Time and time again we see these attempts to nullify Roe v. Wade and it’s getting really ridiculous.   This particular law was especially egregious considering Roe v. Wade was decided on the issue of PRIVACY.

The Court held that a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy (recognized in Griswold v. Connecticut) protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The decision gave a woman total autonomy over the pregnancy during the first trimester and defined different levels of state interest for the second and third trimesters. As a result, the laws of 46 states were affected by the Court’s ruling. SOURCE

It is always a source of amazement for me that other people think they have a right to determine something that is a medical decision between a woman and her doctor.  Privacy seems to be a rare commodity these days.  We have an article about a school official invading the privacy of a family through the use of a webcam on a laptop computer, and I have another article to post about the FBI tracking cell phones without a warrant.  We are videoed at stop lights and in malls and students are watched with cameras in the schools.

I don’t believe that the motives for all of the nosiness and invasions of privacy can be explained by security or concern….I think some of it stems from a self-righteousness and an over abundance of authoritarianism.   While authoritarianism is usually part and parcel of conservatism, I am finding more and more liberals who embrace an air of authoritarianism, and of course it is always ostensibly for our own good.

Privacy is a very simple concept….that which does not directly affect you is none of your business.  Who I have sex with, how I have sex and what goes on in my uterus is none of your business nor that of the government.  What I eat, drink or smoke in the privacy of my home is none of your or the government’s business.  I frequently hear the excuse of “well, it’s going to cost me more in tax dollars” if so and so does such and such.  Well, get the hell over it.  Lots of things I don’t approve of cost me in tax dollars, but I don’t have a choice.  I don’t approve of war but I have to pay for it.   I pay out a goodly sum in real estate taxes to support schools that I will never use nor will any child of mine ever use.  That’s the way a society works and using that as an excuse to micromanage others lives is just that, an excuse.  Seriously, everyone needs to get the hell over themselves and mind their own damn business.  If you have enough time to worry about my business you don’t have enough to do.

Court Strikes Down Intrusive OK Abortion Law, Declares Unconstitutional

02.19.10 Today, an Oklahoma County District Court declared unconstitutional a state law that would have imposed a host of restrictions related to abortion and cost the state over a quarter million dollars a year to implement, blocking the state from enforcing the law. The court ruled that the bill passed by the legislature addressed too many disparate topics and therefore violated the Oklahoma Constitution’s “single-subject” rule which requires laws only address one topic at a time. One of the provisions would have required doctors to request detailed personal information from patients who have had abortions and report that data to the state health department who will then post it on a public website.

“We are very pleased with today’s ruling,” said Jennifer Mondino, staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “The government has no business running a grand inquisition into the private lives of Oklahoma women and wasting a quarter of a million dollars of tax payers’ money in the process.”

The law also would have banned abortions based on a woman’s gender preference for her child; created new responsibilities for state health agencies to gather and analyze abortion data and enforce abortion restrictions; and redefined a number of abortion-related terms used in Oklahoma law. The Center filed a challenge against the law in September on behalf of former state representative Wanda Stapleton and Shawnee, Oklahoma resident Lora Joyce Davis.

This is the second time in two years that the Oklahoma legislature has tried to restrict abortion in the state by bundling numerous provisions into one bill. In September, the Oklahoma District Court struck down another state law imposing various abortion restrictions, including the most extreme ultrasound requirement in the country, ruling that it violated the state’s single subject rule.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Al Franken has taken the unusual step of shutting down Sen. Joe Lieberman on the Senate floor.

Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, currently is the target of liberal wrath over his opposition to a government-run insurance plan in the health care bill.

Franken was presiding over the Senate Thursday afternoon as Lieberman spoke about amendments he planned to offer to the bill. Lieberman asked for an additional 30 seconds to finish — a routine request — but Franken refused to grant the time.

Lieberman, appearing taken aback, said he’d submit the rest of his statement in writing. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona came to his friend Lieberman’s defense and criticized Franken’s behavior as inappropriate.

SOURCE

SIRAKANO, Uganda — At age 45, after giving birth to 13 children in her village of thatch roofs and bare feet, Beatrice Adongo made a discovery that startled her: birth control.

“I delivered all these children because I didn’t know there was another way,” said Adongo, who started on a free quarterly contraceptive injection last year. Surrounded by her weary-faced brood, her 21-month-old boy clutching at her faded blue dress, she added glumly: “I fear we are already too many in this family.”

