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“Women Deserve an Apology” and an “American Tragedy”

Posted: March 28, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: U.S. Politics, War on Women, Women's Healthcare |32 Comments

Carolyn Maloney asked for and received an apology from Derrald Issa who accused her of lying. Maloney and colleagues used a question of personal privilege to ask for the apology.  The House recognized the reason as valid.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Tuesday apologized to committee member Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) for accusing her of stating an “outright lie” during a February hearing about federal policy on contraception coverage.

The now-famous February hearing is the one where the first panel on the issue of contraception included no women, prompting Maloney to ask, “Where are the women?”

In a March 21 story published in the Rancho Santa Fe Review, Issa said, “Carolyn Maloney then made the famous statement, where are the women? That was an outright lie, and she knew it when she said it.”

Republicans have argued that Democrats had their chance to invite women to the first panel, that there were women on the second panel, and that Democrats have been overplaying the idea that Republicans purposefully sought to block women from testifying.

Issa’s committee held the Feb. 16 hearing to discuss possible violations of First Amendment freedom of religion by way of the Obama administration rule that employee insurance plans carry contraception coverage even when the employer is a religious organization that does not believe in birth control. Maloney and other Democratic lawmakers had invited Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke to testify on the benefits of contraception coverage, but Issa did not allow her on the panel.

Issa’s hearing launched a number of personal attacks on Sandra Fluke–notably by radio jerk Rush Limbaugh–and has lead to a number of protests to stop the Republican Assault on individual rights of women to access both birth control and abortion.

In an action today, Bobby Rush was given an escort off the floor of Congress for removing his suit jacket to show that hoodies are worn by many people.  Boehner has a strict dress code so Rush–while citing Bible verses–was hammered down by the acting speaker.

Rush was escorted off the floor for “wearing a hat” in violation of the decorum rule.

At this point in his remarks, Rush took off his jacket to reveal that he was wearing a hoodie underneath it. He covered his head with the hood, violating a rule in Congress that prohibits wearing hats on the House floor.

“Racial profiling has to stop, Mr. Speaker. Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum,” Rush added, swapping his spectacles for a pair of sunglasses.

At this point, Rep. Gregg Harper, a Republican congressman from Mississippi who was serving as the presiding speaker of the chamber, called Rush out of order. Rush continued reading a passage from the Bible before being escorted out of the chamber.

The hoodie has become something of a symbol during the national outcry which has followed Martin’s death, especially among those who think the killing was racially tinged. Since then, protesters across the nation have joined in various so-called “Million Hoodie Marches” calling for justice for Martin’s death and decrying racial profiling in America. Several members of the Miami Heat NBA basketball team also recently posed for a photo in hoodies, heads bowed, in tribute to Martin.

I’m bringing both of these incidents up in one post with the hope that we’re beginning to see some protests about the way the House of Representatives has been handled recently.  Majority parties go out of their way to quash dissent.  Perhaps this signals that the minority party is beginning to find a voice and their backbone.  It also seems to indicate that Boehner enforces dress codes better than he enforces committee rules.

32 Comments on ““Women Deserve an Apology” and an “American Tragedy””

  1. Tim's avatar Tim says:
    March 28, 2012 at 2:49 pm

    Just would like to know if Radio Jerk is Rush Limbaugh’s new official title. I like it, it’s catchy and informative. Made me lol too.

  2. ANonOMouse's avatar ANonOMouse says:
    March 28, 2012 at 3:14 pm

    I isn’t there a House Decorum rule against the Speaker of the House being Orange on the House Floor?.

  3. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    March 28, 2012 at 3:37 pm

    Does Antonin Scalia Know What’s in the Affordable Care Law?

    The obvious answer from Dave Weigel’s post is no, no he doesn’t.

    • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
      March 28, 2012 at 4:02 pm

      Scalia never reads anything. He just opines based on what his dick tells him to do.

      • RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
        March 28, 2012 at 4:53 pm

        I’d like to think my dick was smarter than that 😳

      • ANonOMouse's avatar ANonOMouse says:
        March 28, 2012 at 5:00 pm

        LOL!!!! 🙂

      • Beata's avatar Beata says:
        March 28, 2012 at 5:53 pm

        My college Yiddish professor’s definition of a “schmuck” : Someone with a penis where his brain should be.

        Scalia certainly qualifies.

      • Beata's avatar Beata says:
        March 28, 2012 at 6:37 pm

        NW Luna: In Yiddish, schmuck ( shmok ) literally means penis. As a slang word, it means someone who is a jerk. There are slang variations like schmo and schnook.

        Yiddish is a very rich language, particularly for insults.

