Posts filed under ‘Repression’
Oh Canada, I Was Counting On You
I used to think of Canada as an open, progressive, forward-looking, nonviolent society who might shine a light that countries like the United States could follow in their darkest hour, but not anymore.
Want a preview of what Republicans want to do to the U.S.? Take a look at what Stephen Harper, the conservative prime minister of Canada is doing:
Scientific research, monitoring and partnerships are disappearing from Environment Canada’s budget as part of a multimillion-dollar reduction in spending. Here is a partial list of cuts confirmed by the federal government.
– Emergency disaster response: spending cut by $3.78 million per year. So what if lives are lost?
– United Nations Environment Programme Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS)/water. Saves $851,000 per year. Water quality? That’s a trivial thing to worry about, huh?
Ugh. It will take me forever to synthesize this; I want to put it up but I’m also making dinner.
So here’s the depressing article.
I’ve got to find the time to post about all the governments that are turning against the interests of their people. It’s happening everywhere. The thousand or five thousand or ten thousand humans who control the planet are consolidating their power, repressing their people, and as a result, we and the animals and the birds and the fish and the trees and the flowers and the oceans are going to suffer and, in the end, die.
They’re united (call me a conspiracy theorist if you want). They want it all. They don’t care about We the People. All they care about is
Authoritarianism 3.0
I listened to the radio while I took my walk this morning and at one point the announcer started talking about this:
(Image via ElegantElementsbyDesign.com)
Gone are the days of buying the tickets, renting a tux and bringing your girlfriend from that cross-town school to prom.
Even having your boyfriend, a graduate of your own high school, escort you to the big spring dance can be complicated, as Longmont High School senior Molly Hargett found out this week.
Everyone who attends the dance — students and guests alike — must sign the school’s dance contract, specifying dress and behavior expectations.
“Just because it’s an event off campus doesn’t mean school rules don’t apply,” said Longmont High School principal Rick Olsen.
The contract reads, “These expectations are defined to help ensure that everyone has a safe and fun-filled prom.” The details include wearing formal attire, dancing “with respect,” not simulating sexual acts, and not using alcohol or drugs.
And the school’s administration must approve guests whom students want to bring to the prom.
“Anybody that’s not a student, it has to be OK’d,” Olsen said. “They have to abide by the contract that all students have to abide by.”
And the school’s administration must approve guests whom students want to bring to the prom.
When the radio guy got to that last line — that school administrators must approve kid’s dates — I almost crashed into a pine tree. It takes my breath away. Seriously. It’s astonishing and worrisome the level of authoritarianism seventeen-somethings (and their parents) are learning to live with and under.
My Fantasy Workday Outfit?
I haven’t read the article but I take from this cover that working women fantasize about some sort of bondage thing all day?
Who in the world are they talking to?
Tennessee Senate: Holding Hands is a “Gateway Sexual Activity”
Geezus:
Tennessee Senate Approves Bill To Warn Students That Hand-Holding Is A ‘Gateway Sexual Activity’
Like any state legislature dealing with 8 percent unemployment and thousands of its residents facing disenfranchisement, the Tennessee Senate is targeting the menace of underage hand-holding.
Last week, the Senate passed SB 3310, a bill to update the state’s abstinence-based sex education curriculum to define holding hands and kissing as “gateway sexual activities.” Just one senator voted against the legislation; 28 voted in favor.
Uh oh:
And uh oh:
(Photo via flickr user DonnaJW)
How far are the wingnuts going to push this back? Will being born eventually be labeled as a “gateway to sexual activity?” Might as well. That’s how absurd this is getting.
Obama Acting Like a Republican Homophobe
This is just so, so wrong it’s inexcusable that Obama refuses to stop it:
President Obama disappointed and vexed gay supporters on Wednesday with his decision, conveyed to activists by a senior adviser, not to sign an executive order banning discrimination by employers with federal contracts.
The executive order, which activists said had support from the Labor and Justice Departments, would have applied to gay, bisexual and transgender people working for or seeking employment from federal contractors. Current law does not protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and legislation to do so, which Mr. Obama endorses, lacks sufficient votes in Congress.
Employers who get “federal contracts” are employers who get our tax dollars via those federal contracts. An employer who gets so much as a dime of our tax dollars should not be permitted to discriminate against taxpaying American. Period.
I’m disgusted with Obama (Mr. Constitutional Lawyer) for not wiping this off the books once and for all. If doing away with this isn’t a core democratic (and Democratic) value, I don’t know what is.
