Thank the Buddhas! It’s Friday!
Posted: October 14, 2011 Filed under: #Occupy and We are the 99 percent!, abortion rights, Barack Obama, morning reads, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, right wing hate grouups, Women's Rights | Tags: letting women die, my big fat T Rex, Obama from cool to cold, occupy Wall Street, religious extremists 23 Comments
Good Morning!
This has been one damn long week! It’s coming to an end with the Republicans who are out to kill women again. A clump of cells is just so much more important because it might be a man in about 9 months, doncha know? A horrible bill that would cause publicly sanctioned death by forced pregnancy crept on to the house floor yesterday.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blasted an abortion bill the House will vote on later Thursday — claiming that the legislation could ultimately make women “die on the floor and health care providers do not have to intervene.”
The bill, called the Protect Life Act, would ban the federal funding for abortions and bar women from using tax subsidies from the health care law to buy insurance that cover abortion – except in cases of rape, incest or the health of the mother. It would also ensure that health-care providers are protected if they believe that performing abortion procedures clashes with their personal beliefs.
“Under this bill, when the Republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor, and health care providers do not have to intervene if this bill is passed. It’s just appalling,” Pelosi told reporters on Thursday. “I can’t even describe to you the logic of what it is that they are doing.”
Pelosi and other Democrats dismissed the bill as a “waste of time” and criticized House GOP leadership for bringing up a bill that isn’t directly related to jobs and the economy – particularly since the abortion legislation has a dim chance in the Democratically-controlled Senate.
“This bill substantively puts women’s health at risk,” said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
Just imagine if there were these kinds of conscientious clauses were attached to all forms of government spending? How many extremist religious views do we have to suffer through in this country? What if every one of us got to walk away from our job responsibilities because we consider something objectionable? This is just more evidence that our society has fallen into the hateful agenda of religious extremists! Their rights to be objectionable should not be given precedent over the rest of society and medical and scientific evidence. Thank goodness this bill will go no further and shame on Boehner for letting the Let Women Die bill come up to a vote.
The House approved an anti-abortion bill Thursday that takes aim at the health insurance subsidies in President Barack Obama’s health care law — and gives both parties another chance to rally their bases over yet another abortion fight.
The “Protect Life Act” would ban women from using the health reform law’s tax subsidies to purchase health plans that cover abortions and would allow hospital and health care providers to refuse to provide abortions if they have objections on grounds of conscience.
The vote was 251-172, with 15 Democrats voting for the bill and two Republicans opposing it.
Republican supporters of the bill, introduced by Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Pitts, say it would merely ensure that no taxpayer money is used to subsidize abortions.
“The left has moved so far that they object to this simple, common-sense measure that would protect taxpayers from having their money go to a procedure they find abhorrent,” said Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.). “Simply put, we must end what Obamacare did. We must stop subsidizing abortions with federal taxpayer dollars.”
Isn’t it shameful that Pompeo should be allowed to so thoroughly lie on the floor of congress? There is absolutely no substance or reality to a word in his quote.
Crazy ol’ Ron Paul had a wardrobe mishap during the debate the other night. It seems he wore falsie eye brows and one went rogue.
X marks the spot where the falsie got away from the brow.
For those of you not yet riveted by the Republican race, Mr. Paul, the dark-horse libertarian with equally dusky brows, was a victim of hot lights, faulty adhesive or merely a devilish optical illusion when his right eyebrow seemed to dip toward the stage at Dartmouth College.
Seen on television, Mr. Paul appeared to have a second, thinner brow under the one headed south, creating a delicate X over his right eye.
Since we’re already on the subject of dinosaurs and other ancient animals that should go extinct, here’s something on the T. Rex.
Tyrannosaurus rex grew faster and weighed more than previously thought, suggesting the fearsome predator would have been a ravenous teen-ager, researchers said Wednesday.
Using three-dimensional laser scans and computer modeling, British and U.S. scientists “weighed” five T. rex specimens, including the Chicago Field Museum’s “Sue,” the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton known.
They concluded that Sue, who roamed the Great Plains of North America 67 million years ago, would have tipped the scales at more than 9 tons, or some 30 percent more than expected.
Intriguingly, the smallest and youngest specimen weighed less than thought, shedding new light on the animals’ biology and indicating that T. rex grew more than twice as fast between 10 and 15 years of age as suggested in a study five years ago.
“At their fastest, in their teenage years, they were putting on 11 pounds or 5 kilograms a day,” John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College in London told Reuters.
Here’s an interesting take on Occupy Wall Street from former NY AG and Governor Elliot Spitzer.
