Sunday, September 13, 2015
Can Black Republicans Win Black Votes?
Plutocrats run it all
Undeniable Proof Trump Is A Scam Candidate
Only One Issue On His Website
It’s more and more apparent that Trump has the “stupid” vote locked up.
The terrifying reason Trump is the front-runner
Jeb thinks he can beat Trump by attacking his liberal past. He clearly doesn't understand the nature of this beast
Peace Warrior Bernie Sanders Storms The Senate And Calls Out Republican Cabal Warmongers
While announcing his support for the Iran nuclear
agreement, Senator Sanders (I-VT) called out the Republicans who wrong
about Iraq and now oppose the Iran deal.
Those who have spoken out against this
agreement, including many in this chamber, and those who have made every
effort to thwart the diplomatic process, are many of the same people
who spoke out forcefully and irresponsibly about the need to go to war
with Iraq – one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the modern
history of our country.
Sadly, people like former vice president Dick Cheney
and many of the other neo-cons who pushed us to war Iraq were not only
tragically wrong then; they are wrong now. Unfortunately, these
individuals have learned nothing from the results of that disastrous
policy and how it destabilized the entire region.
I fear that many of my Republican colleagues do not
understand that war must be a last resort, not the first resort. It is
easy to go to war, it not so easy to comprehend the unintended
consequences of that war.
As the former Chairman of the Senate Veterans
Affairs Committee, I have talked to veterans from WWII to Iraq, and I
have learned a little bit about what the cost of war entails. In Iraq
and Afghanistan, we have lost 6,700 brave men and women, and many others
have come home without legs, without arms, without eyesight.
Let us not forget that 500,000 veterans of the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan came back to their families with post-traumatic
stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. The suicide rate of young
veterans is appallingly high. The divorce rate is appallingly high, and
the impact on children is appallingly high. God knows how many families
have been devastated by these wars.
And we should not forget the many hundreds of
thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women, and children who died in that
war, and those whose lives who have been completely destabilized,
including those who are fleeing their country today with only the
clothes on their back as refugees. The cost of war is real.
Yes, the military option should always be
on the table, but it should be the last option. We have got to do
everything we can do to reach an agreement to ensure that Iran does not
get a nuclear weapon without having to go to war.
The Republicans who are opposing the Iran deal want
the American people to forget about their lies that led to the invasion
of Iraq. It is not a coincidence that the same group of individuals who
were so eager to go to war in Iraq is in complete opposition to a
diplomatic solution in Iran.
The left has presented a united front on the Iran
deal. The liberal leaders in the Senate have had President Obama’s back
because they understand what is at stake. The Iran nuclear agreement is a
matter of war and peace.
As Senator Sanders pointed out on the Senate floor, the
same people who lied to us about Iraq, now want the American people to
believe them about the Iran deal.
Republicans have less than no credibility on this
issue, and Sen. Sanders did his country a great service when he reminded
everyone about the Republican cabal’s record of pro-war lies.
Trump’s Incoherent Anti-Iran Deal Rant Shows Why He Should Never Be Pretender
Trump went on an empty demented rant at the wingnuts' anti-Iran deal rally that demonstrated why he should never
be pretender.
Trump called the deal incompetently negotiated, and
he promised that he won the presidency the four prisoners detained in
Iran will be back in America before he takes office, because he is going
tell Iran to return them.
Trump said that Democratic leaders are very,
very stupid people, and we are not getting anything out of the Iran
deal. Trump promised, “We will have so much winning if I get elected
that you may get bored with winning. Believe me.”
Trump was able to stay on the subject of the Iran
deal for a few minutes before he turned to his favorite subject
Trump, “We are going to turn this country around we are going to start
winning bigly on trade, militarily, we’re going to build up our
military. We are going to have such a strong military that nobody will
mess with us, but we will never have to use it.”
Trump appears to have no idea what is in the
Iran deal. Instead of making any sort of lucid argument, Trump went with
his standard bluster about how he is the greatest thing in the world,
and if Republicans vote for him, America will be great.
Trump should never be pretender. The man literally
has no idea what he is talking about. He stands up, fires up the Trump
self-hype machine, and wows Republicans with kind of bluster and empty
tough talk that they love.
