Still Hating America.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I was in Austin on Wednesday lobbying with Planned Parenthood for a bill that we're hoping will get more bipartisan support than usual. The push was to associate family planning with fiscal conservatism (more than 1 in 2 pregnancies in Texas are footed by Medicaid. A year on pregnancy related health services costs the state of Texas $8,800. A year of family planning costs $170. And federal matching for family planning is at the highest level of 9-1, so it really just costs the state $22).

There's also a pro-parent aspect to the bill we were pushing, since it emphasizes Abstinence plus education in school, and it also makes the schools tell parents what sort of education their kids are getting. We find that a lot of parents don't know that the sex ed classes aren't really about sex ed but telling the kids not to have sex.

(As an aside, I was riding on the bus with a friend of mine who is a adolescent pediatrician. She told a story about seeing a 15 year old girl with the worst case of herpes she'd ever seen. The kid needed a morphine drip because the outbreak was so bad. She asked the kid why she didn't use a condom. Kid's reply: "They told me condoms don't work.")

Anyhow, here's a copy of the bill, if it makes any sense in California, swipe it. I can't imagine that this sort of thing doesn't already exist there,though.

I thought though that the idea of meeting a middle ground of trying to prevent unwanted pregnancies would go farther than digging in one's feet and insisting on being right on the prochoice debate. This is the NARAL Texas page on the bill.

Thanks. That is helpful. Although I have to say, I don't want to sound bigoted but my guess is it is a lot easier to reach out to California Republicans than it is with Texas Republicans (Have you ever seen the Texas Republican State Party platform? It is pretty much insane).

I will find out on Monday but I think NARAL California is doing something similar. lt is some sort of education bill that they have been talking to the moderate Republicans about.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Spanky
Thanks. That is helpful. Although I have to say, I don't want to sound bigoted but my guess is it is a lot easier to reach out to California Republicans than it is with Texas Republicans (Have you ever seen the Texas Republican State Party platform? It is pretty much insane).

I imagine that I would hate Republicans a lot less if I lived outside of Texas. Texas has the highest teen birthrate in the nation. And yet somehow we still love abstinence only education. Motherfuckers in the legislature deserve to foot the bill for most of the pregnancies here for that sort of legislative malpractice.

OTOH, I live in a state representative district that was redrawn by Tom DeLay to be a safe Republican one in 2001. And true to form, a Republican took over the next year. She failed to show up, though, at the Planned Parenthood Lobby Day in 2005, and the word got out about that. (She also failed to kill the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment, though she represented the largest gay population in the state. And she failed to support embryonic stem cell research though she represented the medical center. Being a Good Republican was more important to her than representing her district. She paid for that. 45-55. (And, of course, the Democrats fielded one of the strongest candidates in the world. How the hell was the Republican fung shui interior decorator going to beat out the Democratic Executive Director of the Houston Area Women's Shelter?)) As of 2006, the district is now in the safe hands of a moderate Democrat that everyone absolutely adores. I think Martha Wong is a cautionary tale for a lot of Republicans in the state.

I will find out on Monday but I think NARAL California is doing something similar. lt is some sort of education bill that they have been talking to the moderate Republicans about.

I think that stepping away from the hotter abortion issues and looking for common ground in other areas may be useful. Everyone, after awhile, gets sick of the abortion debate and a sort of hopeless feeling sets in. Talking about other stuff, like education, like family planning, like contraception lets everyone catch their breaths a little before the next go round. I think that everyone can (generally) agree that an unwanted pregnancy is a Bad Thing. Focusing on how to prevent unwanted pregnancies can be done together. (And steal that pediatrician anecdote for the idiots that want to teach only abstinence in schools. I think it's damned powerful.)

[Spanky]

Did I kill the board again? :shrug:

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Spanky
Did I kill the board again? :shrug:

Wasn't it RT?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Wasn't it RT?

I blame the clintons.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
I blame the clintons.

w p, p

[Spanky]

Doesn't the fact that the jury has been out for a while bode well for Scooter Libby?


