Good on an intrepid bunch of Nebraska senators, who plan to call the "pro-life" bluff of Nebraska's baby-killer¹ governor.If successful, the focus of the debate could shift from one hot-button issue to another from illegal immigration to abortion.IN THE WAKE of this unmitigated and mean-spirited fiasco, the termination of Dave Heineman's political career is one abortion I could wholeheartedly support.
State Sens. Brad Ashford, Heath Mello and Jeremy Nordquist, all of Omaha, talked about their strategy to revive prenatal funding after meeting Monday with officials at OneWorld Community Health Center in south Omaha.
The lawmakers requested the gathering to learn more directly how low-income women are dealing with the state's decision to end Medicaid funding for prenatal services for poor women, many of them undocumented.
Dr. Kristine McVea, chief medical officer of OneWorld clinics, reiterated to the senators that six expectant women have told her staff in the past few weeks that they would seek to abort their babies rather than enter the clinic's prenatal program. That compares to about four abortions McVea said she knew of in the past decade.
A doctor in Schuyler, Neb., also said last week that one patient had turned to abortion and that another was considering one.
“That is why this has now taken on a new light,” Mello said. “The unfortunate proof has been brought to life.”
¹ If a GOP representative can call a pro-life Democratic congressman, Bart Stupak, "baby killer" over his health-care vote, what else can you say about a Republican governor whose sabotage of prenatal care for the poor prompts some to opt for abortions? Which, by the way, are much cheaper than decent prenatal care in this state.
“Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism and the goal of socialism is communism.” - Lenin 'Nuff said?
WHERE DOES one start in confronting such as this? When people can believe this of their fellow Americans -- when a debate over health-care reform turns into a referendum on Americanism vs. the Red Menace, it seems to me someone has created an atmosphere conducive to somebody ending up dead.Too much said.OH . . . and on another post, he had linked to that Phyllis Schlafly press release -- the one saying it was impossible to be pro-life and a Democrat.
(Deleted), people can disagree profoundly, but that doesn't mean what you disagree with is some kind of bolshevik putsch.
Do you really think countries with far more ambitious health-care plans than the one passed last night are REALLY commie? Do you REALLY think Canada is a communist country? France? Great Britain? Switzerland? Taiwan, for God's sake?
You think they're REALLY all red enclaves?
You REALLY think the president of the United States is a communist? That Bart Stupak is, like the congressman from Texas yelled, a "baby killer"?
You REALLY think that?
And do you REALLY think a bunch of tea partiers going on and on like that in the Internet Age -- and a few real whack jobs perhaps acting on their paranoia -- wouldn't have the potential to blow this country apart in a way that wasn't possible in 1968?
(Deleted), we're armed to the teeth -- regular folk have automatic weapons and regular idiots can figure out out to build Oklahoma City-style bombs. Do you REALLY think all the inflammatory, and patently irresponsible, rhetoric won't lead, with just the smallest amount of bad luck, to a frickin' bloodbath in this angry and divided country?
There is madness afoot. Avoid it at all costs.
We've been condemned to pro-abortion hell by none other than Phyllis Schlafly, who said the House's final passage of health-care reform "clarified that you cannot be pro-life and be a Democrat."SIEGEL: And first, is the Senate bill more tolerant of abortion and federal spending on abortion than the House bill is?AND THUS Stupak and his tiny band of pro-life (er . . . baby killing?) House Democrats sought refuge in the cover of a presidential executive order reaffirming what already was plain in the Senate language. That Obama even would compromise that much infuriated pro-choice advocacy groups.
Prof. JOST: No, it is not.
SIEGEL: In the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' statement against the Senate bill, Cardinal Francis George wrote this: The Senate bill deliberately excludes the language of the Hyde Amendment. It expands federal funding and the role of the federal government in the provision of abortion procedures.
You would say that's not true?
Prof. JOST: That is not true. The bill explicitly cross-references the Hyde Amendment at a couple of different places. One is, it provides that no federal funding for the new premium subsidies or cost-sharing reduction subsidies - the money that's going to go help people buy health insurance - that none of that money can be used to pay for abortions.
And secondly, it provides that the conscience protections, and the protections against discrimination against providers who are unwilling to provide or pay for abortion - is also preserved under the Senate bill.
(snip)
SIEGEL: You've studied both the House and the Senate bill.
Prof. JOST: Mm-hmm.
SIEGEL: How would you characterize both of them - on a crude spectrum, from pro-choice to pro-life? How do these bills look to you?
Prof. JOST: I think they are both basically pro-life bills. I think they are bills that - the Senate bill has some provisions that are stronger than the House. Senate bill, for example, provides $250 million to provide support for pregnant and parenting women who want to bear and keep a child. That's not in the House bill. So there are some provisions in the Senate bill that are stronger than the House.