The anti-Iran deal rally has been a colossal flop.
Hundreds of wingnut extremists are gathered in D.C. to stop a deal
that they can’t stop. Trump continues to sell Republicans a
fantasy. His incoherent delusion has become theirs, and instead of
leading a party and movement, Trump demonstrated why he should never be
allowed anywhere near the White House.
Five Disasters That Were Not Disasters According To Dick Cheney
by John DeProspo
You have to hand it to old Dick. When it comes to admitting the Iraq
War was one of the biggest blunders of all time, he’s as stubborn as a
mule about wearing a suit and tie! To this day, he defends the Iraqi
invasion as a “good idea”. Facts simply do not faze the man.“I was a strong advocate of going into Iraq,” said Cheney during a PBS interview. “I think that was the right decision then, and I still believe that today.”
Cheney has that rare gift of shutting out reality and making the insane seem rational. He is still spinning one of the worst foreign policy debacles in American history into something worthwhile. Here is a list of other man-made disasters and how a wily Cheney would have spun them to make you think otherwise.
Sinking of the Titanic – “The goal of the maiden voyage was to create world-wide excitement and press coverage. I think they accomplished those goals.”
Hindenburg Disaster – “In theory, there is nothing wrong with filling an 800 foot-long balloon with hydrogen. If that guy in first class hadn’t ordered the flaming Baked Alaska, everything would have been fine!”
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire – “I see nothing wrong with the owners locking the doors to the stairwells and exits. How else are you going to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks?”
Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill – “I’m an oil man and I can tell you there is nothing wrong with offshore drilling. Ocean water is liquid, so is oil. What’s the problem?”
Caitlyn Jenner – “ I don’t think he/she looks that bad!
Perhaps Paul Simon had Dick Chaney in mind when he penned this lyric from The Boxer: “The man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest… lie-la-lie …”
Republican Colonel Goes Off On Dick Cheney, Says He’s Officially ‘Lost His Mind’
Dick Cheney is vehemently against the Iran Nuclear agreement, so we should all naturally support it.
Just a few days ago, Cheney went on Fox News with...
Incompetent Boehner Forced To Cancel House Vote On His Own Iran Resolution
House Republicans are so inept that they were forced
to cancel a vote on their resolution of disapproval on the Iran deal
after a rebellion broke out on the lunatic fringe.
The Hill reported:
House Republican leaders are delaying a vote on the Iran nuclear deal scheduled for Wednesday because of a rebellion from rank-and-file wingnuts.The House was to hold a procedural vote to begin 11 hours of debate on a resolution disapproving the deal at 1 p.m. Instead, they will gather at 4 p.m. to discuss strategy.“We will continue the conversation on Iran from this morning and discuss strategy for the rest of the week,” a Republican cabal leadership aide said.Members of the lunatic fringe wingnut House 'Freedom' Caucus are demanding that the Obama administration send side deals between Iran and international nuclear inspectors to Congress as part of the Iran deal now under consideration. Opponents of the deal have argued that the clock on congressional consideration of the deal has not even begun until these side deals are submitted.
Republicans are literally trying to change the
definition of time by claiming that the clock on their window to
consider the deal hasn’t started yet. The 60-day window for Congress to
consider the deal is scheduled to expire on September 17. If House
Republicans don’t get their act together within a week, they are going
to lose their right to have any say on the deal.
Boehner and his leadership
team are so bad at their jobs that they can’t keep Republicans together
long enough to take a vote on a resolution that they all agree on.
The dramatics coming from the Republican side of the
House are nothing more than pointless grandstanding. President Obama
already has the votes in the Senate to block the resolution of
disapproval, but Republicans may do the job themselves.
House Republicans spent the majority of the time
that they were supposed to be considering the Iran deal on vacation, and
like a student who ignored his/her homework until the last minute, they
are now looking to get out of the assignment.
The overgrown Republican children in the House are
throwing a new tantrum, and the worst parent/Speaker of the House in
history is powerless to stop them.
An Unhinged Palin Gets The Iran Deal Wrong Then Lectures Obama About Unicorns
At a rally full of wingnuts saying shockingly silly
things, even for them …
Palin is back and still devoted to making sure
all Americans become aware of just how low the Republican cabal has
fallen.
