New bill in Tennessee:
A new bill headed for a vote by a Tennessee House committee this week targets abortion providers by requiring the state’s Department of Health to publish detailed information about doctors on a public website.
Known as H.B. 3308, or the “Life Defense Act of 2012,” the bill would not actually level any real “defense” of human embryos. Instead, it would require the Tennessee Department of Health to publish more detailed information about abortions carried out in the state, including the names of doctors who performed them and the hospitals they work with.
It would also require detailed statistics on abortions, including time, date, the woman’s medical conditions at the time, the age of the fetus, the type of procedure performed, the location of the procedure, and the woman’s age, race and marital status, along with details on how many times she has been pregnant.
While all states collect some basic information on abortions, H.B. 3308 would make Tennessee’s reporting the most detailed in the nation.
Remember when it was just fringe extremist groups that did this stuff:
The threats started in 1995. It was the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and the American Coalition of Life Activists decided to create a poster for their annual meeting listing the names and address of a group of doctors who performed abortions. They called them “the Deadly Dozen,” and declared each guilty of “crimes against humanity.” They offered $5,000 for information leading to their arrest, conviction, or revocation of their medical licenses. ACLA members distributed the poster at the group’s events and published it in an affiliated magazine.
Then later that year, ACLA unveiled a second poster, this time targeting Dr. Robert Crist, an abortion provider in Kansas City. The poster listed his home and work addresses and featured his photograph. It offered $500 to “any ACLA organization that successfully persuades Crist to turn from his child killing through activities within ACLA guidelines,” which prohibited violence.
The following January, ACLA created the “Nuremberg Files” — a series of dossiers it had compiled on doctors, clinic employees, politicians, judges and other abortion rights supporters. Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, Kans., who was killed Sunday, was among them. They would be prosecuted, ACLA wrote, “once the tide of this nation’s opinion turns against the wanton slaughter of God’s children.” ACLA sent copies of the dossiers to an anti-abortion activist who posted the information on a Website. There, the names of those who had been attacked by “anti-abortion terrorists” — as the court called them — were listed, with a strike through the names of those who had been murdered. The names of those wounded were grayed.
So I guess we have advanced somewhat in the last 15 years. Before, it was just fringe fanatics who wanted to publish the private information of doctors. Now it is fanatical legislators.
PROGRESS!
Yutsano
Tell me again how any of these laws are not a massive violation of HIPAA.
Go ahead. I’m patient.
Ed Drone
@Yutsano:
Well, if you’re patient, your info will soon be on AOL & Facebook.
Oh, “patient,” not “a patient.”
My bad!
Ed
Jay in Oregon
I’m still looking for the “limited government” plank in the GOP platform. Oh, wait, it’s the one they’re using to bash minorities, gays, and women over the head.
Apparently their goal is to have a government that’s just large enough to keep “those people” in their place, and nothing else…
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Uterus most of the time.
@Yutsano: But, in a Christian nation, God’s law is more important than HIPPA.
gnomedad
OK, this is creepy: I now see an ad for “C0ncealed Carry Rep0rt”.
Culture of Truth
Also the fetus’ income, voting history, party registration, criminal background, and credit score.
Culture of Truth
It’d Be Easier To Just Paint a Bullseye on them
Actually I think this is easier.
JGabriel
The list will be known as the Doctor Enhanced Abortion Trace Heuristics List, or DEATH List for short. When asked about the name, state legislators said, “Oh, that’s just an unfortunate coincidence. Nothing meant by it. Really.”
.
becca
How big a role does ALEC play in the GOPWoW? A ginormous role is my bet.
Those kochroaches need a good dose of sunlight.
Soonergrunt
@Yutsano: Well, you see, the patients in this case are women, who, being actually not-men, ought not to have any rights separate from those seconded to them by the men responsible for them. SATSQ (/Republican)
Splitting Image
One way of looking at this is that the G.O.P. believes its Presidential nominee is going to need more help than usual to turn out the base in November.
