The attack on Women's rights and choice

[eilen]

Like many here, I have been dismayed and felt very powerless to halt the individual states that have imposed restrictions on women's rights to choose from the
"no exceptions for rape and incest", the "heartbeat rule" and the defunding of Planned Parenthood-- I can only surmise it is an attempt to relegislate women as second class citizens because when it comes to the babies, the very same people are busy denying them medical care, heat, food and education.

It also occurs to me that other members of their tribe are busy dismantling our environmental protections, our regulatory agencies on food, drug, healthcare, nuclear safety.

The results are disastrous-- one needs only to look to the Gulf and see what has happened to people as well as other mammals like the dolphins. The race against core meltdown in Japan also gives one pause because it is truly not limited to Japan-- if anything globalization has taught us, no nation lives in a vacum. We are all connected.

If the ramifications of these polices are followed to their logical conclusion, not only will the question of voluntary abortions be moot, we will be hard pressed to continue our species at all-- as well as other living things. With the poisoning of air, water, and food as well as the compelling self interests of those who would rather grow energy than food (ethanol) coupled with an unwillingness to conserve, (where do they get the nerve to call themselves conservative?), dole out public funds for alternative energy infrastructure (investing in independence, what a concept) who will be able to carry a child to full term? Who will remain fertile?

It seems today there are so many issues that need champions-- individual civil rights, the protection of resources such as clean air, water and soil, the protection of the people from profit driven industries who supply products that endanger our lives, the protection of other wildlife-- and marine life; the obvious need to develop new energy resources and eliminate the dependance of oil (and coal and nuclear energy derived by uranium and plutonium) as a country and as a planet-- it's hard to focus and be effective at any one issue. One hopes our leaders who we elected would stand strong on polices to safeguard our futures but it appears that they first allegiance is to Mammon. They hold the well-being of industry and banks higher than humanity.

[Useless in FL]

1. Very well stated! Thank you. n/t

[OHdem10]

2. Beautifully stated. What Dems do not seem to get--the GOP

works a multi-pronged approach. In the states they
are playing havoc with the People's Welfare, Killing
Unions so they can lower salaries in the long run,
laying off workers including Police, Firemen Teachers
and others.

Very skillfully, in the past they have gotten away with
a lot, because they simultaneously come out with laws
restricting abortion, giving more gun rights, bashing
the Gays. They are careful to keep these issues out
front. This is how they keep the Blue Collars with them.
In the past it has worked, Keeping the social issues
out front making them feel morally superior whild at
the same time tney destroy their livelihood.

Democrats for whatever reason have never been willing
to call them out and make a sustained effort to help
people understand what is going on. Could it be we
have Conservative Democrats who actually run our party???

[eilen]

3. This is what we get when our leaders say

"Everything is on the table." They fail to acknowledge that human rights and a clean environment should be held sacred and not compromised for any reason.

However, this iteration of executive office mainly seems interested in enshrining further power to impinge on human rights with Patriot Act extensions which makes this Libyan adventure such obvious hypocrisy.

*A secret court, known as the FISA court, may grant “roving wiretaps” without the government identifying the target. Generally, the authorities must assert that the target is an agent of a foreign power and/or a suspected terrorist. The government said Tuesday that 22 such warrants — which allow the monitoring of any communication device — have been granted annually.

*The FISA court may grant warrants for “business records,” from banking to library to medical records. Generally, the government must assert that the records are relevant to foreign intelligence gathering and/or a terrorism investigation. The government said Tuesday that 220 of these warrants had been granted between 2004 and 2007. It said 2004 was the first year those powers were used.

*A so-called “lone wolf” provision, enacted in 2004, allows FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of an individual even without showing that the person is an agent of a foreign power or a suspected terrorist. The government said Tuesday it has never invoked that provision, but said it wants to keep the authority to do so.

Also according to the ACLU:

"The bill also fails to amend other portions of the Patriot Act in dire need of reform, most notably those relating to the issuance and use of national security letters (NSLs). NSLs permit the government to obtain the communication, financial and credit records of anyone deemed relevant to a terrorism investigation even if that person is not suspected of unlawful behavior. Numerous Department of Justice Inspector General reports have confirmed that tens of thousands of these letters are issued every year and they are used to collect information on people two and three times removed from a terrorism suspect. NSLs also come with a nondisclosure requirement that precludes a court from determining whether the gag is necessary to protect national security. The NSL provisions should be amended so that they collect information only on suspected terrorists and the gag should be modified to permit meaningful court review for those who wish to challenge nondisclosure orders."

It should be noted that there is no judicial oversight to National Security Letters.

Under the provisions of the unconstitutional Military Commissions Act of 2006, the President has the power to declare anyone at all to be an enemy combatant. Anyone so declared can be imprisoned indefinitely without charges and without the right of habeas corpus. This is not a wrong that has been righted, in fact, the White House chooses to keep this. The Obama administration also has adopted the Bush policy of targeting selected American citizens for assassination if they are deemed (by the Executive Branch) to be Terrorists-- no need for evidence or a court date.

See Glenn Greenwald:

"In last week's post, I wrote about all the reasons why it's so dangerous -- as well as both legally and Consitutionally dubious -- to allow the President to kill American citizens not on an active battlefield during combat, but while they are sleeping, sitting with their families in their home, walking on the street, etc. That's basically giving the President the power to impose death sentences on his own citizens without any charges or trial. Who could possibly support that?"

Now, I ask you (the collective you at DU) Why would the President continue this policy. I'm sure most do not believe that Obama would use his "powers" for evil. Does no one see the danger to civil rights if we end up with a Scott Brown or Rick Scott equivalent in the White House in the future? One could make the arguement we need it while we are at war but honestly, we have been at war now since 2001. It is now 10 years and no sign of stopping. Instead, we enter more wars. The People are Tired of the Wars. Does the White House listen?

It is becoming a theory of mine that the White House and those in the Pentagon are JUST FINE with what is happening in the states. Their wealthy friends are taken care of. Keeping us unsettled, taking away our rights and our savings, allowing mass homelessness, keeping us ignorant etc. all help to feed the gaping brutal maw of the military. They rely on volunteers. Call it a "jobs" program. One of the few that still offer health benefits.

But then, they can always reinstate the draft. How many communities will protest if it gets the idle unemployed, disenfranchised and uneducated young men and women off the streets?