So at a rally full of wingnuts saying shockingly misinformed things
— even for them — in an effort to “stop the Iran deal”, Palin called
the Iran deal a “treaty” in yet another gaffe. She also accused
President Obama of being on a unicorn and some other stuff that made no
sense.
Palin seems to
have been overtaken by her bitterness and gone over some kind of cliff
from which there is no return:
“Only in an Orwellian Obama world full of sprinkly fairy dust blown from atop a unicorn as he’s peeking through a really pretty pink kaleidoscope would he ever see victory or safety for America or Israel in this treaty,” Palin screamed, coming closer and closer to being totally unhinged. “You don’t reward terrorism. You kill it!”
So, I haven’t the will to address all of this. Really quick:
A) The Iran deal is NOT a treaty. A treaty would
require a different approval process, one which would give Republicans
more power to kill it.
This explains why Gohmert (R-TX) vowed to “quit Congress and await ‘nuclear Holocaust’ if Iran deal passes”,
saying he wants the deal to be treated as a treaty. If Congress will
treat it as a treaty, Gohmert will take his toys and go home. (Something
to consider.) Several days ago, he introduced a resolution to call the Iran Deal a treaty.
However, even Republicans have agreed it is not a
treaty. They gave that up when they passed the Iran Review bill. Wingnuts are super angry at Republican leaders over this, so they
are just pretending none of it happened. I mean, why not deny reality
and go back on their word? Isn’t that what trolls do?
From Roll Call:
Their argument was that the Senate has the constitutional prerogative to ratify treaties (the Senate technically approves a resolution of ratification) with a two-thirds majority and that senators forfeited their role in the process by passing the Iran review bill.Under that bill, just 34 votes will be needed to uphold a presidential veto of a disapproval resolution, just more than half of the 67 needed to ratify a treaty.snipBut recent precedent is squarely on McCain’s side, notwithstanding the Webster’s definition of a treaty as “an official agreement that is made between two or more countries or groups.”And the vast majority of international agreements in recent decades haven’t been submitted to the Senate for approval.
So Republicans, facing their own humiliating defeat
on the Iran deal, want a do-over and Palin is just climbing on her
“Orwellian unicorn” to pretend that this particular dream is real.
To be fair, it is most likely that Sarah Palin does
not actually know that the Iran deal is not a treaty. Someone probably
told her it was and she decided it proves Obama wrong again, so off she
went.
B) President Obama does not reward terrorism. He is
the one who got Osama bin Laden, while the shrub said he didn’t
spend a lot of time thinking about Osama. No, Republicans don’t get to
rewrite this part of reality either.
C) While Palin in an expert in aerial wolf
hunting and thus killing, and she shows a lust and startling zest for
killing, she has never actually done one thing to “kill” terrorism. Not
from a land in Alaska from whence she may or may not have tracked Putin,
and not even when she quit her job as governor half way through.
In fact, Palin doesn’t kill terrorism, if anything
she has carelessly fed the growing domestic terrorism and record
breaking threats against this president. She is in part responsible for
the rise of the violent teabaggers in 2010, due to her accusations that
Obama was someone who “sees America it seems as being so imperfect that
he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country?”
and “This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see”
and was going to “fundamentally change” America”. Palin accused Obama of trying to kill her child with affordable healthcare with his “death panels”. Those are some pretty scary notions if you believe them. (See the sadly gullible teabaggers.)
For more wingnut fun, cops roughed up a
protester while Palin was speaking (maybe someone who doesn’t believe in
Palin’s Orwellian Unicorns?).
Good times! It’s all unicorns and pretty sparkles
until the edges start to fray and give way to the bitter reality that
everywhere she has turned since her 2008 mega-stardom morphed into her
being the short lived Queen of the Angry People in 2010, Palin has
been an unwanted failure.
Walker Doesn’t Think So Good, Hypothetically
Republican hearings on Planned Parenthood missing just one thing: Planned Parenthood
Because why bother getting the opinion of the organization the hearing is about?
