Thursday, August 2, 2007

Ohio Abortion Law Would give Fathers a Say State Legislators Propose Change; Opponents Blast Bill as ‘Extreme’. Several Ohio state representatives who normally take an anti-abortion stance are now pushing pro-choice legislation - sort of. Led by Rep. John Adams, a group of state legislators have submitted a bill that would give fathers of unborn children a final say in whether or not an abortion can take place. It’s a measure that, supporters say, [...] [CommonDreams.org] 10:51:12 AM    comment []

White House, GOP Push to Rewrite Wiretap Law. Ellen Nakashima reports for The Washington Post, "The Bush administration is pressing Congress this week for the authority to intercept, without a court order, any international phone call or email between a surveillance target outside the United States and any person in the United States." [t r u t h o u t] 8:03:02 AM    comment []

Report: US Cannot Account for 190,000 Guns in Iraq. Agence France-Presse reports, "The US government cannot account for 190,000 weapons issued to Iraqi security forces." And Sharon Theimer reports for the Associated Press, "The Pentagon sold more than a thousand aircraft parts that could be used on F-14 fighter jets - a plane flown only by Iran - after announcing it had halted sales of such surplus." [t r u t h o u t] 8:02:35 AM    comment []

Bush Won't Let Rove Testify to Congress. Reuters reports that Bush is citing executive privilege in rejecting a subpoena for his aide Karl Rove to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee in a probe over fired federal prosecutors. [t r u t h o u t] 8:02:08 AM    comment []

Barbara Ehrenreich: Opportunities in Abstinence Training. If things are not working out as planned, you might want to consider a career in the expanding field of abstinence education. The need is staggering: four out of five random people I surveyed on the street thought abstinence training is something you do with your mid-section in the gym. Plus, unlike any of the rest of the coaching industry - career coaching, life coaching, sales training, etc. - this form of training is generously subsidized by the federal government, and has been since President Clinton signed the welfare reform bill of 1996, which provided abstinence training for impoverished women (though not, alas, for him.) It's not rocket science, either. In fact, there've been men in my life who were naturals at abstinence training without the slightest formal preparation: One renounced dental hygiene; another developed a passion for Frank Sinatra - leading me in each case to embrace abstinence without any regret. In yet another case, marriage alone was enough to induce that sanctified state. Most people, though, require a bit of training to get into the abstinence training business, so I went to the website of WAIT Training to look at the sample curriculum for an abstinence course. The suggested syllabus contained a lot about love, marriage and STD's--none of it terribly technical - until I got to the part about how to explain the difference between the sexes, where the following demonstration was suggested: Bring to class frozen waffles and a bowl of spaghetti noodles without sauce. Using these as visual aides, explain how research has found that men's brains are more like the waffle, in that their design allows them to more easily compartmentalize information. Women's minds, on the other hand are more interrelated due to increased brain connectors. Maybe my spaghetti brain wasn't up to this challenge, but it did seem to imply that sex would involve a mixing of waffles and pasta, possibly with maple syrup for lubrication. Disgusting, yes, but no doubt a surefire recipe for abstinence. My next step was to call Joneen Mackenzie, executive director of WAIT (which is an acronym for "Why Am I Tempted?") to further pin down the requirements for becoming an abstinence trainer. Her program admits only college-educated people, but they can be of any age or sex. "Do they have to be abstinent themselves?" I asked. Not at all, she assured me, proudly confessing to being "like an animal" with her husband. How about gays? Well, yes, they could teach abstinence to gay teenagers. So -- no barriers at all, and you can become a Certified Abstinence Trainer after only two days of training. There is, however, one shadow hanging over the abstinence training industry. A study commissioned by Congress revealed in April that abstinence training doesn't work: Students exposed to such training turn out to be no less likely to have sex than those who are not, leading some to question the over $100 million the Federal government spends on it annually. Mackenzie dismissed the study out of hand, saying it had been undertaken before serious abstinence training really got off the ground. But there's a deeper problem with abstinence training as currently conducted: It's being wasted on kids. What better way to make sex a big deal than to tell a kid they can't have any for years, and then only after spending $25,000 on champagne and bridesmaid dresses? Furthermore, kids have become more sophisticated thanks to programs like DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the website of which currently proclaims that "Cannabis can double chances of psychotic illness" and "Just one cigarette can lead to addiction." If you've known honor students who smoke marijuana, why should you believe that teen sex leads inevitably to heartbreak and oozing genital sores? Here's my advice for the abstinence training industry and any novice abstinence trainers: First, leave the teenagers alone and focus on the vast neglected demographic of middle-aged and elderly people, including the married. Many of them have thought they just weren't getting any, so imagine how happy they will be to see their lifestyle affirmed as a noble, pro-active, choice! Think of the market for silver chastity rings (see ) in nursing homes and other long term care facilities! Secondly, and I realize that this may be more controversial: The abstinent training profession should be restricted to abstinent people. Would you undergo computer training with someone who hasn't touched a computer since 1987? Would you hire a flabby, out-of-shape, personal fitness trainer? No, nor do I think you should study abstinence with someone who behaves "like an animal" in bed. Abstinence may be easier to achieve than you realize. Contrary to the assumptions of the framers of welfare reform, poverty - or at least sudden downward mobility - can lead to the rapid exit of significant others. You should welcome their departure and, if you are heterosexual, take it as an opportunity to withdraw into your own gender-appropriate Tupperware compartment - spaghetti or waffle. [The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed] 7:58:47 AM    comment []

