What Does College Football Have to Do With Abortion? Tons, According to Anti-Choice Wingnuts
Posted by Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check on December 23, 2009 at 6:31 AM.

The University of Notre Dame has a long history of worshipping the sport of football, complete with jokes about their "Touchdown Jesus."  As the university that still can claim the most famous football coach in college football history, Notre Dame (ND) still takes the sport very seriously decades after the fact.  They’re the only college football team with its own television contract, to have its home games televised exclusively by NBC.  The only problem with all of this is that the Fighting Irish haven’t really been that great a team in a long time.  And that’s why it was such a wise decision for them to hire Cincinnati football coach Brian Kelly, who turned his unremarkable team into a formidable power, and is believed, with good reason, to be able to do even more with the recruiting abilities of Notre Dame.

This new hire is a big deal in college sports.  No wonder the anti-choicers decided they had to have a part of it; Touchdown Jesus forbids that anything important happen that’s not "All About Them."  Hijacking health care reform isn’t enough, it turns out.  Now the Fetus People have to take on college football.

The hook is that Notre Dame is a Catholic university and Kelly is pro-choice.  Apparently, this is suddenly a contradiction, though the sports world has mainly expressed confusion over why this is an issue.  Hard to blame sports writers who ask the obvious question, which is, “What does abortion have to do with football?”

To ask the question is to miss the point, as anyone who has dealt with the Fetus People can attest.  They haven’t met many issues they can’t make about abortion.  It’s an all-purpose stand-in for everything that right wing reactionaries wish to attack---witness, for instance, Chuck Norris implying that giving people more access to general health care is the same thing as aborting the Baby Jesus.  If mammograms and blood pressure medication are the same thing as abortion, then surely hiring a pro-choice football coach is abortion.

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Women's Victory: Baltimore Crisis Pregnancy Centers Must Now Disclose The Limited Nature of Their Services
Posted by Jenny Blasdell, RH Reality Check on December 22, 2009 at 11:42 AM.

On December 4, the Limited Service Pregnancy Centers Disclaimers bill was signed into law in Baltimore City. Baltimore now leads the nation with the first enacted law in the country requiring crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to disclose the limited nature of their services to their clients.

Introduced by City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, the law will go into effect in January 2010.  This bill was supported by a diverse coalition of women’s groups and health organizations, and passed by a decisive 12-3 margin in the City Council.

CPCs often advertise “information on all options” or “medical referrals.” Thanks to the leadership of Council President Rawlings-Blake, they must now clarify that this does not include birth control information or abortion referrals. In essence, this bill requires truth in advertising by requiring CPCs to inform their clients if they do not provide or refer for abortion or comprehensive birth control by posting a sign in English and Spanish.  

The measure will be enforced by the Baltimore City Health Department. This law does not violate the centers’ right to free speech and, unfortunately, we suspect that they will continue to spread misinformation.  But at least now women will have a lens through which to view the so-called information about abortion and birth control they receive at these centers.

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Mexico City Becomes the First Latin American City to Approve a Gay Marriage Law
Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune on December 22, 2009 at 6:55 AM.

Mexico City showed more bravery then many North of the Border States this year when it came to gay rights, and just in time for Christmas, too:

Mexico City has become the first city in Latin America to legalise same-sex marriage, giving gay couples more rights, including allowing them to adopt children.

The bill passed the capital's local assembly by 39 votes to 20 yesterday as supporters chanted: "Yes, we could! Yes, we could!" [...]

The change will enable same-sex couples to adopt, apply for bank loans, inherit wealth and be included in the insurance policies of their spouse – rights they were denied under the civil unions allowed in the city.

"We are so happy," said Temistocles Villanueva, a 23-year-old film student, who celebrated the new legislation by kissing his boyfriend outside the city assembly.

Congratulations to Mexico City's assembly for seeing that we are all God's children, and we all deserve equal rights under the law. Unfortunately, and predictably, the conservative National Action Party (PAN) government of President Felipe Calderón has announced that it plans to mount a court challenge to the action taken by Mexico City. Calderon, as you may recall came into office under a cloud of suspicion regarding election irregularities, and his administration has been plagued by scandals. Sound familiar?

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Jailtime For Pregnant Soldiers? The Army Has Made Getting Pregnant a Punishable Offense
Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress on December 21, 2009 at 11:00 AM.

