chairman for Choice

WHC — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:49:36 GMT

In another edition of Things that Make me Sick, Scott McInnis is flip-flopping on the most sacred of things in life: freedom of choice (get it?).

The Denver Post shows us that it was just last year Scott McInnis was chairman of Republicans for Choice. This year, by coming out in support of the latest rendition of the horribly slaughtered personhood amendment of 2008, he denies having any knowledge of his chairmanship that whatsoever.

Scott, we aren't going to let this go. Not only do you support unconstitutional profiling, you're now playing career politician with women's lives. Set the record straight. You can't just shave us off like some unwanted scumstache.

"Queen was unavailable for comment"

magpie — Wed, 05 May 2010 01:10:30 GMT

Favorite last line in a blog post today: "Queen was unavailable for comment."
It is absurd and cruel that any prison any where shackles women during childbirth. So, thank goodness SB 193 made progress in the senate today.

Of course, some meathead tried to add an amendment that would confuse the issue with abortion politics, and Mitchell made a pithy (silly, quotable?) remark about Voldemort.

(Yes! Use an incredibly popular young adult series to summarize 37 years of post-Roe politics. Do I admire it or detest it? Can't decide.)

But, then Jessica Fender somehow condensed the absurdity into a Queen song.

And, sometimes your political debate just needs a little more Freddie Mercury.

Eggmendment 2010 Gets Enough Signatures

Fong — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:44:32 GMT

UPDATE: Personhood CO confirms

I just received word that Personhood Colorado, the proponents of the "eggmendment" measure to give due process and property rights to fertilized eggs has acquired 46,671 signatures to get back on the ballot. After petitions were thrown out by the Secretary of State for having unacceptable notarizations, the organization was allowed a few more weeks to collect 15,000 more signatures to cure the discrepancies resulting from the tossed petitions.

The previous measure, Amendment 48, was defeated in 2008 76-24% and was touted by opponents as "simply goes too far."