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Nation
John Boehner, the House Minority Leader, floated an interesting idea today. Asked if he agreed with the head of the Chamber of Commerce that the US government that is to say, you know, you and me, fellow taxpayer should share the cost, along with BP, of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf. His response? I think the people responsible in the oil spill BP and the federal government should take full responsibility for what's happening there.
Later on in the day, his flacks started walking this back. BP, says flack, should be wholly responsible for the clean-up.
Of course they are responsible for the clean up. The question is, are they responsible for the damage? In other words, BP will have to pay to remove the crude from the water; that is all but certain. But will they have to pay the fishermen whose lives they ruined beyond the pathetic $75 million cap that Congress established years ago?
There is a move in Congress to retroactively abolish that bullshit cap and make BP pay for its negligence. The Chamber of Commerce actively opposes this.
Where will today's bought-and-paid-for, corporatist Republican Party come down? Stay tuned.
[...] more likely approach, in my opinion, is a full-scale bailout by you and me. That route is already wending its way through Congress, although GOP House leader John Boehner is shying away from the idea he proposed [...]
Screw him.He and people like him should be tared and feathered (and I hope he sees m comment)
That's funny...in the link you presented, NOWHERE could I find Boehner saying ANYTHING about a "bailout". In fact, your link shows that Boehner CONTRADICTS your thesis multiple times. Just because you linked to TPM (a far left blog) and THEY whined about a non-existent bailout, doesn't change reality, slappy. And if there is a bailout, blame the party controlling the House, the Senate, and the Oval Office. Duh.
A response to Barack Obama's oval office speech on the oil spill: Public Policy Polling: Fallout From The Spill "Our new Louisiana poll has a lot of data points to show how unhappy voters in the state are with Barack Obama's handling of the oil spill but one perhaps sums it up better than anything else- a majority of voters there think George W. Bush did a better job with Katrina than Obama's done dealing with the spill. 50% of voters in the state, even including 31% of Democrats, give Bush higher marks on that question compared to 35% who pick Obama. Overall only 32% of Louisianans approve of how Obama has handled the spill to 62% who disapprove. 34% of those polled say they approved of how Bush dealt with Katrina to 58% who disapproved." http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/06/fallout-from-spill.html
Gallup: "By a six-point margin, more Americans disapprove than approve of President Barack Obama's handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The president's 40% approval rating on the oil spill trails his overall job approval rating by seven points." http://www.gallup.com/poll/139406/Americans-Rate-Obama-Points-Worse-Spill-Overall.aspx
MSNBC Trashes Obama's Address: Compared To Carter, "I Don't Sense Executive Command" http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/06/15/msnbc_trashes_obamas_address_compared_to_carter_i_dont_sense_executive_command.html
LA Times Headline "Obama's speech: There's a pipe spewing a gazillion gobs of oil into the gulf, so let's build more windmills" http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/06/obama-speech-react.html
GALLUP: On the question of whether he deserves reelection in 2012, President Obama has slipped to a new low, with Gallup finding just 46 percent of Americans think Obama should get a second term, while 51 percent think he should not. The poll also marks the first time a clear majority opposes reelection for the president..... http://www.gallup.com/poll/140810/Voters-Split-Obama-Election-2012.aspx
GALLUP: On the question of whether he deserves reelection in 2012, President Obama has slipped to a new low, with Gallup finding just 46 percent of Americans think Obama should get a second term, while 51 percent think he should not. The poll also marks the first time a clear majority opposes reelection for the president..... http://www.gallup.com/poll/140810/Voters-Split-Obama-Election-2012.aspx
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=k6urJsX3KX4
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Save Cancer Boxes, Not Taxes! Ahhhhh! This is why I love the Internet.
(h/t Wonkette)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by leahhowse, Philly News Now. Philly News Now said: Sen. McCain and Snooki Twat each other: Save Cancer Boxes, Not Taxes! Ahhhhh! This is why I love the Internet. (... http://bit.ly/9vsyyw [...]
