No Nookie for the Bedroom Gestapo

Dayam! This should have the effect of clearing a lot of right wing minds. This Republican even relates his experience in proverbially “sleeping on the couch” as a result of the recent Virginia anti-abortion bill which would require women to undergo vaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion.

Virginia Lawmaker: Ultrasound Flap Cost Me Nookie

We’ll hope this is the last word on Virginia’stransvaginal ultrasound controversy for a long time. GOP delegate Dave Albo took to the floor of the state House to describe how it caused him to miss out on a romantic night with his wife, reports the Huffington Post. (See the video.) Albo described how he was trying to put the moves on his wife—he even played the cheesy “mood music” for his fellow legislators—when a news show came on with a segment about the controversy.

Albo’s own name was mentioned, and they watched the entire thing. “The show’s over, and [my wife] looks at me, and she goes, ‘I gotta go to bed.’” Referring to a Democratic lawmaker who appeared on the show, Albo joked, “So if the gentleman’s plan was to make sure there is one less Republican in this world, he did.” Albo eventually wrote the compromise language that gives women the option of refusing the procedure, notes ABC News. Less »

Lighting a Fire – Personhood Bills

The newest group legislation pushed by Republicans across the state legislatures is called Personhood. It is a direct attack on Abortion, by declaring a fetus a person at the moment of conception.

The pushback against this legislation nationwide is just beginning to gain steam… But in Virginia it seems to have gone from zero to 900 MPH in just a few days…

Think maybe Gov McDonnell may be looking at the end of those future political ambitions.

Opposition mounts to Va. personhood bill

A petition opposing two abortion-related bills winding through the Virginia legislature is spreading like “wildfire.” In just over 24 hours, 17,000 people have signed the measure that says the Virginia government is conducting a “war on women.”

The petition is organized by ProgressVA. Most of the signatories say they are Virginia residents and most are women, and the message they give is clear: The government is overstepping its bounds.

“This war on women has got to stop,” the petition reads. “Virginia may be the butt of jokes for late night comedians, but the bills coming out of the General Assembly this year are no laughing matter.”

Catherine from Richmond wrote next to her name: “I say to you men in the Virginia legislature – Leave our bodies alone. This is not your place; this is not your right. What you’re doing is immoral.”

The online petition through signon.org has been spreading quickly, largely through social media. (In the thirty minutes it took me to write this story, 300 additional people added their name.)

“We’re absolutely pleased and frankly a little overwhelmed,” with petition response, Anna Scholl, Executive Director of ProgressVA, said. “It’s been spreading like wildfire.”

The petition is addressed to The Virginia State Senate, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Governor Bob McDonnell as they are instrumental in the future of these bills. (McDonnell is considered a rising star in the Republican Party. He has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate.)

The Virginia House of Delegates passed HB 1, also known as the “personhood” bill, this week. It defines a fertilized egg as a person, and according to the legislation, “provides that unborn children at every stage of development enjoy all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of the Commonwealth.”

Virginia would be the first state in the nation to define a fetus – and a fertilized egg – as a person. It passed the General Assembly and the Senate could take it up as early as this week, if it chooses.

The second bill petitioners object to is HB 462, which requires a woman receive a transvaginal ultrasound before an abortion. Both bodies of the legislature have passed this measure and only needs Republican Gov. McDonnell’s signature before it becomes law.

Scholl says they will continue to spread the word and hope to deliver the petitions as early as this week.

“These recent policies turn my stomach. I believe in fiscal conservatism. Stop mixing it with my personal rights,” Lisa Schroeer of Charlottesville, Virginia wrote.

Bad Night for the Reich Wing – Good Night for America

In what are considered bellweather elections prior to the 2012 contests, Republicans went down on a lot of fronts…

Miss. defeats life-at-fertilization ballot prop

Mississippi voters Tuesday defeated a ballot initiative that would’ve declared life begins at fertilization, a proposal that supporters sought in the Bible Belt state as a way to prompt a legal challenge to abortion rights nationwide.

