As noted yesterday in this space, the GOP’s war on Planned Parenthood has nothing to do with federally funded abortion, since there’s no such thing. It’s not about saving money either, since family planning and contraceptive services are more cost-effective than their absence.
It’s about religious fanatics imposing their narrow views on the rest of us. It’s about controlling women by taking away their access to reproductive health care. Like religious fanatics and would-be women controllers worldwide (e.g., the Taliban), our homegrown fanatics couch their arguments in terms of what’s best for women.
GOP politicians and anti-abortion zealots (the former being a smallish subset of the latter) don’t want to let the current fiscal crisis go to waste, not when it can be used deny women constitutionally protected reproductive rights. This explains the brainlessdemagoguery around Planned Parenthood, which doesn’t receive a nickel of taxpayer money to perform abortions.
Now the zygote fetishists at American Life League (where every sperm is sacred) have released a video that likens Planned Parenthood to Bunny Blenders—only worse, because Planned Parenthood puts newborn babies into Cuisinarts:
Again, Planned Parenthood doesn’t receive a nickel of taxpayer money to perform abortions and is barred by federal law from doing so. The funding Mike Pence and other anti-choice zealots are targeting pays for stuff like contraception, STD treatment, Pap smears, etc.
These folks are using helpless, fluffy little bunnies to impose their “sperm + egg = BABY!!11!1!!” fantasy on the entire country. They have no shame. And their attempt to remake America into The Handmaid’s Tale will fail because the Senate, unlike the House, hasn’t been overrun by hard-right extremists.
But hey, the Republicans and Democrats are exactly alike anyway, so it doesn’t matter if the Senate changes hands in 2012 or if Mike Huckabee becomes President of the Republic of Gilead United States. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise is just using reproductive rights as a cudgel to keep women in the Democratic harem.
The anti-gay bigots at National Organization for Marriage (NOM) hotlinked a cartoon at their blog. “That was a mistake,” said the cartoonist, Zach Weiner, who promptly changed the image and sent a message NOM didn’t want to hear:
Heh! And speaking of awesome guys named Zach, the NOM blog highlighted the debate in Iowa over whether it’s proper to deface the Iowa State Constitution with anti-gay graffiti, a subject addressed by engineering student Zach Wahls, whose moving defense of his family was linked here a couple of days ago. Even the NOM-NOMs had to give it up for Mr. Wahls, despite disagreeing with his “understanding of marriage.”
[Via TPM] South Dakota Republican Hal Wick sponsored a bill in the statehouse that would require every adult to purchase a gun. The point wasn’t to increase gun ownership; it was to illustrate that the health care reform bill is unconstitutional because it requires citizens to purchase health insurance.
Wick wrote the following in the Rapid City Journal:
If the federal government can order every one of us to buy health insurance because we need medical care, it makes just as much sense for us to require everyone to have a weapon to provide for their protection.
TPM’s Eric Kleefeld followed up with Wick, confirming that yes, the bill is a stunt, and yes, Wick views a gun mandate in the same light as the health care reform mandate: unconstitutional! Then Kleefeld dropped the FounderBomb:
I then asked him whether he had opinion on the gun mandate that was signed into law by Washington in 1792. “I wasn’t aware of it,” he said after a short pause. “Is it still on the books or has it been removed?”
I explained that the Militia Acts were amended many times over the course of this country’s history, and this provision was phased out a long time ago.
In the course of the interview, I asked whether this would change his opinion on individual mandates. “No,” he said. “I really don’t feel like a gun mandate would be constitutional under these circumstances.”
What does he mean by the circumstances?
“Well, it was shortly after the Revolutionary War, and it was before the War of 1812,” he said, “which may have been something that was on the radar screen—that they knew there could be another challenge coming from overseas. I’m not a history major, though.”
He’s not a biology major either, I guess, since it’s a pretty safe bet that everyone is going to require access to health care at some point. Jesus, these people are stupid.