[...] Sen. McCain and Snooki Twat each other :: The Clog :: Blog Archive :: Staff Blog :: Philadelphia Cit... [...]
Pat Toomey, the Pa. GOP's nominee for Senate, would like you to think he's a mainstream, conservative-but-not-insane kind of guy. That's how his campaign will present him over the next few months. They'll downplay his four-year stint at the helm of the Club for Growth, a far-right organization that sought to evict Republicans it deemed not conservative enough. Instead, they'll talk in generic terms about his "common sense approach" to lower taxes and limited spending, etc., while trying to castigate Joe Sestak, retired Navy admiral, as some lilly-livered Marxist. Sadly, there's a pretty good shot this strategy will work, too, since the election will be far more about the national mood than the merits of the individual candidates.
The truth is, Toomey at least during his tenure in Congress had a pretty radical record. Quantifiably so: According to a statistical analysis by Pollster.com's Harry Enten using lawmakers' DW-Nominate scores (a pretty standard political science measurement of ideology, alongside rankings from groups like Americans for Democratic Action and the American Conservative Union), Toomey is way, way, way to the right of even Rick Santorum, whom this state so rightly removed from the Senate back in 2006.
Is Pat Toomey too conservative for Pennsylvania?
This weekend in response to a post I wrote about possible Pennsylvania Senate match-ups Alan Reifman asserted that Toomey "is too far to the right for Pennsylvania." When I saw Reifman's post, I was going to respond "but Pennsylvanians elected Rick Santorum... twice." But before I did, I decided to contrast Santorum's and Toomey's DW-Nominate scores. DW-Nominate scores classify House and Senate members as liberal or conservative based on all their roll call votes than can be identified as liberal or conservative. These scores allow one to compare how rightward or leftward legislators are on a single dimension -1 to 1 scale with higher positive scores indicating a more conservative record*. What I found surprised me.
Using joint House and Senate scaling (which treat the House and Senate a single body to compare scores across chambers), we find that Pat Toomey (.718) had a considerably more conservative voting record than Rick Santorum (.349). To put that number into context, Lincoln Chafee (the ultimate liberal Republican and now independent) had a DW-Nominate score of .002 and Republican Arlen Specter had a score of .067. Republican Specter was slightly to the right of Chafee; Santorum was considerably right of Chafee; and, Toomey was much further right.
Still, I wanted to get a better idea of how conservative Toomey voting record was. So, I pulled the DW-Nominate score of every United States legislator (House and Senate) since 1995**. Indeed, of the 1,004 legislators to receive a DW-Nominate score for their career since 1995, Toomey ranked as the 22nd most conservative.
Toomey, by a very literal definition, is a fringe candidate, and he should be treated as such. He was more right-wing than JD Hayworth, Jim DeMint, and even the racist Jesse Helms. Cue the visual:
The question for the fall, I think, is whether the Pa media (and the Sestak campaign) allow Toomey to track to the middle unfettered, or whether they call him out for being the fringe, radical candidate that his record in Congress says he is.
The racism of your very own Robert Byrd, Democrat, West Virginia: "In the early 1940s, a politically ambitious butcher from West Virginia named Bob Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to form a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. After Byrd had collected the $10 joining fee and $3 charge for a robe and hood from every applicant, the "Grand Dragon" for the mid-Atlantic states came down to tiny Crab Orchard, W.Va., to officially organize the chapter. As Byrd recalls now, the Klan official, Joel L. Baskin of Arlington, Va., was so impressed with the young Byrd's organizational skills that he urged him to go into politics. "The country needs young men like you in the leadership of the nation," Baskin said." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/18/AR2005061801105.html
Wow, Sally! You managed to dig up something from over 60 years ago that Sen. Byrd freely admits. The man repented in the 1980s, for crying out loud. If you're hoping for that investigative journalism award, you're going to be sorely disappointed.
[...] of wingnutty things to say, and we plan to chronicle all of them for you. Well start with the handy item Jeffrey Billman posted May 21st on the Philadelphia City Paper [...]