    • NW Luna's avatar NW Luna says:
      March 28, 2012 at 6:14 pm

      I though “schmuck” was what was thrown away after a circumcision?

      There should be an Anatomical Insult Trivia game.

  4. janicen's avatar janicen says:
    March 28, 2012 at 3:47 pm

    I stood up and applauded after watching that youtube of Maloney. It really moved me.

    • dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
      March 28, 2012 at 4:04 pm

      I caught it on CSPAN. It was really wonderful. It really says something that she had to officially ask for an apology. Issa is a thug. The big ones always wear blue suits. Hoodies be damned.

      • janicen's avatar janicen says:
        March 28, 2012 at 4:20 pm

        Yeah, there will always be thugs, but we can either shrug it off or stand up to them. She stood up to him and I love her for it.

      • ANonOMouse's avatar ANonOMouse says:
        March 28, 2012 at 4:59 pm

        Thanks for the YouTube of Maloney, she is great. She was very outspoken after the hearing, talking to anyone in the msm who would listen. The Issa hearing was nothing but a sick joke, with women the butt of it. And Rush Limbaugh’s slut-shaming of Sandra Fluke was an outrage I’ll never forget. Contrary to what some right-wingers and their apologists say, the issue of choice and the coverage of women’s reproductive health needs in HealthCare isn’t going away. If Republicans and their enablers don’t know it now, they will see that we WILL remember in November.

      • ANonOMouse's avatar ANonOMouse says:
        March 28, 2012 at 6:04 pm

        “Just wanted to say that we’re so happy to read your comments here!!! I’m glad you found us!”

        I hope that was for me, if so thank you Dak. I think your blog is great, I’ve been an admirer of your work and the commentary of many of the commenters & bloggers here for quite some time. I decided to give up lurking and weigh in. Thanks to everyone for making me feel welcome.

  5. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    March 28, 2012 at 4:08 pm

    Poet Adrienne Rich, 82, has died
    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2012/03/adrienne-rich.html

    Adrienne Rich, a pioneering feminist poet and essayist who challenged what she considered to be the myths of the American dream, has died. She was 82.

    The recipient of such literary awards as the Yale Young Poets prize, the National Book Award, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and the Dorothea Tanning Award given by the Academy of American Poets, Rich died Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz of complications from long-term rheumatoid arthritis, said a son, Pablo Conrad.

    She came of age during the social upheavals of the 1960s and ’70s and was best known as an advocate of women’s rights, which she wrote about in both her poetry and prose. But she also wrote passionate antiwar poetry and took up the causes of the marginalized and underprivileged.

  6. RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
    March 28, 2012 at 5:45 pm

    These radicals seem determined to take us back to a pre-1937 America. This 10th Amendment argument is the big kahuna,

    TPM: Conservative Justices Flirt With Radical ‘Obamacare’ Rulings

    Many legal experts we spoke with in advance of the arguments were surprised that the court agreed to hear the challenge to the health care law’s Medicaid expansion in the first place. Every lower court rejected it. If the Medicaid expansion falls, the implications for federal power — and programs from Medicaid to transportation to civil rights — would be jeopardized.

    • RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
      March 28, 2012 at 5:57 pm

      As an aside, only an estimated 60 million people could be helped by that Medicaid expansion. Too bad the Court doesn’t care about them.

    • RalphB's avatar RalphB says:
      March 28, 2012 at 6:06 pm

      If they get away with this, what else will be sacrificed to ‘states rights’?

      SCOTUSblog: Argument recap: Will Medicaid be sacrificed?

      Unless a closing oration by a top government lawyer stirs some real sympathy for the poor, the new health care law’s broad expansion of the Medicaid program that serves the needy may be sacrificed to a historic expression of judicial sympathy for states’ rights. It probably would require the Court to be really bold, to strike down a program passed by Congress under its spending power, and to do so for the first time in 76 years, but the temptation was very much in evidence in the final round of the Court’s hearings this week on the Affordable Care Act. If that happens, it probably would be done by a 5-4 vote.

  7. dakinikat's avatar dakinikat says:
    March 28, 2012 at 6:18 pm

    Romney Tells “Humorous” Story About His Father Shutting Down A Factory In Michigan

    http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/144683485.html

    At the outset of the call, Romney said he has some connections to Wisconsin.

    “One of most humorous I think relates to my father. You may remember my father, George Romney, was president of an automobile company called American Motors … They had a factory in Michigan, and they had a factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and another one in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” said Romney. “And as the president of the company he decided to close the factory in Michigan and move all the production to Wisconsin. Now later he decided to run for governor of Michigan and so you can imagine that having closed the factory and moved all the production to Wisconsin was a very sensitive issue to him, for his campaign.”

    sick sense of humor, I’d say

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