If Wingnuts Have Their Way....

The Right's War on Women

I've just about had enough with the wingnuts' mealy-mouthed, duplicitous argument against offering contraceptive services to women who work for religious institutions. They're wrong. Plain & simple, they're wrong. Here's why:

If religious institutions want to act as employers in America, then they must obey the employment laws of this country. They must, in short, obey the Obama Administration's "decision to require religiously affiliated hospitals and universities to cover birth control in their insurance plans." Simple. No one is, as the Rude Pundit imagined, mandating "that all pills be shaped like Jesus or Mary or eucharists." No one is insisting that all women employed by the churches be required to use contraceptive devices - although polls show that 98% of all women do use them. Their employers are merely required to offer preventative care to their female employees at no cost to them. Twenty-eight states already have a similar mandate, and no one complained before. Neither did anyone one get upset during the Bush years, when this first became the law of the land. What's the problem now? Why now?

I have yet to see any argument as to why the Catholic Church should be allowed to thumb its nose at the laws governing employment. Indeed, I would not credit any such argument. As an institution that receives public funding, enjoys tax-exempt status to the tune of billions of dollars a year, and expects, nay, demands the respect and obeisance of politicians, the Catholic Church and its American bishops need to just shut the hell up. They operate businesses here, so they have to obey the law. Period.

The thing is, this is a fake controversy.

ThinkProgress via DailyKos:

Twenty-eight states already require organizations that offer prescription insurance to cover contraception and since 98 percent of Catholic women use birth control, many Catholic institutions offer the benefit to their employees. For instance, a Georgetown University spokesperson told ThinkProgress yesterday that employees “have access to health insurance plans offered and designed by national providers to a national pool. These plans include coverage for birth control.”

Similarly, an informal survey conducted by Our Sunday Visitor found that many Catholic colleges have purchased insurance plans that provide contraception benefits [...]

Fake. Trumped-up (hey, there's a phrase that really fits!). Manufactured. But why?

Hunter @DKos again:

This is a non-issue being pushed into the spotlight because one side desperately needs to convince people they're being oppressed and needs preferential treatment. In this particular case, the bishops don't even have the respect of their own flock, and the conservatives using it as yet another bludgeon against healthcare reform doesn't have the public on their side. Yes, yes, it's a "wedge issue." But it's an embarrassingly phony one.

And let's face it, how did conservatives, American Catholic bishops, evangelicals, and GOP legislators all decide, all at once, that dictating to women how they might care for their bodies was something worth going to war with the Obama administration. The Times article notes how fast the bishops were ready with their counterattack: "On the day of the decision, bishops across the country posted...dire statements on their Web sites, and at Mass on the following Sundays, priests read the bishops’ letters from their pulpits and wove the religious freedom theme into their homilies. By the bishops’ own count, 147 bishops in the nation’s 195 dioceses have now issued personal letters on religious freedom, which are trickling down to Catholics through their local parish bulletins and diocesan newspapers." Oh, yeah, they were ready! Not bad for a hidebound, two-thousand-year-old institution. Follow the money up, and follow the lines of power down, and you'll find the answer.

The real situation here is that the GOP sees a tough, maybe impossible road to victory this election year, with their clown car of candidates, so their strategy is to stir up as much sturm und drang however and wherever they can, to see if  "the right-wing outrage machine can be cranked up to 11" to hide their legislative, economic, and practical failures. Their tactics are as always, to stir up the culture wars in an election year in which they have nothing to offer, with the willing aid of the Catholic bishops, who also see their influence waning in an increasingly secular and independent world. And once again, the target is women.

This isn't about "religious freedom," this is about partisan politics and personal liberty, and the rights of American women are once again being threatened. Call the White House, and call your Congresscritter. Don't let them get away with this.

The Best Argument For Involuntary Sterilization

....is that nasty piece of work, Cal Thomas:

TPM:

At a CPAC panel discussing the new contraception rule conservatives are rallying against, the moderator played a clip of Rachel Maddow saying that Republicans were waging a war on contraception. Panelist and conservative columnist Cal Thomas replied: "Rachel Maddow is the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception. I would be all for that - and all the rest of the crowd at MSNBC for that matter."

Watch the video at TPM, if you wish. I won't run it here. For a bunch of folk who claim to revere life, they sure do worship death - and I for one won't shed a tear when they meet their true god.

Damn, but CPAC sure brings out the crankiness in me.

Santorum Goes Two Out Of Three & Counting....

