Women’s Rights

(Update) The GOP’s ‘Planned’ government shutdown

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TrainCrashThere is a train wreck coming, and the GOP leadership in Congress is at a loss to know how to stop it.  Tea-Publicans are the anti-government party that has held the government hostage to their extortionate shutdown demands 11 previous times since taking back control of Congress. Steve Benen documents the impending government shutdown is the 12th time we’ve been through this just since April of 2011, and provides a helpful timeline of all the other 11 standoffs.

GOP leadership knows that the public will blame them for any government shutdown. House GOP leaders to members: We’ll be blamed for shutdown:

House GOP leaders are trying to convince their rank and file it would be a bad move to risk a government shutdown over blocking funding for Planned Parenthood.

At a closed-door conference meeting on Thursday morning, leadership presented their members with polling data from the House GOP’s campaign arm showing Republicans would be blamed for a government shutdown.

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GOP War on Women: Tea-Publicans vote to defund Planned Parenthood

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The GOP’s ” War on Women” is back with a vengeance today in Congress with the cause célèbre of defunding Planned Parenthood health services as a result of surreptitiously recorded undercover videos by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group out to destroy Planned Parenthood.

This is a well planned and highly coordinated assault between the far-right coalition “Groundswell” and Republican leaders in Congress. Planned Parenthood Attacks Coordinated by High-Ranking Republican Operatives.

TalibanThis morning, the House approved the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015 by a vote of 241-187, Roll Call Vote 505, with Republicans voting to defund Planned Parenthood, joined only by two Democrats who routinely vote with Republicans, Reps. Dan Lipinski (IL) and Collin Peterson (MN). Only three Republicans broke ranks to vote against the funding freeze: Reps. Charlie Dent (PA), Robert Dold (IL) and Richard Hanna (NY).

The House also approved the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a bill sponsored by Arizona Congressman and anti-abortion religious zealot Trent Franks, by a vote of 248- 177, Roll Call Vote 506, with five Democrats, Reps. Cartwright, Cuellar, Langevin, Lipinski, and Peterson voting with the Republicans.

The Hill reports, House votes to freeze federal funding for Planned Parenthood:

An official with the Planned Parenthood Action Fund ripped the vote as a “callous attempt to insert politics into women’s heath.”

“Millions of Americans rely on Planned Parenthood for birth control, lifesaving cancer screenings, and other critical preventive care, and nothing that politicians in Congress did today will change the fact that our doors remain open to everyone, in every part of this country, who needs high-quality, compassionate reproductive health care,” said Eric Ferrero, the action fund’s vice president of communications.

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Fact checking GOP lies about Planned Parenthood

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GOP 2016 DebateCarly Fiorina set off fact-check alarm bells during the CNN GOP presidential primary debate when she dared Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Obama to watch a surreptitiously recorded undercover video by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group out to destroy Planned Parenthood. “Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain,” she said.

Factcheck.org found that the scene that Mrs. Fiorina urges others to watch is not present in any of the Planned Parenthood videos. Politifact called her statement “mostly false.” Sarah Kliff at Vox.com, who actually watched all 12 hours of footage and is in a position to know says Carly Fiorina is wrong about the Planned Parenthood tapes. I know because I watched them. The Washington Post’s Fact Checker says the same thing. Fact checking the second round of GOP debates: Fiorina might have trouble finding this video to show to Clinton. No video has surfaced showing the scene Fiorina describes taking place inside a Planned Parenthood facility.

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The GOP’s ‘Planned’ government shutdown

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Our less-than-less-than-do-nothing Tea-Publican Congress has just a week of session days left to avoid a government shutdown on October 1. Here is the House Calendar for September (Congress is also scheduled to work on October 1 in anticipation of the fiscal deadline).

Screenshot from 2015-09-15 14:45:45

So what do Tea-Publicans plan to do with the few days that they are in session? Why, play to their far-right Tea-Publican base on Faux News, of course! Ahead of Planned Parenthood Battle, House to Vote on Abortion Bills:

As lawmakers return this week for some behind-the-scenes work on a continuing resolution — a measure that could be endangered by anti-abortion members insistent on defunding Planned Parenthood — House Republicans will put forward two bills to address the embattled group and potentially appease those conservatives.

The House is scheduled to vote on two abortion measures: one from Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., that would put a one-year moratorium on Planned Parenthood funding and one from Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., that would add criminal penalties for violating the Born Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002.

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(Update) Mutiny on the Boehner

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FreedomWorksI posted about Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and his “motion to vacate the chair” to unseat the TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, back in July. Mutiny on the Boehner.

With Congress set to return after the August recess, Meadows’ motion is suddenly back in the news as the side-show to watch when Congress returns.

Arizona Congressman Matt Salmon, a co-founder of the farther-far-right “House Freedom Caucus,” Freedom is just another word for another wingnut group  — the caucus is made up of Reps. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), John Fleming (R-La.), Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), Justin Amash (R-Mich.), Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) and Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) — that has been making the TanMan’s life a living hell since January, told the Arizona Republic that he is prepared to vote to remove the TanMan from his Speakership this fall. Matt Salmon predicts, backs effort to oust House Speaker Boehner:

Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., says he won’t vote for House Speaker John Boehner to remain leader of the GOP majority and believes a conservative insurrection to replace him this fall is inevitable.

The congressman drew applause Tuesday at a town hall of about 50 people in Queen Creek as he spoke about the potential for a leadership shakeup and another government shutdown.

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