Tell Me Republicans Aren’t Worried About Women Voters
Check out the staging at this event in Wilmington, Delaware yesterday and then tell me Republicans aren’t worried about women voters. And oh yeah, that war on women thing never happened. It was made up by Commie Democrats.
(Photo: Tim Shaffer / Reuters)
(Via.)
Constitutional Lawyer Obama Hates Whistleblowers
A quickie post:
The law-breaking telecoms who received retroactive immunity from Congress, the interrogators who tortured prisoners, the officials who gave the orders, the attorneys who authored the torture memos, and the CIA agents who destroyed the interrogation tapes have not been held professionally accountable, much less been charged with crimes. National security and intelligence whistleblowers have become the glaring exception to the Obama administration’s mantra of “looking forward, not backward.” If you committed crimes under the guise of national security and the war on terrorism, you will not be held criminally liable, but if you blow the whistle on crimes, you risk criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act.
Learn more here about what Obama’s doing. He’s worse than Bush when it comes to prosecuting people who expose corruption.
I thought he would encourage that, because he said he would:
I didn’t add an “Obama — Don’t Count on my Vote” category to this blog on a whim.
Ozzie Guillen Praised the Wrong Person
You may have heard that Ozzie Guillen, the first-year manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team was suspended this morning:
(Photo: Lynne Sladky / AP)
Ozzie Guillen was suspended five games by the Miami Marlins in advance of a news conference this morning where he explained his explosive comments about Fidel Castro, words that have set off protests in the middle of the community where the Miami Marlins have built their new stadium and among fans the team hope to woo.
Guillen, the first-year manager of the Marlins, made a special trip back to Miami from Philadelphia on an off-day for the team so he could explain comments in a Time magazine article praising Castro.
[...]
The Venezuelan Guillen said in the Time article that he “loves” Castro and respects him for being able to say in power for more than 50 years.
Gee. Guillen made the mistake of praising the wrong person. If he had said he “loved” Blackwater or Saudi Arabia or AK-47s or the Koch brothers, he would have been fine. Poor guy, being from Venezuela he apparently didn’t realize that “freedom of speech” in the United States is something of a myth.
Republicans Lie to Women. Period.
This would be Mitch McConnell (R-KY) today:
McConnell calls GOP’s ‘war on women’ a ‘manufactured’ issue
“Talk about a manufactured issue,” McConnell said in an interview with local Louisville, Ky., radio station WHAS on Monday.
He said his female Republican colleagues in the Senate would agree with him on that.
“There is no issue. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison [(Texas)] and Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire and Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe from Maine, I think, would be the first to say — and Lisa Murkowski from Alaska — ‘We don’t see any evidence of this.’ “
Nothing there ladies. Nothing at all.
Meanwhile, this would be Scott Walker and the Republicans in Wisconsin on Thursday:
A Wisconsin law that made it easier for victims of wage discrimination to have their day in court was repealed on Thursday, after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) quietly signed the bill.
The 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act was meant to deter employers from discriminating against certain groups by giving workers more avenues via which to press charges. Among other provisions, it allows individuals to plead their cases in the less costly, more accessible state circuit court system, rather than just in federal court.
In November, the state Senate approved SB 202, which rolled back this provision. On February, the Assembly did the same. Both were party-line votes in Republican-controlled chambers.
In essence, Republicans don’t want women to be paid the same amount as men for the same job. Why? Because Republicans think women should be folding laundry; men are taking care of them (gag): Money is More Important for Men.
So Mitch. What was that you were sayin’? Your lie about there not being a Republican attack on women is an attack unto itself.
More “Civil Rights” Action From the Right: “Trayvon a N****R
Yesterday I posted about a “My Fox” channel in Orlando, Florida referring to armed neo-Nazis who are “patrolling” the streets of Sanford, Florida (where Trayvon Martin was killed) as a “civil rights group.” (Fox has since taken the post down but I know their sleazy ways so I took a screenshot. Here it is.)
Something happened this morning that Fox would probably also define as the act of a “civil rights group” if they had the guts to report it at all. I checked both FoxNews and FoxNation and I don’t find a thing, but here it is:
(Image via WoodTV.com)
An electronic road construction sign near Dearborn, Mich. displayed a racial slur early Monday morning, targeting a Florida teenager who was fatally shot in February.
