They didn’t get results and they put the blame on somebody else. It’s another day in the unproductive life on the Republican Congress where they bring bills to the floor that are going nowhere and they blame other people for their lack of success. As I say, another day in the amateur hour of the Republican Congress.
— House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi after the G.O.P. Farm Bill went down in flames, prompting infighting and finger pointing among the House Republicans.
Yesterday, Washington state’s Republican delegation joined the House Republicans and voted in favor of a bill that would severely restrict women’s access to safe and legal abortions. Bill H.R. 1797 goes under the Orwellian title “Pain-capable unborn child protection act.”
The bill goes to some lengths to argue that the fetus (referred to in wingnut-speak as “unborn child”) feels pain by “no later than 20 weeks after fertilization.” The claim is scientifically dubious. Recent reviews conducted by bona fide scientists (rather than, you know, wingnuts) cast doubt on this assertion.
For example, in a recent review article, Bellieni and Buonocore (2012, Journal of Maternal, Fetal, and Neonatal Medicine 25:1203–1208) weigh the anatomical, endocrinological, behavioral, and electrophysiological evidence. They cautiously conclude:
Our data show that there is consistent evidence of the possibility for the fetus to experience pain in the third trimester, and this evidence is weaker before this date and null in the first half of pregnancy.
Less ambiguity was found in a 2010 “Working Party” report by The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists titled “Fetal Awareness”. Their conclusions are rather concrete. From the summary…
In reviewing the neuroanatomical and physiological evidence in the fetus, it was apparent that connections from the periphery to the cortex are not intact before 24 weeks of gestation and, as most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain perception, it can be concluded that the fetus cannot experience pain in any sense prior to this gestation. After 24 weeks there is continuing development and elaboration of intracortical networks such that noxious stimuli in newborn preterm infants produce cortical responses. Such connections to the cortex are necessary for pain experience but not sufficient, as experience of external stimuli requires consciousness. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that the fetus never experiences a state of true wakefulness in utero and is kept, by the presence of its chemical environment, in a continuous sleep-like unconsciousness or sedation. This state can suppress higher cortical activation in the presence of intrusive external stimuli. This observation highlights the important differences between fetal and neonatal life and the difficulties of extrapolating from observations made in newborn preterm infants to the fetus.
These recent reviews summarize the broad scientific literature relying on hundreds of previous scientific studies and empirical observations that weigh in on all sides of the argument. The House Republicans relied on cherry picking a handful of papers that favor their position. They come to a “scientific conclusion” for the bill using amateur methods unworthy of an undergraduate term paper, let alone a House bill!
The bill prohibits abortions after 20 weeks post-fertilization, and provides limited exceptions:
The scientific record is clear on another aspect of abortion: “Abortion-related deaths are more frequent in countries with more restrictive abortion laws”. The more restrictive the laws, the higher the rates of abortion-related maternal mortality.
The World Health Organization estimates that there are about 20 million unsafe abortions annually. The practice result in about 68,000 unnecessary deaths to women, and an additional 5 million women who suffer long-term health complications from the unsafe practices. The public health consequences of anti-abortion laws are profound.
Republicans, by voting for Bill H.R. 1797, have ignored (in fact, abused) science, and have voted, essentially, to kill women.
And I am sad to see that Washington state’s G.O.P. delegation, Dave Reichert, “Doc” Hastings, Jamie Herrera Beutler, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, all voted in favor of killing women.
Death is a pretty harsh punishment for unintentionally getting pregnant…particularly for women who were too embarrassed to report a rape, or girls too ashamed to report incest.
You know what…It’s time to get rid of these puritanical women-killing fucking troglodytes!
Please join us this evening for a “bonus budgetary projection” episode of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier than that for Dinner.
Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview and Lakewood chapter will meet on Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet.
With 204 chapters of Living Liberally, including seventeen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for environmental review for civil works projects that affect navigable waters—projects like the Gateway Pacific Terminal—“will not take into consideration the green house gases that will be emitted when the coal is burned in Asia.” In testimony before Congress, a Corps spokesperson, described the effects as “too indirect” and therefore outside of the scope of their mandate.
If not the Engineers, then who will be the champion for Mother Earth?
Perhaps, Capitalism and the “Invisible Hand of the Market” will save Her from us? I mean, in the long run, higher profits will be made from an increasingly high-functioning, orderly, safe and healthy world!
Bob Watters is with SSA Marine, the company that wants to build the Gateway Pacific Terminal.
He says climate change has no place in the environmental review.
Mother Earth…you are soooooo fucked.
Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.
White House: West Wing Week.
The New and Improved G.O.P. War on Women™:
Thom: Even more of the Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.
John Oliver: Gaywatch…international edition.
John Fugelsang: He’s 83, single and worth $11billion…..
Young Turks: Ohio State Rep. Dan Ramos proposes a way to end Citizens United without going through Congress.
ONN: Week in Review.
Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.
Maddow: Christmas in Texas and protection from the Gays.
Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Week in Review.
NSAy What?
Pap: America’s crumbling infrastructure.
Stephen: Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz crazy op-ed (via Crooks and Liars).
White House: Celebrating Father’s Day.
Maddow: The GOP’s obsession with sodomy, voodoo, satanism, racism & bigotry.
Sharpton: Obama calls out Republican obstructionism
Issa Idiot:
Jeb Bush on those “more fertile” immigrants.
John Oliver: On the media coverage of Edward Snowden.
Politico Playback: The week in late night.
Chris Hayes: Jan Brewer rips Arizona GOP apart over Medicaid expansion (via Crooks and Liars).
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
The “New and Improved” Republican War on Women™ moves to Wisconsin.
Over eight hours Thursday, Republican lawmakers passed not only the ultrasound bill but two other bills restricting access to abortion and contraception. One bans state health care plans from covering abortions and exempts religious groups from the state requirement to provide birth control insurance coverage. The other prohibits sex-selective abortions and imposes fines on physicians.
The ultrasound bill also requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic, which Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin says could force the closure of its Appleton-area clinic.
During a contentious floor session Wednesday, the Senate also passed the ultrasound bill after Republican leaders cut off debate. Gov. Scott Walker has said he will sign the bill into law. The other two abortion bills now head to the Senate, where leaders say they might not get to them until this fall, after the summer recess.
[…]One of the amendments offered by Democrats that failed to pass would have specified that only an abdominal ultrasound could be required and not the more invasive vaginal probe.
Holy fuck, where do they dig up these troglodytes?
Among other horrible effects of these inhumane bulls, rape victims in Wisconsin will get a little bit extra rape, thanks to Gov. Walker and the esteemed G.O.P. men of the Wisconsin legislature.
Your move, women of Wisconsin….
* I updated the title to reflect the fact that an ultrasound is not medically necessary before the vast majority of abortions. Hence a bill requiring a medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound is, essentially, rape. The lawmakers who voted for this bill are rapists.
The Washington state government is headed for a shutdown if a budget is not passed by the end of the month.
Wouldn’t a shutdown make Rodney Tom the Newt Gingrich of Washington State?
Please join us this evening for, yet, another “special session” of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier than that for Dinner.
Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out plethora of other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight there are also meetings of the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets.
On Friday, Washington’s newest chapter, the Centralia chapter of Drinking Liberally, meets. Finally, next Monday, the Yakima chapters meet.
With 205 chapters of Living Liberally, including seventeen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.
Zina Saunders: Hell rejects Margaret Thatcher.
John Fugelsang presents: ‘The Deeply Embarrasing Senator of the Week Award’.
Michele Quits:
Sam Seder: Mitt Romney thinks Hurricane Sandy was to blame.
Bill Maher with some new rules.
The Rob Ford crack-smoking video leaked.
Thom: Why California will be the new face of Obamacare.
Lawrence O’Donnell: The ‘rape’ men of the GOP.
Sam Seder: GW Bush uses Vets to relieve himself of guilt.
John Fugelsang: People who supported NSA Condoleezza Rice can’t criticize NSA Susan Rice:
Ann Telnaes: The military version of zero tolerance.
Surveillance Nation:
Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Scandal! State of America.
Young Turks: When God saved Boehner.
Jonathan Mann: Ode to the NY Times legal force.
Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.
Sam Seder: GOP Senator blames hormones for military sexual assaults.
Maddow: GOP’s & FAUX News’ History of Fake ‘Obama Smoking Guns’
Stephen on Superman.
Thom: Why are “We the People” subsidizing the Tea Party:
Sharpton: GOP tells ‘car thief’ Darrell Issa to ‘cool it’.
Mental Floss: 31 Strange Medical Conditions.
The week in Chris Christie:
Bill Maher: Pot is the new gay marriage.
O’Donnell: Incompetent Rudy Giuliani was an ‘unwitting accomplice’ of Al-Qaeda.
White House: West Wing Week.
ONN: Week in Review.
Jon says goodbye.
Young Turks: Is Roger Ailes insane?
Maddow: Not much for GOP to build on in outreach to women voters.
Ann Telnaes: More sexist nonsense from Republicans.
John Fugelsang and Dan Savage: Interrupting Michelle Obama.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
With summer on full display, please join us this evening to quench your physiological and political thirsts at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier than that for Dinner.
Here is Wall Street Journal editorial board member Dorothy Rabinowitz going off on the evils of bicycles and the evil bicycle sharing program recently launched in NYC. Note…this is NOT parody.
Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Lakewood chapter meets on Wednesday. And on Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet.
With 204 chapters of Living Liberally, including sixteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.
Ann Telnaes: Justice Scalia limbers up for the busy June court schedule.
Taking Food out of the Mouths of the Poor:
White House: West Wing Week.
