Daily Archives: February 23, 2010

Carper On Board? ***Updated*** Carper Says No

TPM is reporting that Tom Carper is now saying that he will sign onto the letter to pass the public option through reconciliation!

Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) tells TPMDC that he plans to sign a letter urging Senate leadership to pass a public option via reconciliation.

“I expect that I will” sign, Carper said. The letter, written by Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO), has been signed by 23 senators so far.

That’s a bit of a departure from his position just yesterday. Asked by TPMDC if he thought passing a public option via reconciliation was appropriate or desirable, Carper said he thought it wouldn’t fly procedurally.

“I don’t know that that’s going to be part of a reconciliation bill,” Carper said. “In fact, I don’t know that you can actually do public option in the context of a very narrow reconciliation–I just don’t know if that’s possible.”

He doesn’t sound too hopeful that it will work – so I wonder if this is a free pass for Senators – they can pretend they care about the public option without actually having to vote for it. Keep up the pressure on the Senate to give it a try.

Update

Carper’s spokesman says Carper misunderstood the question:

His spokeswoman now tells us the senator misunderstood the question, thinking that we were referencing another proposed letter which promises House Democrats that fixes to the Senate bill would be passed via reconciliation.

It’s a letter basically to shore up commitment from wary House Democrats that if they pass the Senate bill in its current form they won’t be hosed.

“The senator just misunderstood your question, thinking you were talking about the proposed reconciliation letter,” the spokeswoman said. “He does not support public option in reconciliation.”

This sounds a lot more like the Carper we know.

A Miscarriage Of Justice

Utah’s proposed legislation is hardly surprising since we already knew the pro-life movement is all about controlling and punishing women.

A bill passed by the Utah House and Senate this week and waiting for the governor’s signature, will make it a crime for a woman to have a miscarriage…. In addition to criminalizing an intentional attempt to induce a miscarriage or abortion, the bill also creates a standard that could make women legally responsible for miscarriages caused by “reckless” behavior. Using the legal standard of “reckless behavior” all a district attorney needs to show is that a woman behaved in a manner that is thought to cause miscarriage, even if she didn’t intend to lose the pregnancy.

Reckless behavior?  Like wearing high heels?  This is just crazy.  It also promises to be a bureaucratic nightmare – not that conservatives will have a problem with government spending over this.  But how exactly would you prove such things?  Dan Savage asks the same questions…

If every miscarriage is a potential homicide, how does Utah avoid launching a criminal investigation every time a woman has a miscarriage? And women have a lot of miscarriages: one in four pregnancies end in a miscarriage. And how is Utah supposed to know when a pregnant woman has had a miscarriage? You’re going to have to create some sort of pregnancy registry to keep track of all those fetuses, Utah. Perhaps you could start issuing “conception certificates” to women who get pregnant? And then, if there isn’t a baby within nine months of the issuance of a conception certificate, the woman could be hauled in for questioning and she could be indicted for criminal homicide if it’s determined that she intentionally or accidentally induced a miscarriage. Of course, lots of women miscarry before they even realize their pregnant… so Utah will have to pass another law, one that compels all sexually active women—actually, let’s just say all women, Utah, since some sexually active women claim they’re chaste—to come in for mandatory monthly pregnancy tests…

One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage.  Guess doctors are going to have to start reporting patients to the government of Utah.  And these idiots are the ones screaming about freedom and comparing Democrats to nazis.  Project much.

The Goldilocks Health Care Bill

First the health care bill was too long…

A spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner today ridiculed President Obama’s health care proposal because it’s too short.

“The White House’s ‘plan’ consists of an 11-page outline, which has not been scored by the Congressional Budget Office or posted online as legislative text. So they want to reorganize one-sixth of the United States’ economy with a document shorter than a comic book, and they’re complaining that they can’t find our plan on their own website? C’mon,” said the spokesman, Michael Steel, in an email to reporters.

