Sex-Selection Abortions Bill Pits Democrats Against Republicans in House

This afternoon, the House debated a bill that would ban sex-selection abortions in the United States, pitting Republicans and Democrats in a showdown over a woman's right to choose, which opponents contend is "intended to chip away at a woman's right to obtain safe, legal medical care."

The measure, known as the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA), was perceived by Democrats as a dim-witted ploy to coax liberal lawmakers to support the bill or be faced with the prospect of an onslaught of campaign advertisements this fall highlighting a lawmaker's vote to essentially support sex-selection abortions.

"Somebody decided politically that it was a difficult place to put people in," House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters Wednesday afternoon at his pen-and-pad briefing. "It's a political effort, not a substantive effort."

But after the plight of blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, who spoke out against forced abortions in his native China, captured international headlines this month, GOP aides said the leadership hoped to capitalize on the momentum of that awareness to ensure that sex-selection abortions are not legal in the U.S.

"For most of us, Mr. Speaker, 'It's a girl' is cause for enormous joy, happiness and celebration," Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said on the House floor. "But in many countries including our own, it could be a death sentence. Today the three-most dangerous words in China and India are, 'It's a girl.' We can't let that happen here."
Earlier this week, a pro-life group released an undercover video purportedly showing a Planned Parenthood counselor in Texas assisting a woman seeking a sex-selection abortion. Gendercide, the practice of killing baby girls or terminating pregnancies solely because the fetus is female, is estimated to have produced a "gender imbalance" with 100 million more girls than boys around the world.

Many nations with staunchly pro-choice/pro-abortion rights laws and protections nevertheless ban sex-selection abortions. Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands all have laws banning sex-selection abortions.

A vote on the measure was postponed until Thursday. Approval of the measure is subject to a two-thirds majority, which may be difficult to attain given the Democrats' general opposition to what they perceive as another Republican attempt to engage Democrats in the so-called War on Women. The House Democratic leadership does not whip the Democratic caucus on votes dealing with choice or war.

"The Republican majority continues its War on Women in a new and creative way: by attempting to couch legislation that would destroy women's fundamental constitutional rights as a woman's rights law. It is cynical, but creative," Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said. "The preference for male children is a real, if limited, phenomenon in the United States. Some women face familial and community preference to have male children, and that pressure can increase with each subsequent birth. But this does nothing to help those women."

This was posted to my facebook wall by my friend Art, a Marine

"The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!"
-Eleanor Roosevelt, 1945

Alan Simpson Slams Fellow Republicans For Unwillingness To Compromise

Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) lashed out at members of his party on Sunday, slamming them for their unwillingness to compromise on proposed tax increases.
In his characteristically colorful style, Simpson told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that Republicans' rigid opposition to new tax revenues has hampered productivity and diminished the chances of reaching an agreement with Democrats on debt reduction.
"You can’t cut spending your way out of this hole," Simpson, who was appointed as co-chair of President Obama's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in 2010, said. "You can’t grow your way out of this hole, and you can’t tax your way out of this hole. So put that in your pipe and smoke it, we tell these people. This is madness."
Simpson continued: "If you want to be a purist, go somewhere on a mountaintop and praise the east or something. But if you want to be in politics, you learn to compromise. And you learn to compromise on the issue without compromising yourself. Show me a guy who won’t compromise and I’ll show you a guy with rock for brains."
The former senator, along with debt commission co-chair Erskine Bowles, developed a plan in 2010 for bringing down the top tax rate and lowering the deficit by repealing a number of tax cuts and credits. The initial plan, commonly known as Simpson-Bowles, was mostly ignored by lawmakers. A bipartisan budget modeled after their report was rejected by the House earlier this year.
During the interview Sunday, he expressed frustration with his party's focus on social issues, as well as the ability of outspoken figures like Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist to drive the conversation.
"I guess I'm known as a RINO now, which means a Republican in name only, because, I guess, of social views, perhaps, or common sense would be another one, which seems to escape members of our party," Simpson said. "For heaven’s sake, you have Grover Norquist wandering the earth in his white robes saying that if you raise taxes one penny, he’ll defeat you. He can’t murder you. He can’t burn your house. The only thing he can do to you, as an elected official, is defeat you for reelection. And if that means more to you than your country when we need patriots to come out in a situation when we’re in extremity, you shouldn’t even be in Congress."

kids these days

By Neetzan Zimmerman

May 17, 2012 8:30 AM

129,490 439

Nine-Year-Old Stands Up to Westboro Baptist Church with One-Boy Counter-Protest

When nine-year-old Josef Miles spotted members of Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church doing their hate-mongering thing on the Washburn University campus in Topeka, he asked his mother, Patty Akrouche, if he could stage a small counter-protest to their message of intolerance.
With just a pencil and small notebook in hand, Josef took on the bigots with a succinct yet poignant proclamation: "God Hates No One."
"Those people are scary but he stood strong, was respectful and stood by his convictions," Akrouche wrote on her Facebook page. "He will be a good man, I have no doubt."

To the GOP and Christian Reich: This is the past telling you to get with the times!

Some pics of my boyfriend and I at a B-Day party for a couple of friends last weekend