Roe v. Wade Statement

The White House has just released a statement from Obama on Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion 36 years ago today.

Here it is:

Statement of President Obama on the 36th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman's right to choose.

While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue, no matter what our views, we are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services.

On this anniversary, we must also recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons: the chance to attain a world-class education; to have fulfilling careers in any industry; to be treated fairly and paid equally for their work; and to have no limits on their dreams. That is what I want for women everywhere.

Nicely Done.

Motivation

Why I miss London

;-)

Oh hai

Let us pray...

I knew it!

The rapture is going to happen in Arkansas!

ZOMG! Free abortions starting tomorrow!

Apparently, Obama is personally paying for everyone to get an abortion tomorrow.

Speech Wars

Try "non-believers" - Surprise!

Arkansas!

I have decided that I will post any articles I find about Arkansas. It will be a fun experiment. Here's the first one:

Arkansas Pastor Accused of Sexual Assault

Leroy Spears Jr., 56, was arrested after the 17-year-old told police Spears called her into his study Dec. 30 at Union Baptist Church, locked the door and tried to kiss her. Police said the girl also reported that Spears grabbed her breast and tried to put his hand down her pants.

The girl said she was able to send a text message to a friend, telling her to come to the room, and Spears walked away and unlocked the door. The girl told police Spears later came to her house at her mother's request and he apologized.

A judge Friday set a $2,500 bond for Spears and ordered him to have no contact with the teenager. Spears posted bond and was released.

Well at least he apologized! That's the important part. Plus i'm sure this is just an isolated incident...

Sir Salman Rushdie

Newsweek did an interview with Rushdie recently about the almost 20 year old fatwa.
I actually vividly remember when the fatwa was issued. I also remember when my mother purchased a copy of Satanic Verses and I thought it was probably the scariest thing I had in my house. Granted, I thought the book must have had something to do with "satan" (title) to cause so much fuss.
The first time I read it I was around 13 or so (and completely didn't get it at all). Rereading it as an adult, I still did not understand why the book was so controversial. It's sort of an anomaly that this incredibly gifted author was in fear for his life for simply writing. I also found Midnight's Children excellent, and in some ways more controversial that Verses.
I can't conceive of walking out of your house every day knowing there is a bounty on your head. He is truly one of the most courageous men of our generation.

Maybe this is why Israel doesn't want reporters in Gaza?

Claims have been received by the BBC and an Israeli human rights group that Israeli troops have fired on Gaza residents trying to escape the conflict area. Israel has strongly denied the allegations.

BBC journalists in Gaza and Israel have compiled detailed accounts of the claims.

Some Palestinian civilians in Gaza say Israeli forces shot at them as they tried to leave their homes - in some cases bearing white flags.

Prop 8 Maps

This is really interesting.

Remember the fourth amendment? Anyone?

Apparently the majority doesn't.... Not only does this significantly weaken the exclusionary rule to a point almost laughable, it leaves open debate for "probable cause"? What just happened here?

Oops. I accidentally THOUGHT there was a warrant against you. My bad!

President-Elect Obama Asked to Turn Down Boy Scouts of America

Thank god! Oh...wait...err...
I support this.

Ummm...Trauma much?

My brain does not understand this....Why do I read news?

Family of Afghan rape victim cut her open and removed foetus without anaesthetic

The mother and brother of a 14-year-old Afghan rape victim face charges after they cut her open and removed her foetus without anaesthetic, it has been reported.

By Ben Farmer in Kabul
Last Updated: 8:49PM GMT 08 Jan 2009

The girl is critically ill in hospital after her family sewn the girl up themselves and said she had been bitten by a dog to cover their crime.

A man accused of raping the girl, from the central Afghan province of Bamiyan, is under arrest.

The rural family apparently decided to perform an abortion when the girl was five months pregnant to protect the family's honour.

Rape victims face extreme social stigma, imprisonment and abandonment or murder by their own families in Afghanistan.

Dr Ghulam Mohammad Nader, head of Bamiyan hospital, told the BBC that the girl had been able to explain what had happened but was in a critical condition with infected wounds. She is now being treated in the capital Kabul.

"The girl stayed at home for three or four days in her condition until her father took her to hospital," he said.

"He said a dog had bitten her so that people in the area wouldn't know what had really happened."

Habiba Sarabi, governor of the province, said the girl had been bound and taken to a stables for the abortion. Police are now trying to arrest her family.

So...you get raped and then 5 months later your mother and brother tie you up, drag you to a barn, cut through your stomach and remove the "unwanted" pregnancy without anesthesia or pain medication, then they TIE YOU BACK TOGETHER and wait three or four days before taking you to the hospital - all to protect your family's "honor". Yeah...this is WAY more honorable.

Oppose Gupta for S.G.

Everyone can take 2 minutes and write an e-mail opposing this guy for Surgeon General. He is simply not qualified for this position and this is a political move strictly to gain recognition. I believe the foundation of this Administration should be to appoint the most qualified person for the job.

Oppose Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General

Posted by Bryan Buchan

By Quentin D. Young, M.D. | Physicians for a National Health Program

The report this week that President-elect Obama is considering Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, for the position of U.S. surgeon general is deeply troubling.

