Write This Down Somewhere
The next time someone tries to tell you that this election isn’t important because Barack Obama is going to walk away with it so they don’t need to vote, show them this:
The Senate narrowly voted this morning to block a Republican challenge to President Obama’s birth-control mandate.
The legislation, sponsored by Republican Roy Blunt of Missouri, was voted down 51 to 48. It would have let employers refuse to include contraception in health care coverage based on their “religious belief or moral conviction.”
That’s how close women are to being controlled by religious fanatics. That’s close enough to raise a blister.
Donate to your Democratic candidate for senate. Here’s ours in Texas: Paul Sadler. Great Guy.
I want me a democratic candidate to run against Mitch McConnell (aka Urtle the Turtle) and Rand Paul (aka spawn of crazy)\
1I got a phone call from the David Dewhurst for Senate campaign yesterday. I guess my blood sugar was a little low because as soon as he identified himself I launched a fusillade of profanity that would make a sailor blush. He promptly hung up but I kept cussing for a few more minutes just because momentum is a terrible thing to waste.
Then I went online and donated to Mr. Sadler.
2I hesitate to suggest that you, Juanita, have made a misstep, but the Blunt amendment went far further than merely allowing any employer to refuse to allow insurance coverage for contraceptives if the employer had a moral or religious objection.
It was so broadly written that it allowed it could have been applied to virtually any condition the employer wanted to exclude on those rather vague grounds.
For example, one Legal Eagle, suggested that if an employer subscribed to a prayer-only approach to health care, that employer could deny any coverage whatsoever.
I suspect to avoid employer-related health care insurance contributions, we might have seen a surge in membership in Christian Science membership or self-declared moral or religious belief objections much the way we did during the Vietnam War when conscientious objection was thought to be a way to avoid being drafted or shipped to combat areas.
When you factor that aspect of the bill into consideration, it is downright scary. Imagine employers who don’t believe in smoking stopping all covered treatment for lung cancer or who believe that breast or cervical cancer is related to sexual activity they don’t believe in (oh, say like having sex within marriage just because you enjoy it and want to express love of one another instead of just for procreation).
This amendment could have been abused in so many ways against so many people, not just women. It was a vehicle designed to effectively undermine the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care). It was a cruel, thoughtless and absolutely devastating bill.
We should contact the three Democratic Senators who voted for it and demand they apologize. Kudos to the one Republican Senator who voted against it – too bad she is retiring from service.
Blunt is an idiot – always has been, always will be and Missouri voters who supported him are probably wondering why right now. At least I hope they are.
3I don’t know why the focus has been on vaginas, once again. This looks like a blatant attempt on the part of corporations to avoid paying any part of their employees’ health insurance coverage.
Off to look for numbers on what this crap would have saved a typical corporation. If you don’t have to cover lady parts, sex-related anything, immunizations or anything else you can pretend to object to on “moral” or “religious grounds, what does that save you on your health insurance policy?
4I will second the idea that Roy Blunt’s rose to his level of incompetence as Greene County tax assessor, but he just kept on going.
5Health care is important, but it’s not the only thing separating the parties. If you have any concern for clean air, clean water, and not digging up or chopping down every acre of our nationally-owned land, the Dems and GOP have almost no overlap in their ratings from the League of Conservation Voters: 70-100% vs 0-20%. I point to that when anyone says, “They’re all the same so there’s no point in voting.”
6It’s the economy, stupid!
While the republicans worry about the lady bits, the POTUS is concentrating on the economy where republican men minds should be.
Why aren’t republican women mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore?
7How would you like to work for folks who have religious objections to blood transfusions? How about moral objections to vaccines? How about lady business owners who think that impotence is a punishment from God and should have no interference from humans? (Slap that one on the Congress just for jollies.) Joined up and sent money to Paul Sadler.
8Don Bivens is our Democrat front runner in Arizona. On the Republican side, the three announced candidates are busy tearing each other limb from limb. In the mean time, our Democratic candidate is quietly and effectively making himself known to potential constituents. Not only does he have a national reputation as a top notch attorney, but he is serving as a member of the board of Central and North Arizona Planned Parenthood! Now I ask you, does Karma get any better than that?
9I feel pretty good for Obama with all the Repub clown show, but I don’t think that will really matter. It’s congress that matters, and after this four year long wingnut temper tantrum where nothing matters but the Republican’t’s power, it is just clear as hell that we will have to go through all that again. (61 (super majority) + 218) without that we have another super pout while the none rich of us suffer. And I don’t think that will happen.
10Would somebody please explain to me how a corporation can have a moral position?!?!?!?