A Shrub Appointee Throws Boehner a Bone In His Crusade To Take Healthcare Away From Millions
Even with the best lawyers tax money can buy and a judge appointed by the shrub, Boehner barely got his day in court.…
After multiple failures in the courts, after several
reputable lawyers refused to take this suit and rejection by the lower
courts, not to mention the political failures Boehner welcomed this
small victory. While some argue that the procedural standard is high,
the fact remains the only thing this judge decided is that Boehner gets
to have his day in court – on the taxpayer’s dime of course.
Judge Rosemary Collyer, granted Boehner standing
for the portion of his suit that challenges the Obama Administration’s
use of executive powers to realize a cost sharing program with insurance
companies, for eligible policy holders.
I am grateful to the Court for ruling that this historic overreach can be challenged by the coequal branch of government with the sole power to create or change the law,
Several times the Judge emphasized this ruling is
restricted to considering if the court has a right to hear the case but
that the ruling shouldn’t be read as a “victory” for either side.
“The Court stresses that the merits have not been briefed or decided; only the question of standing has been determined,”
Of course, Boehner ignored that part of Judge
Collyer’s ruling in his effort to make it appear that recognizing his
right to a day a court is the same thing as justifying his claim of
“overreach.”
Judge Collyer threw out the portion of the law suit
that challenged the Treasury Department’s decision to delay the
employer’s mandate. In legal terms, this was really a big deal.
In reality, that is what the suit was all about. Boehner initiated the lawsuit on this basis.
Yes, you read that right. While Republicans
criticized the employer’s mandate earlier on, when that strategy failed,
they opted for complaining about its implementation being delayed.
So, when it comes down to it, Boehner’s “victory” is about as small as it can be.
The Obama Administration announced that it plans to appeal Collyer’s decision immediately.
In a written statement to The Hill, spokeswoman Jen Friedman wrote,
The district court’s decision is unprecedented and the Department of Justice has indicated it plans to seek immediate appellate review… This case is just another partisan attack, and we believe that ultimately the courts will dismiss it for what it is — an inappropriate attempt to involve the judiciary in disputes between the other branches,
This lawsuit is the latest Republican ploy to
destroy the Affordable Healthcare Act. For Boehner and company this is
partisan politics. For the millions of Americans who wouldn’t have
healthcare if not for the Affordable Care Act, this is Republicans, once
again, playing politics with their lives.
Anti-gay ‘historian’ leading pro-Cruz PAC says bible forbids finding an AIDS vaccine
Sex-Crazed Michigan Teabaggers Beg For Light Spanking, Ooh Yeah, Just Like That
The sleazy, exceedingly stupid scandal involving Michigan teabaggers Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat, the family-values wingnuts who concocted a fake gay scandal to cover up their real
hetero affair, is grinding toward its embarrassing shame-soaked close,
with both legislators asking that they be censured rather than expelled
from office. The House released its full report Tuesday on the
investigation of the pair’s conduct, and the office of House Speaker
Kevin Cotter has called ...
Saturday, September 12, 2015
The Daily Drift
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~ Marsha Coleman
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White House Releases Official Video Exposing Dick Cheney’s Lies
The White House just released an official video exposing Dick Cheney’s lies.
This is unprecedented.
This is unprecedented.
Bernie Sanders Declares War On America’s Corrupt For Profit Prison System With New Bill
Bernie Sanders is striking back at corporate
America’s prison industrial complex with a new bill that abolishes for
profit prisons.
In a statement, Sanders discussed his new legislation:
It is clear to most Americans that we need major
reforms in our broken criminal justice system. We need to end the
tragic reality that the United States has more people in jail than any
other country on earth, and that the people being incarcerated are
disproportionately black and Hispanic. We need to take a hard look at
why the rate of recidivism in this country is so high and why we are not
developing successful paths back to civil society for those who serve
prison time. Further we need to end, once and for all, the disgraceful
practice of corporations profiting from the incarceration of Americans.
As a nation, our goal must be to do everything we
can to create the conditions that prevent mass incarceration. At a time
when we are spending $50 billion a year on our correctional system, it
makes a lot more sense to me to be investing in jobs and education for
our young people than in more and more jails. Not only can we prevent
thousands of lives from being destroyed, we can save billions of
taxpayer dollars. Locking people up is a lot more expensive than
schools.