[...] Read the full post at citypaper.net var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="How wingnutty is Pat Toomey? Somewhere between Jesse Helms and Tom Tancredo, analysis says"; a2a_config.linkurl="http://toomeywatch.com/?p=157"; [...] Jeffrey Billman, you are the wingnut. Toomey is a wonderful man.
Something is terribly wrong with this country when the responsible, conservative politicians are characterized as "wingnuts" and the leftist, socialist liberals consider themselves to be mainstream!
Toomey is indeed a wonderful man if you're anti-American worker, anti-middle class, or an anti-senior voter. He is to the right of Rick Santorum who himself belongs in the Wing Nut Hall of Fame. Toomey represents 2% of the country and that would be the richest 2%.His vote to keep us in the World Trade Organization says it all. He has never seen a free trade agreement he doesn't like.
And Toomey is terribly wrong when the conservative wing of America presumes they have All The Answers. Why can't you folks get it through your heads that everyone doesn't want to live in the '50s?
Tommey is a right wing neo-con, is aginst ssi and is in favor of 70 yrs old to retire just like his bed buddy JOHN BONER pa has a a lot of older peeps only 2nd to flordia and tommey views are not going to seat correct with the senior citzens in pa, Nice try pat tommey as this way of thinking will put you in the same boat as gen custer at lil big horn.
I was once a Republican but that changed when I saw what a wing nut organization it had become. Now Pat Toomey comes along and he wants me to believe that he is different and not like the other Republicans. Not like the other Republicans? He uses the term "liberal" to attack his opponents, you can't get any more Republican than that. Then he says he will reduce spending but never mentions his position on ending tax cuts to the rich. Finally he makes no reference to the fact that it was his own party that caused the Great Recession. No, Pat Toomey is just what he says he is, a conservative Republican and that makes him not for us.
Yes, and what's wrong is that many people fail to understand the meanings of the terms responsible, conservative, leftist, socialist, and liberal. Thanks for serving as an example.
Did Custer have a boat at the Little Big Horn? Here I thought he was a cavalry officer and rode a horse. But "in the same boat as gen custer..." is a really awesome as well as original metaphor, and I can see why you'd want to roll with it, kind of like Admiral Dewey of the field artillery and his caissons rolling along at the battle of Manila Bay. Oh, and btw rad, my genius friend, Custer was a colonel in the U.S. Army at the time he was killed, not a general. Don't worry about trivial things like facts, dude. They'll just slow you down.
Voters should remember that Toomey was a US Congressman for three terms. He helped Bush destroy a budget surplus and create the largest budget deficit in history - but he would have voters think he will help balance the budget. He worked for Wall St as a young man and has been in their pocket ever since. His real goal, shared with the Republican party, is to prove that government is unworkable by getting elected to the Senate and then voting to make sure it becomes unworkable. How quickly the public seems to forget Bush's legacy. The Democrats may not have done all the right things, and certainly not as much as the country needs, largely due to Republican obstructionism, but at least they take government seriously. See Paul Krugman's recent banana republic column for what Toomey will give us. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24krugman.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=paulkrugman&adxnnlx=1285520566-wuAGUt4xPU59PjUIthUvzw
It's not about parties, it's about who's going to follow the constitution, The candidates in the PA Senate Race are both unconstitutional.
Pat Toomey is a very scary dude. He makes Rick(man on dog)Santorum seem reasonable. Please go to your local Sestak for Senate office and find some way to help. There is a Pittsburgh office located at: 4326 Butler St. Pittsburgh, PA 15201 Phone:(412) 533-1200 E-mail: info@JoeSestak.com I was there today the place was buzzing.