Major General Anthony Cucolo, who is responsible for operations in northern Iraq, has issued a controversial new policy -- which went into effect on Nov. 4 -- that allows throwing women servicemembers on active duty in jail if they become pregnant:

Under the new policy, troops expecting a baby face court martial and a possible prison term -- and so do the men who made them pregnant.

And the rule applies to married couples at war together, who are expected to make sure their love lives do not interfere with duty.

Usual U.S. Army policy is to send pregnant soldiers home from combat zones within 14 days.

But Major General Anthony Cucolo, who runs U.S. operations in northern Iraq, issued the new orders because he said he was losing too many women with critical skills. He needed the threat of court martial and jail time as an extra deterrent, he said.

All troops under his command are covered by the extension to the military’s legal code -- the first time the U.S. Army has made pregnancy a punishable offence.

Military staff judge advocates for the Army have reviewed and approved the policy. The policy is legal under military law, but it raises "a mare's nest of legal, ethical and policy issues." For example, while the policy does say that a man who impregnates a woman will receive equal punishment, it may be difficult to identify him unless the woman reveals who he is.

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Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss Has No Idea What Roe v. Wade Actually Says
Posted by Jill Filipovic, Feministe on December 21, 2009 at 7:00 AM.

Can someone please send Saxby Chambliss a copy of Roe v. Wade? Because it does not say what he thinks it says.

The Senate healthcare bill’s language on abortion "sets up a Supreme Court challenge," one senator warned Saturday.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) asserted that the compromise on abortion contained within the bill, which would seek to segregate federal funds from subsidizing health plans covering abortion, is unconstitutional.

"What this provision does that Sen. Nelson negotiated sets up a Supreme Court challenge. Roe v. Wade's pretty clear on federal funding for abortion," Chambliss said at a Capitol Hill press conference early this afternoon.

The compromise was set up to win the vote of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who had previously threatened to vote against the bill unless he was satisfied the bill wouldn’t provide federal support for abortion. Nelson announced on Saturday morning that he’d reached an agreement to his satisfaction, and would vote for the bill.

Pro-life groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, have rejected the compromise language.

"And now, you're seeing that law that was laid down years ago in Roe v. Wade thrown up in the air. It's pretty obvious that votes have been bought," said Chambliss, who didn't signal whether or not he would lead a legal challenge to the bill.

Doesn't this man have a staff to vet facts before he gives press conferences?

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Peggy Noonan Outdoes Herself, Blames America's Problems on "Adam Lamberts" of the World
Posted by Liliana Segura, AlterNet on December 18, 2009 at 3:54 PM.

For reasons I can only blame on Twitter, I read Peggy Noonan's newest column late last night and went to bed soon after. This morning I woke up thinking, "Surely, not. It must've been some sad, low-intensity nightmare. No serious person would write an article that ridiculous."

Then I remembered: Peggy Noonan is not a serious person.

Sure, she writes for a Serious paper -- The Wall Street Journal -- and is invited to share her analysis on Serious programs ("Meet the Press"). She writes like she speaks: primly, with an air of breezy, high-class intellect. I imagine she writes beautiful cursive.

She is well groomed. So well groomed, in fact, she believes it is her right -- nay, her obligation -- to publicly humiliate those who fail at grooming. (Noblesse oblige, Mika. Don't take it personally.)

The last time I read Lady Noonan, in late November, she was being driven down Manhattan's Fifth Ave -- a perennial source of inspiration -- and was so moved at the sight of the Bergdorf Goodman building ("tall, stately, mansard-roofed") -- it instilled her with a sense of deep relief:

It looked exactly as it looked 10 years ago, 20, only better. Because it's there. New York has been so damaged by the crash, and last year at this time small shops, the ones with the smallest margin for error, were closing. And now I see more that are opening, and Bergdorf's is preparing its Christmas windows. The sight of it came like an affirmation. We're still here. I am so grateful.

Emphasis hers.

It was not the first time she wrote a Thanksgiving-themed column that celebrated the survival of the ruling class as the rest of the country went to hell. After all, impressionistic validations of her own sense of privilege are her forte. (If Berdorf survives, that means the rich survive; Food stamps? Collectibles of the goblins to the north.)

But I digress.