Overall, we need bold change in our criminal justice
system. A good first step forward is to start treating prisoners as
human beings, not profiting from their incarceration. Our emphasis must
be on rehabilitation, not incarceration and longer prison sentences. The
basic decisions regarding criminal justice and public safety are,
without a doubt, the responsibility of the citizens of our country and
not the investors in private corporations.
My legislation will eliminate federal,
state and local contracts for privately run prisons within 2 years. It
will reinstate the federal parole system. It will increase oversight and
eliminate the overcharging of prisoners by private companies for
banking and other services. It will end the mandatory quota of
immigrants detained. It will require ICE to improve the monitoring of
detention facilities and eliminate private detention centers within 2
years.
The private prison industry makes money by keeping
individuals incarcerated. The motivation in a for-profit prison system
has nothing to do with the common good or the benefit of society.
Private prisons make money for their corporate owners by keeping as many
people locked up as cheaply as possible.
A study from the University of Wisconsin
found that private prisons keep inmates locked up longer to boost
profits. The extra time that inmates are locked up costs taxpayers an
average of $3,000 more per prisoner.
The for-profit prison industry is one of the main
reasons why the nation’s criminal justice system is in desperate need of
reform. Senator Sanders is correct. Republicans have been lining corporate
pockets for decades by privatizing prisons, but it needs to stop now.
The nation needs real criminal justice reform, and the first step in fixing the broken system is abolishing private prisons.
Wingnut voter anger finally directed at the real menace—the Republican Cabal
by Kerry Eleveld
The Republican cabal stole control of the House in 2010 and four years later stole the Senate. Yet even with those majorities, Republican lawmakers have failed to achieve such wingnut priorities as rolling back Obamacare, their derisive name for the national healthcare law, or cracking down harder on illegal immigration. The controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline is no closer to being built – indeed, it may soon be dead – tough antiabortion legislation has languished in the Senate, and a fiercely disputed nuclear deal with Iran seems virtually certain to take effect, despite near-unanimous opposition from Republicans in Congress.This is why 90 percent of Iowa Republican voters said in a Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll that they're unsatisfied or "mad as hell" at the federal government (two chambers of which are owned by the Republican cabal) and 91 percent of Iowa wingnut voters said they were unsatisfied or "mad as hell" at politicians in general (not just Democrats). The Republican cabal establishment has been riding a wave of anger at a bogeyman they couldn't slay, and the cabal's voters are finally figuring out that they've been duped. They don't seem to know why or how, but they know they've been had. They're mad as hell and the Republican cabal establishment built that.
In short, as many see it, the promise of the 2010 teabagger lunacyt and its 2014 pale echo have been dashed on the marble steps of the Capitol.
Why Trump Will Not Be Pretender
by John DeProspo
For all those worriers who are beginning to believe a Trump junta may be possible; to all those delusional supporters who
believe the man has more than a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming
our nation’s 45th president, I have only one thing to say: Melania
Knauss-Trump.The news media has been so consumed with covering the improbable rise of Trump that very little time has been devoted to Melania, Trump’s third wife. Since the Republican cabal’s mouthpiece, Fox News, has not covered the potential First Lady, wingnuts don’t have a clue what they’re dealing with.
Safe to say no First Lady has ever posed nude for a magazine spread, as did Mrs. Trump. Nor has any other First Lady talked about her incredible sex life (with Trump) on the Howard Stern show. If the puritanical, family-values religio-wingnut base were to see what many others around the world saw in a 2000 issue of British GQ, their knickers would be in a bunch!
Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against the current Mrs. Trump. In fact, I would be more than pleased to call Melania my First Lady. She is not an airhead. Many have likened the former Slovenian model to Jackie Kennedy, in her style and grace. But as hypocritical as christian wingnuts may be, they could never abide a nude model in the White House. We, as a nation, are just not as hip as the French or Italians.
If true craziness were to take over a majority of the electorate, voting Trump in as our next Commander in Chief, I can just hear Pat Robertson now … “We have revisited Sodom and Gomorrah. Another clear sign that the End Times are nigh!”