Among our concerns are these:

1. He has very little background in public health, preventive medicine or administration.

2. He has openly opposed progressive health reform, going so far as to cite false information to denigrate single payer (e.g. in his error-laden attack on Michael Moore’s film “Sicko”) and parroting the health insurance lobby’s distortions of single payer.

3. As a media figure, he has been disturbingly cozy with Big Pharma. He co-hosts Turner Private Networks’ monthly show “Accent Health,” which airs in doctors’ offices around the country and which serves as a major conduit for targeted ads from the drug companies. Another example: In 2003, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, he publicly downplayed concerns about the dangers of Vioxx. It was removed from the market a year later by its manufacturer, Merck.

4. In the 2008 election campaign, his reporting on John McCain’s health proposals was misleading and implicitly positive, giving undeserved credence to McCain’s claims that buying private health insurance on the open market is a financially viable option for most Americans.

We urge you to write to President-elect Obama and express your opposition to Gupta’s possible nomination, and to urge Obama to nominate a more acceptable candidate for this critically important post. You can do so by clicking here: http://change.gov/page/s/healthcare.

Sincerely yours,

Quentin D. Young, M.D.
National Coordinator

Physicians for a National Health Program
29 E Madison Suite 602, Chicago, IL 60602
Phone (312) 782-6006 | Fax: (312) 782-6007
www.pnhp.org | info@pnhp.org

"Israel wants to see no harm to the children of Gaza"

Really? Then why have 257 children in Gaza been killed already by Israel?

Joe the Plumber - Dumber than Palin?

Why on earth would ANYONE take this moron and give him a job telling us why Israel is correct in invading Gaza? The same guy who said this:

At a McCain campaign rally on October 28 in Columbus, Ohio, Wurzelbacher encountered an elderly Jewish man who told him that "a vote for Obama is a vote for the death to Israel." Wurzelbacher replied, "I'll actually go ahead and agree with you on that one." During a television interview later that day, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith repeatedly asked him to explain his comment with specifics. Wurzelbacher demurred, and suggested that viewers should research the question for themselves. When Smith persisted, he replied, "Listen, you don't want my opinion on foreign policy. I know just enough to probably to be dangerous."

He is completely correct, I DON'T want his opinion. And undoubtedly he IS dangerous. This guy is taking his fifteen minutes and running with it more than I thought possible. The growing reverence for him and Sarah Palin is illuminating that great force in America: The uneducated religious zealot. I truly do not understand how anyone can get behind these whack-jobs or listen to anything they have to say. There is a growing portion of America that truly believes education is evil. I just don't get this. At all.

Some more of "Joe's" gems:

Wurzelbacher spoke to Katie Couric of CBS Eveni on October 15, shortly after the conclusion of the final debate. Asked whether Obama's proposed $250,000 tax threshold would affect him, Wurzelbacher replied: "Not right now at presently, but (...) he's going to do that now for people who make $250,000 a year. When's he going to decide that $100,000 is too much? (...) You're on a slippery slope here. You vote on somebody who decides that $250,000 and you're rich? And $100,000 and you're rich? (...) Where does it end?"

In an October interview, Wurzelbacher said, "You know a lot of the stuff that our government is doing right now is all about taxation without representation and you know the last time that happened a couple guys got together and threw the Brits out."

The stupidity is mind-boggling!

Remembering Free Speech

On this day in 1964 the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in NY Times v. Sullivan; setting the groundwork for modern political speech to even be possible and helping end segregation.
You can listen to the oral arguments here.

Time-out Mister!

Watch out for the four-year-old's these days:

JACKSON, Ohio (AP) -- Police say an angry 4-year-old Ohio boy grabbed a gun from a closet and shot his baby sitter. Nathan Beavers, 18, was hospitalized Sunday with minor wounds to his arm and side after the shotgun attack. Police say another teen was also injured.

Witnesses told police the child was angry because Beavers accidentally stepped on his foot. Beavers was watching the child at a mobile home in Jackson with several other teenagers and several other children.

Jackson County Sheriff John Shashteen says authorities are investigating. The child has not been charged.

Maybe the four-year-old wasn't charged, but what about his parents?

Why this story is interesting to me

'Hello 911? I'm driving drunk'

By JAMES MacPHERSON
Associated Press Writer

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Police get calls about drunken drivers all the time, but rarely do they come from the alleged offender. A 17-year-old girl in Bismarck called 911 on New Year's Eve "to report herself driving under the influence," police Lt. Randy Ziegler said. "I've never heard of such a thing happening, and neither has anyone here."

The girl told authorities her location shortly before midnight Wednesday and officers found her in a parked car near downtown, Ziegler said. She failed a sobriety test and was arrested for failing to have control of her vehicle while intoxicated.

The girl, whose name was not released because of her age, was not cited for drunken driving, Ziegler said.

"Her keys were in her purse and she was parked," Ziegler said. "She did tell us that she had been driving around for hours."

The call probably was a plea for help, he said.

"She told us her life was spiraling out of control, and she had spent the majority of time drinking over the past two weeks," Ziegler said.

The girl was released to her parents Thursday.

Wait, what? Released to whom? The same "parents" who apparently failed to do anything for the past two weeks when her life was "spiraling out of control?" The "parents" who let their 17 year old daughter go out and get drunk WITH A CAR on new year's eve? Those parents? Fantastic. Maybe next time she wants to make a "call for help" she should maybe try someone who gives a fuck?