11Sorry, if people aren’t voting for Obama, it just might be Obama’s fault for being republican lite. Some people don’t like imitations and only will vote for the real thing. Some people believe voting for the lesser of two evils, will NEVER improve what candidates you get to chose from. Obama is way less worried about his base than the republicans are. He has had many opportunities to shore up his base. The only votes ANY of them are interested in, are those votes they can’t yet count as theirs. It is ONLY those voters that can get any attention. And THAT is NOT the voter’s fault.
12President Obama is the most liberal president in many, many years. He is not ‘the lesser of two evils’ he is the best president in my lifetime. If you don’t want to vote for him, that’s up to you, but your reasons can have nothing to do with his record. Unlike Pres. Bush and others, he is not governing just for his base, but for all American citizens, using the ideas and policies that he has come to support and that were supported by the people who voted for him. I don’t want Bush the Democrat forcing everything down my throat. President Obama has been consistent as far back as you can go. Take a look at his speeches from 2004 and beyond. There are very few changes. That’s because he knows who he is and what he believes, and he bases his policy decisions on long-thought-out ideas. He does what he needs to do to push his policies forward, liberal as the are, as far as he can, one step and a time. If you see President Obama as some kind of Republican, you’d better polish your glasses and check your hearing aid
13http://digg.com/news/politics/juanita_jean_s_write_this_down_somewhere
14@Rockheaded Mama: Some people think because they voted for the president means he’ll do everything little thing exactly like they want him to. That’s not realistic. I was a Hillary supporter, but got on board with Obama when he became the candidate. Does he please me all the time? NO. Is he doing the best he can in very difficult times? I think so. He’s been dealt a tough hand from the get go and I think he’s done well to get as much done as he has. He’s a hella lot smarter than I am, I like that in a president. Are ANY of the alternatives worth a second thought? Absolutely NOT. If voters have a lick of common sense, they’ll see that. And if WOMEN don’t VOTE this time around in their best interests, we’re all doomed. I and all my fellow Democratic Party activists are taking NOTHING for granted, and are working our butts off to make sure Obama is reelected, and hauling all the down ballot Dems with him. Because it’s not just about the President, it’s about the Congress (and the Supremes) too. No excuses, no finger pointing, no bailing out on America. Obama 2012. VOTE.
15The scary part is that this was the Senate. The House is far more radical right.
16As Alan Grayson says, “Rick Santorum wants a government so small that it will fit inside a woman’s uterus.”
17As I’ve heard several people say, “I’ll believe a corporation is a a person when Texas executes one.” It’s almost short enough for a bumper sticker and would surely fit on a sign. Maybe we should get some printed. We all need to vote so the brain washed don’t take over the country.
18RockheadedMama,
I’m interested—who do you think the base of the democratic party is? Technically, the base consistently votes the party candidate no matter what.
So, is it women? African Americans? Progressives? Blue collar workers? Educated college grads?
When I was in my twenties I was very idealistic–still kinda am as Dems usually keep that sunny side. Of course no one was trying to take away my reproductive rights or close public schools. Pick a side honey. There ain’t no half steppin’ about this one . You can wait for Americans to pick your perfect candidate (won’t happen), but while you wait for it women, minorities, workers and the poor will be trampled underfoot. This isn’t a progressive utopia—Its the USA circa 2012. And its ugly.
19I’ll give you a several more reasons why it is vitally important for Barack Obama to be re-elected.
Godwin Liu and Nora Demleitner.
Joseph Greenaway and Larry Echohawk.
Amy Klobuchar and Janet Napolitano.
Maybe even Hillary Clinton, though I’d prefer she be next President.
Why are these people important?
Because John Roberts’ seizures might be something.
Because Ginsburg, Breyer, Kennedy and Scalia are all past their three-score and ten expiration date.
Because, if there is a Just God in His Heavens, Clarence Thomas will be impeached.
America’s enemies – err, I mean, Republicans – are emboldened in all off this brouhaha because they think the Supremes have their back. We NEED to keep winning elections so that SCOTUS gets filled with people who will put an end to this nonsense.
Then America can stop relitigating the 19th century and move into the 21st.
20I am sending a thank you to Olympia Snow–she is a true original Yankee and I am going to miss her–and money to Elizabeth Warren who is contesting Scott Brown. Brown’s been trying to play both ends against the middle ever since he won the special election but voting for the Blunt Amendment may have given Warren serious traction in that race.
21daChipster is right again. The concept that money is speech and that corporations are people was never signed into law by any president, and they can’t be vetoed by any president or repealed by Congress.
SCOTUS is an issue in every Presidential election, but it is about 4 times as important this time.
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