Monday, February 21, 2011

WE’RE NOT JOKING












The temptation has always been to treat the right of the Republican Party and the followers of Glenn Beck as something of an absurd joke – small minded, small town, fatuous, uneducated buffoons. Unfortunately, since they took control of the House in the midterm elections it has become increasing clear that there’s nothing funny about them at all. Evidence like this open letter from MoveOn.org that catalogues their current assault on women’s rights indicates that they are very vicious and very dangerous.

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."
3) In South Dakota, Republicans proposed a bill that could make it legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. (Yep, for real.)
4) Republicans want to cut nearly a billion dollars of food and other aid to low-income pregnant women, mothers, babies, and kids.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).

Click here for Frank Zappa

The secret word is Foul

Jay Landesman – RIP

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could someone tell me why any state would want a 'special relationship' with America?

Anonymous said...

Can anyone tell me why a person would MOVE BACK to their beloved Englandia & STILL bad-mouth America? Why care what Republicans do in America, if your filthy ass is soaking up Britain's mire?

Mick said...

The Brotherhood of Man, asshole.

Mike said...

Since American culture, like Disney & McDonalds, inevitably crosses the Atlantic, the UK is looking at the current state of American politics and political debate with significant trepidation.

Diamond Jim said...

Shal we add Palin with nukes to that list?

Lyle Hopwood said...

So for #6:

"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."

Just checking - the bill would pay the women to be home with their children, right? So they could eat and stuff? And when the children were out of the home, the program would top up the now-working woman's wages with the differential between what she is earning and what she could have been earning if she'd stayed in the workforce gaining experience and seniority for those 16 years, so she could pay up her Social Security and so she'd one day be able to save enough to retire, right?

I know the answer must be "yes" because Republicans are always fair to working-class women. But I just wanted to check.

wv is 'culneva'.

Anonymous said...

New York city has recorded an average of 90,000 abortions a year. An average which constitutes 40 percent of all pregnancies in the city.

That percentage is twice the national average. Among black women, the percentage is even higher — 60 percent.

On blacks, immigrants and indigents:
"...human weeds,' 'reckless breeders,' 'spawning... human beings who never should have been born." - Margaret Sanger, Founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the world