abortion

Now It’s Nelson’s Turn

This is something me and a lot of the opposing factors to the latest HCR bill saw coming the other night when Democrats caved to Lieberman:

Nelson's key points:

Asked if he would vote for cloture even if his initiative to restrict abortion were adopted, Nelson flatly said "no."

Nelson not only said a vote before Christmas was not feasible, he joked about it taking until next Christmas.

Nelson said unless the bill's Medicaid expansion provisions were made optional he would oppose cloture.

Nelson said the bill's revenue provisions were unacceptable because the economy was bad.

Nelson said because the subsidies which provide the bill's coverage expansion couldn't be paid for without additional revenue, they needed to be "scaled-back"

Nelson also that unless cost control were addressed first, coverage couldn't be expanded.

So if the Medicaid expansion becomes optional then what about mandates? If Ohio decides to drop out and leave our current Medicaid requirement at 100% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), does that means someone at 101% of the FPL will now have to fork over for insurance? And if the answer to that is yes, then how much out of pocket will they pay for it with Nelson’s desires to scale back subsidies?

Honestly I can’t blame Nelson for this move one bit. He saw Lieberman get exactly what he wanted, so why not go for what he wants. It’s the same thing any of us would do, and the result of a weak Democratic leadership who has set a precedent to cave to these types of demands. So don’t go blaming Nelson for this – blame the Democrats, including the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Republicans Should Know About ‘Death Panels’

It turns out that abortion wasn’t the only thing covered in the RNC health insurance. Take a look at what Think Progress found out:

But ThinkProgress has noticed that Cigna, the RNC’s health insurance provider, also urges beneficiaries to think about end-of-life services. Cigna’s website has a page called “Care at the End of Life,” which covers topics such as how to talk with “loved ones” about “end-of-life choices” and whether to stop life-prolonging treatment:

Again – this is “bad” for you, but perfectly fine for employees of the RNC. This shows that every argument Republicans have made against healthcare reform were fake. If they were serious about abortion or end of life counseling they they wouldn’t cover those things in their parties insurance policies.

You got to love it when people play politics while thousands upon thousands of American citizens suffer and die. How can the Republicans even claim to be the “party of life” after they have been exposed for these hypocrisies this week?

Malkin Labels Republican Candidate As A “Radical Leftist”

Dede Scozzafava is a Republican candidate for NY-23. Last night she held a dinner and afterwards someone from her campaign called the police on John McCormack from the Weekly Standard. Here’s what he says about it:

I spotted Scozzafava later as she was walking to the parking lot, and asked her: " Assemblywoman, do you believe that the health-care bill should exclude coverage for abortion?" She didn't reply. I asked her twice more. Silence.

After she got into her car, I went to my car and fired up my laptop to report the evening's events.

Minutes later a police car drove into the parking lot with its lights flashing. Officer Grolman informed me that she was called because "there was a little bit of an uncomfortable situation" and then took down my name, date of birth, and address.

"Maybe we do things a little differently here, but you know, persistence in that area, you scared the candidate a little bit," Officer Grolman told me.

This sounds like a misunderstanding is all, but let’s look at how Malkin responds to this:

Radical leftist Dede Scozzafava can’t stand the heat

I just read through Scozzafava’s issues page on her campaign site, and nothing strikes me as her being a “radical leftist”. As matter of fact items like these speak the speak the opposite:

Wingnut Wants Public Abortions

From HuffPo:

Anti-abortion activist Lila Rose said at last weekend's Value Voters Summit that as long as abortions are legal, they should be "done in the public square," thus disgusting people into action. And then "we might hear angels singing as we ponder the glory of conception."

Sure I’ll get behind this idea, but only if it is coupled with this one. These wingers that are such war hawks get to go into theater and recover the remains of our soldiers killed in duty. Also they get to be present when the family is informed of their loss. Let them see the gruesome results of their love for war.

Malkin’s Deraingment Syndrome

Earlier today Michelle Malkin wanted everyone to not talk about Dr. Tiller’s assassination and just give time for the family to grieve. Now news has broken about a army recruiter being shot dead and another wounded at a Army recruiting center in Arkansas, and guess what?

I wonder if the Justice Department will send marshals to beef up protection at recruiting centers — especially given the past targeting of military centers on campuses and elsewhere across the country.

I guess the family of the soldier that lost his life today doesn’t deserve time to grieve. I never knew Malkin was in such support of doctor’s who perform abortion.