The sign referenced Trayvon Martin who police said was killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in self-defense. It has yet been decided if Zimmerman will be charged in the shooting.
The Michigan Department of Transportation sign, which read “Trayvon a N*****,” is located on Interstate 94 near Addison Street, west of downtown Detroit, WDIV reports. MDOT said that the sign was hacked just after midnight. Passersby noticed the hacked sign about 1 a.m. and called police who said they received numerous calls about the incident.
Michigan State Police troopers responded and contacted a sign supervisor to fix the message.
The control box on the sign was unlocked and the keyboard used to write messages was missing.
Read more and see a video here.
When I hear about something like this the first thing that comes to mind is how wingers insist that liberals and progressives are the haters. That’s why a blackout on news like this by the likes of Fox is significant. What they don’t report is as important as what they do report.
Oh, and if I were an African-American living in the United States right now, I would be getting more and more nervous.
Republicans Have Turned Michigan into a Dictatorship
If you care about the Constitution, Michigan is blinking red right now.
The Republican-controlled legislature and the Republican governor are literally operating in an unConstitutional manner — “radical, over radical, over radical” — though natch, they’re wrapping themselves in the flag while doing it.
And if the media is so “liberal,” how has this been allowed to go on for soon long without it being front page news? Michigan is like a separate country, being run by dictators. Liberally. It’s Un. Believable.
New Nebraska Abortion Law Creates Agony for Couple and Their Baby
Evangelical Republicans in Nebraska caused this to happen:
(Photo: AP/The Des Moines Register, Rodney White)
Nebraska’s new abortion law forced one woman to give birth to her terminally ill, premature baby who she then helplessly held dying in her arms.
Danielle Deaver gave birth to one pound, ten ounce Elizabeth last December and could do nothing but hold and comfort the baby with her husband, Robb, as the newborn struggled to breath and died fifteen agonizing minutes later.
Deaver rushed to hospital when her waters broke at only 22 weeks into the pregnancy but doctors told the couple that their baby had almost no chance of surviving.
They explained that a lack of fluid would cause muscle tissues to shorten, affecting the baby’s developing lungs. They would likely never develop beyond the 22-week point and the baby would not be able to breathe.
With this heartbreaking information the couple decided to have an abortion to avoid the baby going through any pain.
However a new law in Nebraska, the only one of its kind in America, bars abortion at 20 weeks except in specific situations when the mother’s life is in immediate danger.The Deavers did not qualify and were not allowed to have an abortion. Instead they were sent home where they had to wait for ten days knowing that when their baby arrived she had no chance of surviving.
After the days of waiting Deaver gave birth to Elizabeth and held her as she struggled for breath and died fifteen minutes later.
Now the couple, who had wanted a sibling for their son, are fighting against the law to try and prevent anyone going through the same ordeal.
Obama Boxed In Regarding Same Sex Marriage
This happened today:
Image via TheBlaze.com
Four former chairs of the Democratic National Committee called on the party on Wednesday to embrace marriage equality in the 2012 Democratic platform.
“We are proud that the Democratic Party fights for working families, economic justice, and equal opportunity for all,” said Howard Dean, Donald Fowler, Steve Grossman and David Wilhelm in a joint statement. “Times change but our principles must always remain strong. That is why, as former chairs of the Democratic National Committee, we stand with Freedom to Marry, 22 Democratic senators, Leader Nancy Pelosi, and more than 35,000 Americans in urging the Party to include a freedom to marry plank in the platform that is ratified at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this September.”
I have a gay brother so I’m totally on board with this but what will Obama do? Will he endorse this or not? If he doesn’t, he’ll disappoint his party and he’ll look like an antiquated chicken shit. If he wants to or does, his “advisers” will fret about the supposedly all-important independent vote.
I say go for it. I don’t know about you, but I am so ready for this country to move into the 21st Century. Geezus. We’re like a nation covered in dust and soot. Time to shake it off. Not only that, the people who are against same sex marriage are already against Obama so their vote isn’t going to be influenced by what he does here.
I’ve read study after study, and this holds true for me too, that shows people respect folks who take a stand and stick to it, even if that stand is risky or deemed to be unpopular (usually by the corporate media and Washington-types).
Go for it Obama! You know it’s the right thing to do. Show some guts. Show there’s a difference between the two parties.
Obama Speaks the Truth, Fox Has a Fit
Ah, yeah (the headline on FoxNation right now):
I think we can all agree that that’s true. Supreme Court justices are unelected.
