Fishing Trip Nets Unexpected Prize

RH Reality Check has performed a great service in documenting the total waste of time perpetrated by the US House RAPEublicans' latest fishing expedition.

In May, Republican members of two congressional committees—the House Judiciary Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee—wrote letters to the departments of health and attorneys general in all 50 states, asking for thousands of pages of information about how each state monitors and regulates abortion.

“By now you are surely aware of the trial of Kermit Gosnell, who is charged with the serial murder of infants, the murder of a female patient, and other felonies committed in the operation of his abortion clinic in Philadelphia,” wrote committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ), chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, in the letter sent to all state attorneys general. “We are seeking to find out if state and local governments are being stymied in their efforts to protect the civil rights of newborns and their mothers by legal or financial obstacles that are within the federal government’s power to address.”

With the implied threat -- 'and if you are not sufficiently stymying women seeking abortion and the medical staff who serve them, we'll help you with that'.

The RAPEublicans were seeking to bolster with facts -- FACTS! -- their federal bill banning all abortions in all 50 states after '20 weeks post-fertilization'. (The bill has zero chance of passing in the Senate.)

Well, that didn't work out very well. In fact, I believe this is a sterling example of being hoist on one's own petard.





RH Reality Check obtained these documents from the various states and analyzed them. The data base is here.

An analysis of these documents shows that congressional Republicans will find no support for their arguments in favor of new restrictions on abortion care in the evidence presented by the states. In particular, to the extent that anti-choice advocates claim that women are being put at risk by abortion services, these documents—from the very state entities charged with overseeing and regulating abortion—show the contrary. They show that abortion in the United States is highly regulated and overwhelmingly safe.

Lots of details at the link and in the data base. RH Reality Check plans further analyses and reports.

I want to highlight just one of their findings: the myth of the 'born-alive' fetuses.

On the issue of infants being “born alive” after a botched abortion, Pennsylvania was the only state that reported such conduct. That was in the case of Kermit Gosnell, who has been convicted of murder.

The “born-alive” fetus is a favorite theme of the anti-choice movement, which has perpetuated the claim that a large number of viable fetuses are born alive after failed second- and illegal third-trimester abortions as a way of shifting public opinion on abortion. This claim has been heavily criticized by public health experts who say this is an exceedingly rare occurrence and is in any case already covered by existing law and regulation. Nearly 90 percent of all abortions occur within the first trimester of pregnancy, the majority of these before nine weeks. In short, the vast majority of abortions in the United States occur at the embryonic stage, prior to the fetal stage. Since only a small share of all abortions are late second-trimester (after 20 weeks), and since third-trimester abortions are illegal in all but the most exceptional circumstances, it is not surprising that state records show that the myth of “born-alive” fetuses is, indeed, a myth.

Doncha just love it when dimwits try to be smart? It just about always blows up real good. On them.

ADDED: Media Matters for America demonstrates how thoroughly MSM in the US has bought into the lies surrounding the 20-week ban.

Support for Unrestricted Abortion Skyrocketing

Oh dear. That old bugaboo, unintended consequences, is biting back big time.

In both Canada and the US, classic overreach on the abortion issue is creating a 'backlash among moderates'.

Here in Canada, support for unrestricted abortion is skyrocketing

The question asked on October 27: Should abortion be legal in all circumstances, should it be legal in some circumstances or should it be illegal in all circumstances?

A Forum Research poll for the National Post recently asked 1,735 randomly selected Canadians 18 years of age or older when abortion should be legal.

A full 60% of Canadians said always.

That’s surprisingly high. Even more surprising: That number’s skyrocketed in recent months. In a similar Forum poll conducted last February, only 51% of Canadians took that position.

Leap of 9 points in 8 months. Woo.

Pundits speculate that the cause may be the attempted reopening of the abortion debate -- that nobody wants -- by wannabe allegorist Stephen Woodworth.

Perhaps amplified by moronic musings on rape and magic lady parts by USian ReThuglican candidates.

In the US, a poll taken after the election shows solid majority support for abortion rights.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 54% describe themselves as pro-choice on the issue of abortion, while 38% say they are pro-life.

Note that both these surveys were taken before the public learned of the death-by-religion of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland.

Wonder what the next polls will show. . .

USA creeps closer to 'A Handmaid's Tale'

Democrats tore into House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R) for preventing women from testifying before a hearing examining the Obama administration’s new regulation requiring employers and insurers to provide contraception coverage to their employees. Republicans oppose the administration’s rule and have sponsored legislation that would allow employers to limit the availability of birth control to women.