Interesting…

Yesterday a right wing extremist shoots and kills a doctor who provides abortions. Greg also reminds us that it wasn’t that long ago the right was in an uproar over a DHS report talking about right wing extremists:

One passage from the DHS report that provoked nonstop outrage said that right wing extremists “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

Some on the right read this passage and decided it was a reference to them. Top conservative blogger Michelle Malkin warned that it meant you’re being targeted by Obama’s big brother government “if you are a member of an active conservative group that opposes abortion” or if you are active on other issues.

This wasn’t a fringe interpretation of the report, by the way. RNC chair Michael Steele for instance, blasted the report for labeling peaceful dissenters on issues “as terrorists.” Other Republican members of Congress sounded similar tones.

Maybe we need to take another look at that report now.

Stoopid

People like this is the very reason abortion is legal:

Two seasonal Yellowstone National Park concession workers have been fired after a live webcam caught them urinating into the Old Faithful geyser.

Park spokesman Al Nash says a 23-year-old man on Tuesday was fined $750 and placed on three years of unsupervised probation for urinating, being off trail in a restricted area and taking items from the area. The man also was banned from Yellowstone for two years.

Now that was one expensive prank.

“Come Up With An Alternative Plan”

That was the advice Joe Scarborough had for his “conservative brethren” this morning.

You think Joe would know that his party has always been the greatest embracers of conspiracy theories. That’s all they have to sell their broken ideology. Off the top of my head, here’s a few we heard over the past several years:

If we allow gays to marry people will marry their dogs!
We must torture to stop that guy who is the only way to deactivate that nuclear weapon set to go off tomorrow!
Saddam has weapons of mass destruction!
Giving out condoms will make kids have sex!
Abortion leads to kids having sex!
Gays are killing marriage!

The worst part is that these are conspiracy theories peddled by leaders of the GOP, including then President Bush and his administration. Could you imagine if Nancy Pelosi said “George Bush was behind 9/11”? That’s a left wing conspiracy theory that has never been embraced by our side.

When you consider it, 90% of the conservative platform is nothing but conspiracy theories. Take for example taxes. They try to say that Democrats will raise taxes to bring us closer to socialism. I don’t know of any Democrats trying to make us a socialistic nation, even though people are more open to the idea now.

Where In The World Did This Happen?

A 9 year old girl gets raped by her step-father. The girl ends up pregnant and the doctors determine that giving birth at such a young age would end up costing the girl her life. Now the religion of the girl has decided to punish the mother and doctors, but not the step-father.

If you haven’t heard this story yet, you might think this was something happening in the Middle East, but you would be wrong. The story takes place in Brazil and the religion of all involved – Catholic.

“God’s law is above any human law. So when a human law … is contrary to God’s law, this human law has no value,” Cardoso had said.

He also said the accused stepfather would not be expelled from the church. Although the man allegedly committed “a heinous crime … the abortion - the elimination of an innocent life - was more serious”.

The Vatican has recently talked about a “crisis of faith”. Gee – I wonder why? Maybe it’s because the Vatican is worried about protecting child molesters, including their own priests that do it, and denying the Holocaust. I bet Pope Nazi is just sitting there laughing his ass off over this.

Securing A Future Minority Party

It’s no secret that the Liberal blogosphere helped propel the Democrat out of the abyss of minority status in our government. Could the right wing blogosphere do the same for Republicans? Well if they continue following the path of idiocracy and taking push polls as gospel, then that won’t be likely unless America gets hit by a big case of the stupids.

Case in point; a push poll by a wingnut website HowObamaGotElected.com, who commissioned Zogby to run it. Nate Silver had an interview with the person behind the poll, and you can tell by their obscenity riddled, highly touchy responses that one of the best people in the world of studying polls got under the skin of this wingut.

~~lt;p>Of course the right wing blogs are taking this poll as gospel, looking at it as the holy grail of electorate knowledge today. Ignore the fact that the same can be argued from this side. Look at the huge number of people who thought Obama was a Muslim, especially in ruby red Texas. Now think about how the same people on the right kept trying to push that story and wanted the media to push it, along with a story that Obama spent most of adult life in a Christian church with Jeremiah Wright. Wait! He’s a Muslim, but has gone to a Christian church all this time? Yeah – that’s the stupidity of the right I am talking about.

Sarah Palin Is Attempting A Public Abortion

So Sarah Palin is back in Alaska today to see her son, who is off to fight in Iraq. She has been touting this since her debut 13 days ago. We all knew the date, because she told it to us.