Hillary, for her part, has dispatched a cadre of staff members to dig up dirt on Melania, just in case. “I’ve learned the hard way that it ain’t over until the fat lady sings. I’m taking nothing for granted.”
Gohmert Vows To Quit Congress And Await 'Nuclear Holocaust' If Iran Deal Passes
PLEASE DO
DON'T STAND ON CEREMONY
BE OUR GUEST
Camerawoman fired after attacking Syrian refugees works for 'wingnut' 'news' network
![Petra Laszlo is seen kicking refugees trying to escape from a camp near the Serbian border. [AJ+]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_t5ViyyihNOKADDSfmPN-1eFw9nibc-6iGkYlQE8fCbBZ_4J3Mp4L6aZeD-BGyhD7_oQkKffn285VI0dA5wgLAPgj5To7nJU79f1p9zcjgm4djjBSazdOifpl19GZc45p1uFrcgmQWsxo0yAGX8QT1UMyiGJq0skUcaYEEjlzLqW1DjgZmM9KFAw9Kj0oXkPJdYh3pQpf4VWZ-0Ci_yCkiTnUrWbGpDdhA=s0-d)
A Mexican Man Hilariously Trolls A Teabagger Anti-Immigration Rally By Smiling & Dancing
The teabaggers don’t seem to like him very much.
He doesn’t seem to care.
This is pure awesomeness.
Republicans Busted In New Report For Unsubstantiated, Coordinated Attacks on Planned Parenthood
A new House report busted Congressional Republicans for conspiring
with the Center for Medical Progress and others on a coordinated
campaign to discredit Planned Parenthood …
The videos Republicans are using to try to defund
Planned Parenthood don’t show what they claim the show. We have all
known this since they came out. There is nothing illegal in them, and
they were edited misleadingly. But Democrats felt compelled to
investigate anyway, with bipartisan briefings no less.
The Energy and Commerce Committee has an on-going
investigation into the matter and today Committee Democratic staff
released an in-depth memo
which “clearly discredits” the Republican claims that Planned
Parenthood allegedly sold fetal tissue for profit. There is no evidence
of this at all.
From the memo (my emphasis):
This memorandum serves as an update on the Committee’s ongoing investigation into claims regarding the alleged sale of fetal tissue by affiliates of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) to tissue procurement organizations (TPOs). The review has included bipartisan briefings by Planned Parenthood officials as well as representatives from StemExpress, Novogenix Laboratories, and Advanced Bioscience Resources – three TPOs that partner with Planned Parenthood affiliates and other healthcare providers to collect specimens to supply to researchers working with fetal tissue.In addition to these briefings, the Committee has received documents and written responses to a series of questions it posed in writing to PPFA regarding its “practices relating to fetal tissue collection and sale or donation.” To date, the Committee has received no evidence to substantiate the allegations that Planned Parenthood has engaged in the sale of fetal tissue for profit. Furthermore, the Committee has received no evidence to support the allegations that fetal tissue was procured without consent, that Planned Parenthood physicians altered the timing, method, or procedure of an abortion solely for the purposes of obtaining fetal tissue, or that Planned Parenthood physicians performed intact dilation and evacuation in order to preserve fetal tissue for research. Thus far, the investigation has revealed that PPFA requires all affiliates to ensure compliance with all state and federal laws and that specific PPFA guidance requires affiliates to ensure that reimbursement for fetal tissue is limited to actual costs.
And they found nothing. There is zero evidence that any laws were broken. Zilch.
“Over the last month, we have carefully reviewed the
facts at hand and the materials provided to us as a result of the
majority’s inquiry,” said full Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone,
Jr. (D-NJ) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member
Diana DeGette (D-CO). “Despite the incendiary rhetoric, we have looked
strictly at the facts. We are continuing to do our due diligence, but
we have found these claims to be unsubstantiated. Instead, these
attacks appear to be part of a coordinated campaign on the part of the
Center for Medical Progress and others, to simply discredit Planned
Parenthood and undermine a woman’s legal right to safe reproductive
health care.”
Yes, this is a Democratic Committee, but Democrats
are usually the first to turn on their own, so that’s not a solid
argument against the findings. What is a solid argument is that this
entire thing has been done the wrong way. We shouldn’t be wasting
millions of taxpayer dollars and facing yet another Republican shutdown
showdown over a made up, fictional, non-existent issue.