The bishops prefer the approach that the House bill uses to the provisions of the Senate bill. But they're basically equivalent. Both bills prohibit federal funding for abortions through the premium subsidies. And as a practical matter, both of them are going to make it more difficult to get abortion coverage through an insurance policy. That is true under the status quo.
SIEGEL: Professor Jost, you've been studying health law for quite a while. Is there something about these bills that is especially confusing or opaque that would lead to these very different interpretations, whether one is much more pro-life than the other? Or are people just being tendentious in their readings of these two bills?
Prof. JOST: I think people are being distrustful in their reading. I think that there's a tendency to sort of assume the devious motives on the parts of others, you know - which may, in part, be justified. This has been a pretty intense debate in our country.
But I think in this case, it is just not justified, that - I think that the senators who drafted these amendments are pro-life senators who intended to make sure that federal funding doesn't go for abortion. And so I think that there's sort of an unwarranted belief that people are proceeding in bad faith when in fact, they're proceeding in the best of good faith and trying to achieve the same goals.
IT MATTERS not a whit that any of this is only true in the peculiarly peculiar alternate universe inhabited by the Republican Party and their useful -- and angry -- idiots in professional pro-liferism. Ask Ben Nelson; he got the Stupak treatment before Stupak got the Stupak treatment.George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, will be the featured speaker at the 27th annual Life Centers Celebration of Life fund-raiser in Indianapolis. President Bush will join special musical guest, Grammy Award-winning artist Sandi Patty, and 2009 Miss America Katie Stam at Conseco Fieldhouse on Thursday, April 15 at 7pm.
"We are honored to welcome President George W. Bush, whose strong record on life issues demonstrates his belief that every life matters," Brian Boone, Life Centers president and CEO, said. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate life - with a keynote address from a public servant who made the sanctity of human life a priority."
The proceeds from the event will benefit Life Centers, a nonprofit Christian ministry which helps women in unplanned pregnancies by providing free services including pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, confidential peer counseling, 24-hour help line calls, post-abortion and maternity support at its eight pregnancy resource centers across Central Indiana.
"We are grateful that President George W. Bush will inspire our community to create a culture of life at the crossroads of America and to show compassion to women in unplanned pregnancies," Boone said.
THE GEORGE W. BUSH who approved federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. The George W. Bush of waterboarding fame. The George W. Bush who went to war in Iraq for, as it turns out, no discernible reason other than to "get" Saddam Hussein and to "establish freedom."
Rep. Andre Carson, D-Ind., told a reporter that as he left the Cannon House Office Building with Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a leader of the civil rights era, some among the crowd chanted "the N-word, the N-word, 15 times." Both Carson and Lewis are black, and Lewis spokeswoman Brenda Jones also said that it occurred.
"It was like going into the time machine with John Lewis," said Carson, a large former police officer who said he wasn't frightened but worried about the 70-year-old Lewis, who is twice his age. "He said it reminded him of another time."
Kristie Greco, spokeswoman for Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said a protester spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., who is black.
Clyburn, who led fellow black students in integrating South Carolina's public facilities a half century ago, called the behavior "absolutely shocking."
"I heard people saying things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus," Clyburn told reporters.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is gay, said protesters shouted "abusive things" to him as he walked from the Longworth building to the Rayburn building. "It's a mob mentality that doesn't work politically," he said.
Click on screenshots to see at full size.
Well, we at 3 Chords & the Truth always can dream, can't we?
This is the particular talent of my little buddy Scout. He is my dog; I am his deity. He got the worse deal.Alex Chilton, the mercurial leader of the Box Tops and Big Star who burst from the Memphis music scene in 1967 singing "The Letter" in the smoke-gravel voice of a grizzled soul man even though he was just 16 at the time, has died. He was 59.HERE'S HOW I remember Fess Parker:
Chilton was pronounced dead in the emergency room of a New Orleans hospital Wednesday after complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains, longtime friend Pat Rainer said Thursday. The cause of death has not been determined, but Rainer said Chilton's wife, Laura Kerstin, said he appeared to have suffered a heart attack.
Chilton died just as many of his musical disciples in the alternative-rock world that Big Star's relentlessly tuneful and uncompromising guitar rock helped inspire were gathering in Austin, Texas, for the annual South By Southwest Music Conference.
Big Star was scheduled to play a reunion performance Saturday. John Fry, owner of the Ardent Studio in Memphis where Chilton recorded with the Box Tops and Big Star, said Thursday that the other band members had decided to proceed with the show as a tribute to Chilton.