A lot more.
The other way of seeing it is to look at where the U.S. stood on gay marriage in 2004. Back then they tried to make sure that there was a bill banning gay rights on the ballot in nearly every state. Nothing has happened since then except that support for gay rights has consistently risen and their bills have started to get repealed.
This is the same thing all over again, except they are making life difficult for a lot more people.
c u n d gulag
We Liberals look at “The Handmaid’s Tale” as a cautionary novel.
The right looks at it as an Instruction Manual.
Paul in KY
The poor fetuseses would always be considered Republican.
Yutsano
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Wow. Am I glad I live in the sociallist state of Washington where we’re working on passing this which unequivocally guarantees a woman’s right to do whatever the hell she wants with her body.
Splitting Image
@gnomedad:
Well, if you think about it, pregnancy is sort of a concealed carry. For the first few months anyway.
SiubhanDuinne
@becca:
I’ll take my smiles any place I can get them. Good one, Becca!
JGabriel
Note to GOP: The Handmaid’s Tale is not intended to be a user’s manual.
ETA: Damn, c u n d gulag beat me to it.
.
RyanayR
Why are they even bothering with all this pussy-footing? They should just declare abortions illegal in their respective states and challenge Roe V Wade like they want to. I thought it was Republicans who loathed litigious parties and a vast array of poorly-written legislation?
Also, I consider myself lucky to live in one of four states that have state laws making abortion legal, instead of via the Roe v Wade mandate. Also, I wonder if R’s will keep to their state’s rights guns if Roe v Wade were overturned? Would they protest if Washington, New York, Alaska, and Hawaii kept abortion legal and allowed residents of other states to go through the procedure on their turf?
Also, Republicans make my blood pressure higher than it otherwise would be and I secretly believe they are trying to slowly kill me via induced outrage.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Yutsano: I’m hoping you got my sarcasm. And I’m glad for you. I’m down here in Texas, which can now claim to have made Doonesbury.
gnomedad
I can’t wait for the feasibility of pregnancy transplants, particularly into males, which will doubtless see these compassionate individuals lining up as volunteer recipients.
Yutsano
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): The sarcasm was perceived. I just felt like running with it since there are places indeed moving in the opposite direction.
Svensker
I think Tennessee should require ALL medical procedures to do this. Have an anal cyst and need to get it popped? Well, get your info up their on the internets and your doctor’s information, too. Seriously. Otherwise, how is this not discriminatory? Also, too, unconstitutional.
Smiling Mortician
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Well, Texas has made Doonesbury before — if you count the representation of Bush II as an empty Stetson . . .
scav
@becca: The kochroaches scurrying about the shattered landscape is rather a good image (congrats). I never quite expected the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to be riding about same landscape from Caucus to Primary to Debate though, with the dogs of war strapped to various things as distinguishing badges.
kc
God damn, I hate Republicans.
RyanayR
@Yutsano: Actually the legality of abortions in Washington was codified via referendum in 1970 . The law you reference is the guaranteeing of abortion coverage by health insurance providers for elective procedures, which is still important, but different than advertised.
Halteclere
Yet not a dime is being proposed anywhere to provide assistance to someone who would be forced into having a kid with severe defects, to adoption services and child welfare groups, etc.
Jesus preached that you should not kill, but he also preached providing comfort to the least amongst us.
When will the next law beyond this be proposed that abortion doctors must all live and work in a set neighborhood? And that these doctors must wear some sort of readily identifiable badge or clothing article?
gnomedad
@Halteclere:
Yeah, the basic GOP response here is Sucks To Be You.
Satanicpanic
Terrorist enablers.
rikyrah
THIS IS WHO THEY ARE.
PERIOD.