Jobs, schmobs, American public. The Republicans have a much more important agenda and now that they’ve (in their minds) repealed health care reform it’s time to move to the next highest priority on their list. Redefining rape for purposes of federal abortion funding !
And, no, they’re not making it more liberal. No, INDEEDY! Citing the high priority of this issue, the Rethugs have introduced the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” with 173 sponsors. Mainly, duh, Republicans.
But we already have laws preventing federal funds from being used for abortions, you say. With exceptions for rape, incest and health of the mother, of course. Silly reader! We have laws preventing federal funds from being used for abortions with exceptions for rape, incest and health of the mother but U R DEFINING RAPE AND INCEST RONG!!!
Contrary to what you thought you believed dear readers, rape is not rape unless it’s forcible rape! And incest is not incest unless u r under 18! All others need not apply. Note especially that statutory rape is not really, truly rape (unless, of course, it’s your uncle doing you). Neither, for that matter is date rape, rape of a drunk or drugged person or, best of all, rape of women with “limited mental capacity”. He didn’t rough you up and break your nose? Sorry, sister slut! Carry that baby to term.
The proposed law has other odious provisions such as not allowing for non-sanctioned abortions-due-to-rape to be paid for from HSA’s! Or deducted on your tax return! Yay! We’re well on our way back to the days of keepin’ em barefoot and pregnant with this here Republican Congress, thanks to, well, you know who y’are.
I don’t want to be telling you about your business or anything, but seriously, what the fuck?
Like most Americans (and a good percentage of yourselves, I’ll wager), I was blissfully unaware of Congresswoman Bachmann’s existence until Obama was elected president, which apparently caused her to turn the crazy up to 11 and rip off the knob.
Shit happens, Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, and we could have let bygones be bygones. But then you went and returned this braying nincompoop to Congress—after she’d demonstrated repeatedly on TV that she’s one Red Scare away from taking up residence in a Minneapolis dumpster and leaping out at passing schoolchildren to scream about Alger Hiss.
Why, Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, WHY? You can say it’s none of my business since I don’t live in Minnesota, but I’m sorry, you made it my business when you sent this barking loon back to the US Congress.
Do you think Bachmann gives a shit about getting federal aid for snow removal, badger remediation or shit like that? Hell no, Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District; she’s just using you to get face time on Hannity. And bringing shame and dishonor on the Land o’ Ten Thousand Lakes.
So thanks, Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, for extending the Michele Bachmann Cirque du Stoopid for another two-year run. Fuckers!
[Please note this rant does not apply to Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District voters who voted for the opponent of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.]
According to an “insider” report, Droopy Dawg is packing it in; he will not stand for reelection in 2012. He’s scheduled a press conference to announce his future plans tomorrow. This raises a couple of troubling questions:
1) Who will dust John McCain’s wattles and fluff Lindsey Graham’s Bette Davis commemorative needlepoint throw pillows?
Lieberman redeemed himself somewhat with his efforts on the DADT repeal, but I’ll never forget what a colossal douchebag he was during the 2008 election or what a gigantic, throbbing hemorrhoid he was during the health care thingie.
If this rumor proves true, good riddance to the sanctimonious, mewling windbag.
Ill-prepared wannabe GOP representative Jim Renacci tries banging the HCR repeal drum at a townhall meeting, only to be comprehensively outplayed by a well-informed audience member. Hilarity ensues.
I got tired of knocking myself on the head with a kitchen mallet, so for a change of pace, I tuned into the Greekchorusofdoom surrounding Obama’s appointment of Mssrs. Daley and Sperling to key administrative and advisory roles—and even read a bit of Obama-and-the-Dems-failed-us in comments right here at the ‘Roast. The headache didn’t go away.
To summarize: Weee-told-you-so-Lucy-in-a-veal-pen-snatching-the-football-away-from-Charlie-Brown-under-the-bus-Obama-is-an-empty-suit-corporatist-who-took-my-penis-the-GOP-always-wins-the-Dem’s-messaging-sucks-blah-blah-blah.