Why is she letting the whole world know the date of her son's deployment? He could possibly be the son of the next vice-President of the United States. Now our enemies have a new target. Is Palin trying to put her son in harms way just for some political gain? It sure sounds like that. The media needs to pick up on this more, even though there was mention of it on Good Morning America, including these same concerns.

Paying To Get Raped - The Sarah Palin Chronicles

She don't believe women who become pregnant after being raped should be allowed to have an abortion. Right - that is a view shared by quiet a few wingnuts in this country. But what about having to pay for forensic evidence collection after you been raped? Well Sarah Palin thinks you, the victim, should have to pay for that collection.

Of everything we have heard about Sarah Palin, this has to be the most disgusting. Expecting victims of violent crimes to pay in order to have their attacker captured. The cost is approximately $1,000 for these kits. This bodes the question; how many rapes does Wasilla, Alaska see a year? I mean this town, which has received far more federal money than any other town it's size, can't afford to cough up a grand for this test? I thought government was supposed to be for the people. Apparently not.

The media needs to pick up on this more and get Palin on camera answering questions about this. The issue goes right to the heart of judgment, which is one of the top qualifications to become vice-President. I don't care if the media is shunned by McCain/Palin. They are still out in public speaking and people need to just start shouting, "Why did you charge rape victims for evidence collection?" over and over again. She must be force to answer and the American public is entitled to know the answer. If she doesn't answer then the American public are entitled to know that also.

Not Conservative Enough?

TPM gives us this interesting news:

Now this is just sad. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who has long led the conservative forces of his state, has been denied his customary position as a voting delegate to the Republican National Convention -- and it's being done by an even more conservative bunch.

The Iowa Christian Alliance, a successor to the state's Christian Coalition, has effectively taken over the state party's executive committee, and they obviously weren't happy with Grassley. It does seem curious, though, when one considers that he came up in the ranks of conservative activists and was elected to the Senate in 1980 on Ronald Reagan's coattails, and is a reliably conservative vote on issues like abortion and gay rights. What could have gotten them angry?

Now will all the wingers, who accuse the Democrats of being unfair to Lieberman, denounce this action? I wouldn't hold my breath.

Talk About Being In The Minority

For years right wingers would taunt out the fact that Democrats were in the minority. That minority was very slim though. Both times Bush won the White House, it was so damn close.

So these same wingnuts who so boldly reminded us of our minority status over the past several years now find themselves in the minority. This isn't by a few percentage points either.

Let me explain:

Eight in 10 Americans favor expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP, including large majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents.

While the president has raised concerns about the additional cost of expanding S-CHIP, those who favor the proposal say they'd even be willing to pay more in taxes to help the program cover more children.

More generally, the poll finds that only about one in five Americans (22 percent) approve of the presidentâ€™s handling of health care. That's lower even than his approval rating on Iraq (26 percent).

Ideologues like Michelle Malkin are thumping their chests over the S-CHIP fiasco going on. They have attacked children and basically advocated for abortion because a parent doesn't have insurance (right to life unless it costs money!). That is how pathetic they have become, and now they are in the super-minority. 22% of this country approves of Bush's veto. That sounds about like the FOX audience.

The problem is how these wingnuts approached the whole argument. They told lies to smear a 12 year old who suffered severely from an accident. For example - Malkin has constantly talked about insurance plans for a couple of hundred dollars. Wow! What a deal! Well she does fail to mention the fact that insurance companies will reject pre-existing conditions, such as these children suffer.

The New GOP Fix For Illegal Immigration

Condoms!

A congressman is pushing a not-so-quick fix in the debate over illegal immigrants from Mexico: free contraceptives.

"A slower rate of growth of Mexico's population would improve the economy of Mexico. It would also reduce the environmental pressure on Mexico's ecosystem. But a slower rate of growth would also reduce the long-term illegal immigration pressure on America's borders," reasoned Rep. Mark Kirk, who also supports stronger border security in the short-term.

In reality, fertility rates have plunged in Mexico since 1980, when an average couple would have five or more children. Now, the country's fertility rate has dropped to 2.5 children, compared to 2.1 for the United States, according to United Nations data.

Kirk, an Illinois Republican, made the argument on Thursday during a heated debate in the House of Representatives over whether the U.S. government should be allowed to donate condoms and other contraceptives to family planning agencies abroad that also engage in abortion.

Now come on congressman. That goes against the GOP principal of "abstinence only".

Where in the hell does the GOP get these people?