Who names their kid Scooter? Or Casper or Newt for that matter?

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Spanky
Doesn't the fact that the jury has been out for a while bode well for Scooter Libby?


Who names their kid Scooter? Or Casper or Newt for that matter?

They're trying to figure out how to work a nullification around the judge's instructions.

This prosecution is an abomination. I can't believe they're wasting our tax dollars like this. I hope Libby beats Fitzgerald like a gong. Between Conrad Black and Libby, that clown's wasting gazillions of dollars of our tax dollars. They should leave Black to face off against his civil suits here and abroad - that's going to ruin the guy at zero cost to taxpayers. Instead, for media attention, Fitzgerald's going to spend 8 figures chasing a trophy for his hunting room. I couldn't care less if Black or Libby were both run over by buses. I'd like to know why so much of our money's being wasted on political witchhunts and prosections of "exotic game" like Black when (a) Libby isn't going to do real time even if he's convicted and really didn't do anything all that wrong and (b) Black would turn over millions upon millions if he were offered a civil penalty plea bargain. If the crime's economic, we should focus most on remedying its economic impact.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
If the crime's economic, we should focus most on remedying its economic impact.

Fringey made some guy buy her a ribeye last night. Do you think she at least put out?

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
They're trying to figure out how to work a nullification around the judge's instructions.

This prosecution is an abomination. I can't believe they're wasting our tax dollars like this. I hope Libby beats Fitzgerald like a gong. Between Conrad Black and Libby, that clown's wasting gazillions of dollars of our tax dollars. They should leave Black to face off against his civil suits here and abroad - that's going to ruin the guy at zero cost to taxpayers. Instead, for media attention, Fitzgerald's going to spend 8 figures chasing a trophy for his hunting room. I couldn't care less if Black or Libby were both run over by buses. I'd like to know why so much of our money's being wasted on political witchhunts and prosections of "exotic game" like Black when (a) Libby isn't going to do real time even if he's convicted and really didn't do anything all that wrong and (b) Black would turn over millions upon millions if he were offered a civil penalty plea bargain. If the crime's economic, we should focus most on remedying its economic impact.

Your frustration is understandable, but it's hardly new. We've had these kind of problems for several administrations now.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Spanky
Doesn't the fact that the jury has been out for a while bode well for Scooter Libby?

Unclear.

Who names their kid Scooter?

His real name is I. Lewis Libby, but I'm not sure what the I. stands for.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
They're trying to figure out how to work a nullification around the judge's instructions.

This prosecution is an abomination. I can't believe they're wasting our tax dollars like this. I hope Libby beats Fitzgerald like a gong. Between Conrad Black and Libby, that clown's wasting gazillions of dollars of our tax dollars. They should leave Black to face off against his civil suits here and abroad - that's going to ruin the guy at zero cost to taxpayers. Instead, for media attention, Fitzgerald's going to spend 8 figures chasing a trophy for his hunting room. I couldn't care less if Black or Libby were both run over by buses. I'd like to know why so much of our money's being wasted on political witchhunts and prosections of "exotic game" like Black when (a) Libby isn't going to do real time even if he's convicted and really didn't do anything all that wrong and (b) Black would turn over millions upon millions if he were offered a civil penalty plea bargain. If the crime's economic, we should focus most on remedying its economic impact.

If it weren't a Sunday, conservatives would be lining up to tell you how important it is to tell the truth under oath.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Originally posted by Spanky
Doesn't the fact that the jury has been out for a while bode well for Scooter Libby?


Who names their kid Scooter? Or Casper or Newt for that matter?

Isn't his real name Lewis? Of course, that's like naming your kid Winthorp.

The jury asked for clarification of what reasonable doubt means. That suggests there are some holdouts who are convinced, but not absolutely certain. I guess guilty.

[Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)]

Now, you have Senators calling the since-fired prosecutors to push ahead on corruption cases.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
If it weren't a Sunday, conservatives would be lining up to tell you how important it is to tell the truth under oath.

is he a lawyer? they'll disbar you for lying under oath.