the House passed a bill that will make it criminal for ANYONE to help a woman under 18 get an abortion if her state has parental-consent laws. and i mean ANYONE, including the bus driver if she takes public transportation. and the doctor in the other state. now this pisses me off enough, but then you get the massive republican re-writing of the democrats proposed ammendments:
DEMS: a Nadler amendment allows an adult who could be prosecuted under the bill to go to a Federal district court and seek a waiver to the state�s parental notice laws if this remedy is not available in the state court. (no 11-16)
GOP REWRITE:. Mr. Nadler offered an amendment that would have created an additional layer of Federal court review that could be used by sexual predators to escape conviction under the bill. By a roll call vote of 11 yeas to 16 nays, the amendment was defeated.
DEMS: a Nadler amendment to exempt a grandparent or adult sibling from the criminal and civil provisions in the bill (no 12-19)
GOP REWRITE: . Mr. Nadler offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution under the bill if they were grandparents or adult siblings of a minor. By a roll call vote of 12 yeas to 19 nays, the amendment was defeated.
DEMS: a Scott amendment to exempt cab drivers, bus drivers and others in the business transportation profession from the criminal provisions in the bill (no 13-17):
GOP REWRITE. Mr. Scott offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution if they are taxicab drivers, bus drivers, or others in the business of professional transport. By a roll call vote of 13 yeas to 17 nays, the amendment was defeated.
DEMS: a Jackson-Lee amendment to exempt clergy, godparents, aunts, uncles or first cousins from the penalties in the bill (no 13-20)
GOP REWRITE. Ms. Jackson-Lee offered an amendment that would have exempted sexual predators from prosecution under the bill if they were clergy, godparents, aunts, uncles, or first cousins of a minor, and would require a study by the Government Accounting Office. By a roll call vote of 13 yeas to 20 nays, the amendment was defeated.
WHAT?! the republican's official line is that the proposed ammendments didn't explicitly exclude sexual predators, and therefore must be for their benefit. i could on for an hour about the logical fallacies embodied by that statement (i could, actually. i aced symbolic logic in college, and i had a refresher in language of propaganda course last year). i could point out that the bill in question doesn't provide any protection from a sexual predator who is a parent, or that any bill or law that doesn't provide specific exclusion of sexual predators could be renamed. but i'd much rather talk about the kind of mindset that this is showing in Washington. in my mind, this is moving one of two ways:
1. the radical religious right, emboldened by the return of their Fearless(ly inept) Leader and his supposed "mandate," have pulled out all the stops. they feel entitled to mass abuses of power in the name of the "american people." and they also know they can get away with it, because a very large portion of "the american people" will probably never hear about it in the first place. you can bet FOX won't be reporting on it. i'd be surprised if any network news show did. and i checked CNN.com just now. they have a report of the bill being passed, and they have some statements that democrats are angry about the report, and the republican line that since they didn't specifically exclude predators, the ammendments were poorly written. nowhere do they show what the actual rewrite was. so yeah, Theory #1: the Radical (evil) Right is emboldened, and threatening a massive takeover of all that we pro-choice people hold as sacred.
2. the radical right isn't (quite) as stupid as it looks. they can see that change is in the air. student activism is on the rise, watchdog groups are pointing out more and more egregious abuses of power, and even the average american is starting to wonder why the hell we went to iraq in the first place, and how halliburton ended up with all those lucrative contracts. bloggers are putting out the stories that the mainstream media doesn't, and it's getting harder to keep people in the dark. they can see that the wind is shifting, and they're scared. most them have been around (since dinosaurs roamed the earth) long enough to remember the vietnam war protests and the last time the american people got enlightened. they're on the way to losing the control they've worked so hard to cultivate, because for them politics is about power, not about serving the american people (i'm not saying democrats are necessarily better, but they're a little less overt about it anyway). and when a group who values power above all else feels its control about to fall away, the first thing that'll happen is a grab with both fists for more power. and then comes anger due to lack of control. so, Theory #2: the Radical (evil) Right is feeling their time drawing to a close, and they're scared.
i'm not sure which it is yet. i think both are viable options, and actually i think both could be happening at the same time. the fact that the Right is abusing their power will ultimately lead to their downfall, and part of their power grab could be deep denial of the changing world around them.
some fun quotes from this fiasco:
If any law that provides people some right or benefit without specifically exempting sexual predators can now be redescribed as the Republicans suggest, the possibilities are endless. The Highway bill, for instance, can now be called the "Helping Sexual Predators Reach Their Victims More Quickly Act". A bill appropriating money for cabins at a National Park could be called the "Providing A Secluded Location In Which Sexual Predators Can Molest Their Victims Act." A new telecom regulations bill might be the "Enabling Sexual Predators To Communicate More Easily With Their Victims Act."
--obsidian wings
I can hardly wait to see what's next. Are we going to have fistfights on the floor of Congress again? Or is the Republican caucus simply going to explode in purple cheeked rage? Stay tuned.
--political animail
What sophomoric nonsense. It would be funny were it not part of the right-wing's power-mad mindset.They want total domination over everything from Supreme Court decisions to the most mundane legislative recordkeeping. Honestly, they're about one step away from carving out a secret lair in an old volcano somewhere, a la Dr. Evil. Although, if it were a secret lair...
--NARAL pro-choice america
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