Day: January 8, 2015

Categories
Abortion Politics women's right to choose

Republican Congress – 3 Days in Power, 5 Anti-Choice Bills Already Introduced

Taking away a woman’s right to choose. This is their priority. We saw it already on the state level where Republicans are in control and now that they control Congress, Republicans are making this war on women’s rights their number one priority.

Reps. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) on Monday reintroduced a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, which the GOP-controlled House already passed once in 2013. And Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) introduced four bills on Wednesday that would bar Planned Parenthood from receiving federal family planning funds, require all abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, ban abortions performed on the basis of gender, and allow hospitals, doctors and nurses to refuse to provide or participate in abortion care for women, even in cases of emergency.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Cecile Richards condemned the onslaught of anti-abortion bills on Thursday and the attack on her own organization.

“The public wants Congress to protect women’s health, not interfere in women’s personal medical decisions,” she said in a statement, “which means making sure all forms of birth control are affordable, women can get preventive care at Planned Parenthood and other trusted providers, and abortion remains safe and legal.”

While the 20-week abortion ban never received a vote in the Senate after passing the House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has promised anti-abortion activists that he will bring the bill to the floor. It would ban abortions two to four weeks earlier than the fetus would be viable outside the womb, violating the precedent set by the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. (In that case, the court ruled that women have a constitutional right to legal abortion up until the fetus would be viable outside the womb.)

Categories
Politics

Rand Paul on Charlie Hebdo and Islam – It Is a “barbarous aberration of a religion”

Rand Paul appeared on The Sean Hannity radio show today to discuss, among other things, the recent shooting on Charlie Hebdo in France, and while talking to the Fox News host, Rand Paul, a top Republican actively pursuing the White House in 2016 said, “That barbarous aberration of a religion is opposed to the free flow of ideas.”

Even though the two suspects still at large were reportedly born in France, Paul soon brought up immigration policy, suggesting, “You’ve got to secure your country. And that means maybe that every Muslim immigrant that wishes to come to France shouldn’t have an open door to come.” He continued: “It’s also my concern here. I think our border is a danger to attack, as well as our student visa program. Several of the attackers on 9/11 were here on student visas they had overstayed.”

When Hannity quoted a New York Times editorial saying it’s no time “to smear all Muslims with a terrorist brush,” Paul laughed. “I think they must be totally deaf and dumb,” he said, “Because, think about it. I haven’t seen any Christians or Jews dragging people of the Islamic faith through the streets, but I am seeing the opposite. I’m seeing Christians beheaded, I’m seeing people who say anything about Islam being shot, unarmed, being shot.”

He continued: “And so, yeah, should the rules always protect everyone’s rights? Yeah, but I’m not worried too right now that we’ve infringed on their rights, I’m worried that Christians and Jews are being killed around the world.”

Categories
Politics

OMG – New Congress Actually Passed a Bill Today

In the muck that is today’s politics, hearing the news that Congress agreed on anything is a rarity. But in this new congress,  a bill actually passed both the House and Senate and is on its way to the president’s desk.

This is news! Politicians actually doing their job!

OMG!

The Senate overwhelmingly passed a six-year extension of a terrorism insurance program Thursday, wrapping up work on an unfinished piece of business from the last Congress and sending the bill to President Obama for his signature.

The passage of the bill marked the first time legislation was cleared by both chambers of the 114th Congress. The bill passed the House on Tuesday Wednesday.

The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) was signed into law in 2002 by then-President George W. Bush after the 2001 terrorist attacks. It allows the government to serve as a financial backstop for businesses suffering losses due to catastrophic attacks.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced an amendment to the bill that would strip it of a provision that would alter the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law. Warren’s amendment failed.

Categories
Charlie Hebdo Don Lemon Politics

Don Lemon Stuns Muslim Lawyer – “Do You Support ISIS?” – Video

“Wait, did you just ask if I support ISIS?” That was the comeback from human rights lawyer and activist, Arsalan Iftikhar. as he tried to wrap his head around the rather outlandish question from CNN’s Don Lemon. The two were discussing the events in France where Muslim gunmen murdered 12 people because of satirical cartoons they made about the prophet Mohammed.

Lemon’s question stemmed from a report saying that 16% of French citizens support ISIS and he asked the questioned if Iftikhar supports the terrorist group as well. After asking Don if he really just asked that question, Iftikhar skillfully carried on the conversation talking about the 16% report.

Earlier in the interview, Iftikhar compared the violence of Islam to the violence of Christianity. “It’s important to not conflate the actions of a very few to a population of 1.7 billion people, which represents 20 percent of the word’s population,” he said. “When Christians commit acts of terror, we don’t ask priests and pastors to go on national television and condemn these acts. But sadly, Muslim public intellectuals, thinkers, leaders, and Islamic scholars have that double standard that we have to deal with.”

Video

Categories
Politics shooting terrorist

Jon Stewart on Charlie Hebdo – It Shouldn’t Be an Act of Courage to Go Into Comedy

Like the rest of the world, Jon Stewart expressed his frustrations with the recent shooting in France, where 12 people were executed by Islamic terrorists because of the apparent deadly combination of satire and the Islamic faith.

Jon Stewart of Comedy Central had this to say.

I know very few people go into comedy as an act of courage, mainly because it shouldn’t have to be that. It shouldn’t be an act of courage, it should be taken as established law. But those guys at Hebdo had it and they were killed for their cartoons.

Categories
North Korea Politics war

North Korea Threatens “War” With USA if Sanctions Aren’t Lifted

I guess you can say that the new sanctions on North Korea are working.

After it was revealed that they were responsible for the Sony hack, President Obama levied heavier sections on the already isolated nation, causing the North to decry those sanctions as “wars of aggression.”

“The U.S. took part in wars of aggression … But it has never experienced a hail of bullets and shells on its own territory,” North Korea’s National Defense Commission said in a warning through state-run media. “The U.S. should roll back its hostile policy towards the DPRK of its own accord if it does not want to suffer a war disaster.”

The United States on Friday slapped sanctions on 10 individuals and three entities, including North Korea’s primary intelligence organization and its arms dealer, over the country’s alleged role in a cyberattack that threatened to derail Sony’s release of “The Interview” and made public emails that embarrassed top-level executives.

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