Ranking committee member Elijah Cummings (D) had asked Issa to include a female witness at the hearing, but the Chairman refused, arguing that “[...] the hearing is not about reproductive rights and contraception but instead about the Administration’s actions as they relate to freedom of religion and conscience [the] congressman insisted that the hearing should focus on the rules’ alleged infringement on “religious liberty,” not contraception coverage, and denied the request. Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Eleanor Holmes Norton walked out of the hearing in protest of his decision, citing frustration over the fact that the first panel of witnesses consisted only of male religious leaders [...]

From here:

I can see why the Republicans would bar female religious leaders from the hearing; they would bring their wombs, whose dangerous *humours* they fear.

ADDED: And. Also. This.

On February 14th the Virginia State House passed an anti-abortion measure that would mandate that a woman seeking an abortion be required to undergo what is called a trans-vaginal ultrasound. This is a type of pelvic ultrasound that is used to look at a woman’s reproductive organs. Unlike a normal ultrasound, this type of ultrasound is an invasive procedure. A woman lies on her back with her feet in stirrups, as the health care provider places a probe covered with a condom and lubrication into her vagina.

State-sanctioned rape for women needing an abortion.

So you think we can dance ...err, be a US "homeland"?

Sadly, it's neither a reality show nor exploitative entertainment: it's actual *real* exploitation of Canada and our resources.

Go read Creekside: Combined Defence Plan - So we're a "homeland" now?, howl loudly then take action with the political and social action group of your choice.

*Christians* threaten 16 year-old schoolgirl with violence.

The facts about her challenge to US Christofascism:

Jessica Ahlquist, a student at Cranston High School West, sued the city of Cranston and its school committee in April 2011 to remove the banner, which dates back to 1963.

As an atheist, Ahlquist said the mural made her feel excluded and ostracized. She accused the school of violating the Establishment Clause of the Constitution's First Amendment, which prevents the government from promoting one religion over another.

From here:

“A Christian Catholic prayer may bring comfort to the majority of students in my school,” said a confident and composed Ahlquist, who sat surrounded by her father, two lawyers, the ACLU Executive Director Steve Brown, a reverend and a rabbi. “But it sends a different message to the large population of students of other faith or in my case, none. I firmly believe that it should not be on display in a public school.”

More here.

Last week, a judge who evaluated the legal arguments of both parties ordered the banner removed.

NOT #elxn41 news: Pedophile Catholic Priests

From here:

"In one of the largest monetary payouts nationwide in the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis, and the largest one by a religious order, the Jesuit order in the Northwest has agreed to pay $166.1 million to about 500 abuse victims as part of its bankruptcy settlement," The Seattle Times writes.

As The Associated Press adds, the payments will go to "hundreds of American Indians and Alaska Natives who were abused at the Catholic order's schools around the region. The settlement also asks the order to provide a written apology to the victims and to share documents with them such as their personal medical records."

There are MASSIVE resources at this website, about various forms of abuse by members of the Catholic clergy: news, updates, groups, connections, discusions - BishopAccountability.org

"Mass Bloodshed" threat by US fetus fetishists

Media Matters speculates that CNN's infotainment personality *Dick Dickson* is responsible for this thinly disguised threat issued by rightwing blog Red State:

We will not endorse any candidate who will not reject the judicial usurpation of Roe v. Wade and affirm that the unborn are no less entitled to a right to live simply because of their size or their physical location. Those who wish to write on the front page of RedState must make the same pledge. The reason for this is simple: once before, our nation was forced to repudiate the Supreme Court with mass bloodshed. We remain steadfast in our belief that this will not be necessary again [...]

One can safely presume the use of the term 'mass bloodshed' does not refer to the phenom of synchronized menstrual periods that occur with women living in college dorms and residences.

The abortion criminalizers are huffing and puffing these days, using false equivalencies and behaving like the gynophobic bullies they are. Emboldened no doubt by Palin's appropriation of the term 'blood libel', US senator *Roger Pricker* labeled women's legal access to abortion

"a three-and-a-half decades-long holocaust."

Fetus fetishists, instead of dealing with the harsh consequences of re-criminalizing abortion, prefer to spin and dissemble. Last year a bible-thumping blogger used twisty and illogical train-wreck-of-thought to attack this powerful statement by Jane Fonda, on the subject of choice.

"Every dictator—Stalin, Ceaucescu, Hilter—has made anti-choice a central component of their agenda. The anti-choice movement has used different strategies over the decades, growing more strategic and virulent in reaction to the modern U.S. women’s movement."