RyanayR
@Halteclere: Godwin’s law at 27? too soon, too soon….
cmorenc
@RyanayR:
If the GOP wins the federal trifecta of Presidency, Senate, and House, you betcha there will be federal legislation introduced in spring 2013, purportedly pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which:
1) Pursuant to Section 5, which gives Congress the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of thei article (Amendment Fourteen);
2) Recognizes fetuses as “persons” within the meaning of the key phrase in the Amendment: “…Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law…nor deny any person…equal protection of its laws…”
Of course, the problem with this reasoning is that Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment begins with: “All persons BORN or naturalized in the United States, and the fact that according to prevailing common-law at the time the Constitution itself and later, the Fourteenth Amendment were adopted, a fetus had no legal recognition as a “person” apart from its mother, and only gained such status when born alive. In short, hoist on the petard of “originalism”.
Roger Moore
@Yutsano:
Because HIPAA is a massive, unconstitutional violation of states rights, just like every other federal law the wingnuts hate. You know the drill.
@Jay in Oregon:
They want to shrink government until it’s small enough to fit into a woman’s uterus.
the fugitive uterus
i’m telling you, if i were still a fertile young woman, i’d be scared to death
and i’m furious with these people for scaring young or more mature fertile women to death
where is my steel-bristled broom?
(well, to be fair, the bf has been neutered so i’m not 100% sure about the infertility thing – but in light of all these developments, i’m sure relieved about that particular form of birth control.)
Martin
@Yutsano: They absolutely would be. It’s not a HIPAA violation to collect and publish statistical data, but this would be so detailed that turning the statistics into names would be trivially easy to do. Any institution that provided this data would be in violation of federal law. Watching that play out in the courts would prove interesting.
One of the ways HIPAA protects health providers, not just patients.
Daaling
Of course NONE of this would be possible with idiot voters like you Cole. That’s a FACT.
Lee
Wouldn’t this list include just about every hospital except Catholic ones?
But in some cases of a miscarriages, they perform an abortion in order to save the mother.
(things might have changed in the 12 years since my last was born)
Daaling
Without that is. But works either way actually.
liberal
Huh? The solution is pretty obvious. Lure the TN legislators down to FL, shoot them dead, and then claim self-defense.
quannlace
So they can determine her level on the Slut-O-Meter.
Cris (without an H)
Godwin’s law is rendered trivial when discussing fascists.
liberal
@Cris (without an H):
Actually, he-who-we-love-to-hate Glenn Greenwald posted an email or something from Godwin himself, who said that the rules doesn’t apply to Nazi references that are appropriate, IIRC.
Carnacki
@liberal: Only works as self-defense if they’re African American
pseudonymous in nc
In case you were wondering, this is a straight lift from the Pennsylvania statute book. There’s also one in committee in New Hampshire right now.
And that language, as the back-reference to AUL’s model bill makes explicit, is designed to meet what might be called the “Kennedy test”, i.e. the amount of state-mandated misogyny that he considers tolerable. It’s basically saying “try to strike this down, you sluts.”
@becca:
This isn’t ALEC. This is AUL. Still means that the “laboratories of democracy” are receiving their bills as email attachments from a DC wingnut welfare shop, but ALEC is too busy fighting for the right of private enterprise to poison and maim; Charmaine Yoest is the one directing the statehouse muppets here.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
The theo-fascists continue to screw the vise tighter and tighter. Meanwhile, we continue to giggle and snark at how backward they are.
At this rate, wonder who wins that race.
RyanayR
@cmorenc: And we know how much they love the fourteenth amendment…. But more to my point, is that their advocation for state’s rights seems to only include religion, guns, and race politics. The conflict of their logic is enraging. I just want to say in my best six-year-old voice “YOU’RE CHEATING YOU CHEATERS! NO FAIR!”
@Cris (without an H): Good one!
A Humble Lurker
@Daaling:
Again, do you think he hasn’t voted Democratic since his apparent change of heart?
becca
@SiubhanDuinne: I am honored by your comment. thx.
RyanayR
@liberal: Like History channel forums?