The so-called “personhood” initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of voters, falling far short of the threshold needed for it to be enacted. If it had passed, it was virtually assured of drawing legal challenges because it conflicts with the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a legal right to abortion. Supporters of the initiative wanted to provoke a lawsuit to challenge the landmark ruling.

Ohio voters reject Republican-backed union limits

The state’s new collective bargaining law was defeated Tuesday after an expensive union-backed campaign that pitted firefighters, police officers and teachers against the Republican establishment.

In a political blow to GOP Gov. John Kasich, voters handily rejected the law, which would have limited the bargaining abilities of 350,000 unionized public workers. With more than a quarter of the votes counted late Tuesday, 63 percent of votes were to reject the law.

Democrats, unions cheered by election results

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, a folksy moderate Democrat, cruised to victory as expected with about 56 percent of the vote over a Republican and an Independent candidate.

The only bad news? Johnny Dupree lost in his run for Mississippi Governor. Republican Phil Bryant had 59 percent of the vote to 41 percent for Democrat Johnny DuPree, with 43 percent of the votes counted. If DuPree had won, the mayor of Hattiesburg would have been the first African-American to win statewide office in Mississippi in modern times.

 

First Convictions in Philly Abortion Clinic Crimes

The case of the Philadelphia abortion butcher made national news. Operating out of a filthy facility in the city, the Gosnell was responsible for the deaths of at least 7 children, and an unknown number of mothers. This guy escaped scrutiny by medical and regulatory authorities for years. The cases are finally coming to court, with the first guilty pleas by “nurses” who assisted Gosnell in his scam.

Two plead guilty in deaths at Philadelphia abortion clinic

Two women accused of participating in the deadly activities inside a filthy West Philadelphia abortion clinic calmly told a judge Thursday that they were guilty.

The guilty pleas by Adrienne Moton, 34, and Sherry West, 52, leave seven defendants to be tried in the case that grabbed national headlines due to the shocking nature of the crimes that took place inside Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society.

Gosnell, 70, could face the death penalty if convicted. He is accused cutting the spinal cords of seven babies born alive at his clinic. He is also charged with the third-degree murder of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, a clinic patient who died in November 2009 from an overdose of drugs prescribed by Gosnell.

Moton, of Upper Darby, Pa., was an unlicensed clinic worker. She pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for the death of “Baby D,” one of the seven babies.

She also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit third-degree murder, participating in a corrupt organization and conspiracy to participate in a corrupt organization.

She entered her plea via a video link because she is incarcerated outside of the city. Tasha Jamerson, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, declined to say why Moton is being held elsewhere and for what reason.

Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner told Moton that he could sentence her to as much as 120 years in state prison and fine her up to $125,000.

The plea came with no agreements with the prosecution, which leaves the sentence up to him, Lerner said.

West, of Newark, Del., was an unlicensed clinic worker who routinely performed illegal operations and administered anesthesia, according to a 281-page grand jury report released in January.

She pleaded guilty to the third-degree murder of Mongar, conspiracy to commit third-degree murder, drug delivery resulting in death, participating in a corrupt organization and conspiracy to participate in a corrupt organization.

Lerner told West that she faced the possibility of being sentenced to 140 years in prison and fined up to $175,000.

Lerner set Dec. 2 as a tentative sentencing date for both women.

Republican Rick Santorum – Obama Should Oppose Abortion… Because He’s Black

Glad this guy is out of office. Here he makes a racial instead of a moral argument against abortion…

Philly Abortion Doctor Faces 8 Murder Charges

This one os hard to fathom, or to conceive of…

Abortion doctor faces 8 murder charges

Dr. Kermit Gosnell

A U.S. doctor who gave abortions to minorities, immigrants and poor women in a “house of horrors” clinic was charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors, Philadelphia prosecutors say.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said. State regulators ignored complaints about him and failed to inspect his clinic since 1993, but no charges were warranted against them given time limits and existing law, District Attorney Seth Williams said Wednesday.

Nine of Gosnell’s employees also were charged.

Gosnell “induced labour, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord,” Williams said.

Patients were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society, where Gosnell performed dozens of abortions a day, prosecutors said. He mostly worked overnight hours after his untrained staff administered drugs to induce labour during the day, they said.