It may be religious fundamentalist zealots who shrieeek the loudest about re-criminalizing a woman's right to determine if and when she procreates, but underneath the rhetoric lies an imperative to control women's breeding potential just as political leaders and party bureaucrats do in China, the UAE, Kenya and other countries living under autocratic rule.

Who's Nuttier?

Here in Canada our rightwingnutz go insane over people dressed like this:



While in the US, a judge just ruled that people can VOTE dressed like this:

The teabaggers are coming just in time for Xmas.

And you thought it was safe to disregard the tragically studip? Bwahahahaha! they're ba-a-a-ack!

From here:

Tea Party Patriots — the right-wing organizers controlled by FreedomWorks — sent an urgent call to action today, asking supporters to come to Washington December 15th to “storm Senate offices” in order to “play out the role of patients waiting for treatment in government controlled medical facilities.” The e-mail says organizers plan to “stay there until they force us to leave,” and incites supporters to “flex our muscle” and “hold the line in our fight against the government takeover of health care” ...

Any moment now, a TPP (pronounced teapeepee) leader will declare that the "government takeover of healthcare" (which is called healthcare reform by sane people) is a manifestation of the War On Christmas.

W.O.C.kers' vigilence regarding the phenomenon claimed to be yet another form of discrimination against and/or persecution of Christians is constant and never-ending. Focus on the Family has foot-soldiers marching in shopping malls all over the US, scrutinizing the wording in flyers and reporting what evidence they find.

Balbulican wrote a trenchant blogpost: "The REAL War on Christmas – Found At Last!" where he observes even christofascists are jumping on the retailing bandwagon. In the comment section he says:

About 95% of the “War On Christmas” stories you read have to do with vendors who are now promoting their products and services by encouraging EVERYONE who’s got a holiday with a gift-giving tradition to come and spend money. That’s as capitalist, as entrepreneurial, as private sector as you can get.

At the risk of provoking yet another round of shrieeekkking from fundamentalist religious zealots, this may be an appropriate moment to quote someone who had a powerful approach to creating Peace on earth and goodwill for all living creatures.

Mohandas Gandhi: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time."

Buy Nothing Day in the UK

Yes, we know. Buy Nothing Day was started in North America as a responsible and forward-thinking answer to the problems of rampant consumerism, the worst example being "Black Friday", the shopping orgy that is held the day after US Thanksgiving. The HQ and brain trust behind the campaing is Adbusters, an organization based in Vancouver, BC.

But on so many levels, the UK approach resonates more strongly with Canadians, I'd venture to say. For one thing, it's held on the last Saturday of November, when the 'shopping days before Xmas' count-down becomes frenzied and incessant.

Here's one social marketing that the UK genius folks have developed.



More inspired anti-shopping YouTubes here.

From the UK Buy Nothing Day website:

Everything we buy has an impact on the environment. Buy Nothing Day highlights the environmental and ethical consequences of shopping. The developed countries
- only 20% of the world population are consuming over 80% of the earth's natural resources, causing a disproportionate level of environmental damage and an unfair distribution of wealth.

And voluntary responsible consumer simplicity can continue every day of the year if you keep the following in mind.

Ask yourself these simple questions:

Do I need it? How many do I already have? How much will I use it? How long will it last? Could I borrow it from a friend or family member? Am I able to clean and/or maintain it myself? Will I be able to repair it? Am I willing to? Have I researched it to get the best quality for the best price? How will I dispose of it when I'm done using it? Are the resources that went into it renewable or nonrenewable? Is it made from recycled materials, and is it recyclable?

If not shopping today disrupts your schedule and standing in solidarity with the campaign would mean that you're deprived of ciggies, your kitty of litter or your children of milk, pick another way to be a conscientious consumer.

Giving thanks that we are not neoCon rightwingnutz.

Yup. Today is Thanksgiving in the US of A, also known as the official start of Xmas shopping season though retailers have had displays up since Hallowe'en.

So. The turbaconducken, folks. Another example of 'murrican nutrition-related ingenuity. All your basic food groups are present: fat, salt, sugar and meat.

Via C.C. this unrefutable "scientific" "proof" that the Homosexual Agenda is poised to unleash its control and influence upon an unsuspecting population. And what about all those ubiquitous rainbow-tinged soap-bubble-blowing machines, now sold to CHILDREN?!?!? Shrieeeeekkk!

From the BBC, we learn that the CIA scraped the bottom of the proverbial barrel in its never-ending campaign to spy upon the citizenry. Now you too can learn CIA operatives' deep dark covert techniques used for communicating secret messages. Hint: get rid of your shoes that have Velcro™ tabs.