But no. Fox is freaking. This is from the accompanying article:
President Obama hosted a North American summit with Canadian Prime Minister Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon today at the White House.
During this summit, the President commented on the recent Supreme Court hearings on his signature healthcare law.
Obama remains ‘confident’ that the law will be upheld and felt he had to remind ‘conservative commentators’ that for four years they complained of ‘judicial activism’ and that an ‘unelected group of people’ would overturn a ‘duly constituted and passed law’ , a scenario he compared his healthcare fight to.
That’s a perfectly legitimate comment but what Fox is freaking out about is that it goes against the meme it has been pushing for years: Liberal judges are the only ones who engage in “judicial activism.” Conservative judges “uphold the Constitution.” What with Bush v. Gore and Citizens United, it has to reconfigure that propaganda.
What to do? Deal with the facts? Hey, we’re talkin’ Fox here folks. The facts aren’t on their side so option #2 is attack, attack, attack, attack Obama.
Be dumb. Watch Fox. They count on it.
Get Ready to Be Strip-Searched For Having Your Dog Off-Leash
Brought to you by the Republicans on the Supreme Court:
Justices Approve Strip-Searches for Any Offense
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, joined by the court’s conservative wing, wrote that courts are in no position to second-guess the judgments of correctional officials who must consider not only the possibility of smuggled weapons and drugs but also public health and information about gang affiliations.
[...]
Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the four dissenters, said strip-searches were “a serious affront to human dignity and to individual privacy” and should be used only when there was good reason to do so.
This feels like the ruling elite looking down on us Little People and spitting. This and reeks of oppression and domination. One step closer to an American police state.
Oh, and a h/t to small government.
Kenneth P. Vogel: Ask Robert Greenwald About Koch Brothers’ Slam on Brave New Films?
Just read this tweet from Politico:
Which lead to this video put out on Wednesday by the Koch brothers:
Which is a kill-the-messinger response to this documentary which was officially released by Brave New Films in New York City last night:
My question to Politico’s Vogel:
I’ll let you know if I hear back. Is Vogel a tool for the Koch brothers, or not?
Ladies: Imagine Seeing This When You’re in the Stirups
This is the cover of the April, 2012 issue of the Texas Observer.
Creepy but true. Ugh. Makes my skin crawl.
Vote Republican ladies and we won’t just have this in Texas. Your guys want this to go national. Yippee!
Things Not Mentioned in the Constitution
To all of you who oppose the “individual mandate,” here’s my Tweet of the Day:
Early April Fool’s Joke?
Holy cow:
Mitt Romney, mired in a frustrating slog toward the presidential nomination, has directed his top advisers to launch a multi-pronged effort to unite the Republican Party as the primaries draw to a close.
While Romney’s public activities are geared almost entirely toward winning the nomination, his campaign is on a private mission aimed beyond spring. Senior aides and surrogates — hoping to seize a moment when even some unfriendly Republicans are beginning to see Romney as inevitable — have spent the past several weeks making calls and visits to conservative leaders and activists who have resisted Romney’s candidacy.
[...]
Among those being courted is Richard Land, a longtime leader of the Southern Baptist Convention. As a practice, Land said, he does not endorse political candidates, but he is considered a powerful barometer of the evangelical community.
Land said that after a private dinner with Romney last year at Acadiana, a Washington restaurant, Romney’s advisers have been in regular touch. Land said he recently told them that Romney could win over recalcitrant conservatives by picking Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) as his vice presidential running mate and previewing a few Cabinet selections: Santorum as attorney general, Gingrich as ambassador to the United Nations and John Bolton as secretary of state.
Can you imagine Rick Santorum as attorney general? We’d have prayer in schools and women not only wouldn’t have access to birth control, they wouldn’t be allowed to wear pants anymore. And Gingrich as ambassador to the United Nations? I don’t know if his humongous ego would fit in the building. And pair him with John Bolton as secretary of state and they’d end up pissing off the entire world and starting who knows how many new wars.
What a nightmare.
Tom Corbett — Let’s Ultrasound Your Penis
Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania’s Republican governor yesterday:
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, the fearless leader who took two years to investigate serious allegations of child rape at his state university, doesn’t get what all the fuss about this proposed ultrasound abortion bill is about. When women are forced to sit through a screening of their fetus’ ultrasound, he suggests, they can just close their eyes.