Early last year, authorities went to investigate drug-related complaints at the clinic and stumbled on what Williams called a “house of horrors.” Bags and bottles holding aborted fetuses “were scattered throughout the building,” Williams said. “There were jars, lining shelves, with severed feet that he kept for no medical purpose.”

The clinic was shut down and Gosnell’s medical licence was suspended after the raid. Gosnell and four workers were charged with murder, while five others were charged with controlled drug violations and other crimes.

None of the employees had any medical training, and one, a high school student, performed intravenous anesthesia with potentially lethal narcotics, Williams said. All 10 defendants were taken into custody, authorities said.

Gosnell has been named in at least 46 malpractice suits, including one over the death of a 22-year-old mother who died of sepsis and a perforated uterus in 2000. Many others also involve perforated uteruses.

Conservatives and Racist Plantation/Slave Rhetoric

Hat Tip to Shay Riley (AKA Skinny) over at Booker Rising for this one. Although she doesn’t normally populate her blog with the musings of folks you might call critical thinkers (they are conservatives – so the bar isn’t very high)…

There is a small, growing cadre of younger black conservatives, who unlike the Sowells, and Williams et al of a previous generation and of talking head fame, have no interest in being a Lawn Jockey – and have a deep belief set, including that their value system would bring significant benefit to lower income minority communities. I point these guys out when I see them, because – unlike the Jockey Suited Set who get all the press on the conservative side…

These guys may form the basis for some constructive engagement in actually creating solutions.

This one was written by Aaron Laramore out of Indianapolis.

The Idiocy of “Enslavement” Rhetoric by Conservatives

A recent example of where the “Plantation racism sthick” leads to is this:

Fighting the Black Anti-Abortion Campaign: Trusting Black Women

Sixty-five billboards were quickly erected in predominantly African American neighborhoods in Atlanta on February 5, 2010. Each showed a sorrowful picture of a black male child proclaiming, “Black Children are an Endangered Species.”

Georgia Right to Life and the newly-formed Radiance Foundation spent $20,000 to sponsor the billboards that included the address of a previously unknown anti-abortion website.

This was the opening salvo in a campaign to pass new state legislation attempting to criminalize abortions provided to women of color allegedly because of the “race or sex” of the fetus. Doctors would have been subjected to criminal sanctions and civil lawsuits. Central to the argument of our opponents was the false claim that most, if not all, abortions are coerced.

At Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, where one of the billboards was only a few blocks away, we knew that this race- and gender-baiting campaign would have national implications, driving a racial wedge in the pro-choice movement and a gender wedge in communities of color. The legislation would also trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade…

“Black folks are too stupid to be trusted with voting…Or their rights.”

Let’s file this one under “Domestic Terrorism”.

 

 

 

Laura Bush New Book – She’s Pro Choice AND Pro Gay Marraige!

No wonder she did her damnedest to stay in the shadows while her husband was President…

Georgia senate approves ban on race-based abortions

Georgia senate approves ban on race-based abortions

The Senate has approved a bill that would make it a crime to perform an abortion on a woman based upon the race or gender of the parent or child.

After more than three hours of debate, senators passed the measure 33-14 in a vote that broke down along party lines.

Republican Sen. Chip Pearson of Dawsonville, the bill’s sponsor, says the proposal addresses the prevalence of gender- and race-based abortions in Georgia, especially among African-American women. The bill would make it illegal to coerce a woman into an abortion on those grounds.

Democratic Sen. Donzella James, of College Park, says the idea that black women are being targeted for abortion is unfounded and inflammatory and fails to address the health care disparity that is the real cause of the disproportionate abortion rate for black women.

I think the best quote on the video, is “These people are pro-birth, but they are not pro-life.” When you look at the statistics in Georgia that a black baby is nearly 3 times more likely to die both pre-natal, and within the first year after birth than whites due to lack of health care – then you need to ask the question as to why these very same Republicans oppose any form of Health Care reform which might stop that bloodshed.