Jay in Oregon
@Cris (without an H):
Since Godwin’s Law is actually “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches [100%],” it’s very easy to hit that when discussing actual fascists.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Yutsano:
Because “Fuck You Slut!” Don’t you know that women officially cede their rights under law upon pregnancy, whereupon they transfer to her unborn child? It’s in the Bible, don’t you know, so it’s law!
Ash Can
@Halteclere:
That’s because the anti-abortionists are ultimately not really anti-abortion, they’re pro-woman-punishing.
Brachiator
Not good enough. It leaves out the number of sex partners each woman has had, and omits the number of restrooms where graffiti is inscribed, “For a good time, call …”
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
A false sense of security in their moral superiority is the first refuge of many liberals.
I’ve been talking to my sister and mother about this. They are talking some serious civil disobedience.
Bubblegum Tate
Sociopaths helping sociopaths: It’s a GOP love story.
Yutsano
@Brachiator:
There is going to be a full-blown Lysistrata movement. It’s already starting to gel in fact.
liberal
@RyanayR:
No, something akin to what @50 says.
pseudonymous in nc
Actually, here’s the AUL model bill from which all of these “reporting” bills proceed.
Word for word. There’s one filed in Noo Joisey as well.
Honus
Missed in all the furor over the trans-vaginal ultrasound is that Virginia effectively outlawed abortion by passing a law requiring abortion clinics to comply with the same regulations as surgical hospitals. This was done in the name of insuring the safety of women of course.
amused
Talking Lysistrata is stupid. The play was a comedy; the joke was that women like sex, too. We still do. Stopping the boinking would be just as much punishment for women, plus, it gives the godbots what they want – no one having sex for fun.
Better to vote out the assholes, and make them miserable until that’s possible.
Brachiator
@cmorenc:
Excellent point.
And I am waiting for the test in which a conservative woman tries to claim an extra dependent on her tax return on the basis of a positive pregnancy test.
The other side of this craziness is that if ever such an amendment declaring fetuses to be persons ever prevailed, every miscarriage would be subject to autopsy, and the circumstances subject to criminal investigation. Women of child bearing age might be excluded from any job which could possibly endanger a fetus, obviously pregnant women who had even a single drink or engaged in any strenuous activity could possibly be prosecuted for child endangerment. And on and on.
Daaling
@A Humble Lurker: The point is that Cole is an easily led idiot.
At one time the right nuts persuaded him. Now the left nuts are persuading him. If it was 1940 the brown shirts would be able to persuade him.
In other words. People like Cole are the problem. Not the people they are brainwashed into electing. People like Cole are not capable of processing information properly. They need to be told how to think. That is the problem. He continues to pretend he’s just some passive fly on the wall. You all are. You have nobody to blame but yourselves collectively.
Brachiator
@Daaling:
What in the world are you blathering on about?
On reflection, never mind.
beergoggles
@Jay in Oregon: I propose a new law. You can name it after me if you like.
It’s impossible to discuss current Republican policies without invoking Godwin’s Law.
liberal
@Brachiator:
Yep. Definitely a case of “be careful what you wish for.”
O Possum
One of Tennessee’s ‘pro-life’ GOP house members apparently spent part of the weekend demonstrating to his wife how deeply committed he is to ‘family values’ and respect for women
Yutsano
@Brachiator: That we refuse to recognize just what the infinite genius and specialness that is Derf. Or something. But hey, he needs to do something when he’s not endlessly worshipping Harper’s every move.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
Well, how about we also publish the names of any Republican politicians who get prescriptions for any kind of dick pills. We can publish their names, what kind of pills each one is taking, how often he takes it, how often he gets the prescription filled again, what his dose is… I might be missing something. Anybody want to help me out? I guess we might as well let the public know about these guys’ prostate exams, too, maybe even with pictures. Seems fair to me.
Brachiator
@Yutsano: RE: They are talking some serious civil disobedience.