We shouldn’t have to investigate unsubstantiated claims to prove they are not true. This is, quite simply, ridiculous.
This is the old “When did you stop beating your
wife” set up. It’s supposed to work the other way around. Accusations
and investigations should be based on some evidence that something is
amiss.
Meanwhile, the Guttmacher Institute
destroyed the Republican argument that after they defund Planned
Parenthood, the sole safety-net provider of contraceptive care in some
areas and also the provider of cancer screening and other important
health care, other providers would fill the hole. In fact, they say, “credible evidence suggests this is unlikely.”
So what you have here is Republicans investigating
the agency that is doing the most of any agency or organization to
actually reduce abortions by offering birth control to women. They are
doing this over a claim that was never substantiated by the videos their
activist arm released. Even after the videos were discredited,
Republicans began “investigating” Planned Parenthood with an eye to
defund them completely.
ForAmerica, a conservative group whose head endorsed
Cruz — the guy set to pull yet another shutdown
self-aggrandizement stunt, is calling on Republican 2016 candidates to have the DOJ investigate Planned Parenthood, and vow to defund them.
All of this is over an issue that is not happening,
and if done will result in MORE abortions. Republicans are banking on
the gut reaction people will have to the term “fetal tissue”, but they
ignore that fetal tissue is a critical tool for biomedical research. The
report cites the Department of Health and Human Services on this issue,
“fetal tissue continues to be a critical resource for important efforts
such as research on degenerative eye disease, human development
disorders such as Down syndrome, and infectious diseases, among a host
of other diseases.”
Perhaps Republicans should tell voters exactly what research they want to cancel.
It’s another Republican O’keefe style hack hit job
meant to make headlines on Fox News and incite conservatives. It has
done these things, but the claims are also completely unsubstantiated,
which is awkward when a party is threatening to shut down the government
over them.
Republicans clearly can’t handle doing actual work,
they are more comfortable with manufactured investigations and trying to
control women than they are with the real work of Congress. Someone
should be investigating the alleged coordination behind these videos and
when Republicans knew about them and why they waited to release them,
but that won’t happen because Republicans would never investigate
themselves. They leave things like self-negating integrity to the
Democrats.
28 Republican Men Threaten To Shut Down The Government Unless Planned Parenthood Is Defunded
Twenty-eight Republican men are threatening to shut
down the government unless women are denied critical health care
services through the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
In a letter being circulated by Heritage Action, the 28 House Republicans said:
It is with great urgency that we write concerning Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
We are deeply disturbed at recent reports that
Planned Parenthood has been selling the tissue of unborn babies for
profit. As firm believers in the sanctity of life, beginning at
conception, we are horrified at these reports. It is imperative that
Congress do everything within its power to investigate these reports and
take immediate action to stop them.
In the meantime, we must act to fully defund Planned
Parenthood. Please know that we cannot and will not support any funding
resolution – an appropriations bill, an omnibus package, a continuing
resolution, or otherwise – that contains any funding for Planned
Parenthood, including mandatory funding streams.
In addition, we think that it would be helpful to
all House Republicans to have a special conference at the earliest
possible date to discuss how best to address these atrocities.
These activities by Planned Parenthood
cannot go unanswered by Congress. We look forward to your response and
prompt attention in this matter.
Planned Parenthood isn’t selling fetal tissue for profit.
They are donating the tissue, with the consent of their patients, for
scientific research. The videos that the 28 Republicans are referring to
have been debunked as edited fakes, but as President Obama said on Labor Day, Republicans never let facts and evidence get in their way.
Dozens of House Republican men are willing to shut
down the government to take health care away from women. Twenty-eight
men are willing to damage the United States economy unless women are
stripped of vital healthcare resources.
It boggles the mind that Republicans are blind to
how bad this looks. It is almost as if they are telling the majority of
women in this country not to vote for them.
House Republicans are digging their own political
graves. Planned Parenthood will not be defunded, and if the government
shuts down, House Republicans will be blamed.
The government may shut down, but Planned Parenthood will continue to be funded as Republicans will lose again.
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