especially if they also have a Y chromosome. OK so I'm kidding. Sort of. I suspect that those who follow or contribute to this blog were all good kids and voted in the last election. To those who didn't; at least your vote earns you the right to bitch. And I earned my right to raise a little hell.
Not all of these bills are at the federal level and the screwball from Georgia is a really scary dude. BTW the basic list is courtesy of MoveOn. The comments are my own. The text in bold is the original MoveOn list. Unbolded text are my comments.
1) Republicans not only want to reduce women's access to abortion care, they're actually trying to redefine rape. After a major backlash, they promised to stop. But they haven't.
2) A state legislator in Georgia wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to "accuser." But victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain "victims." Google search verifies claim. The legislator in question is named Bobby Franklin. He also has advocated banning all abortions in Georgia. The bill he introduced would also require that every miscarriage be investigated The fancy legal term is spontaneous fetal death. In other words ladies you are guilty until proven innocent. He does not support public schools. He introduced a bill this year that would do away with driver’s licenses in his state. Apparently requiring that people be licensed to drive unfairly infringes in their right to move freely. After checking out the Wickipedia entry for him I have to assume he’s either a Dominionist or Christian Reconstructionist. These are scary folks. The Old Testament code would be the law of the land.
3) In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.) True as far I can tell. I found multiple listings on the web.
4) Republicans want to cut nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and kids. Actual figure is $747 million dollars. Still a big hit for the most vulnerable among us. I did a quick web search an it looks like subsidies for corn, sugar and soy are still intact.
5) In Congress, Republicans have proposed a bill that would let hospitals allow a woman to die rather than perform an abortion necessary to save her life. Currently a hospital is required to stabilize and transport to another facility if they can’t provide treatment for whatever reason. Pitts’ new bill would free hospitals from any abortion requirement under EMTALA, meaning that medical providers who aren’t willing to terminate pregnancies wouldn’t have to — nor would they have to facilitate a transfer. And in a rural area a transfer might not be feasible. I hope nobody has to die to prove what an asinine idea this is.
6) Maryland Republicans ended all county money for a low-income kids' preschool program. Why? No need, they said. Women should really be home with the kids, not out working. This occurred in Frederick country Maryland. It’s an all male board of commissioners. I’m making the rash assumption that they’re all white males, upper middle class at least and on the north side of the age of fifty.
7) And at the federal level, Republicans want to cut that same program, Head Start, by $1 billion. That means over 200,000 kids could lose their spots in preschool. True
8) Two-thirds of the elderly poor are women, and Republicans are taking aim at them too. A spending bill would cut funding for employment services, meals, and housing for senior citizens. Well that’s one way to solve the Medicare and social security deficits.
9) Congress voted yesterday on a Republican amendment to cut all federal funding from Planned Parenthood health centers, one of the most trusted providers of basic health care and family planning in our country. True
10) And if that wasn't enough, Republicans are pushing to eliminate all funds for the only federal family planning program. (For humans. But Republican Dan Burton has a bill to provide contraception for wild horses. You can't make this stuff up). True
But the good news is that the tax cuts are still in place. And the not so funny things is that all the wire service photos show middle aged and above white guys in power suits. Maybe the old sixties adage really is true. “Don’t trust anyone over thirty.” With a few possible exceptions. Peter DeFazio is still pretty cool.
5 comments:
I like to think that these kinds of nutjobs, and these kinds of off-the-wall attempts at legislation, have always existed, but since we didn't used to have 24-hour hyper-news cycles, we didn't hear about them.
I think I liked it better that way...
Unfortunately I'm afraid that the nutjobs have multiplied. And the current election cycle has given them at least the appearance of power. At least they're more out in the open and we know who not to vote for next time.
We're spiraling toward being a society of haves and have nots. These proposals are more than a little scary.
I feel no particular loyalty to those who show no loyalty to me. We buy bulk when we can. The store where we do most of our shopping, Winco, is employee owned. Where we can we buy locally. If those commissioners were here in Lane County they'd be facing a recall election at the very least. I'm really tired of pigmentally challenged, middle aged, wealthy zippers making decisions for the rest of us.
Jackie's back. And just the way I like her.
Crazy world we are living in ... politicians are making it worse.
Post a Comment