No, that’s just fighting in the personal realm. I’m talking extra heavy action taking to the streets and government buildings that would make some of the actions of the suffragettes look like sedate choir practice.
liberal
@Daaling:
LOL.
Yes, because everyone, regardless of their education, their social circles, and their parents’ socioeconomic status, religion, and political views ought to immediately come to “correct” conclusions about the sociopolitical stage, at say the age of 14.
Southern Beale
John, you really need to read my blog.
:-)
How dare you. That bullseye is just surveyor’s marks, you fool.
liberal
@amused:
Particularly since going to women is probably a last resort for the Godbots when they want to get their kink on.
Southern Beale
@Brachiator:
April 28. Mark it on your calendar.
Statewide actions, and a march on Washington.
Gretchen
@the fugitive uterus:
We live in Kansas, with the new 60-something page antiabortion bill, including things like the doctor can lie to the patient about fetal abnormalities if he thinks the patient would have an abortion if she knew. My daughter wants to have a child soon, and is considering only OB’s on the Missouri side. Not that that’s a whole lot better. Imagine having to wonder if your doctor would let you die for his religious beliefs, and try to protect yourself with imperfect information. I hate thes fuckers with a white-hot heat.
Carnacki
@Daaling: It sounds better when read in the voice of a mad scientist.
“Fools! All of you! Soon you shall bow down to me and my Death Ray! Bwhahahaha! Only by your exterminations can you be saved!”
Linnaeus
@Yutsano:
Me too. I was on the phone with my brother, and he suggested that I consider moving back to Michigan (where we grew up and where most of my family still lives). Thing is, I don’t like the direction that politics there has taken in the past several years and although it’s not as bad there as it could be, I could see myself getting really discouraged. Wingnuts run the state now – with a few checks, but not many – and the damage they’re doing will take years to undo.
Xenos
@Yutsano:
Since men’s political views in many cases be determined by running their names through the opensecrets.org database, all a woman needs is her handy iphone in order to sort the wheat from the chaff, right at the first conversation. Maybe there ought to be an app for that.
Yutsano
@Linnaeus: Of course we did just pass that stupid California-style two-thirds taxation law, so there’s still work to do here. My kingdom for a well aimed bus and Tim Eyman stumbling drunk out of a bar.
Nylund
@RyanayR:
I think it’s a bit like those conceal and carry fanatics who dream nightly of one day being lucky enough to be in a situation where they get to legally shoot a “young buck.” They’d actually be SAD if crime went down because it’d lower the chance that they’d get to shoot someone.
That is, the joy of being able to do something hideous to another human being outweighs their desire to end the underlying behavior they supposedly want to stop.
Linnaeus
@Yutsano:
Oh, yeah. Plenty to be done even here.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
@Ash Can:
This is the point. We should all keep in mind that a lot of Republicans, and Santorum is one of them, get laws passed that made the Northern Mariana Islands, which is part of the U.S., exempt from federal wage laws and other workplace laws. The sweatshop owners there brought young women in from China, and, if they got raped or otherwise got pregnant, the owners forced abortions on them. The Republicans were mighty proud of their work there in the Northern Mariana Islands, too. They pointed to it as a model for the rest of the U.S. So they aren’t anti-abortion at all. They’re just anti-woman. Or as Al Franken put it, they aren’t anti-abortion, they’re anti-choice: They don’t want women to have the right to choose to have an abortion, and they don’t want women to have the right to choose not to have one.
shortstop
@Xenos: Sadly, that doesn’t work with donors who give under $200 total per candidate, which leaves out all the poor-as-dirt rubes who fall all over themselves to carry water for the 1%.
scav
Lysistrata worked with the tools she had available to her (yes, in fiction) as did the Suffragettes. The tools available to women currently have expanded, not as much as we’d like, but nevertheless still further in the realms of money, influence, quiet rooms, etc. while not being lost in the “traditional” areas. Habits of deference, silence and avoiding the public eye haven’t really been kept up. Could be very interesting as there are more fronts to play with. I’d personally keep a wary eye out for the older generation, the ones that thought they were done with this silliness.
shortstop
@scav:
Thought they were done with this silliness, are largely done with putting up with other people’s bullshit, and are retired and in a position to say whatever the fuck they think.