[snip]

Under President George W. Bush, the United States withdrew from its decades-long role as a global leader in supporting family planning, driven by a conservative ideology that favored abstinence and shied away from providing contraceptive devices in developing countries, even to married women.

Bush’s mammoth global anti-AIDS initiative, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, poured billions of dollars into Africa but prohibited groups from spending any of it on family planning services or counseling programs, whose budgets flat-lined.

The restrictions flew in the face of research by international aid agencies, the U.N. World Health Organization and the U.S. government’s own experts, all of whom touted contraception as a crucial method of preventing births of babies being infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The Bush program is widely hailed as a success, having supplied lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs to more than 2 million HIV patients worldwide.

However, researchers, Africa experts and veteran U.S. health officials now think that PEPFAR also contributed to Africa’s epidemic population growth by undermining efforts to help women in some of the world’s poorest countries exercise greater control over their fertility.

“It was a huge missed opportunity to integrate HIV/AIDS and reproductive health in ways that made sense,” said Jotham Musinguzi, a Ugandan physician who heads the Africa office of Partners in Population and Development, an intergovernmental group that promotes sexual health in developing countries.

rest of article

In the murky waters of the labor pool, a toothy surprise is waiting for unemployed Floridians who’ve fallen behind on their bills.

It bit Tommy Powers when he applied for a job at a motorcycle dealer this fall. Powers, who was laid off in April 2008, had just graduated from mechanic’s school and figured he had a shot at getting back into the workforce.

But the dealer checked his credit history, and the job prospect vanished.

“They said I needed better credit,” said Powers, 54, of Orlando. “I’ve been laid off so long, mine’s not as good as it used to be.”

Employment experts say companies of all kinds are increasingly reviewing the credit histories of job candidates before making a decision about whom to hire. The idea, disputed by many labor advocates, is that credit history serves as a barometer for how dependable someone might be – or how tempted they might be to dip into the till.

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Thanks to Skyagunsta for the link.

I don’t know anything else about this councilman, but I do know something about his opponents…they are morons.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Asheville City Councilman Cecil Bothwell believes in ending the death penalty, conserving water and reforming government – but he doesn’t believe in God. His political opponents say that’s a sin that makes him unworthy of serving in office, and they’ve got the North Carolina Constitution on their side.

Bothwell’s detractors are threatening to take the city to court for swearing him in, even though the state’s antiquated requirement that officeholders believe in God is unenforceable because it violates the U.S. Consititution.

“The question of whether or not God exists is not particularly interesting to me and it’s certainly not relevant to public office,” the recently elected 59-year-old said.

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Background

* The existing law, Section 140 of the Ugandan penal code, penalizes “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” with imprisonment of up to 14 years. This legacy of British colonialism was introduced to punish local practices of what the colonial powers deemed to be “unnatural sex.” The laws stand as proof that same-sex sexual practices and gender diversity are, and always have been, part of Ugandan culture. The draft bill tabled today seeks to imprison anyone convicted of “the offense of homosexuality” for life.

* Paragraph 3 of the draft bill sets out provisions on what it names as “aggravated homosexuality,” which will incur the death penalty, contradicting the global trend toward a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

* The final section of the bill provides for Uganda to nullify any of its international or regional commitments that it deems “contradictory to the spirit and provisions enshrined in this Act.” As both the African Commission and the UN Human Rights Committee have held, a state cannot, through its domestic law, negate its international human rights obligations.

Over recent months, there has been increased campaigning against homosexuality in Uganda, led by churches and anti-gay groups. The media have joined this campaign, and have publicly pointed to individuals they accuse of being gay or lesbian. SOURCE

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bill Kallio

Kallio lives in Richmond and is the state director for AARP Virginia.

AARP has been fighting for affordable health care for older people for 50 years. We want to thank Rep. Tom Perriello for his vote in favor of better health care for every Virginian by voting in favor of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. The House bill takes a large step toward making health care more affordable and accessible for everyone.

[snip]

There has been much discussion about the various components of the bill. Some well-intentioned people also are spreading some misinformation about the proposal that AARP endorsed.

AARP is fighting for legislation that protects traditional Medicare benefits and holds down out-of-pocket costs. Removing waste and inefficiency from Medicare is critical to saving Medicare money and making sure it is financially sound for future retirees.