Tom Corbitt today, defending the bill:
It’s noninvasive? Strip from the waist down gov. You’re getting an ultrasound of your penis. What, you don’t want to? Feel uncomfortable? Close your damm eyes. What’s the problem? It’s noninvasive!
Gay Guys at the White House — Yikes!
This is the amazing blogger Andrew Sullivan (on the left) walking into the White House last night with his spouse, Aaron Tone, on their way to the state dinner with British PM David Cameron.
What a wonderful picture. Despite all the gloom, it reminds me that yes, we’re slowly making progress despite having to drag the ball and chain of the Republicans along with us:
Photo via AndrewSullivan.TheDailyBeast.com
Love it.
Bravo to President Obama for having the guts to invite these two and bravo to Andrew and Tony for their pride and confidence.
At 101-Years-Old Amelia Boynton Robinson Marches For Voting Rights, Again
The United Long-Term Care Workers, March 8, 2012:
In honor of International Women’s Day, we would like to highlight a very special woman who has been marching with us for the last few days.
In fact, we were blessed with the presence of a National Civil Rights treasure, Ms. Amelia Boynton Robinson.
Amelia Boynton Robinson, September 25, 2007. Photo: Arhus Stiftstidende.
At 101 years young, she spoke eloquently to all the marchers today, in front of Selma’s Southside High school. This was the midpoint of the day’s march but a true highlight for all of us.
Mother Robinson, as she is affectionately known as, is one of the Courageous Eight who inspired and ignited the Selma to Montgomery Marches that started in 1965.
“All the marchers today” is a reference to this:
Hundreds of people from across the country marched toward the state capital Thursday, chanting in English and Spanish to make the case that the battle against Alabama’s immigration law is an extension of the civil rights fight they commemorated.
Gloria Mills of Detroit said civil rights gains in the 1950s and ’60s were “hardfought,” but Alabama’s House Bill 56 and voter identification laws being implemented across the nation are chipping away at those rights. While not an immigrant herself, Mills stood in solidarity with those who came to the country illegally and are now under fire in Alabama.
Which harkens back to this:
On March 7, 1963, civil rights activists were brutally beaten by police in Selma, Alabama, during the infamous “Bloody Sunday” march, for advocating for the right to vote. This week, forty-seven years later, today’s civil rights leaders retraced the march from Selma to Montgomery, protesting what NAACP President Ben Jealous calls “the greatest attack on voting rights since segregation.”
Since the 2010 election, Republicans have waged an unprecedented war on voting, with the unspoken but unmistakable goal of preventing millions of mostly Democratic voters, including students, minorities, immigrants, ex-convicts and the elderly, from casting ballots in 2012. More than a dozen states, from Texas to Wisconsin and Florida, have passed laws designed to impede voters at every step of the electoral process, whether by requiring birth certificates to register to vote, restricting voter registration drives, curtailing early voting, requiring government-issued IDs to cast a ballot, or disenfranchising ex-felons.
Bravo to Amelia Boynton Robinson who, at 101 still has the gumption and the will to march for voting rights but oh my God I can only imagine what she’s thinking. Are we doing this again? Really? I thought that issue was settled and behind us. But no. Thanks to the Republicans, 60 years on, here we are, fighting for voting rights, again.
A Doctor Speaks Out Against Arizona’s Let-Doctors-Lie-to-Women Legislation
Last Thursday I posted about legislation wending its way through the Arizona legislature known as the “Let Women Die” law. It would permit a doctor who opposes abortion to withhold information about the condition of a patient’s fetus if they feared the patient would choose to abort if they knew how diseased and/or deformed the fetus was.
I think a better name for the legislation is let’s legalize letting “Doctors Lie to Women” or let’s legalize medical practice, because that’s essentially what it would do.
Reader beth, who commented on the post (see the link above), brought up a good point: “Where the hell has the American Medical Association been on all this?” Ah, yeah!
Well, the AMA is still MIA but finally a doctor has weighed in. Meet Dr. Megan Evans:
Imagine carrying a baby to term. You’ve waited nine long months for this moment. You’ve planned for her arrival, you’ve had the baby shower, and you’ve gone to all your prenatal appointments. All along you are told that you are progressing normally and your baby is healthy. Your delivery day comes and, at delivery, your doctor tells you your baby has a devastating abnormality. A cardiac defect or a severe structural abnormality or chromosomal abnormality… something that was likely already detected early in your pregnancy.
You then discover your doctor withheld this information from you for fear you would seek an abortion. What a nightmare.