I ain’t older generation yet, but it’s sounding better all the time.
scav
@shortstop: Exactly. I’m chasing down a quote, but there is no force under heaven that can really stop them once they get going.
Daaling
@Brachiator: Yes, I luv you too my little furry groupie. I know you obsess about me and can’t help posting your appreciation of me and the important work I do.
On second thought never mind.
slag
I know that ABL has a GOP legislative agenda wiki going. Is there any way to get that translated into LOLCat, by chance? I’m worried that’s the only way anyone of good conscience could stomach reading it.
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Brachiator:
I won’t disagree. I’ll even admit to the same failing at times, myself.
I’d just feel a lot better about the Good People’s chances if I were hearing/reading any pushback against the GOP-WoW out in the real world. Mass media. Conversations. Facebook– but I see and hear nothing.
Here we have this wounded, insane, enraged party of theo-fascist reactionaries. They’re essentially trying to re-structure our entire society in what’s clearly a coordinated effort across multiple states and branches of government. And yet, outside of BJ and a few other high-info sites that “normal” people don’t read, there’s nothing. Because the mainstream media sources aren’t talking about it at all.
Not trying to troll… but I am a little concerned.
The Golux
They should at least be honest, and title the bill “The Scott Roeder Target Practice Act”.
Brachiator
@Daaling:
Funny thing is, I don’t even know who you are. I can’t keep up with the aliases. I do feel sorry for you though, sometimes.
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor:
I don’t get it. Newspapers and magazines are dying, and yet people want to insist that if the mainstream media doesn’t cover it, then all is lost. I don’t think so.
Look at some of the pushback against Rush. A lot of it came from Facebook pages. People were not waiting on the mainstream media to give them permission to feel disgusted at Rush’s attempt to degrade Ms Fluke.
Also consider the open mockery of some state officials posted to their Facebook pages. And it is clear that there was a lot of anger behind the mockery.
The gubernatorial recalls and other actions indicate that people are fighting back. In many ways, the Occupy Wall St movement, as disorganized and tattered as it was, was also a pushback.
Some of the old venues, the party regulars, the unions, the media, apparently cannot organize as effectively as they did in the past, but people are finding a way to find their voices and act.
As an aside, out here in Southern California, we have the old standby Pacifica radio station, KPFK. They were never as important as they believed they were. And even though they have a website, they are largely as irrelevant to contemporary media as the Morse code is to the Internets, not because their ideology is bad, but because an entire generation has largely abandoned FM radio, along with much other traditional media. This justs suggests that new means of communication and organization need to be developed.
gvg
Re:amused – March 19, 2012 | 1:30 pm · Link
Talking Lysistrata is stupid. The play was a comedy; the joke was that women like sex, too. We still do. Stopping the boinking would be just as much punishment for women, plus, it gives the godbots what they want – no one having sex for fun.
Better to vote out the assholes, and make them miserable until that’s possible.
Selective Lysistrata is called for however. Any one married to or involved with someone introducing, supporting or lobbying such horrible bills should be cut off. this includes the husbands of those women introducing these nasty bills. Comment 76 was suggesting an app so we could check before dates….
Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor
@Brachiator:
We must be in different demographics, then: In my own Facebook circles, even the ordinarily apolitical types are snickering about Obama and gas prices, like well-trained dogs barking at a whistle. The few young lefties I know IRL are too busy soaking in a marinade of “Dronestrikes! Holder! Legal Pot! Obama’s just as bad!” to be of much practical use.
Here in my supposedly-blue state, siding with the Catholic Bishops against women has catapulted Scott Brown to 8-10 points over “Professor” Warren in polls. If the recall vote in WI were held today, Scott Walker would keep his seat, and Occupy has been successfully marginalized by MSM.
