- Welcome to yet another episode of “homophobic ‘family values’ Republican drunkenly stumbles out of gay nightclub.” This week, California! (CBS13)
- Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) says he and a dozen of his buddies will continue to let Americans die because they cannot afford health insurance. This is the very definition of “pro-life.” (The Hill)
- The RNC has unveiled its 2010 election strategy: exploit our dumb donors’ fear of the black guy. No one could have predicted, etc. (Politico)
- Most House Republicans would rather let schools physically and mentally abuse children than vote for a bill that a Democrat introduced. (Media Matters Action Network)
- HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebeilus has politely asked insurance companies to be more transparent about premium increases. So, no need for a healthcare reform bill then! (MSNBC)
- Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) is such a Washington outsider! After all she has only been there for, oh, twelve years. First person to get pics of Blanche Lincoln in a Razorbacks jersey wins! (CNN)
Archive for posts ‘abortion’
Wanker of the Day
If you want to help prevent low income women from dying of stupak, “A medical condition (subset of sepsis) resulting from unsafe – unnecessarily so – back alley abortions as a result of the ‘Stupak Amendment’ to the 2009 Health Care Reform Bill,” why not give the distinguished gentleman from Michigan a call at (202) 225-4735. John Cole has a suggested script:
Hi, my name is XXXXX and I am from XXXXX, and while not normally a constituent, Rep. Stupak insists on making me with his repeated attempts to kill HCR because of his fetus fetish. Please be assured I intend to donate the maximum amount to any opponent of Bart’s, Republican or Democrat, if he manages to torpedo HCR, and will worked to have him stripped of any and all committee assignments and removed from the Democratic caucus. And this includes if he should have any delusional gubernatorial aspirations.
- FOX News is sad that Barack Obama is so mean to the Senate Republicans, who are just interested in good-faith negotiation! (FOX News)
- Is Texas Gov. Rick Perry totally gay for earmarks? Yes, according to fellow Republican and opponent Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison! (CNN)
- New York Gov. David Paterson will not run for reelection because governing is just so hard! And definitely not because of any domestic violence scandal or abuse of power, or anything. (NYT)
- Black people were much better off as slaves than they are now because they are all abort-o-holics, according to Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ). I for one am looking forward to when Michael Steele has to go on TV to defend this statement. (TPM)
- Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio is all about fiscal responsibility, which is why he will pay back the Florida GOP for the flights he accidentally charged to the state party’s credit card. (Miami Herald)
- Thailand’s highest court fined former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra almost $1.5 billion after finding him guilty of corruption. This practice, known as “accountability,” could never happen in this country! (Guardian)
Wanker of the Day
I am getting on an airplane, so here are some news clips.
- Wingnuts who, like Sarah Palin, aren’t big fans of the whole “book-learnin’” thing are confusing Palin’s memoir Going Rogue with satirical collection of essays Going Rouge. (NY Post)
- In preparation for his presidential campaign, Lou Dobbs says he is reaching out to Latino groups, probably to tell them to get out of his ‘Merica go back to Mexico, or wherever. (Think Progress)
- The White House revealed the magic number of new soldiers for continued war-making in Afghanistan: 34,000. (McClatchy)
- The City of Baltimore will require “crisis pregnancy centers” that do not offer information about abortion to post signs saying so in their waiting rooms. Empowering women to make educated decisions about their bodies is, of course, highly controversial. (WJZ)
- Here is your thing to be thankful for this week: Tom DeLay will return to Dancing with the Stars to preform in the season finale. (Politics Daily)
- Enjoy your Metro ride out to Dulles Airport! Unless, of course, all of the railway bridges collapse while you’re on your way out there. (WaPo)
- Well-known lobbyist group “The Catholic Church” has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) from receiving communion because of his support for abortion rights. (Providence Journal)
- Freshman Sen. Michael Bennett (D-CO) says he will support healthcare reform even if it means losing his seat. Ummm, clearly he has not been in Washington long enough to know never to take such a solid position on anything! (CNN)
- Hamas has agreed to stop firing rockets at Israel from Gaza, in the hope that the IDF will stop bombing Gaza from Israel. Progress! (Guardian)
- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is paralyzed from the chest down resulting from injuries sustained during the Fort Hood shooting. Probably nobody feels very bad about this.