[...] statistical analysis by Pollster.coms Harry Enten places Toomey to the right of Tea Party champion Jim DeMint, J.D. [...]
tell you what you can all pay for the cap and trade, the obamacare and BTW the tax breaks no one will be getting before anyone gets into office! THE whole lot took off to campaign, Thanks for nothing!!!! On OCT 25th the powers that be are for letting the Bush tax breaks expiring for ALL OF US POOR MIDDLE CLASS SLOBS! That means I won't have the child care tax credits, I will be back to the 32% bracket, my mortgage will not be a tax break and BTW my DARN HEALTH INSURANCE WENT UP 47% already but I had to take a pay cut to keep my job. NO WAY WILL I VOTE FOR A DEM! I AM an independant and I will vote the opposite based on the jackwagons that have cost me so much and NO I don't make anywhere near 200,000 how about 50,000 for a family of 5. The last time I voted for DEMS it has cost me dearly!
Last year, you may recall, state Rep. Babette Josephs went on a privacy-rights campaign writing a bill (which unanimously passed the House) that would ban anyone from injecting microchips into anyone else. Said the researcher who helped her draft the language:
Despite the technologys potential usefulness, Sultzbaugh said, some Christian groups liken the identification devices to the mark of the beast, a Satanic mark described in the Book of Revelation and represented by the number 666.
Yes. The Mark of the Beast, etc. (Of course, the bill exempted any Gitmo detainees who might end up in Pennsylvania someday, because, clearly, they're already on the devil's team.)
Well, the fine folks of the Georgia House Judiciary Committee took up this same heady issue this week. Hilarity ensues.
Three states have instituted bans, and others have considered the legislation. In Virginia, a bill supporter declared microchips to be the 666? mark of the beast referred to in the Book of Revelation.
Pearson has said his motivation isnt biblical or religious that he is simply working in advance of technologys next assault on personal privacy. Not unlike limiting the uses of DNA testing by health insurance companies, he argues.
[snip]
At the House hearing, state Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Kennesaw), who is shouldering the legislation in the House, spoke earnestly for better than a half hour on microchips as a literal invasion of privacy.
He was followed by a hefty woman who described herself as a resident of DeKalb County. Im also one of the people in Georgia who has a microchip, the woman said. Slowly, she began to lead the assembled lawmakers down a path they didnt want to take.
Microchips, the woman began, infringe on issues that are fundamental to our very existence. Our rights to privacy, our rights to bodily integrity, the right to say no to foreign objects being put in our body.
She spoke of the right to work without being tortured by co-workers who are activating these microchips by using their cell phones and other electronic devices.
She continued. Microchips are like little beepers. Just imagine, if you will, having a beeper in your rectum or genital area, the most sensitive area of your body. And your beeper numbers displayed on billboards throughout the city. All done without your permission, she said.
It was not funny, and no one laughed.
Maam, did you say you have a microchip? asked state Rep. Tom Weldon (R-Ringgold).
Yes, I do. This microchip was put in my vaginal-rectum area, she replied. Setzler, the sponsoring lawmaker, sat next to the witness his head bowed.
Youre saying this was involuntary? Weldon continued.
The woman said she had been pushing a court case through the system for the last eight years to have the device removed.
Wendell Willard (R-Atlanta), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, picked up the questioning.
Who implanted this in you? he asked.
Researchers with the federal government, she said.
And who in the federal government implanted it? Willard asked.
The Department of Defense.
Thank you, maam.
The woman was allowed to go about her business, and the House Judiciary Committee approved passage of SB 235.
(h/t TPM)
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| Photo | Courtesy of defibrillators.us |
Remember the Riders Against Gender Exclusion (awesome acronym, BTW) protest earlier this week, in which transgender activists dressed in drag and marched around City Hall, in order to speak out against SEPTA's M/F gender transit passes?
It turns out that Chicago's TG community is grappling with a similar problem: Their rail system Metra also insists on keeping its M/F gender stickers, also because the company claims it cuts down on theft.
A new Research 2000 poll out today has Sen. Arlen Specter the subject, of course, of this week's cover story widening his leads against both Joe Sestak in the primary and Pat Toomey in the general. Caveat: This is a Daily Kos poll, which as Nate Silver at 538.com writes, has a decidedly Dem lean. Still, it supports the recent Q poll that came out and also has Specter ahead. Toomey, of course, has plenty of time to bridge the gap. Joe Sestak, Specter's primary opponent, does not. Being down 20 with two months to go has anyone see Sestak on TV in Philly, the state's largest Dem base? I haven't isn't a good omen for him.