I understand that the Kewl Kids these days don’t have landlines, and they don’t listen to FM radio or read the newspapers. But (as 2004 and 2010 should have taught us), they also can’t really be trusted to show up and vote when it really matters, either.
BTW, I also half expect the Occupy kids to pull a 1968 at the Dem convention. But plenty of time for that discussion in September.
Brachiator
@Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor: We must be in different demographics, then:
I don’t much use Facebook myself. I think it is a tool of the Divil. But I talk and email to people who do, and follow tech news. Maybe a lot of lefties are soaking up negativiity. Still, here and Twitter and other social media is where a lot of the new communication will be happening.
Fortunately, the vote is not being held today. And since the MSM is self-marginalizing, I don’t understand why people conitinue to overstate its importance or value. I think there is a time lag thing happening here.
The office in which I work has a number of people in their 20s and 30s. Only one person subscribes to the newspaper (the LA Times). Typically, when he leaves the paper in the break room, the entire paper, except for the Sports section, is thrown away. No one listens to the radio.
There is, on the other hand, not a huge degree of political fervor, except among those who lean to the right. So, I think there may be a caution here. I know that many Balloon Juicers are absolutely convinced that they will be rescued by the Great Demographic Shift. I am skeptical.
On the other hand, to be blunt, a lot of people in their 20s and 30s fuck. Quite a few have kids. If they are complacent, and are willing to let the GOP ream them over contraception and health care when it should be of prime importance to many of them, and are willing to risk another “business uber alles” administration ruling over their most productive years, then the masses will have spoken. They cannot say that the distinctions between the two parties are not starkly delineated. And it will be pointless for them to blame the MSM for not alerting them to the issues.
Citizen_X
How about a “Don’t fuck Republicans” movement?
Sorry to be blunt, but I think that would get the message across.
Patricia Kayden
So hopefully women/sensible men are fighting back against these idiotic laws, right?
It’s a bit scary how the leading women’s organizations seem to be helpless in the face of all this anti-women onslaught by the GOP. Americans are going backwards in terms of equal rights.
pseudonymous in nc
@Patricia Kayden:
They need to go after the source, which in this case is AUL — and make a stink about how an unelected operation in Washington, DC is writing the laws for the state of [insert state name here].
The evil genius of the ALEC/AUL strategy is that because state legislatures work on different timetables, and statehouse politics barely gets reported even in those states, they can push out a bunch of model laws, the local coverage doesn’t have the chops to trace them back to the source, and the opposition ends up having to play whack-a-mole.
slightly-peeved
@62:
is this the argument too many people who don’t undersstand the issues vote?
I guess that would make sense, given that the US has so many more people voting than countries further left of it, like the nordic countries, Australia and Canada… Oh wait, I’m being told that it’s actually the complete opposite.
People not voting is always a problem. Especially for the left.
GregB
So how come the media never calls Huckabee and America hater?
What would you call a man that continuously compares America to Nazi Germany by referring to abortion as a Holocaust?
America hater.
Karen
States can’t ban or outlaw abortion until Roe v Wade is overturned. Isn’t that federal law?
Brachiator
@Karen:
If state laws and restrictions make getting an abortion practically impossible, what does it matter whether Roe v Wade is not overturned?
If you create a gigantic and phony conscience exception where companies and hospitals can refuse to provide abortion services,or to pay for them via health insurance, then what does it matter whether Roe v Wade is not overturned?
If you create a gigantic and phony conscience exception in which contraception can be restricted, then what does it matter whether Roe v Wade is not overturned?
pseudonymous in nc
If you can pass laws setting onerous requirements for abortion clinics, and demand the publication of information that functions as a “nice place you’ve got here, shame if anything happened to it”, then what does it matter whether Roe v Wade is not overturned?
That, again, is the aim of operations like AUL, and they have the tacit support of five SCOTUS justices to do it.