Rick Santorum, as of this hour, has won nonbinding caucauses in Missouri and Minnesota, and is leading in Colorado.


NYTimes:

His candidacy all but dismissed just days ago, Rick Santorum won the Minnesota caucuses and a nonbinding primary in Missouri on Tuesday, raising fresh questions about Mitt Romney’s ability to corral conservative support. 

Mr. Santorum was also running strongly in Colorado, a state Mr. Romney captured four years before. With a quarter of the vote counted by midnight, he held a substantial but narrowing lead over Mr. Romney. 

With his unexpected victories, Mr. Santorum was also suddenly presenting new competition to Newt Gingrich as the chief alternative to Mr. Romney, the front-runner. 

[...]

Mr. Santorum’s victory in Missouri was symbolic. The vote will not affect the awarding of delegates, which will be decided at district and state conventions later this year. But more Republicans participated in the Missouri primary than in the Nevada caucuses. 

And, combined with the victory in Minnesota, it gave him an important lift that his campaign hoped would translate into an infusion of new donations and support from the conservative Republican voters — evangelicals and Tea Partyadherents — who have told pollsters all year that they are searching for someone whom they view as a true conservative. 

YAWNNNN!!!

Call me when he comes up first against Dan Savage.

Calling Dave Chappelle!

Just saw what I think is the best comment on Pete Hoesktra's virulently racist attack ad that aired in Michigan during the Super Bowl. No, I'm not going to post it; if you haven't seen  it, it's easily found online, if you want to view it. Created by Fred Davis, the idiot who was responsible for the infamous 2010 California Republican Senate primary's "Demon Sheep" ad, Hoesktra & Co. have gotten more than enough free PR for it, as far as I'm concerned.

No, the best response came from Jack & Jill Politics' Marcus Touissant, who opined:

"I think they missed the mark completely by not having Dave Chappelle emerge from the rice paddy in full Rick James regalia and say 'Welcome to the China Club!'”

"I Support The Right To Life....Just Not Yours"

More right-wing hypocrisy: a majority of polled conservatives oppose Planned Parentshood's breast cancer screening.

Daily Kos:

In addition to finding that Susan G. Komen for the Cure's decision to defund Planned Parenthood's cancer screening programs damaged Komen's brand and alienated its supporters, our new Daily Kos-Public Policy Polling survey released today found a rather interesting tidbit: 

Do you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screening services (among conservatives only):
Favorable........................................................ 25%
Unfavorable .................................................... 51%
Not sure ......................................................... 25%

For a group of people who are always screaming about the "right to life," they sure don't seem to give a damn about the lives already being lived.

How'd He Fix His Mouth To Say Some S#!+ Like That?

This is why I hate CNN: this morning Candy Crowley had on her show three conservatives and a moderate, and considered that to be a fair representation of all viewpoints. In the course of the program, Republican Virginia Gov. Bob McDonald - he of the gay-bashing far-right - came up with this amazing assertion:

TPM:

Virginia Governor and Mitt Romney surrogate Bob McDonnell (R) on Sunday floated what may turn into a Republican talking point if the economy continues to improve: It wasn’t President Obama who made it happen, it was the GOP governors.

“Look, I’m glad the economy is starting to recover, but I think it’s because of what Republican governors are doing in their states, not because of the president,” McDonnell said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

The Virginia governor unleashed a comprehensive broadside against Obama’s economic record and governance in his first term. “It’s been a complete failure of leadership,” he said. “He cannot run on his record. He’s had no plan for jobs or energy that he’s got passed, so he’s got a tough record.”

The remarks came just two days after the Labor Department revealed the U.S. economy added 243,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3%, a development that was widely heralded as good political news for Obama.

The intricacy of McDonnell’s argument is noteworthy: He didn’t say jobs are created on the state level, as opposed to the federal level. He said the improvements happened because of Republican governors. That’s a difficult argument to make when the recovery is taking hold across the country, even in states with Democratic governors.

Republican governors are making the economy grow? What is McDonald smoking? Clearly the recovery is continuing across all state boundaries; so what did McDonald hope to achieve with this easily refuted statement? I think it's part of a GOP plan to confuse and deceive the voters, taking credit for anything good that happens during Obama's presidency, and blaming him for everything from high unemployment to the birth of two-headed calves. I believe it's a natural follow-on to their obstructionism. Make a mess of everything in sight, then blame the other guy!

Republican lies and Republican liars. What will they come up with next?