"You can't throw a rock at South By Southwest," Fry said, "without hitting someone who was influenced by Big Star."
The conference's creative director, Brent Grulke, said in a statement, "Alex Chilton always messed with your head, charming and amazing you while doing so. His gift for melody was second to none, yet he frequently seemed in disdain of that gift. He seemed as troubled by neglect as he did by fame. . . .
"It was impossible to know what he was thinking," Grulke's statement continued. "But it was always worth pondering, because that's what a truly great artist makes us do. And make no mistake: Alex Chilton was an artist of the very highest caliber."
I wonder whether NBC's latest stupid human tricks will end up on Headlines?Another key for the industry to perceive that NBC made the correct choice by keeping Leno is for the “Tonight” host to stay above O’Brien’s ratings during his tenure as "Tonight" host.THAT LAUGHTER that you hear echoing across the land. . . .
Yet for the past couple weeks, Leno has barely topped O'Brien's average -- 1.2 to O’Brien’s 1.1 -- despite O'Brien having endured an inferior lead-in during the 10 p.m. hour (Jay Leno himself, with his short-lived primetime effort). This gap between hosts is a bit bigger, however, if one uses O'Brien's fourth-quarter rating of 1.0, before his impending exit caused his numbers to climb.
NBC wants to avoid ending up with a "Tonight Show" that has about the same rating as O'Brien despite a better lead-in -- and with a decade-older audience.
NEWS TODAY from the Omaha World-Herald:
A Schuyler, Neb., doctor voiced frustration Wednesday as he described the fallout he has already seen from the loss of government-funded prenatal care for some low-income women.
One pregnant woman opted for an abortion three weeks ago because she felt she couldn't afford to pay for prenatal care, said Dr. John Jackson of Memorial Hospital in Schuyler.
A second patient is seriously considering terminating her pregnancy, although he is trying to talk her out of it, Jackson said.
Several pregnant women among his mostly Hispanic patients in the meatpacking town have quit coming for prenatal visits because of the out-of-pocket costs, he said, and one asked if he would come to her house to deliver her baby.
Jackson said the women are doing the math: With incomes of as little as $150 every two weeks, it's hard to pay for $50 diabetes tests or the $750 to $1,000 cost of prenatal care. By comparison, an abortion at a Lincoln clinic costs $500 to $550.
“If you actually want to solve the immigration problem, solve that,” the family physician said.
“Why am I putting a baby's life at risk? That's not right.”
Jackson spoke Wednesday, shortly after a bill was killed in the Nebraska Legislature that would have restored government-funded, prenatal care for low-income pregnant women, including many who are illegal immigrants.
Fremont Sen. Charlie Janssen, who opposed the measure, said that while the abortion was sad, it was most likely unrelated to the end of prenatal care coverage.
“The illegal immigrants we're talking about, I believe, are still going to get their prenatal care from a different source than the Nebraska taxpayers, who are already strapped,” Janssen said.
Gov. Dave Heineman had opposed the bill, saying taxpayer-funded benefits should not be afforded to women who are living in the United States illegally.
Heineman on Tuesday rejected a proposed compromise that would have extended the prenatal aid only to those women who were already pregnant.
His decision led Lincoln Sen. Kathy Campbell, the sponsor of Legislative Bill 1110, to pull the measure from Wednesday's agenda, killing it. Not enough senators supported the bill to overcome an expected veto from the governor, she said.
Heineman declined to comment on the reported abortion.
NEWS FROM The Associated Press:Some opponents said it came down to the proposal's nearly $7 million estimated price tag.SO THE NEXT TIME you see a Republican law-and-order fiscal hawk who goes on and on and on about how "pro-life" he is, ask yourself a couple of questions.
"More so than the illegal immigrant issue, it was the fiscal impact," said Sen. Greg Adams of York, who originally supported Campbell's bill but was undecided when the bill was pulled.
With the funding now gone, there are signs that the emotional and financial strains on women and families could lead to more abortions, said Dr. Kristine McVea, a pediatrician and medical director of OneWorld Community Health centers, which caters to low-income families at 26 facilities statewide, including many Hispanics.
"This population is very family oriented and really loves children, so I can count on one hand the women I've come in contact with over the last five years that have chosen to have an abortion," McVea said in an interview. "Since all this came about, two women have said they're going to get abortions. We haven't been able to talk them out of it."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Revolution 21's Blog for the People continues an occasional series of dispatches recorded some years ago in the trenches of Catholic radio. The names aren't real, nor are the places, but the stories are -- and it's a snapshot picture of what happens when "Their zeal consumes them" meets "Sinners sacrifice for the institution, not vice versa."
