US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

just profoundly dishonest fuckin assholism

Larry King: "If you were president and knew that bin Laden was in Pakistan, you know where, would you have U.S. forces go in after him?"

John McCain: "Larry, I'm not going to go there and here's why: because Pakistan is a sovereign nation."

July 2008

Sen. José Rodríguez is the badass who's exposing the hypocrisy in this hearing on the Senate floor btw even though all the amendments are going down 19-12 along party lines

(TX Senate floor to be clear)

xxxp Yeah but when he says "I'm not going to go there" he doesn't mean "I'm not going to enter Pakistan", he means, "I'm not going to answer your question."

oh my fuckin God. so bear with me here. the bill requires a sonogram for every woman who gets an abortion in TX, and further requires that the sonographer be a member of the national sonographer registry (this is a really arcane requirement; one gets a cert to be a sonographer, you don't have to belong to a registry). Rodríguez points out that Crisis Pregnancy Centers (i.e. the born-again clinics that masquerade as women's health centers) are allowed by the TX Senate to conduct sonograms unimpeded - why are they not to be held to the same standard as hospitals and clinics that provide abortions? Author of the sonogram bill responds, well of course CPCs ("which we have honored on this floor") don't have to belong to the registry - they're trying to provide information, not abortions. GAHHHH the "hold CPCs to same standards as hospitals and clinics" sonogram bill is passing as I type this. not sure if I'm making clear the depths of dishonesty at work here.

another dark day for reproductive rights at the state level.

sorry - the "hold CPCs to same standards as hospitals and clinics" was tabled as I typed, the bill mandating U/S for women seeking abortion (and requiring membership in the national ultrasound registry by any health care professional doing the U/S) has passed

fuck these motherfuckers to Hell

actually aero I am in the last days of getting my EMT certification, and I will probably have to take the national registry test after I (hopefully) pass this class in order to work (if i choose to do so)

not to rain on your tirade

EMT is diff from U/S tech I think! congrats tho on being near the end, I took a state board test for psych tech an age ago, you'll kill it! not in a real "kill" sense tho yr job now is to help people

uh dude the national EMT registry is not the same thing as this nat'l u/s registry

and shit like this is why i donated to planned parenthood last week

like I'm pretty sure a nurse can be trained in U/S via a couple of inservices, or some CE courses

yeah i'd hazard a guess that most docs don't have any formal certification in U/S

ok sorry for the confusion, and thanx for the encouragement aero!

if a care provider/institution is comfortable using un-registered u/s techs to do all the OTHER things that u/s is used for, then requiring a registered tech for abortions is some bizarro special treatment. which is entirely the point, i imagine.

I guess there is a 3rd reading of the bill tomorrow. Not sure what weird thing reading & voting on a bill multiple times is about but if you are in TX contact your Senator no matter which way they voted and make your desires as a constituent clear, if you have a minute to do so. Even people who oppose abortion passionately should not sink so low as to be passing these bills that masquerade as concern for women's health when they allow their CPCs to basically play doctor for the furthering of their Xian Dominion agenda.

if a care provider/institution is comfortable using un-registered u/s techs to do all the OTHER things that u/s is used for, then requiring a registered tech for abortions is some bizarro special treatment. which is entirely the point, i imagine.

this is the thing - one of the objecting Democrats during the hearing pointed out that it's profoundly un-conservative to be telling private practices how to conduct their business, having bodies of people who aren't medical professionals actually writing the standards and determining which clinics have to belong to this nat'l registry and which don't (get this: CPC U/S techs need not belong to the registry...because they're volunteers! that is actually something they said.) - that this is big government for sure, isn't it? conservative response: no no, it's not, it's conservative. again this was basically their whole argument: "to the contrary, I see this bill as conservative."

how did I watch this hearing btw? using RealPlayer. I felt it worth noting, I fired up RealPlayer for this shit

ugh

@ realplayer, i mean

it's only for real playaz

that's why I use it man - QuickTime? what kind of RealPlayer would be caught calling himself QuickTime, c'mon

Having dealt forcefully with a Muslim terrorist and a blowhard Trump, Obama might hopefully be emboldened to deal forcefully without negotiation with Republican economic terrorists on debt limits and regressive/recession-extending budgets commenter on Washington Monthly