Remember the complaints – the bill was too long, it was done in secret, it wasn’t shown on CSPAN, etc. Now Republicans are complaining because the health care summit is going to be shown on CSPAN and Obama’s guideline is too short.

In other health care reform related news, a bit of cold water was thrown on the push to add the public option by reconciliation by Jay Rockefeller. Also, Daniel Inouye added his name to the letter to add the public option back into the bill, making him #23 (we need 50). Keep calling Ted Kaufman and Tom Carper, neither of them have signed on yet.

Tuesday Open Thread

How is your Tuesday so far? I’ve been incredibly busy, how about you? Why don’t we get started with this open thread?

A woman calls into a tech show because her wireless access disappeared. It turns out she had been stealing a neighbor’s wifi for more than a year.

The tech guy offers some good advice. I’m still giggling about how she bought an extender. I guess she thought she was just entitled to free wifi?

Sour grapes:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — who finished tied for sixth place with just 4 percent of the vote in the Conservative Political Action Conference’s presidential straw poll over the weekend — slammed CPAC on Fox News afterward.

The conference, he said, “has become increasingly more Libertarian and less Republican.”

…

And is CPAC corrupt? Huckabee didn’t quite go that far, but…

Because of the way that it solicits sponsors, it’s almost becomes a pay-for-play. It’s kind of like, who will pay money to be able to be a sponsor and to get time on the program. That’s one of the things that has hurt its

It sounds like Republicans are quite worried about the results of the CPAC straw poll. Ron Paul has the power to cause the Republicans a lot of headaches in 2012. All this grassroots energy that Republicans keep talking about – a lot of that comes from Ron Paul followers.

The Right Continues To Embrace Terrorists

Do you remember Prof. Ward Churchill?

In January 2005, Churchill’s work attracted publicity because of the widespread circulation of a 2001 essay, “On the Justice of Roosting Chickens”. In the essay, he claimed that the September 11, 2001 attacks were a natural and unavoidable consequence of what he views as unlawful US policy, and he referred to the “technocratic corps” working in the World Trade Center as “little Eichmanns.”

Immediately Ward Churchill became a controversial figure. He was uninvited to several appearances and was personally condemned by the president of his university. He eventually lost his job at the university.

Churchill’s contention was that 9/11 was a result of U.S. policies and that the victims deserved it.

Is Rep. Peter King (R-IA) the right’s Ward Churchill?

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) told a crowd at CPAC on Saturday that he could “empathize” with the suicide bomber who last week attacked an IRS office in Austin, and encouraged his listeners to “implode” other IRS offices, according to a witness.

King’s comments weren’t recorded, but a staffer for Media Matters, who heard the comments, provided TPMmuckraker with an account.

So, currently serving member of Congress Peter King thinks the victims probably deserved it and that more IRS offices should be targeted. So far the reaction has been – yawn.

Just so you know, here’s domestic terrorist Joe Stack’s victim:

When Ken Hunter first heard about a plane crashing into his father’s office building in Austin, he said he hoped his dad, Vernon Hunter, wasn’t there.

After several attempts to reach his father, a 67-year-old IRS worker, he discovered his dad was missing.

…

“There was just too much going on about what the guy did and what he believed in, and enough’s enough,” he said. “They don’t need to talk about him. Talk about my dad. You know, some people are trying to make this guy out to be a hero, a patriot. My dad served two terms in Vietnam. This guy never served at all. My dad wasn’t responsible for his tax problems.”

…

Foster said Vernon Hunter was a proud Vietnam Vet and a great neighbor.

“He was just a real tender man,” he said. “It was always good to talk to him. He was just a nice guy.”

Now, as cars gather in front of the Hunter residence, a neighborhood braces itself and offers support.

Vernon Hunter leaves behind a wife, a son and daughter and six grandchildren.

Vernon Hunter, IRS employee, Vietnam veteran, husband, father and grandfather was the victim of the senseless act of Joe Stack.