Can you name the seven states in which more than 50,000 people have lost their unemployment benefits, thanks to the efforts of jackass Sen. Jim Bunning, who, on his own, has managed to hold up completely fuck over the unemployed, halt construction projects, end the government's subsidization of COBRA, and drastically cut payments to Medicare doctors? California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and, of course, Pennsylvania.
Bunning, if you haven't been following the news, is holding what is in essence a one-man filibuster of one-month extensions of these programs, unless and until Democrats figure out where to find an extra $10 billion to pay for it. Of course, Bunning, a former baseball player who is generally regarded as one of the Senate's lesser lights so dimwitted, in fact, that Kentucky Republicans successfully pressured him into not seeking reelection has converted to deficit hawkery only lately. After all, he backed Bush's $1.2 trillion tax cuts.
Bunning is holding up the unanimous consent needed to move the process forward. His objection is that he wants the package funded through unused stimulus funds (which means the projects those funds are meant to pay for will go dark). Harry Reid allowed that this was a reasonable argument: He promised Bunning he'd bring up his amendment for a vote. Not good enough, Bunning replied. Why not? "I was not ready to risk voting on a bill," he explained. "I knew it would not get the amount of votes necessary to pay for it.
In other words, Bunning would lose the vote. Even with the filibuster, he'd lose the vote. But his play isn't to win the vote. His play is to win the clock. Breaking his hold would require a cloture vote, which would mean two days to let the cloture vote "ripen" and then 30 hours of post-cloture debate. That means benefits will run out.
He, of course, totally sympathizes with your plight, you poor unemployed bastards.
As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go along. And when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough shit."
Meanwhile, Bunning was not happy about at least one aspect of single-handedly screwing over millions of people.
And at one point during the debate, which dragged on till nearly midnight, Bunning complained of missing a basketball game. "I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00," he said, "and it's the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they're the only team that has beat Kentucky this year.
Fuck you, too, dickbag. Until recently, congressional Republicans had shied away from endorsing Bunning's brand of cold-heartedness. But then the GOP's No. 2 guy in the Senate, Jon Kyl of Arizona, offered this thought:
Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting "because people are being paid even though they're not working."
Unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work."
Hear that, you lazy shitheels? Why can't you find a fucking job already? It's not like there aren't six unemployed people for every job opening. What's your problem?
And we're supposed to take these people seriously.
Go Bunning Go!
He's a former Phillie. I request that Ruben Amaro and the rest of the Phillies disown this dbag.
The democrats have NEVER EVER EVER played politics with GOP legislation all those years they were in the minority - never ever! The democrats would never engage in chickenshit political sabotage!
"Hey Jim, Nice going on Friday. You pitched another no hitter. Too bad it wasn't a game but healthcare. I work with over 1,000 emergency physicians that see over 2.5 million emergency department visits annually ...and this represents ONLY about 2% of the total emergency department visits in the country annually. With the 21% reduction in physician Medicare pay. where you threw a strike, on Friday.... you just put in excess of 110 million people (number of annual ED visits in US) at risk for their emergency visits. As you know by law, Emergency Departments must see and treat every patient that presents no matter their ability to pay. Well, fireballer, by cutting emergency physician pay by over 20%, access to qualified emergency physicians that must be available 24 hours per day 365 days per year might not be there. I see in the past you credit your record with offering expanded Medicare drug benefits - good move. Where will these folks with better drug benefits go when they have a health emergency in the middle of the night ? I'm fine with you making your fiscally conservative point with highway funding or the space program ...grandstand on those issue - but with healthcare ? A life a death issue ? At the 11th hour with no alternative other to let it all fall off a cliff ? I think you got to where you are by being smarter than that. Get back on the mound on Monday and get this thing fixed. And get Congress moving while you are at it. Thank you. David Singley Southlake, Texas
Robert, I hope you lose you f****** job.
