Allen West proves his disdain for women. Again.

He is becoming quite the caricature.  Those with no talent, foresight, and ability make it more apparent by their constant need for the spotlight.

Anyone can push wedge issues.  That’s why West does it.  He has no ability to lead on any real, substantive ground.  I hope he enjoys this last year and a half in office.  And I hope he’s polishing his resume.

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…about 3 percent of Planned Parenthood’s activities. That’s less than cancer screening and prevention (16 percent), STD testing for both men and women (35 percent), and contraception (also 35 percent). About 80 percent of Planned Parenthood’s users are over age 20, and 75 percent have incomes below 150 percent of the poverty line. Planned Parenthood itself estimates it prevents more than 620,000 unintended pregnancies each year, and 220,000 abortions. It’s also worth noting that federal law already forbids Planned Parenthood from using the funds it receives from the government for abortions.

So though the fight over Planned Parenthood might be about abortion, Planned Parenthood itself isn’t about abortion. It’s primarily about contraception and reproductive health. And if Planned Parenthood loses funding, what will mainly happen is that cancer screenings and contraception and STD testing will become less available to poorer people. Folks with more money, of course, have many other ways to receive all these services, and tend to get them elsewhere already.

The fight also isn’t about cutting spending. The services Planned Parenthood provides save the federal government a lot of money. It’s somewhat cold to put it in these terms, but taxpayers end up bearing a lot of the expense for unintended pregnancies among people without the means to care for their children. The same goes for preventable cancers and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Do people even know what Planned Parenthood does exactly?  It’s quite clear conservatives do not.  How serious are they really about fiscal restraint?

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In keeping with the tradition of hypocrisy and doublespeak, pro-life conservatives in congress have upped the ante in their quest to destroy the rights of women–and to deny them the very breath they breath.

A conservative lawmaker has introduced a bill that would essentially allow a doctor to determine the fate of women–by refusing care for a pregnant woman if that care would harm the fetus:

At the same time, these anti-choice politicians opened a new attack on women’s health. They added a new provision to H.R. 358, which was introduced by Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania. The new H.R. 358 would allow hospitals to refuse to provide abortion care even when it’s necessary to save a woman’s life!

We’re starting to tread into dangerous territory.  I’ve often thought fringe elements of the pro-life movement never cared for the health or rights of women as they pursue their course.  This illustrates just how menacing and twisted their ideology is.  How pro-life is your cause, if you’re casually disregarding the lives of women in order to eliminate therapeutic abortions?

Frankly, to even think about making this horrendous provision into law twists the fabric of what I consider morally just, and it perverts their cause of supporting and protecting life.

Just like the flawed, insulting slavery-abortion analogy, fringe pro-lifers continue to push a misguided ideology– devoted to the subjugation of women– and the destruction of their lives coded as pro-life rights.  It is divisive, hypocritical, and deadly.

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“I think many people, millions of people, in this country are upset with the tenor and the attitude of our people. I think America has become very angry and people are upset about that. They don’t feel that our government is working together to solve problems, and the reason they feel that way is because they’re not. And people are very, very angry. There are people in the industry that you’re in who make a pretty good living off of keeping the public very angry. I think that there are a lot of political people that feel that it’s to their advantage to keep people angry at the government.”– Prima County sheriff Clarence Dupnik

Words matter.

Here are comments grabbed from Sarah Palin’s Facebook page yesterday, January 9th regarding the murders Saturday in Arizona–specifically Chris Taylor-Green. H/T to ObamaLondon:

Let me say this:  I believe words are powerfiul.  You can make someone feel wonderful with words.  You can make somjeone feel the sting of pain and rejection.  You can also make someone angry.  Words are living, breathing mechanisms that can alter the emotional state.  That point is indisuputable.

With that said, let’s not play games of pass the buck here.  Sarah Palin and her ilk did not advocate for the death of Representative Gabby Giffords.  But their use of words and imagery–intentional or not–have caused a super-heated climate of anger and mistrust.  Why would she tolerate that kind of talk on her Facebook page?  Why not simply scrub them away, just as she does with comments perceived as negative toward her?

It would be advisable–in my opinion–if the former governor recognizes this point. Real leaders recognize their strengths and weaknesses.  By championing the cause of calm– and recognizing her error in judgement for her use of gun sight imagery and language– she would establish a stronger leadership presence, and I’d wager she’d gain substantial respect.

It starts by being responsible.  It starts by recognizing your role in the degradation of American discourse.

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Here’s a great piece from Essential Presence, about the true nature of President Barack Obama’s politics.  The money shot:

During the 2008 presidential primaries the GOP went to the usual political tactic of stirring up the base through fear as they declared Barack Obama as the most liberal Senator in Congress. It was to Obama’s benefit to let that “most liberal” tag stick because, after all, he was in a heated battle with Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. But some liberals bought something Obama himself wasn’t selling…the GOP was.

Barack Obama was never this ultra-progressive knight in ebon-skin.  Never. Despite how some tried to paint him that way, he’s always been pragmatic, prudent, and measured in his politics.

The fact that liberals are bursting at the seems, because they feel duped due to some over night political conversion on his part is foolish.  He is what he’s always been.  This point–once progressives figure it out–will help the party immeasurably, especially since the electorate repudiated their brand of leadership.

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I’ll be following up the main point of this post in a lengthy post tomorrow.  This clip, courtesy of Young Turks simply illustrates the meme about incivility, divisiveness, ignorance, and intolerance.  Congressman Steve King openly flouts the law in some lame attempt to correlate “injustice” with “reverse racism.”

I suppose a very,very, suburban senator would be better than a very, very urban senator right?  Blatant irresponsibility and racism.

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Is this the beginning of a good start?  The cynic in me says no, but it’s good to know that some in the congressional freshmen class have taken the pulse on American thought.  It’s not about witch hunts, payback, and impeachment.  I’m not interested in seeing two years of gridlock.  Watch congressman-elect Richard Hanna speak on the subject:

Congressman-elect Hanna is right.  If there is a no compromise stance taken, conservatives may find themselves out of power their in two years.  Don’t misunderstand the electorate.

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I didn’t realize teachers, policemen and firefighters were special interests. Dammit! We should have saved that money for those paragons of virtue on wall street. Cue John Stewart:

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Republicans have succeeded in blocking cloture on the jobs bill.  As a result, hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose their unemployment benefits.  In a 57-41 vote which saw all Republicans hold the party line, they’ve proven that Americans don’t matter less than electoral politics.

In the worst economy since the 1930′s–an economy in which these same Republican lawmakers played a mighty hand in shaping–we get this GOP civics lesson.  Republicans have decided that oil companies need more comfort than families struggling to make ends meet.  Predictably shameful.

At least they’re honest about where their priorities lie.

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