Occupy Wall Street has already won, perhaps not the victory most of its participants want, but a momentous victory nonetheless. It has already altered our political debate, changed the agenda, shifted the discussion in newspapers, on cable TV, and even around the water cooler. And that is wonderful.
Suddenly, the issues of equity, fairness, justice, income distribution, and accountability for the economic cataclysm–issues all but ignored for a generation—are front and center. We have moved beyond the one-dimensional conversation about how much and where to cut the deficit. Questions more central to the social fabric of our nation have returned to the heart of the political debate. By forcing this new discussion, OWS has made most of the other participants in our politics—who either didn’t want to have this conversation or weren’t able to make it happen—look pretty small.
Surely, you might say, other factors have contributed: A convergence of horrifying economic data has crystallized the public’s underlying anxiety. Data show that median family income declined by 6.7 percent over the past two years, the unemployment rate is stuck at 9.1 percent in the October report (16.5 percent if you look at the more meaningful U6 number), and 46.2 million Americans are living in poverty—the most in more than 50 years. Certainly, those data help make Occupy Wall Street’s case.
But until these protests, no political figure or movement had made Americans pay attention to these facts in a meaningful way. Indeed, over the long hot summer, as poverty rose and unemployment stagnated, the entire discussion was about cutting our deficit.
This is certainly an interesting perspective at the Uk Guardian on Obama’s fall from grace! Just read the headline and grabber subtitle: ” How Barack Obama went from cool to cold. Barack Obama’s measured approach won him the White House. So why do supporters think he lacks the ‘fierce urgency of now’? “
There are two particular areas where most commentators and the public feel that Obama has fallen short. The first is the economy. Poverty and repossessions are at a record high, the Dow keeps tanking, the deficit keeps growing and unemployment remains stuck at around 9%. Yet the man who recalled Martin Luther King’s evocation of “the fierce urgency of now” on the campaign trail has struck few as being either fierce or urgent as the nation teeters on the brink of another recession.
“You get the sense that this president, while intellectually engaged, is not emotionally engaged with what the American people are going through,” says Michael Fletcher, the Washington Post’s economics correspondent. “People want to feel there’s someone out there fighting their corner even if that person doesn’t win.”
Charlie Cook, one of Washington’s premier political analysts, believes there’s only so much Obama can do at this stage. “I think the problems are more objective,” he says. “Yes, he tends to lecture and tends to be professorial. I think that’s a problem, but I don’t think it’s the problem. I think eloquence only gets you so far. I think the emphasis was on going on television and trying to explain his agenda, to the point now where I think if the American people haven’t hit the mute button their finger is very close to that button where they just don’t listen any more. If things get better, we’ll re-evaluate, but right now – we’re not listening.”
Drew Westen, academic and author of The Political Brain, thinks they would listen if Obama changed the pitch. “What Americans really needed to hear from Barack Obama was not only I feel your pain, but also I feel your anger. And he’s a person who just doesn’t do anger. And if you can’t be angry when Wall Street speculators just gambled away the livelihoods of eight million of your fellow citizens then there’s something wrong with you.”
Here’s some spicy Cajun chit chat from James Carville who thinks that the Republican field for 2012 is pathetic! This downtown NOLA girl couldn’t agree more with that uptown NOLA boy! It’s actually a fun comparison of republican presidential wannabes past and present. I’ll just go for the lowest blow here.
Moving on to Michele Bachmann vs. Howard Baker (I’m sorry I couldn’t help myself.) Baker served in the U.S. Navy, was elected to the U.S. Senate, was asked to serve on the Supreme Court by Nixon, and served two terms as Senate minority leader. He later received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and inspired the formation of the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee. Could you see Michele Bachmann being nominated for a Presidential Medal in the near future?! Of course, some people might say, to be fair to Bachmann, Baker has never claimed to cure anyone of homosexuality.
Go read them all. It’s a hoot!
So, I’ve got two articles to send off for publication by Sunday and I need to prepare for my paper presentation in Denver a week from today. I think this should get us started on some interesting morning reads! What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I couldn’t agree more. Let’s add an equally common-sense measure that would protect taxpayers from having their money go to wars they find abhorrent.
Why stop there? There is no shortage of programs funded by taxpayers that I find abhorrent. How about if we got an itemized invoice at tax time listing the services we get and how much they cost and let us, the taxpayers, select the ones we’re willing to fund?
Ya think? This was my instantaneous reaction to that line also….
I don’t want to have to pay for Viagra and other ED drugs!
