Democratic (!!) representative Bart Stupak, apparently concerned that the Senate health care bill is insufficiently misogynistic, might be willing to try to kill health care reform unless the anti-abortion language is strengthened:
Stupak's continued opposition to the Senate plan, despite those conversations and intense pressure from the White House, suggests that reconciling it with the House bill may prove politically challenging.
The Senate language represented "a dramatic shift in federal policy," said Stupak, adding that he remained hopeful that the differences could be resolved in conference. Nelson, though, said earlier Saturday that his support for the legislation was contingent on the abortion compromise remaining in it.
The emails suggest a previously unseen degree of coordination between the offices of Stupak and McConnell. Stupak is the leader of a group of pro-life Democrats who say they'll oppose the sweeping legislation if it uses government money to pay for abortion, while McConnell is firmly committed to killing the legislation.
The fact that their offices have made common cause against the Senate's health care compromise will likely further infuriate Stupak's Democratic colleagues in the House, and demonstrates his willingness to stop any bill that doesn't pass his test.
Stupak denies knowing about or authorizing the e-mails in question.
We have people dropping dead from treatable illnesses because they lack health insurance, but the “pro-life” position is to oppose the bill unless it really, really sticks it to women. Charming.
Meanwhile, I have been listening to evangelical talk radio for the last few hours. They are outraged. Surprise!
They are displeased with Ben Nelson, who they preposterously describe as a “moderate” Democrat. He caved! He sold-out! He let down all of his religious conservative voters! My opinion of him just went way up.
Actually, Kevin Drum explains why they might have a point. Nelson's abortion compromise is not nearly as awful as it might have been.
Ben Nelson's squishiness is not the only problem. Harry Reid comes in for some abuse as well. They're having votes at one in the morning! When there is snow on the ground!! They are going to be voting on Christmas Eve, for heaven's sake!!! And Harry Reid just went and bought the votes he needed. What an unprecedented abuse of power!
The callers are even more outraged. My tax dollars are going to kill babies! Why aren't these senators whose vote was bought being brought up on bribery charges? (Even the show's host, Jordan Sekulow, had to balk at that one.)
The other message was not to give up hope. You see, they can still pray for Robert Byrd to die before the final vote. So respectful of life, these folks. They really have their priorities in order.
But wait! Now the subject has changed to the New Atheists. What's this they're saying? They are having a massive, anti-Christian impact on society? Whoo-hoo! I suddenly feel better.
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Prof. Rosenhouse must be a glutton for punishment to listed to born-again radio stations. By the way, the subject of Senator Byrd dying was raised on Matthew Yglesias' blog and it was pointed out that West Virginia has a Democratic Governor who could immediately appoint a replacement. Representative Stupak is a piece of filth who is a member of the Familys' C Street goon squad.
I recall reading that lack of insurance may be responsible for 45,000 deaths a year. That's 15 9/11s in one year. We committed hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of American lives in response to 9/11. These people have terrible priorities.
Those are the pro-life principles: Waste no amount of resources killing people in wars, but oppose to all means the chance of people actually having access to health care.
My tax dollars go towards paying to kill people around the world. Why is it ok to do that without my consent but using yours do something vastly less harmful without your consent isn't? Man these people must be crazy.
Also on "buying" votes, that is how congress works, the basics of getting votes from someone is saying "you vote for something I want and I will do something for you/your state/your district." There is nothing out of the ordinary on on that front.
Every year when I drive home to my parents house, I listen to Christian talk radio to learn how to be a Good Christian Woman, how Evilution is a lie!, how politicians X/Y/Z love killing babbies-- Its a fun way to pass 7 hours of driving through corn!
That does not sound like any fun at all. Erv, dear, you need a cd player in your car :)
Jason wrote:
LOL!
Ironically, the pro-lifers are enough to make me lose respect for human life. A species that produces specimens that stupid is clearly not all it's cracked up to be.
I discovered evangelical talk radio while I was living in Kansas, probably because there was not much else to listen to. Their political shows are excruciating, but that's actually a fairly small part of their programming. Their purely religious shows, in which some braying preacher holds forth on Biblical living, are rather engaging. They never actually say much beyond vague platitudes about putting God first in your life, but they definitely know something about public speaking. They also have a lot of advice style call-in shows. (The advice usually being some variation on, “You need to put God first in your life.”)
My favorite call to one of these shows remains one I heard from an obviously distraught mother. Referring to an earlier caller whose child had been killed in a car accident, she said, “I also recently had a major trauma in my family. Unlike the previous caller my son isn't dead, but to me it feels just as permanent. My son just called home from college and told me he had become an atheist.”
I don't recall how the host replied.
Stupak is also lying through his teeth.
The Senate bill "segregates" abortion dollars from public money. Obviously the public money subsidizes the whole thing, so in a sense public money does "subsidize" abortion. But this is common. Public money goes to religious schools, but it's constitutional as long as the public money is only spent on secular things, link pencils. Of course this "subsidizes" the religious stuff because the parochial school no longer has to waste funds on pencils. This is exactly how the Senate bill works.
Stupak wants to go further than this, but he claims that he is only trying to uphold settled law. BS.
(The Catholic Bishops - who happily accept "segregated" money for their parochial schools - are also flaming hypocrites.)
I listen to right wing talk radio and evangelical radio from time to time, too. You're right about how engaging (and sometimes unintentionally hilarious) the preaching can be. But also I like to listen to see what new buzzwords and memes I should expect the people around me to start repeating over the next few days. It helps to stay ahead of the curve.
On Rush's show today, he all but called for violent revolution (he excused it with the cheap "I'm just joking, you know" nonsense. I also heard some weird 9/11 troofer in on a small station in southern Missouri (I drove from Indiana to Oklahoma today) blabbering about how it's all a big set up. He then started segueing into how global warming is also a hoax, but unfortunately I didn't get to hear much of it because I lost reception.
Jason,
Season's greetings and thanks for expressing your views boldly and rationally.
Takis K.
well... tomorrow is the big day.. the one we've been waiting for....
ISSAC NEWTON's BRITHDAY!!!
yah!! gravity for everyone!