To which I could respond: Change-has-always-been-incremental-grow-up-here’s-your-goddamn-pony-Naderite-most-progressive-president-since-FDR-health-care-and-student-loan-reform-finreg-DADT-repeal-would-you-rather-have-McPalin-blah-blah-blah.
But you know what? Fuck it. I don’t want to write about it, and you don’t want to read it. Instead, I’d like to share a couple of thoughts about why Democrats, liberals, progressives, “thanks-progressives” and our ilk have a greater communication challenge and tougher sledding in general when it comes to getting shit done:
But, IYAR, I guess, you just choose not to believe inconvenient news.
Or you get all hot and bothered over the fact that repeal would ZOMG!! reduce spending!! And that deficit reduction thingie? It comes from bad things like increasing taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Can’t have that. No indeed.
Even if, as Steve M points out, the incentives in the law for small businesses to provide health insurance coverage are actually working, health care reform is still a bad thing. As Steve points out:
Do right-wingers want to increase health care access? No. Do they want to reduce the deficit? No. Do they want to protect well-off people and big corporations from any tax increase for any reason, ever? Yup.
And is it more important to them to scream about “killing jobs” than to care about killing, through lack of access to affordable health care, actual people? Again, yup.
You remember Rep. Steve King, R-IA, last heard opining that the Pigford II Settlement, intended to compensate African Americans and Native Americans for years of discriminatory practices against them by the federal government, was really just fraudulent slavery reparation payments shoved through Congress by the “very, very urban” black, blackity Preznut (or so he says). And that most of the money was going to shiftless city dwelling drug addicts anyway.
Well now this steaming turd of a person is *arguing* that the commerce clause of the Constitution does not apply to health care reform because some people never, ever even access health care in their whole lives.
King argued that there are people who never even use health care—and therefore a law requiring them to buy insurance is unconstitutional.
“There have always been and likely will always be, babies that were born, lived and died within the jurisdictions of the individual states,” he said, “who never cross a state line, access no health care and therefore do not impact interstate commerce. Therefore, to compel someone who fits that category to buy an insurance policy” does not fit under the interstate commerce clause.
When Rep. Jared Polis asked him to “find the baby that was not born in a hospital or with a midwife, who did not receive inoculations” King’s reply? The ones that get thrown in garbage cans. I. Kid. You. Not. Check it out for yourself.
And I guess it would be perfectly appropriate to request that this deranged asshole FOADIAF too.
And of course, front and center, repeal of Obamacare, even though Repubs admit it has no chance of passing.
And then, once they don’t pass repeal, they will pass their own health care reform act that is essentially just like, um, Obamacare. Without the, you know, mandate. Which the Pubs were actually all for in the days before they weren’t.
And the upcoming, probably endless, hearings being proposed by ex-car thief Darrell Issa to root out all the corrupt corruption in Obama’s corruption filled corrupt administration should just act as a background sideshow. Which we can turn to for amusement while watching the Repubs pretend to deal with the deficit.
Get your front seats now, folks. It’s going to be three ring circus here soon.
One of my least-loved parental duties is taking my kid in for shots. Like most kids, she hates it. And as someone who is absurdly terrified of needles even as an adult, I can’t find it in my heart to tell her to stop blubbering because it won’t hurt that much. It’s a filthy lie.
Years ago, I had to have a tetanus shot after accidentally sticking my hand in a metal ceiling fan. (I was stretching. And I’m tall for a chick.) I was in a curtained-off bay in the ER, blubbering with terror at the impending shot, and I overheard the doctor, who had not yet seen me, ask a nurse where my mother was. He was surprised when the nurse told him I was 20-something, so my mommy wasn’t with me!
Anyway, on a recent trip to get a dreaded immunization, I noticed this illustration for an immunization poster. Oh, they tried to make the syringe look friendly, with its little yellow boots, cocked brow, wink and grin. But it’s still got a goddamn stabby thing sticking out of its head!
I don’t find it convincing, and it’s not fooling any kids either.