Rep. Lois Capps: Republican Temper Tantrums Hindering Efforts To Provide Healthcare For Needy Kids. As a school nurse, a mother of three, and a grandmother of seven, I know a thing or two about temper tantrums. Usually they occur when small children are tired, hungry, and frustrated, but yesterday on the House floor I saw a different kind of temper tantrum erupt from some of my Republican colleagues. During debate over a routine agriculture funding bill, some of my Republican colleagues decided to throw a fit over a completely unrelated bill, the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 (CHAMP). It's baffling that anyone would throw such a fit over the CHAMP bill. This is legislation that will renew the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which currently provides health insurance to six million who otherwise would be without it. It would also expand this coverage to include an additional six million children that aren't covered under the current law. It also makes needed improvements to Medicare to protect the health of seniors and the disabled. And it's all paid for so we aren't adding to the national debt. Supporting children's health insurance coverage shouldn't be a partisan matter, and historically it has enjoyed broad bipartisan support. In fact, 43 of our nation's governors have endorsed the reauthorization of the legislation and expanding coverage to some degree. The same support is found among countless advocacy groups and healthcare organizations like the American Medical Association, AARP, the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids and the Children's Defense Fund. In fact, while running for reelection in 2004, President Bush regularly touted his support for the program. Unfortunately, the president has changed his tune. His proposal for SCHIP would actually reduce coverage for the six million children currently covered by SCHIP and leave the uninsured 12 million still uninsured. He has threatened to veto the bill and yesterday's shenanigans on the House floor show that what Republicans are after is conflict, not progress on meeting our country's challenges. The President and Congressional Republicans seem to think that if they hold their breath and stomp the ground long enough they'll get their way. The victims of all this absurdity are our children without healthcare and their parents. Can you imagine a young child lacking regular physicals and immunizations? What about the constant fear facing parents who are working hard yet are unable to secure healthcare coverage for their child? Or families who go bankrupt trying to pay for costly emergency care because they lack basic insurance? Imagine if your child didn't have access to routine physicals to ensure that they were growing properly and taking the necessary steps to identify and treat debilitating chronic diseases like juvenile diabetes. Passing the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act (CHAMP) will be a significant step forward in the effort to make sure parents across our country don't have to face these kinds of questions. Today, the House will consider the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act of 2007 (CHAMP Act). I hope that my Republican colleagues had a good night's sleep and a good breakfast so we can avoid another fit of legislative temper tantrums and provide all our kids with healthcare. [The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed] 7:43:46 AM    comment []

Peter Smith: What Really Failed In Minneapolis?. MINNEAPOLIS -- The thing about Minnesota is it was built by people who did the job right. Serious people. People who knew they did not want to be screwing around outside repairing things when it was a true 40 below, not just a 40 below wind chill. Wind chill factors are for wimps. By rights, the state motto, "The Star of the North," should really be, "Maintenance." You can't drive a mile in any direction without running into some form of highway repair or expansion. So in the wake of the 35 W bridge collapse yesterday, in the 95 degree heat of August, a subliminal thought is beginning to take shape in the communal Minnesota psyche: This isn't supposed to happen here. After the collapse, many things went extremely right. The emergency services worked in true blue Minnesota fashion. Transportation and communication ran smoothly, if not flawlessly -- the result of a lot of hard work and careful planning. People hurried to the site and pitched in. The people who built Minnesota would have been proud. But long before the collapse -- in 2005, in fact, the bridge had been rated "structurally deficient" in the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory database. Although the structurally deficient bridge has been inspected twice since then, fixing it does not appear to have been a political priority. Money is tight. There are differences of opinion as to how to fund projects like repairing infrastructure. The Republicans and Republican governor Tim Pawlenty have vowed no new taxes and want to find creative ways to fund things. The Democrats advocate a more direct, pay as you go approach. There has been gridlock at the capitol for years. Grridlock isn't supposed to happen here, and, like the phrase, "structurally deficient," it offends the collective Minnesota psyche -- Republican or Democrat. This morning in Minnesota, leaving "structurally deficient" untended while politicians bicker is beginning to induce a sense of societal guilt. There is a whiff of ancestral disapprobation in the air. This was a state with a solid, bipartisan, "can-do" spirit. We're blowing it. It's as if, in whistling our way past the expense and priority of "structurally deficient," we let the people who built this optimistic, above average place down. The Star of the North is not as bright somehow -- and won't be for quite a while. Today, the politicians will walk up to the edge of the hole, stare out at the emptiness, and say a few words. They will come all the way from Washington, looking for a George W. Bush bullhorn at Ground Zero moment as the cameras click. Down below, the last rescue efforts will flicker out. The recovery process will continue. The investigations will begin. Half a mile to the south, traffic will crawl across the I-94 bridge, slowed by the usual glut -- plus the glut of re-routed 35 W commuters. Everyone on that bridge will be just a little worried that whatever happened 500 yards to the north might, in fact, happen there. Months from now, (hopefully in time for the 2008 election) some commission will issue a report. Minnesota will know the causes. If, as some already suspect, showboating fiscal constraints, budget-bending accounting flim-flam, and gridlock born of political ambition led to deferring the project and the expense of repairing the bridge, the pols will be made to know that those kinds of things aren't supposed to happen here. [The Huffington Post Full Blog Feed] 7:40:29 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2007 Patricia Thurston.