Sunday, February 24th, 2013
Stephan: The War on Women continues. Increasingly I think the underlying dynamic behind the anti-abortion forces, since they protect zygotes, but care nothing for children, arises from a form of racism. The fear that Whites are being knocked from their special status, and outnumbered, and that part of the solution is more white babies. Hence the anti-choice movement, the anti-contraception movement, and the drive to compel even rape and incest victims to bear children conceived under those circumstances.
Indiana Republicans are advancing legislation that would require women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound prior to an abortion, the latest in a string of efforts by state GOP lawmakers to actively discourage women from terminating their pregnancies.
The provision is tucked inside Senate Bill 371, introduced by State Sen. Travis Holdman (R), which has passed a committee. Although the legislation doesn’t specifically say transvaginal ultrasound, its criteria would effectively require it, according to the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America.
John Stutsman, an obstetrician-gynecologist and professor of medicine at Indiana University, confirmed to the Indianapolis Star that a transvaginal probe would be required.
Holdman told the Indy Star that such measures are justified to protect ‘another human life.
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Sunday, February 24th, 2013
DAVID FERGUSON, - The Raw Story
Stephan: Here is today's assault on our democracy. More and more this has become and issue of individuals. We as individuals are electing these people. They are the measure of our shadow.
A Montana Republican state legislator has introduced a bill that would give corporations the right to vote in municipal elections. According to Think Progress, Rep. Steve Lavin (R-Kalispell) has introduced Montana House Bill No. 486, which would grant to ‘a firm, partnership, company or corporation
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Sunday, February 24th, 2013
Stephan: Today's issue is a selection of the many stories I have found showing the results arising from the efforts of the Theocratic Right to shape the world as they wish it. I want to be clear that this is only a selection. I could have picked 10 other stories.
Because many of these efforts are either esoteric assaults on regulatory agencies, or programs at the state level, and they get little national discussion, I don't think most people quite realize how pervasive these efforts have been.
This all gets down to voting. All of us who want our country to choose a compassionate and life-affirming course must not only vote, we must take on the responsibility of counseling and assisting others of like mind to vote.
We have to take this very seriously.
-- Stephan
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2013
ALEX SEITZ-WALD, Political Reporter - Salon
Stephan: I see this as part of the fear trend that has created the Tea Party Movement, and the Theocratic Right. At its core this is about a certain group of White people with overactive Amygdalas, who fear they are going to lose the special status historically accorded to Whites.
White Americans are more than twice as likely to own guns as blacks or Latinos, and more likely to oppose gun safety reforms, according to previously unreleased data from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers.
The survey, conducted by the Center for Gun Policy and Research and initially released without racial breakdowns in late January, showed strong support overall for many of the proposals being discussed in Congress to limit gun violence. But the researchers broke down the numbers by race this week and shared the results with Salon.
Overall, 22 percent of Americans were found to own guns, while another 11 percent live in homes with someone else who owns guns. Among whites, the number of gun owners is slightly higher, at 26 percent, with an additional 13 percent who live in gun-owning households.
But only 12 percent of African-Americans and 13 percent of Latinos own guns. Just 5 and 7 percent of each ethnic group, respectively, lives in a household with someone else who owns a gun.
Not surprisingly, this translates to a disparity in support for gun control measures, with whites being consistently more opposed to gun control than the other groups. For instance, support for reinstating the […]
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Saturday, February 23rd, 2013
SUZANNE GOLDENBERG, US Environment Correspondent - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: The thing about the greedy corporations that are ruining our lives is that they really have no shame, but they do have an invincible sense of privilege and entitlement. I think BP has made a major miscalculation in choosing to go before a jury, and hope that is how this goes forward.
BP has announced that it will square off against the federal government in court next week to fight ‘excessive’ claims arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
In a combative statement, the oil giant said it had been open to a settlement in the civil trial, set to start on Monday in a federal court in New Orleans. But it had failed to reach a deal with federal government lawyers.
The trial could potentially result in $21bn (£13.6bn) in civil damages for BP, but the company said on Tuesday it would rather take its chances in court than continue negotiations with federal government lawyers.
‘Faced with demands that are excessive and not based on reality or the merits of the case, we are going to trial,’ said Rupert Bondy, the BP’s general counsel, said in a statement.
The trial is the last major hurdle to BP’s efforts to move beyond the fatal blowout of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 people and resulted in the biggest oil spill in US history.
BP has already accepted criminal responsibility for the disaster, pleading guilty last November to manslaughter and lying to Congress and paying $4.5bn in fines. It reached a separate $7.8bn settlement […]
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