I don’t want to spend any federal dollars on anything have to do with religious indoctrination including stupid Michelle Bachmann’s clinic and a host of other programs. Abstinence education is another waste of money! I also think we should make Congress critterz pay for their own retirement, their own health insurance, and they should receive the median wage and that’s it. Let them eat cake for awhile.
The Right is so busy messing around with women’s uteruses that they have taken their eye off the “jobs” they campaigned on in 2010. Where are they?
And let me add that I caught snipppets of the “debate” on t.v. and there were congressional women pushing this hateful law as hard as the patriarchal men.
Half of this nation has gone insane.
Weird, but when I read this statement the first thought in my mind was that men shouldn’t be patriarchal and women shouldn’t be congressional. I’m sure that’s not what you meant.
No, what I meant was that there were some women members of congress who were in favor of this bill.
Actually, I have a confession to make, Pat. I knew exactly what you meant. It just sort of pissed me that you called the women congressional and the men patriarchal, rather than both of them patriarchal. Maybe I’m too sensitive, I don’t know.
Any comments on Joe Biden and how ‘refreshed’ he looks?
I agree with Spitzer that OWS has got the discussion going on income inequality and bank fraud. And even with the appearance of groups like the 53%’ers – who think we should all just suck up and accept that we’re swirling down the proverbial toilet – at least the conversation is happening.
Also love Carville and agree that the Republicans of old at least had credentials. Reagan ruined that party but good when he solicited the Southern white-supremist religious nutters to join them. (I’m a Georgia girl – I can say that).
And Drew Westen sees through BHO for sure – he’s not the least moved by the plight of so many Americans under duress. We’re just rabble to him and his friends.
The let women die bill is even more upsetting when you put a personal story to it: Women, Watch Your Back — Anti-Choicers Are Gambling with Your Life | RH Reality Check
I was talking to Dr. Daughter about this last night. She says that there are hospitals all over the country adopting these kinds of tactics out of fear. They’re more willing to let individual women die that take on religious extremists.
I feel like I can actually trace what has been going on in this country based on personal experiences I have had since the late 1970s, but it’s very complex.
Hey, I think Ron Paul has a real eyebrow problem, see his new video commercial here and look, the eyebrow is doing the same thing.
Tennessee Guerilla Women: Ron Paul Airs Anti-Choice Ad in Iowa (Video)
I may have missed this video here and my apologies if I did, but I found this spoof on Elizabeth Warren very funny. The woman who plays Elizabeth has got her down precisely.
ROFLMAO!
I read the Carville column last night before I went to bed. Made me roar because he has it so right. Herman Cain is measuring for the drapes in the Oval Office and said he’d lo-o-ove to have JIM DeMINT or PAUL RYAN as running mates.
Dream on, Herman.
Cain’s 999 economic prescription is being trounced on as very bad medicine. It’s what happens when you pull out a sound byte and call it a financial plan.
The House passing the Anti-Life Bill has showed its true colors. A woman could hemmorage, literally bleed out at a hospital or clinic if physicians or medical attendants believed she was losing the unborn either by miscarriage or a botched abortion. Basically these Dark Age miscreants are telling women: your life is worth nothing, your life is meaningless in comparison to our decrepit, thorougly deranged morality.
You can’t make this stuff up.
Congrats once again, Dak. How does it feel the morning after :0).
Federal appeals court just blocks to other sections of Alabama immigration bill, leaves the rest intact.
Our Nobel Peace Prize winning president strikes again, from CNN breaking news:
No wonder the US defense department is the worlds largest single employer.
Democracy based on the 10 commandments?! Gee, this guy sounds like some of the Republicans running for POTUS – is this what our country would look like if one of them gets elected??
There’s actually some interesting connections between these guys and Republican C streeters/The Family and Dominionists. They’re all over Uganda and behind a lot of the worst of anti gay hatred there.
http://www.inlookout.com/2009/11/25/c-street-family-behind-ugandas-death-penalty-for-gays/
I remember seeing the connection to the C Streeters and the family – the dominionists fit right in there. What I don’t know is how much oil is in the area – or minerals. And how much “religion” will show up when both of these commodities are coveted by the US.
I am so sick of this kind of thing – I’m wondering what the State Dept. has to say about the “special forces advisors” in this area. Sounds so much like advisors in Viet Nam – or advisors any place else on planet Earth where we, the US, want something and will allow nothing to stand in our way.
That’s what I was thinking. Sounds like what they said about Vietnam and just sticking a few folks in there to sniff out commie pinkos! We might as well go into two industries in this country — the special police force of the world and imprisoning our population. They’re like the only two growth industries we have besides the parasite classes.