[snip]

The House health care reform bill includes Medicare savings measures supported by the nation’s largest hospital associations. The other providers are nursing homes and home health agencies, which traditionally enjoy high profit margins and still benefit from yearly pay raises.

By tying these pay raises to the productivity increases in the economy overall, these providers will still get billions more in funding over the next 10 years. The House reform plan would continue to allow people to receive the services they need, without padding excessive profit margins.

For example, Medicare is paying billions of dollars in subsidies to private insurance companies that cover some Medicare patients in Medicare Advantage plans, costing the government 14 percent more per patient. When these subsidies were created, they were supposed to be temporary — private insurance companies said that over time, they could “do more with less” than traditional Medicare. Instead, the subsidies increased. We can save Medicare billions of dollars and make sure patient care isn’t taking a back seat to insurance companies by reducing these subsidies.

The House plan would provide $502 billion in savings by cutting fraud, abuse and waste in the Medicare program. While this seems like a large cut, it represents only 7.1 percent of Medicare spending over the next 10 yea

REST OF ARTICLE

A week after the first bailout, execs went to the St. Regis Resort in California for a week to get some headspace and chill out, spending $440,000 in all, including $23,00 on spa treatments.

OMG, these guys may not be able to afford their spa treatments if they get a cut in pay.  I’ll take a microsecond to feel sorry for them.

Five senior executives at American International Group told the bailed-out insurer last week they may quit if their compensation was cut significantly by the U.S. pay czar, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The five senior AIG executives indicated on December 1, in written notices, that they were prepared to leave by year-end, the paper reported, citing unnamed sources. Two of them changed their minds over the weekend, the paper added.

AIG, which was propped up by the government with some $180 billion in taxpayer funds, has been sparring with the Obama administration’s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, over executive compensation.

REST OF ARTICLE

I’ve said all along that while I support the idea of health care reform, I would withhold judgment on the specific plan until I saw the plan.  I’m not sure I can support a plan that makes it harder for medicare beneficiaries to get home health care.

(Thanks for the link Sky.)

WASHINGTON — Snowflakes swirled around the Capitol on Saturday, whipped by wintry winds, but on the Senate floor inside, a heated debate raged as Democrats and Republicans traded jabs over legislation to achieve President Obama’s goal of near-universal health insurance coverage.

By a vote of 53 to 41, the Senate on Saturday rejected a Republican effort to block cutbacks in payments to home health agencies that provide nursing care and therapy to homebound Medicare beneficiaries.

Republicans voted against the cuts, saying they would hurt some of the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Most Democrats supported the cutbacks, saying they would eliminate waste and inefficiency in home care.

The Democrats’ health care bill would reduce projected Medicare spending on home care by $43 billion, or 13 percent, over the next 10 years. The savings would help offset the cost of subsidizing coverage for the uninsured.

[SNIP]

“We are reducing overpayments,” Mr. Baucus said. “We are rooting out fraud. We are getting the waste out. The savings go back in Medicare and extend the solvency of the trust fund.”

REST OF ARTICLE

The unemployment rate is considered a lagging indicator meaning that it measures the effect of a recession and can worsen even after the economy starts to turn around. In October, unemployment rose to 10.2%. The states with the highest unemployment rate in October were Michigan (15.1%),Nevada (13%), Rhode Island (12.9%), California (12.5%) and South Carolina (12.1%). A total of 29 states had a rise in unemployment rates in October.

President Barack Obama says chronic unemployment isn’t merely academic and is “a struggle that cuts deep and touches people across the nation.”

Seeking to set a can-do tone for a jobs forum he hosted at the White House, Obama claimed progress toward an economic recovery while saying much more work needs to be done.

Obama said the leading question of the day is “how do we get businesses to start hiring again.” He spoke to a gathering of academics, business executives and labor leaders on the eve of the government’s report, due Friday, on the state of joblessness in November. The jobless rate in October shot up to 10.2 percent.

[snip]

“Increasing employment is everyone’s responsibility, from government to businesses to households,” Obama economic adviser Larry Summers said in advance of the forum. “The White House jobs forum will take stock of where we are on the implementation of the Recovery Act and explore new job creation measures, including infrastructure investment, incentives for small businesses, developing our green economy and promoting U.S. exports.”

SOURCE.