And finally- tomorrow is Buy Nothing Day - just a head's up so you can stock up on essential consumables today.

Obama vs The Fetus Fetishists

LieSite laments: The most babykillingest prez evah would whup the asses of every Rethugican fetus-fetishizing rival in 2012 according to a new poll.

Obama leads Mike Huckabee 47-43, Mitt Romney 48-40, Sarah Palin 52-40, and Tim Pawlenty 50-30.

This is the seventh time PPP [Public Policy Polling] has conducted this poll and the seventh time Huckabee has polled closest to Obama. Speaking to the weakness of the field of potential Republican candidates he's the only with a positive favorability rating and even then it's only 33/29.

So, is it the general and well-deserved meltdown of the Party of No? (JJ has a great clip of Keith Olbermann gloating over relishing some recent numbers on party identification in the US.)

Or, perhaps the Merkin people have actual concerns that override the panty-sniffing Christer Taliban's unrelenting SHRIEEEKING about the most babykillingest prez evah.

BONUS: This comment on Sawah's numbers:

Palin's numbers have been somewhat mystifying over the last four months. Immediately after her resignation they actually improved to a positive 47/45 favorability rating. Since then though they've plummeted even with her largely out of the public eye and only 36% of voters have a favorable view of her with 51% holding a negative one. She has by far the worst numbers with both Democrats and independents.

Let me fix that last sentence.

'She has by far the worst numbers with everyone with more than one functioning neuron.'

There.

But she'll never be off our radar here at DAMMIT JANET!. Because, gosh darn it, she's just too much fun! Also.

Expect rightwing batshit crazies to spin this.

A very strange event, one with a potential tragic and fatal outcome, currently holds the US in thrall.

A 6-year-old boy climbed into a small homemade aircraft — a balloon resembling a flying saucer — and floated thousands of metres into the air in Colorado on Thursday, local media said. But when the balloon came to earth, there was no sign of the passenger.

The Denver Post newspaper reported that the boy got into the aircraft, which it described as a "home-made flying saucer" at his family's home in Fort Collins and that it then came loose from its tether.

The father of the boy, Richard Heene, said he had been experimenting with the balloon with his sons, floating it just above the ground while it was tethered by ropes. His son, six-year-old Falcon Heene, is said to have climbed into the basket and the ropes came undone. Another brother ran into the house and alerted the parents, according to police.

A National Guard chopper was trailing the balloon which was at one time estimated to be traveling at an altitude of 8,000 feet when it began to lose helium and come back to earth.

It will be interesting to watch the contortions that the usual US rightwing religious batshit crazies, birthers and assorted haters will execute in order to blame this on their president.

UPDATE (by fh): The boy is fine. He was hiding at home the whole time.

Darwin biopic "Creation" will not be shown in the US?

Creation, the movie that opened the Toronto International Film Festival was originally developed by the BBC and UK films council. So far, not even one US film distribution company has shown an interest in showing the production in that country. From here:

Creation, starring Paul Bettany, details Darwin's "struggle between faith and reason" as he wrote On The Origin of Species. It depicts him as a man who loses faith in God following the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter, Annie. ...

It has been sold in almost every territory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia. However, US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution. ...

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".

Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of Creation, said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after 'On The Origin of Species' was published. "That's what we're up against. In 2009. It's amazing," he said.

Aren't those quaint 'Murricans and their "free speech for me but not for you" notions just too amusing?

OK, I realize this isn't funny

So why am I laughing?

I've checked. It really happened. The Washington Post and Guardian are both reporting it. But I liked this guy's take on it.

Call it a case of bite and run, but a 65-year-old man opposed to health care reform struck another man who was trying to reach a MoveOn.org-backed pro-reform rally of 100 participants -- and had half his pinky finger bitten off in return. And, in a dramatic tour de force of socialized medicine, the victim was sent home by doctors after they reattached the digit -- all covered by his Medicare policy.

Paging Dr Bauer!

Cameron Holmstrom at Dispatches by Northwestern Lad called it exactly right. This is is perfect person to stand up for healthcare reform in the US.



Yes, Kiefer, please go on Rachel's show.

Uterus or Brain?: Choice for Zygote Zealots.

Over in the comments after unrepentant old hippie's blogpost regarding a zygote zealot who advocates violence against abortion providers, The Fetus©™ fetishist in question, bayouchild/Jill, offers herself up as "proof" that as Gawd gave women wombs so must they breed.

It's strange, isn't it? Neither my father nor my mother made me feel that I had to choose between using my brain or my uterus. But then, I didn't grow up in a familial environment that supported fundamentalist religious gynophobia.