Bunning & Kyl will hopefully lose their jobs!!!!!!!
Wow, what a jerk. I hope he loses his job so he will know how it feels.
I've found myself thinking quite a bit lately about the Senate and its arcane and undemocratic rules, and how a super-minority is essentially able to hold up and stymie any substantive progressive. For instance, health care. Scott Brown wins an election in Massachusetts, and suddenly it takes a herculean task to even bring a much-needed, long-overdue up-or-down vote to the Senate floor. Or there's that son of a bitch Richard Shelby of Alabama, who placed a hold on hundreds of appointments to try to score his home state some sweet, sweet pork.
And now, another example: Sen. Jim Bunning, a former baseball player who is so incredily stupid that even the Republicans of Kentucky don't want him any more, is single-handedly blocking a 30-day extension of unemployment benefits for 1.2 million Americans.
All. By. Himself.
Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from suddenly losing their unemployment benefits next month.
As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go along.
And when Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: "Tough shit."
Bunning says he doesn't oppose extending benefits -- he just doesn't want the money that's required added to the deficit. He proposes paying for the 30-day extension with stimulus funds. The Senate's GOP leadership did not support him in his objections.
And at one point during the debate, which dragged on till nearly midnight, Bunning complained of missing a basketball game.
It's one thing to debate the propriety of the filibuster. Indeed, perhaps some changes should require extraordinary measures (but hell, even Robert Bork got an up or down vote; he just lost). But the fact that one guy a backbencher on a minority party, no less is able to fuck over more than 1 million Americans by himself, when even his own party doesn't agree to his objections that's just nuts.
Reform, anyone?
The Utah legislature 78 percent of whom are male, coincidentally has just passed a law that will, in essence, make it a crime for a woman to have a miscarriage. Of course, that's not what the bill's backers say they want to do. Heavens no. Rather, they just want to crack down on women who pay men $150 to beat them up so they will miscarry, which has happened, you know, once. A scourge, truly.
But in their push to ban everything that even remotely resembles abortion but isn't protected under Roe v. Wade, this Christianist crusade may well produce some unintended consequences. Actually, that's not quite right. Does it still count as "unintended" if they know about them in advance, and don't care? See, the bill criminalizes we're talking homicide charges, here a woman's 'intentional, knowing, or reckless act' leading to a pregnancy's illegal termination.
Reckless. Think about that for a second. Per RH Reality Check:
In addition to criminalizing an intentional attempt to induce a miscarriage or abortion, the bill also creates a standard that could make women legally responsible for miscarriages caused by "reckless" behavior.
Using the legal standard of "reckless behavior" all a district attorney needs to show is that a woman behaved in a manner that is thought to cause miscarriage, even if she didn't intend to lose the pregnancy. Drink too much alcohol and have a miscarriage? Under the new law such actions could be cause for prosecution.
"This creates a law that makes any pregnant woman who has a miscarriage potentially criminally liable for murder," says Missy Bird, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of Utah. Bird says there are no exemptions in the bill for victims of domestic violence or for those who are substance abusers. The standard is so broad, Bird says, "there nothing in the bill to exempt a woman for not wearing her seatbelt who got into a car accident."
Such a standard could even make falling down stairs a prosecutable event, such as the recent case in Iowa where a pregnant woman who fell down the stairs at her home was arrested under the suspicion she was trying to terminate her pregnancy.
Dan Savage over at Slog offers his thoughts:
Um... Utah? If every miscarriage is a potential homicide, how does Utah avoid launching a criminal investigation every time a woman has a miscarriage? And women have a lot of miscarriages: one in four pregnancies end in a miscarriage. And how is Utah supposed to know when a pregnant woman has had a miscarriage? You're going to have to create some sort of pregnancy registry to keep track of all those fetuses, Utah. Perhaps you could start issuing "conception certificates" to women who get pregnant? And then, if there isn't a baby within nine months of the issuance of a conception certificate, the woman could be hauled in for questioning and she could be indicted for criminal homicide if it's determined that she intentionally or accidentally induced a miscarriage. Of course, lots of women miscarry before they even realize their pregnant... so Utah will have to pass another law, one that compels all sexually active womenactually, let's just say all women, Utah, since some sexually active women claim they're chasteto come in for mandatory monthly pregnancy tests...
