Guilty By Reason Of Womanhood

I'm "pro-choice" because I think people have the right to make their own decisions about their own health and well-being, and because if you give Government the power to prohibit abortion, then you're giving Government the power to require abortion.

I've also hypothesized on what happens if we re-criminalize abortion, asking what does the law look like; and what am I required to do (as a law-abiding citizen) to help uphold such a law?  If you've made abortion a crime, and I suspect a woman may have taken illegal steps to end a pregnancy, I think I have a duty to notify the police and to demand an investigation.

To me, that last bit always sounded like I was waxing a bit hyperbolical, but guess what?

An Idaho woman arrested for inducing her own abortion is taking her case to federal court. Jennie Linn McCormack was charged last year under an obscure Idaho law for ending her pregnancy with RU-486. She joins an increasing number of women who get the so-called abortion pill off the internet.

More at NPR.

Cut The Crap

Obama wasn't born in the US.
Obama is a secret Muslim.

Obama is stealthily destroying American Capitalism on purpose.

Obama wants higher gas prices to help out his hippie buddies in Green Biz.

Whether you love Obama or you hate him, or you don't really care one way or another - it'd be good to make decisions based on real information rather than the smarmy bullshit that passes for political debate points these days.

Isn't it a little weird that the GOP and "conservatives" are all pissed off at Obama for a bunch of baloney they made up, when they really should be in favor of what he's doing (eg) overseas?  You know - the shit they condoned or even rabidly supported when Bush was doing it?

All that other junk is brought to us by people who have no honor and no soul.

Obama's Gaffe

What does Obama mean when he says 'the private sector's doing fine"?  Where does he get off contradicting the Official GOP Narrative!?!

Oh wait - maybe this is what he was trying to tell us:

First, this is what The Private Sector looks like now - with jobs back up to about where they were Pre-Recession.

Now, here's Federal Jobs

And finally, All Gov't Jobs

Which part of Republicans-are-a-bunch-of-lyin'-sacks-of-shit are you having trouble understanding?

John Jonik

A new find for me - John Jonik.

Iran's Unclear Ambitions

From The Agonist today:

Over at Nuclear Diner, veteran Los Alamos nuclear engineer Susan Voss analyzes the amount of 20% enriched uranium Iran has made to date and concludes "The 98 kgs is more than needed for one core for TRR but a reasonable amount if the Iranians are planning on producing a batch of fuel for the TRR rather than producing it every 5-6 years when it is needed." It's exactly on par with the batch of three full fuel cores Argentina supplied Iran in 1992 which is estimated to run out this year.

So, it's probable that all the talk about this material being for bomb production is just warmongering hype.

Bonus: Gareth Porter talks to former top Iranian nuclear negotiator Seyed Hossein Mousavian, who tells Porter that France and Germany were prepared in spring 2005 to negotiate on an Iranian proposal to convert all of its enriched uranium to fuel rods, making it impossible to use it for nuclear weapons, but Britain vetoed the deal at the insistence of the United States.

That last bit seems pretty important. I wonder why The US would want to make it nearly impossible for the French and the Germans to prevent the Iranians from getting the bomb(?)  Hmmm.

Parade Of Stoopid

This is some high-quality stoopid right here:

 

 Not even Juan (The Twin Token) Williams can go along with Bolling's malarkey.

Listen Up

It's A Wonderment

Thinking about some things that recently popped into my silly little head.

Here's one: Welfare Cheats.
And another'n: Voter Fraud

How long have we heard about this?
"Young bucks eatin' steak and lobster on Food Stamps".
"Dead people voting numerous times".

Here's my basic premise: There's an element of truth to it - the notion that some people are gaming the system has to be assumed.  I'd hafta be stupid to believe it never happens.  But what I think I know now is that this is "truth with a lower case t", which means it's a Political Truth, which in turn means it's a Political Lie.

And here's my take-away:  The Political Truth is always much smaller than they want you to believe it is, and the Political Lie is always a lot bigger.

On Wisconsin

Sometimes you win by losing and sometimes you lose by winning.  It all depends on how you react to whatever just happened.

via Balloon Juice:

Exit polling showed tepid majority support for public unions (51%), with equally tepid support for Walker’s handling of collective bargaining (52%). This reflects the resentment towards public unions based on the perception that they’re getting a better deal than the rest of us :

Some random stuff:
1) Resentment works.  Voters aren't trying to raise everybody to the level of Unionized Workers, they're convinced that "those damned union bastards are gettin' some kinda free ride at the expense of everybody else".  This is what the race to the bottom looks like.

-because-

2) Advertising works. The prevailing message was that Gov Walker was just doing what he told you he'd do when he ran for the office.  You voted for him; now stop whining and take your medicine.

3) The double Standard is alive and well.  It's OK to attack Obama for being successful at what he's done, but going after Romney means you're engaging in class warfare.  Also, it isn't fair to criticize Romney for his success, but those successful unions; well they're just evil.

Hopefully, having outspent the Dems 10-1, the Koch Suckers have a pyrrhic victory on their hands and there might be a somewhat diminished enthusiasm for making the same effort on the next fight.  I'll admit to being a bit dubious on that one - we'll have to see what goodies Mr Walker offers up to reward his benefactors.

Also too - remember that the Dems won another seat in the State Senate, which takes the Repub majority away.

Dr Krugman

Austerity is bad policy because it's not Economics at all - it's an Ideological Religion.  A true faith.  The big problem is that Demand has dried up, and the Supply-Siders just can't stand thinking their pet theory might not work all that well this time.