Thus it was possible for me to choose to give life without having to abandon the ability to reason and the capacity for rational compassion.

It appears that choice was not available for bayouchild since she utters predictable, programmed pro-natalist glurge and fundamentalist Catholic dogma. No need to engage the brain, the default propaganda simply spews out.

It's no wonder that fundamentalist Catholic men, like John "Mr Kicking Abortion's Ass" Pacheco, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and Pope Benedict prefer women who are certifiably brain-dead but still able to breed.

They're Not Mad, They're Opportunists.

When you know fundamentalist judeo/christian conservatives and The Fetus©™ fetishists can command MASSIVE financial and legal resources to "protect" pregnant adolescents from their pro-choice parents, you wonder why they're wringing their hands and standing by passively while anticipating this particular girl will be murdered by family members.

A 17-year-old girl who fled to Florida after converting from Islam to Christianity will almost certainly be forced to return home to Ohio, experts say, despite her fears that she will become the victim of an honor killing for abandoning her parents' faith.

Rifqa Bary, who hitchhiked to an Ohio bus station earlier this month and took a charter bus to Orlando, remains in protective custody with Florida's Department of Children and Families. A judge is expected to rule Friday on the jurisdiction of the case, but several legal experts contacted by FOXNews.com say the girl is bound to be sent back to Ohio. ...

"Anyone who converts from Islam is considered an apostate, and apostasy is a capital crime," Chesler wrote FOXNews.com. "If she is returned to her family, if she is lucky, they will isolate her, beat her, threaten her, and if she is not persuaded' to return to Islam, they will kill her. ... "She escaped from her family's brutal tyranny and shamed her family further through public exposure," Chesler said. "Muslim girls and women are killed for far less."

Republicans and religious conservatives are loudly lamenting Rifqu Bary's plight but will they take up her cause to the Supreme Court? Bary is far more useful to them - if she is killed as FOXNews claims she will be - because she would be a political and religious martyr that can be used to justify and fuel their rightwing attacks against all Muslims.


Much like the deaths of Zainab, Geeti and Sahar Shafia and Rona Amir Mohammed have been exploited in Canada by ReformaTories to attack feminists and progressives, Chesler and her acolytes are willing to sacrifice Bary to further their cause. I think that all this shrieeeking is bullshit rhetoric fluffed, fanned and promoted by FAUXNews. Otherwise they really are the depraved political opportunists I believe they are.

Hoax, prank or whatever.

The plot gets thicker.

Any minute now, the Birthers and their leader "Doctor" Orly Taitz, also known as the worst straight drag act on YouTube, are going to be shrieeeking that they were set up to take a fall by an "obot" who demonstrated how simple it is to forge fake a birth certificate.

Blame feminism?

Yesterday a lonely, isolated, suicidal man pulled out a rifle during a dance aerobics class in a fitness centre, and started shooting the women in the room. According to a personal diary he posted online, he had been planning this act of public violence for months because of increasing frustration with women who refused his advances.

Law enforcement officials confirmed media reports on the shooter's identity and said the diary appeared to be authentic.

In the diary, Mr. Sodini said that he had not had a girlfriend since 1984, and had not had sex since July 1990, when he was 29. “I actually look good,” Mr. Sodini wrote in an entry dated Dec. 29, 2008. “I dress good, am clean-shaven, bathe, touch of cologne — yet 30 million women rejected me — over an 18 or 25-year period. That is how I see it. Thirty million is my rough guesstimate of how many desirable single women there are.

“A man needs a woman for confidence. He gets a boost on the job, career, with other men, and everywhere else when he knows inside he has someone to spend the night with and who is also a friend.”

There are many men who feel this way. There are also many women who would like to find a boyfriend/lover/life partner, as well as gay men and lesbians who deplore the fact that they are alone when they long to be in a couple relationship.

Yet most of them do not blame the objects of their desire for their inability to attract and "secure" a girlfriend or a boyfriend. While some may radiate hostility and resentment towards the target of their attention when that person deflects or discourages these attempts to initiate some form of intimacy, rarely do they follow the exit strategy this man chose.

Fury? Hate? Absolutely. This man felt entitled to the benefits of a relationship and, unsuccessful in his efforts to establish a connection with one woman, decided to murder as many women as possible before ending his own life.

I expect some fundamentalist religious rightwingnuts like Rush Limbaugh will blame feminism for this act of violence. Others who have observed and analyzed male behaviour have put forward pro-active, thoughtful, positive and realistic solutions for men to address their issues.