The bill is now in the governor's hands. The governor is, of course, a man. And like the male-heavy Utah legislature though, in fairness, the bill was sponsored by a woman in the Senate he knows better than you little women what to do with your bodies. In the meantime, don't fall down stairs, ladies.
Oh, by the way, Utah Dems tried to get that egregious "reckless" word out of the bill, because, you know, in theory, a preggo woman going back to an abusive spouse could qualify. Republican Sen. Margaret Dayton, the bill's sponsor, patted them on the head, and said, without a hint of irony:
"I don't think we want to go down the road of carefully defining the behavior of a woman."
Of course, the Utahans have nothing on my former home state, where wingnut legislators want to not only ban all abortions, but send abortion docs to prison for life. Up yours, Roe v. Wade.
(Quotes from Christrian) "Sex was created for the creation of life." Talk about a chicken and the egg scenario. "Drinking is wrong drugs are wrong and women have not business working when there are children." I think we adequately understand your type now. "God does not hold a gun to you head." Funny, but that's *exactly* how I'd view the threat of eternal torment and damnation. Maybe it's just me.
you know, you really shouldn't drink when your pregnant. it's called fetal alcohol syndrome. and if you're not wearing a seatbelt in a car, well, that's technically already against the law. i completely agree that it's a ridiculous law, but those examples are so weak.
I hope that Utah also plans on footing the bill for 24hr nursing care, nutritionists, physiotherapists, and equivilent wages for those women who become pregnant. Afterall work could be considered reckless so the state needs to foot the bill for every woman who would have to live under constant care and supervision to ensure no "reckless" behaviour occurs. My advice, don't be pregnant in Utah.
Miss Bee- there's nothing weak about those examples. If a woman is drinking this weekend, finds out she's expecting next Tuesday & miscarries the following week she could go to jail. And yes it's a great idea to wear a seatbelt, a law even- one that if you break while not pregnant you might get a $50 fine, but if you're pregnant you'll go to jail. How about drinking coffee? There have been studies linking caffeine to a slight increase in miscarriage risk. How about walking on ice while pregnant? That's pretty dangerous too- is it reasonable a woman should go to jail for slipping & losing a pregnancy???
This is what the rest of the country should do. If you are married you shouldn't be engaging in sex. Sex was created for the creation of life. When you get married this is a fact. This is how God would have it. God is smilling on this bill. We humans have to be responsible for our behavior. Our actions will have serious ramifications on the young. Failure to recognize this is nothing short of murder or attempted murder possibly child abuse if death does not occure. Drinking is wrong drugs are wrong and women have not business working when there are children. Read the Bible people, or you will not have entrance into Heaven. God does not hold a gun to you head. It is your decision how to behave and whether to follow God. The children however all belong to God.
Well, if some folks want better examples, how about this? I went skiing when I was 2 months pregnant with my first child. That's obviously relevant in Utah, which has a lot of great ski areas. If a woman skis while pregnant, takes a spill, and the child is killed, will she be criminally liable? For that matter, there are still people who think that women should be barred from many occupations because of hypothetical risks to their babies. Would this bill signal an official return to that mentality? "No, you can't be a bus driver. A jerk might assault cause you to miscarry." What about pregnant soldiers? They exist. Would failing to seek discharge prior to miscarriage constitute "recklessness"? Will they need to have fetuses and placentas autopsied, and women receive endoscopies of their uteruses, to determine criminal guilt? Will that even be possible, given that most miscarriages occur for no apparent reason?
having had two miscarriages my self in the last year at no fault of my own i believe that this law is complelty rediculus. I lost my babies because my boday could not make the vitemins i needed to keep me and the baby going.Also because I was in the united states Navy and stress was involved. I feel that this is not an resonable law. Currently I am pregnant with what would be my third baby and we are making it now but there is no way to completly say why a female will miscarry.