If abortion is “murder” – then the denial of care to the mother, resulting in the babies death is also murder. And, the “pro-life” people are murdering just as many babies as abortion doctors (if not many more) – and are arguing that the decision by the mother to abort, is somehow worse than the decision to kill the baby due to lack of health care.

Genocide is perfectly acceptable – as long as it isn’t the mother’s choice in their view.

Without having read the bill, it would seem to open up some interesting, unintended options to stop the Health Care genocide, based on whether you define “abortion” to include acts which cause the death of the fetus through neglect, or corporate greed. Now, we got some real organized crime.

Seems to me there ought to be enough lawyers down there in Georgia to figure out the implications of that isht.

Virginia Republican – “Disabled kids are God’s punishment”

Virginia has a new Republican Governor, last seen making a fool of himself in responding to  president Obama’s  State of the Union Address in January. Now, this guy Bob McDonnell campaigned as a moderate Republican, but since taking office has lurched over to the far right. I have a feeling, there is going to be a pushback.

Now, this clown – State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas, is about par for the course for the ignorance level of Virginia’s redneck Republican faction .

Legislator: Disabled kids are God’s punishment

State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas says disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy.

He made that statement Thursday at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood.

“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican.

“In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

Marshall was among more than 20 people, mostly Christian pastors and clergy, who gathered for the press conference in the General Assembly Building.

They called on Virginia officials to eliminate state funding for Planned Parenthood because the organization provides abortions

Gosh, you mean Sarah Palin’s (AKA the Sno’ Ho’) Down’s Syndrome kid, Trig -  is because she had an abortion?

Faux News and “Low Income Babies”

This Faux News Reporter let’s the cat out of the bag about “low income babies” and abortion…

Just another Faux Dumb (racist) blonde…

American Genocide in Healthcare

“Healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Every man, woman and child deserves a dignified and healthy life. As ours is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and increasingly diverse nation, legislation must fully recognize and address health disparities.”

Congressman Mike Honda (CA-15)

Pregnant Mom on the Go

Speaking With One Voice Congressional TriCaucus Declares: “COVERAGE IS NOT ENOUGH”

Black, Latino and Asian lawmakers warned Democratic leaders that any health care overhaul that ignores health gaps between whites and minorities will face stiff opposition. Members of the Asian caucus, along with the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said they plan to introduce legislation this week that includes their wish list for broadening health care overhaul beyond various plans floated in the House and Senate. The three minority caucuses have a total of 91 members, most of them Democrats and enough to help shape the final legislation.

Black infants are twice as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday. Black women are less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, but more likely to die from the disease. African Americans suffer from higher rates of diabetes, asthma, fibroids, and several forms of cancer. HIV infection rates are exponentially higher for African Americans with young black women being most vulnerable. Life expectancy for black men is the worst in the nation. These differences cannot be explained away simply by accounting for socioeconomic differences between racial groups. Black Americans have worse health outcomes even when we account for income.

The deadliest disease in America is indeed being sick or pregnant while black, Hispanic, Native American, or Asian…

Nearly 10,000 black babies die a year, in their first year because of treatment and medical availability  differentials between whites and minorities.  Probably a like number die during pregnancy, miscarried. More black babies die in the first yer of life alone due to inadequate health care each year than thugs shoot in the inner city murder.

And it doesn’t stop with the babies, perhaps 50,000 – 80,000 or more black people die due to lack of access to health care, or “doctor choice” not to aggressively treat minorities.

A Rwanda size genocide right here in America every 10 years. And that’s just the black folks. You start adding in what’s happening with Hispanics and other people of color – and the numbers get staggering.

In hundreds of books, thousands of articles by conservative authors and their black avatars supposedly examining racial differences, and how people of color should “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” you can’t find a damn word about this. They can talk about the statistics behind the mythical “70% illegitimacy rate”, inner city crime, and how many prisoners of color are confined in prisons…

And a number even wax self-righteously taking a “pro-life” stance…

But 10,000 or 20,000 babies lives cut short a year will never be mentioned, and if you mention the words “Health Care” their inevitable response is…

“Socialism”.

Shoveling black brown babies into Massas Gulag’s ovens.