Wanker of the Day Ad Infinitum
RNC Regrets Accidental Pro-Women Stance
Turns out the Republican National Committee’s insurance plan allows its female employees to make their own decisions about their reproductive health. But don’t worry, the RNC plans to change all that:
The Republican National Committee’s health insurance plan covers elective abortion – a procedure the party’s own platform calls “a fundamental assault on innocent human life.”
Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.
Informed of the coverage, RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho told POLITICO that the policy pre-dates the tenure of current RNC Chairman Michael Steele.
“The current policy has been in effect since 1991, and we are taking steps to address the issue,” Gitcho said.
…
“We were not aware of this, obviously, and this will, of course, be fixed,” said James Bopp Jr., a Republican National Committeeman from Indiana. “I think Chairman Steele will see to it that that’s the case.”Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia conservative, said “they need to drop that clause” from the policy or find a new one.
“From a philosophical standpoint, it’s inconsistent,” Kingston said. “It makes me think someone isn’t scrutinizing the purchases.”
Whoops! Wouldn’t want anyone to think Republicans believe women should be in control of their own bodies!
Update: Another interpretation: IOKIYAR.
Failure of Leadership
Before we get too caught up in the incredible ability of Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic leadership to bring together her caucus in support of historic healthcare legislation (and yes, it is true that Pelosi did what many had previously thought undoable), consider this:
When Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) authored an amendment several months ago to prohibit federal dollars from being used to pay for insurance policies that cover abortion, Democratic leaders and health care principals didn’t take his proposal very seriously. As a result it was never subjected to the sort of rigorous analysis that controversial legislation is often subjected to. And now, after liberals were forced to accept the amendment as the price of passing an otherwise progressive health care bill through the House, everyone on both sides of the abortion issue is scrambling to try to figure out what the amendment’s language actually means and the practical effect it would have if enacted into law.
Before the bill passed, nobody really bothered to look at the restrictions on women’s rights in the amendment, and they are monumental. Instead, Pelosi and her team made Bart Stupak America’s national OB/GYN (or, at least, the man standing between you and your OB/GYN) in exchange for a handful of votes. Now, instead of focusing on the number of uninsured Americans who will have access to insurance and the number of insured Americans whose coverage will improve, the fate of healthcare reform rests entirely on abortion.
With pro-choice House Democrats threatening to vote against the final bill if it includes the Stupak Amendment and Sen. Ben Nelson saying he’ll help the GOP filibuster if it doesn’t, the failure of the Democratic leadership to read the Stupak Amendment before allowing it to be put into the bill could be what kills healthcare reform.
Dems Will Have to Find a New Cash Cow to Screw Over
- The gays are tired of the DNC always asking them for money and then totally ignoring them when it comes to, y’know, any political progress, so they have cleverly decided to stop sending the DNC money until said political progress is realized. (AMERICAblog)
- Sarah Palin wonders why anyone would want to move “In God We Trust,” our nation’s motto, to the side of our coins instead of keeping it on the front. Is it because Kenyan Muslims like Barack Obama do not believe in America’s God, the Christian one? Actually, George W. Bush did this thing in 2005 and then undid it in 2007, but still: Muslims! (Raw Story)
- A group of 40 House Democrats has said that they will vote against the final healthcare reform bill if it contains Bart Stupak’s wire coat hanger amendment. So now the question is, will the left cave like they usually do? (Washington Post)
- Oh look, the “Tea Party” is now an official political party in the great state of Florida, joining the ranks of such esteemed parties as the Prohibition Party and the (gasp!) Socialist Workers Party! Good luck with those terrible ballots, Floridians!
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