What is wrong with these people? But I have a really ridiculous situation. When you are pregnant, you are not supposed to consume feta cheese. So, are they going to outlaw Greek salads for pregnant women? That would be properly enforcing their stupid law, would it not?
So, the hand-wringing, hysterical "Keep the government out of my life!" conservatives are the SAME PEOPLE who want the government THIS involved in a pregnancy? Just checking.
Okay, say the pregnant woman becomes so stressed out by the government breathing down her neck about her pregnancy that she actually does have a miscarriage brought on by stress. Can she then turn around and sue the government for stressing her into involuntary fetus-slaughter? I sure would.
why should men legislate over a woman's body? Did that right come from god? Now tell me which god is that? Jesus, Yaveh, Alla, shakti, budha? Women wake up we are 50% of the population we need not take abuse from anyone, we do not live in afganistan we have equal rights remember? Let's think maybe we should propose a law that any man who abuses a woman or child should have their privates removed, let's see how that one flies me dears.
[...] Don’t fall down the stairs, ladies: In Utah, miscarriages … [...]
Also, no women of child bearimg age should ski in Deervalley, Park City, The Canyons, Solitude, Snow Basin, Alta, Snowbird, or Brighton Utah- because the billion dollar making resorts provide skiing and snowboarding, and those are the epitomé of risk.
John Yoo, our favorite Bush administration torture apologist/Inky columnist, is back in the news. Last week, as reported by Newsweek, senior Justice Department officials overruled department investigators â who ruled that Yoo and Jay Bybee (now a federal judge), two lawyers in the department's Office of Professional Responsibility, had violated their ethical obligations as lawyers when they authored a 2002 memo that basically authorized the Bush administration to torture anyone they wanted, anytime they wanted, because why the hell not â and reported that Yoo and Bybee had indeed shown poor judgment, but had not committed professional misconduct.
While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other âenhancedâ interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authorsâJay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professorâviolated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed âpoor judgment,â say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary actionâwhich, in Bybee's case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.
In a follow-up, also from Newsweek, we learned precisely how insane Yoo's outlook on executive authority is.
The chief author of the Bush administration's "torture memo" told Justice Department investigators that the president's war-making authority was so broad that he had the constitutional power to order a village to be "massacred," according to a report released Friday night by the Office of Professional Responsibility.
[snip]
At the core of the legal arguments were the views of Yoo, strongly backed by David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's legal counsel, that the president's wartime powers were essentially unlimited and included the authority to override laws passed by Congress, such as a statute banning the use of torture. Pressed on his views in an interview with OPR investigators, Yoo was asked:
"What about ordering a village of resistants to be massacred? ... Is that a power that the president could legallyâ"
"Yeah," Yoo replied, according to a partial transcript included in the report. "Although, let me say this: So, certainly, that would fall within the commander-in-chief's power over tactical decisions."
"To order a village of civilians to be [exterminated]?" the OPR investigator asked again.
"Sure," said Yoo.
Yoo is depicted as the driving force behind an Aug. 1, 2002, Justice Department memo that narrowly defined torture and then added sections concluding that, in the end, it essentially didn't matter what the fine print of the congressionally passed law said: The president's authority superseded the law and CIA officers who might later be accused of torture could also argue that were acting in "self defense" in order to save American lives.
Yoo, now a law professor at Berkeley, is a member of the State Bar in Pennsylvania. If you're so inclined, you can sign a petition to have him disbarred here.
[...] all a liberal conspiracy, see. But what of reports that Yoo told OPR investigators that the president could authorize a civilian massacre, just for shits and giggles, if he wanted to? Well, just so happens that Yoo is RIGHT NOW on a live [...]
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