Alex Wagner: Sen. Ted Cruz & the new generation of GOP flamethrowers.
Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: The Bromance is back.
Katrina vanden Heuvel: Why can’t Obama go Bulworth?:
Mark Fiore: The Re-Obamulator.
Young Turks: Note to Republicans—it ISN’T “packing the court” when you are filling vacancies.
Pap: Exposing the climate criminals.
The FAUX View of Bread-winning and the Place of Women in the Household:
ONN: Week in review.
Liberal Viewer: Should schools suspend students for non-violent willful defiance?.
Mental Floss: 49 hoaxes people actually believed.
Young Turks: Who lies more…Republicans or Democrats?
Thom: Empirical proof that Republicans lie.
Bye, Bye, Bachmann:
Ann Telnaes: Congress takes a vacation.
Amy Tan performs at the White House.
Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.
Maverick McCain goes Rogue:
Maddow: A flashback to 1997.
Young Turks: Who’s trying to poison the President?
Christian Nutjob “historian” David Barton: “You Can’t Drink Starbucks and Be Biblically Right” (via Slog).
Ann Telnaes: Eric Holder’s strange remorse.
Lawrence O’Donnell: Tesla and electric cars—why Republicans are dead wrong to bet against Obama.
Pap: Barriers must be lifted for American voters.
David Schuster: Letterman rips GOP Senator a new one.
Obamacare:
Obama speaks on college affordability.
Young Turks: Bill-O the Clown and Alex Jones have a cat fight.
Lawrence O’Donnell: Republicans using ‘scandals’ to avoid positive economic news.
Town Square: Will we ever end the war on terror?
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Start your summer right left! Please join us tonight for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier than that for Dinner.
Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another nearby DL meeting over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. And next Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.
With 204 chapters of Living Liberally, including sixteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.
In 2010, King County Council member Reagan Dunn was a conflicted man. Driven by his Inner Socialist, he huffed and puffed and took his ball and went home after the King County council considered sequestration cuts that would hit the Sheriff’s office. At the same time, his Inner Teabagger adamantly opposed new taxes, or even putting a tax measure on the ballot to let the voters decide.
In other words, “gimme my Gov’ment funded security, but keep your bloody hands off my money!”
Well now, thanks to sequestration cuts, Mr. Dunn’s inner Socialist has reared its ugly little head again:
“This airport is critically important to King County and the region,” said Dunn. “Congress must act and guarantee that the Renton Municipal Airport and others like it have the needed funding to operate fully and continue contributing to the local economy.”
Dunn joined his comrades, Council member Julia Patterson and King County Sheriff John Urquhart, in writing a letter to Congress stressing the importance of Big Government sponsored airport infrastructure, and its value to the local economy.
Wait…isn’t this a job for local governments? Aren’t they in a better position to understand the local needs? Or, better yet, can’t the Free Market fix this along with everything else it has on it’s To Do list? Surely the sequestration cuts will lead to a booming economy sowing magic beans that sprout into new private sector infrastructure to fill the void left by Shrinking Government, right?
Apparently not. Reagan wants his Big Government funded infrastructure. But don’t count out Reagan inner Teabagger just yet—we have yet to learn how Mr. Dunn wants the Feds to fund the Renton air traffic controllers….
Sam Seder speaks with Katherine Harris about scandals.
The IRS/Tea Party Scandal:
Lawrence O’Donnell: Conceited Sen Ted Cruz vs. the Republican Party he ‘does Not trust’.
White House: West Wing Week.
Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Happy Memorial Day.
Thom with some more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.
The Daily Show catches up with Dylan Ratigan (via TalkingPointsMemo).
Obama’s War on War:
Jon does Bill-O the Clown.:
Young Turks: Jon pwns O’Reilly
Thom: The G.O.P. punks ABC News.
John Fugelsang: Barack Obama — Worst. Socialist. Ever.
Obama honors Carol King.
Young Turks: AZ Athiest lawmaker addresses House with his own prayer.
I5 Bridge Collapse:
Young Turks: Historic ban overturned.
Alyona: Saluteghazi!!!
Sam Seder: Glenn Beck sees “false flag” atheist conspiracy in Blitzer question.
Thom with The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.
Transparent President:
Sharpton: The G.O.P.’s rebranding FAIL, as outreach extended to white supremacists!.
Mental Floss: 50 Common Misquotations.
Thom: The Good, The Bad, and The Very, Very Ugly.
Jon on Peggy Noonan (via Political Wire).
The Republican War on Women™:
Thom: How electric cars save human lives.
John Fugelsang: Anthony Weiner is running for Mayor. Gentlemen, start your puns!
Maddow: Foolhardy budget cuts cripple government.
The Onion Week in Review.
Ann Telnaes: What the G.O.P. and the White House are NOT focused on.
Virginia is for Haters:
Bashir agrees with Ted Cruz on one thing.
Maddow: The GOP’s ‘Guantanamo closure’ road-block: .
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!