It appears Peggy Noonan decided this week that she is done feeling grateful about the survival of luxury goods and is back to being worried.

At first glance, it appears she is concerned about the economy:

The news came in numbers and the numbers were fairly grim, all the grimmer for being unsurprising. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reported this week that more than half of Americans, 55%, think America is on the wrong track, with only 33% saying it is going in the right direction. A stunning 66% say they're not confident that their children's lives will be better than their own (27% are).

It is another in a long trail of polls that show a clear if occasionally broken decline in American optimism. The poll was discussed on TV the other day, and everyone said those things everyone says: "People are afraid they'll lose their jobs or their houses." "It's health care. Every uninsured person feels they're one illness away from bankruptcy.

All too true. The economy has always had an impact on the general American mood, and the poll offered data to buttress the reader's assumption that economic concerns are driving pessimism. Fifty-one percent of those interviewed said they disapproved of the president's handling of the economy, versus 42% approving.>

At this point, I ask myself, "Where is she going with this?" After all, Bergdorf is still standing, so it can't be all about money, right?

But something tells me this isn't all about money.

Ah.

It's possible, and I can't help but think likely, that the poll is also about other things, and maybe even primarily about other things.

Hmmm…go on.

Sure, Americans are worried about long-term debt and endless deficits. We're worried about taxes and the burden we're bequeathing to our children, and their children.

Do go on.

But we are concerned about other things, too, and there are often signs in various polls that those things may dwarf economic concerns. Americans are worried about the core and character of the American nation, and about our culture.

She's really building up the suspense and if you're like me you are dying to know what this looming threat to our "core and character" is. Finally, after setting up the following parallel -- "It is one thing to grouse that dreadful people who don't care about us control our economy, but another, and in a way more personal, thing to say that people who don't care about us control our culture" -- she tells us:

In 2009 this was perhaps most vividly expressed in …

Oooh, ooh! I know! The torture memos? Bagram? Rush Limbaugh?

… the Adam Lambert Problem.

…the Adam Lambert Problem?

American Idol winner Adam Lambert? This guy?

Yes, America, Peggy Noonan has peered into the soul of our nation -- it resides somewhere near Berdorf, I assume -- and concluded that, of all the indignities suffered by Americans in 2009 -- say, paying billions in taxes for wars and bank bailouts while seeing health care reform virtually torpedoed -- Adam Lambert's highly sexualized -- homosexual -- performance at the American Music Awards -- an episode she calls, simply, "the Adam Lambert incident on ABC in November" -- was the poison pill that has us all feeling so depressed. (Who knew?)

This incident, she says solemnly, was a betrayal of the American family. With this incident, the great unspoken "compromise" of American television -- pay for smut on cable but don't drag good people into it -- was "breached."

It was a broadcast network, it was prime time, it was the American Music Awards featuring singers your 11-year-old wants to see, and your 8-year-old. And Mr. Lambert came on and -- again, in front of your children, in the living room, in the middle of your peaceful evening -- uncorked an act in which he, in the words of various news reports the next day, performed 'faux oral sex' featuring 'S&M play,' 'bondage gear,' 'same-sex makeouts' and 'walking a man and woman around the stage on a leash.'"

"Mr. Lambert's act left viewers feeling not just offended but assaulted."

Noonan goes on to insist that she, personally, does not waste too much time worrying about such vulgar things (apart from writing entire columns condemning them). "In the great scheme of things a creepy musical act doesn't matter much." But she observes that "increasingly people feel at the mercy of the Adam Lamberts, who of course view themselves, when criticized, as victims of prudery and closed-mindedness. America is not prudish or closed-minded, it is exhausted. It cannot be exaggerated, how much Americans feel besieged by the culture of their own country, and to what lengths they have to go to protect their children from it."

So there you have it. The "Adam Lamberts" of the world are trying to impose their values on your children. Am I dreaming, or is this really a fundraising appeal from the National Organization For Marriage?

I agree with Noonan about one thing: Americans are exhausted. From endless war, from lay-offs, from the craven politicians who build their careers on false populism only to betray the ideals they claim to represent just when it matters most. People feel betrayed, yes, but not for the reasons Noonan pretends they do.

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Mr. Equality Goes to Washington: D.C. Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage
Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress on December 18, 2009 at 11:47 AM.