Unfortunately, the Arizona legislation is working to make this nightmare a reality.
[...]
I respect my patients, I trust them to make the best decision for themselves and their families, and I trust my colleagues to do the same. I, as a physician, have no right to make medical decisions for my patients based purely on what I think is best or based on my religious beliefs.
Thank you Dr. Evans. I can only imagine the hate mail you’re getting tonight. Now I’m waiting for the AMA as a whole to start making some major noise — to start SCREAMING — about this unspeakable oppression.
Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan Has No Business Being a “Law Enforcement Officer”
The fact that the Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan would even think — even think — to do this is reason, imho, for his removal. Outrageous:
Minutes after reading a late-night news story online about him that he perceived to be inaccurate, Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan ordered a sergeant to a reporter’s home insisting on changes, a move First Amendment experts said reeked of intimidation and attempted censorship.
Meehans’s actions were “despicable, totally despicable,” said Jim Ewert, general counsel of the California Newspaper Publisher’s Association. “It’s the most intimidating type of (censorship) possible because the person trying to exercise it carries a gun.”
Bay Area News Group reporter Doug Oakley said he was shaken by the 12:45 a.m. Friday knock on the door of his Berkeley home. He said at first he and his wife thought something was drastically wrong or perhaps that a relative had died.
Meehan apologized Friday.
“I would say it was an overzealous attempt to make sure that accurate information is put out,” Meehan said. “I could have done better.” Meehan said he didn’t think Oakley would be upset or intimidated because the police sergeant, Mary Kusmiss, regularly deals with the media.
“I did not mean to upset (Oakley) or his family last night; it was late, (I was) tired, too. I don’t dispute that it could be perceived badly,” he said.
BS excuses, excuses, excuses. There’s no excuse for this kind of thinking or this kind of behavior. None. Meehan violated one of the most revered American laws and traditions — that of freedom of the press. Insofar as he obviously doesn’t fundamentally understand and respect that tenet, he has no business being a “law enforcement officer.”
Arizona’s New “Let Women Die” Bill Goes WAY TOO FAR! — Every Woman Should Read This –
I have a category called “Outrage Overload” that I don’t use very often but this post is going in it, IN SPADES! This is unbelievable. That anyone would THINK to do this sets my hair on fire:
It’s called a “wrongful birth” bill and it’s all about preventing women from having an abortion, even if it kills them. The Arizona Senate passed a bill this week that gives doctors a free pass to not inform pregnant women of prenatal problems because such information could lead to an abortion.
According to the Arizona Capitol Times, “the bill’s sponsor is Republican Nancy Barto of Phoenix. She says allowing the medical malpractice lawsuits endorses the idea that if a child is born with a disability, someone is to blame.” So Republicans are banning lawsuits against doctors who keep information from pregnant women so as to prevent them from choosing to have an abortion.
This is so wrong on so many levels. For one, there will be absolutely no trust between pregnant women and their doctors in Arizona if this is signed into law. And two, if I’m pregnant and I live in Arizona and my doctor discovers that the fetus I’m carrying will be a vegetable, and he knows I would abort if I knew that, he has the right not to tell me. But is the state going to pay for the care of the kid after he’s born, and over the course of his lifetime, or is that up to me?
OOOH, this is awful. What an incredible infringement on a woman’s relationship with her doctor and on her ability to control her own life.
Georgia State Legislator Pushing Bill That Would Have Landed the Founding Fathers in Jail
More dangerous, deranged wingnutery:
To many in the South, Waffle House is a family-friendly restaurant that serves up some of the best grits and hashbrowns around. But behind that iconic sunny yellow sign is a corporate agenda aimed at stripping Americans of their rights.
State Senator Don Balfour of Snellville, Georgia — a Waffle House vice president who serves on the board of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce — is pushing a bill in his state’s legislature that would effectively outlaw picketing outside of private homes. Although the bill is aimed at suppressing union protests at the “private residences” of business executives, its scope is actually much further reaching.
The bill is written to make it illegal for picketers to take part in actions that would be “interfering with the resident’s right to quiet enjoyment.” But historically, one group of activists took part in protests aimed at private residences intended exactly to disrupt the peace to make their point: the Founding Fathers.
[...]
If Balfour and Georgia’s Big Business titans have their way, these protests would be illegal, and Adams and many of the other Founding Fathers would’ve been arrested.
Ah yes, the corporatocracy trying to pass laws to protect and insulate itself from we the little people.