In other words, there has to be a better way.
Today, when you're wearing your green, crawling through pubs and downing an Irish Car Bomb cocktail or two, here's something to keep in mind:I'LL TELL YOU how I feel now. I feel like I've just waded through one of the biggest piles of bulls*** I've ever encountered, what with all these Irish eyes a-cryin'.
That drink will make some heads explode. And probably not yours.
The 31-year-old concoction made up of Guinness stout, Bailey's Irish Cream and Irish whiskey makes many traditional Irish-Americans crazy. They hate all it stands for: The name makes light of serious historical and current events, and the potent cocktail glorifies drinking on a holiday they say has somber significance.
St. Patrick's Day drinks described as Irish Car Bombs are “tasteless” and “culturally insensitive,” said Chuck Real of the Irish American Cultural Institute in Omaha. He was shocked that such a cocktail existed in Irish-American pubs. He also isn't happy that people make Irish Car Bomb cupcakes and cakes such as those featured on today's Living cover.
To Real, the name conjures up memories of unrest in Northern Ireland. Car bombs sometimes were the weapon of choice, and many believe that the Provisional Irish Republican Army was responsible. Bombings still occasionally happen Real cited three bomb threats in the past five years. They aren't funny, he said. They're lethal.
“St. Patrick's Day to the older generations and to those in Ireland has always been a day of obligation,” Real said.
(snip)
After last week's reference to the drink, Real received a handful of calls and e-mails from members of his group. Kathleen McEvoy became so upset and short of breath that she had to use her oxygen tank to finish her conversation, he said.
“Don't you know that this could hurt people's feelings,” McEvoy, 80, later told The World-Herald. “It makes it seem that all Irish people were terrorists.”
What if cocktails were called “The 9-11” or “Afghan bomber,” she asked. “How would people feel then?”
So, when I came into work today, I pretty much knew what I would have to do. 
Well, that does it for the first high-school production of Oh, Calcutta! being staged in the great state of Iowa.A loophole in Iowa law that allows minors to perform nude dancing has been closed.I UNDERSTAND violations of the revised law are punishable by being whacked with a toilet-tank lid.
The bill, Senate File 2197, largely deals with clarifying laws around criminals who provide false identification. The Senate, however, added an amendment to end an artistic or theatrical exception to nude dancing.
Iowa became the center of discussion last month with pundits such as Bill O’Reilly from Fox News pointed to a case of a 17-year-old girl who stripped on stage in a club in the southwestern Iowa town of Hamburg in 2007.
It’s against Iowa law for anyone under 18 to perform in a live act intended to cause sexual arousal, but the law doesn’t apply to artistic or theatrical performances.
A judge in Fremont County ruled in 2008 the nude dance didn’t violate the public indecent exposure law because prosecutors failed to prove the club wasn’t a theater.
The Iowa Court of Appeals dismissed the state’s request last month for a review of the issue.
Prosecutors would no longer have to prove that the theater exemption doesn’t apply when it comes to minors dancing naked or in other ways that are lewd or intended to elicit desire, under the amendment.
Gov. Dave Heineman has rejected a proposed compromise to the controversial resumption of government-paid prenatal care for low income women, including hundreds here illegally.NO ONE even in the neighborhood of "mainstream" condones illegal immigration -- except, of course, for unethical, criminal "businessmen" who exploit undocumented workers for financial gain.
That was the word Tuesday afternoon from State Sen. Kathy Campbell, who had attempted to seek a middle ground to the political storm that had pitted pro-life and medical organizations against anti-immigration groups and Gov. Heineman.
"I'm disheartened," said Campbell, of Lincoln.
The future of her proposal, Legislative Bill 1110, is unclear.
As originally drafted, it would have restored government-funded prenatal care in response to a federal directive that, as of March 1, ended such services for about 1,500 pregnant women, including about 800 illegal immigrants.
On Monday, Campbell had floated a compromise that would allow women that are currently pregnant, or those who signed up for services by April 17, to continue to receive prenatal services until their deliveries.
It was viewed as a fairer end to the services.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.CALL ME A commie, but it seems to me that the unalienable right to life is considerably more expansive than the right not to be aborted. It seems to me there is precious little difference between eradicating a helpless human being in the womb and letting that life be lost or compromised due to willful neglect -- all in a land of unimaginable wealth.
Just when you think you're on a bit of a roll . . . just when you think something you've written may, just may, have made a little sense, comes a rebuke from an inanimate object?Iowa City police have arrested a woman who allegedly attacked her sister with the lid of a toilet tank.
Nitasha Johnson, of Iowa City, was arrested early Sunday. She's charged with domestic abuse assault causing injury and interference with official acts.