This morning at the All Souls Unitarian church in Washington, DC, approximately 150 activists and same-sex couples congregated to witness marriage equality become law in the nation’s capital. “I say to the world: An era of struggle ends for thousands in Washington, D.C.,” said Mayor Adrian Fenty (D), who also invoked his biracial upbringing and noted that it was illegal for his parents to get married 40 years ago because they were an interracial couple. Several other officials spoke, including David Catania (I), the council member who sponsored the bill. When Fenty signed the bill, he held it over his head and the room erupted in cheers.

Watch some highlights from the event:

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GOP Senators Appear On TV With anti-Gay Christian Martyrdom Advocate
Posted by Bruce Wilson, AlterNet on December 18, 2009 at 8:14 AM.

Last night's segment of the Rachel Maddow show provided footage, which first appeared at Talk To Action, of a Christian evangelist who is quite influential but also little known to secular Americans: Lou Engle, founder of TheCall. The Maddow segment highlighted an event noted a few days ago by RightWingWatch, an anti-health care reform "Prayercast," held by the Family Research Council, led by emergent, highly militant leaders of the Christian right such as Lou Engle and also by Republican senators Brownback and DeMint, and GOP Representatives Bachmann and Forbes.

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Shocker: Women Don't Like Rush Limbaugh, Here's One Obvious Reason Why
Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress on December 18, 2009 at 5:00 AM.

In Feb. 23, Public Policy Polling released a survey showing that only 37 percent of womenheld a favorable opinion of hate radio host Rush Limbaugh, compared to 56 percent of men. Limbaugh was baffled by these results and decided to hold a “female summit” to find out why women hate him. Maybe, Limbaugh should just listen to his own show. Today, for example, Limbaugh griped that health insurance premiums will be going up if reform legislation is passed, in large part because private insurers will have to provide “women’s issues coverage”:

LIMBAUGH: About the premiums going up, and my brilliant dissertation on why prices will go up in the private sector, even if the public option is not there, and even if the Medicare buy-in is not there. It’s not just preconditions that are mandated to be covered in the health care bills in either the House or the Senate.

There was a recent amendment that was mandating private insurers to provide mammogram and other women’s issues coverage, including spousal abuse! Insurance for spousal abuse! And mammograms! Even though the mammogram age has been raised to the age of 50. You think of all the mandates that will be added onto private insurance, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Listen here:

Right now, many insurers treat domestic violence as a pre-existing condition and deny women health insurance coverage if they have been a victim. Women are also denied coverage — or face significantly higher premiums — if they are pregnant or have had a C-Section pregnancy in the past; the health care reform legislation would ban this discrimination. Additionally, an amendment by Sen. Barbara Milkulski’s (D-MD) amendment would make sure that insurers often women free mammograms and other preventive services.

Rightwing Fringe Welcome at Conservative Confab, Gay Republicans Not So Much
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on December 17, 2009 at 8:23 AM.

In February, the Conservative Political Action Conference will get underway in D.C., and because CPAC has become the right-wing event of the year, the conservative movement's heavy hitters are anxious to be a part of it.

But let's note who, exactly, has become part of the conservative movement. For example, the 2010 CPAC gathering will be co-sponsored by the hyper-conservative John Birch Society. While JBS was, not too long ago, considered far too ridiculous for the American mainstream -- even Republicans considered Birchers a political pariah -- the bizarre group has slowly been welcomed into the fold as conservatives have become more extreme.

When Glenn Beck embraced the Birchers two years ago, Alex Koppelman reminded us, "The JBS is, after all, the group that believed fluoridated drinking water was a Communist mind-control plot. Oh, and its founder, Robert Welch, once accused Dwight Eisenhower -- and no, we are not kidding -- of being 'a dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy.'"

And now the John Birch Society is co-sponsoring CPAC. When I talk about radicalism being mainstreamed by the right, this is what I'm talking about.

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This Week in God
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on December 13, 2009 at 6:47 PM.

First up from the God Machine this week is word from the Supreme Court on the upcoming term's big church-state case.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether a Christian student group's right to religious liberty and the freedom of association can trump a university's ban on discrimination against gays and lesbians.

The case could set new rules for campus groups that receive funding through fees paid by the students.