I would not count on this

I was going to make the same suggestion. I'll let him know when I call him tonight.

time to spend that political capital that Dubya held so dear

But the capture and killing of bin Laden ... does two things instantly: it tells us that an American named Barack Hussein Obama ordered the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. A man who symbolizes an integrative, tolerant, multicultural future defeated the symbol of a twisted, dark, fundamentalist past. A man who represents the human continuum of the developing and developed worlds defeated a man who seeks only one world and Shariah rule over all of it. And it also tells those who have been bombarded with lies and rumors and disgusting smears that this president, whatever they have been told, is no weakling, no terror-lover, no alien. He is as American as every new passport holder and every ancient Southern or Yankee family.

ugh jesus when somethin gets the shine back for sully he really gets purple

killing just gets him hard, pretty commonplace

He is as American as every new passport holder

having a passport isn't very American!

i have a passport holder manufactured from chinese pleather, not very american. fwiw

Juan Cole apparently will no longer read him.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/05/03/hitting-unsubscribe/

i think you mean john cole; but thats not john cole, thats one of the other bloggers

I can stomach wrongheaded analysis, different political views, bad musical taste and a whole host of other annoyances if the blog I’m reading at least gets the facts right.

what the fuck!! pet shop boys >>>> whatever sub-merge youtubes the klein/yglesias crew are always throwing up

the guy is ridiculous tho, i quit reading him a while ago myself *crosses arms*

hey it's just a little counting crows between friends. let's be cool.

You only tell me you love me when you're drunk.

i think you mean john cole; but thats not john cole, thats one of the other bloggers

― ban drake (the rapper) (max), Tuesday, May 3, 2011 4:59 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

where is Alfred's speedy correction

*unfollows*

with no regrets, and a palpable sense of relie

f

max speedily corrected me, lambchop.

where is your speedy apology

I apologize, Speedy.

lol

has everybody called his or her representative and expressed your feelings in re: HR3? Please do. If hunting down your rep's name and number is a hassle just tell me where you are and I will get the number for you, but please give them a call. Here is what HR3 is about, per Planned Parenthood, who oppose it, but this is an accurate description of the bill.

The Smith bill, or H.R. 3, was introduced in Congress by U.S. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ), and represents an unprecedented attempt to take away comprehensive private health insurance coverage from American women by imposing new taxes on small businesses and individuals.

The bill makes excessive restrictions on individuals who pay for their own health insurance coverage by drastically altering the tax code. It states that individuals who purchase insurance in the new health exchanges cannot receive federal tax credits if they choose a plan that provides coverage for abortion (except in the limited cases of incest, rape, and when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger) — even though they are also using their own private dollars in part to buy insurance coverage.

As a result, a woman who has to terminate a pregnancy because of serious medical complications could face bankruptcy, as the costs for an abortion in complicated cases can cost more than $10,000.

Man, it's not funny, but it does remind me about this hilarious bit:

http://www.theonion.com/video/new-law-requires-women-to-name-baby-paint-nursery,14393/

it's kind of the inverse of the 'actual headlines you can't believe aren't onion articles" thing

Man, it's not funny, but it does remind me about this hilarious bit:

http://www.theonion.com/video/new-law-requires-women-to-name-baby-paint-nursery,14393/

the Texas bill that passed its second hearing yesterday requires that the ultrasound tech describe the fetus to the woman if she closes her eyes to the u/s

please, please, please do everything you can to stop these nightmare bills from passing.

That. is. amazing. This IS Clockwork Orange.

I should be clear. The bill had language that required the patient to actually look at the ultrasound. They knew that wasn't workable, so they wrote in a part about how the u/s tech is required to describe the fetus. The patient has to listen to this whether they choose to look at the ultrasound or not. These are some of the most shameful laws being passed and everyone who cherishes their right to privacy, their right to determine the course of their own medical care, and general human decency should be opposing these bills loudly and visibly.

aero, I'm looking at www.house.gov/ directory business but there are like 20 reps for NY state. How do I know which one(s) to write to?

you have to figure out which district you live in and write the one that represents it

then write all the other ones

Looking up congressional districts now....