The justices agreed to hear an appeal from a San Francisco chapter of the Christian Legal Society, which lost its recognition as a student group at the UC Hastings College of Law because it refused to abide by the school's anti-discrimination policy.

The law school said that officially recognized student groups must be open to all.

It's pretty straightforward. The state school only funds and recognizes student groups that don't discriminate on the basis of "race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, age, sex or sexual orientation." The chapter of the Christian Legal Society refuses to allow LGBT students to join, so Hastings lost its status as an official student group.

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Rick Warren declares he's not "conspiring" to "rid the world of homosexuals"
Posted by Bruce Wilson, AlterNet on December 11, 2009 at 3:55 AM.

Rick Warren's missives reach over 140,000 pastors around the world and in early 2009 Warren gave the opening prayer at Barack Obama's inauguration. But the "Purpose Driven" pastor has increasingly been dogged by controversy.

Mega-pastor Warren has just released a statement condemning pending legislation, before Uganda's parliament, which critics have characterized as a "kill the gays" bill. Warren's newly stated opposition to the bill is, of course, welcome. But Warren's declaration contains blatant lies and statements that verge on the bizarre. Why does Rick Warren feel the need tell the world that he has not "conspired" with C. Peter Wagner (an under-publicized but powerful religious leader), or anyone, to "rid the world of homosexuals" ?

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Rachel Maddow Takes on Man Who Claims He Can Make Her Straight
Posted by Jan Frel, AlterNet on December 9, 2009 at 3:14 AM.

Maddow's thorough takedown of Richard Cohen, whose teachings on Gay-Straight Therapy have been debunked by essentially all national (and even state) psychological associations and associated peer-reviewed assessments.

Check out AlterNet's recent interview with Ted Cox, who posed as a gay man to infiltrate gay-to-straight therapy programs.

Part 1 of the video is to the right.

Part 2 of this video below:

Nelson's Stupak-like Amendment Expected to Fail
Posted by Daniela Perdomo, AlterNet on December 7, 2009 at 4:21 PM.

Ben Nelson (D-NE) is moving forward with his attempt to include anti-abortion language in the Senate health care bill, and his amendment could be voted on as early as today.

The full text of the Nelson amendment confirms that it includes much of the same language as the one penned by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-NE) and included in the final House health care bill.

The key piece in both the Nelson and Stupak amendments is that absolutely no funds appropriated by health care reform can be used for abortion services. This would directly affect all women covered by the proposed government insurance plan, but as I wrote a couple weeks ago, we have good reason to believe that this effect would spillover to women covered by private insurance plans. If the Stupak/Nelson language makes it into the final health care bill, industry-wide abortion coverage could very well be phased out in the longer-term, endangering access to safe abortion services for all who can't afford to pay out of pocket.

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Sen. Ben Nelson Asks Bishops' Blessing on His Anti-Choice Health-Care Amendment
Posted by Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check on December 4, 2009 at 11:21 AM.

Just in case you had any doubt about the direct--and I mean direct--intervention of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in curtailing women's rights in US health reform legislation, here is the latest evidence of how some representatives are working at what appears to be the behest of the bishops.

Congressional Quarterly reports: 

Ben Nelson hardened his stance on abortion language Thursday, stating he would not vote for a health care overhaul unless the bill’s proposed restrictions on insurance coverage for abortions are tightened.  [Though] he had said earlier in the week that abortion language was not a make-or-break proposition in the debate.

If the Stupak Amendment is not passed, Nelson has stated he will join a Republican filibuster against the bill.

Without Nelson, Reid will need at least one Republican to reach the 60 votes he needs to limit debate on the health care overhaul and bring it to a vote. The likeliest candidate is Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, who voted for a version of the legislation approved by the Finance Committee.

But to win their votes Reid will have to:

yield to Snowe’s demands on another contentious issue in the health care debate: the government-run insurance plan, known as the “public option,” that many Democrats want to create to compete with private insurers. Snowe is skeptical of the proposal and has said she will support a public option only if it is structured as a fallback, triggered solely in the event that private insurers fail to offer coverage considered affordable.

Discussions are underway to reach a compromise position in creating a public option similar in some respects to the plan Snowe has outlined.

Nelson and Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) appear to have engaged in a sort of pissing match on who owns the strategy of taking away women's rights in the Senate bill.

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