Completely Unnecessary

Sometimes headlines (and accompanying ledes) make me laugh. From the NYT today:
Bush, Praising Fed’s Intervention, Faces Criticism

Critics accused the administration of bailing out a prestigious bank while ignoring the hardships of Americans facing foreclosures on their homes.

Man, the NYT is such a commie paper. Don’t they remember that the President (with the help of Congress!) passed a relief package for the people (that’s comrades to you, NYT)?

Those checks are in the mail. And while your $100 bucks or so might not rescue your house, you’re also not a large bank that matters. Good luck, proles!

Related note: One of my friends referred to the Age as ‘The Spencer Street Soviet’ yesterday. Laughed my head off.

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This, right here, is why people in Australia look at me and say, ‘What is wrong with your country?’

In response to recent campus shootings, State Senator Karen S. Johnson has proposed a bill to allow concealed weapons on the campuses of Arizona’s public colleges and universities.

The police, she said, respond too slowly to such incidents and, besides, who better than the people staring down the barrel to take action?

She initially wanted her bill to cover all public schools, kindergarten and up, but other lawmakers convinced her it stood a better chance of passing if it were limited to higher education.

“I feel like our kindergartners are sitting there like sitting ducks,” Ms. Johnson said last week when the bill passed the committee by a 4-to-3 vote.

To Johnson’s credit, she described herself to the NYT as ‘right-wing wacko.’

Australians frequently ask me, ‘Why does America think its gun problems can be solved with more guns?’

I don’t know, but stories like this give me an itchy bridging-visa finger.

Arizona Weighs Bill to Allow Guns on Campuses [NYT]

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He probably saw them frequently, perhaps as he and his parents gathered around the breakfast table each morning. But we’ll leave the incest jokes for a moment, as I urge you to watch at least the first minute and a half of the video below.

The backstory on this is that Florida’s Board of Ed just approved classroom materials containing the world ‘evolution’ for the first time. Previously, the ’science’ taught to Florida schoolchildren simply referred to ‘changes over time.’

When you think with quiet rage about what has been passing for education in Florida, the fact that right-wingers got the Board to refer to evolution simply as ‘a theory’ really doesn’t seem so bad. It’s like they’ve finally been given math - the fact that they aren’t learning calculus is small beans.

To clarify: there are generations of Floridians who apparently never heard the word ‘evolution’ during their K-12 schooling.

Anyway, the man above is clearly the product of such an excellent system. Even given the primary source material, he’s failed to grasp its salient points.

Ps - I love the look on the Board member’s face about eight seconds in. Rarely does one see ‘what the fuck?’ so honestly personified.

h/t to Wonkette and ThinkProgress

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Sara wrote a great post yesterday about Iran’s (lack of a) nuclear weapons program and the Bush Admin’s continued rhetoric. Saved me a lot of time, which I promptly spent checking the reference list of a right-wing scientist. Let me do the heavy lifting today, LMB; I’m just going shopping afterwards…

Long story short - Released yesterday, a National Intelligence Estimate found that Iran gave up its nuclear ambitions four years ago. The WH has known the ‘basic parameters’ of this report for quite some time, but has continued its Tehran-baiting and aggro rhetoric.

But, you’ll be pleased to know that President Bush has seen this report for what it really is:

”I view this report as a warning signal that they had the program, they halted the program,” Bush said [in a press conference Tuesday]. ”The reason why it’s a warning signal is they could restart it.”

Bush also stated that the report demonstrating that Iran didn’t have the ability to make a nuclear weapon (or even recent movements in that direction) indicates that, ‘Iran needs to be taken seriously as a threat to peace.’

Gotta give the man some credit. A lot of leaders would hang their heads after being caught in a war-mongering lie for the last year, but not Bush. Well-played, sir.

But is it a year? National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said yesterday that the president has only known for sure for weeks, possibly months. Yet, Bush claimed this morning that he only learned about the report last week, contradicting his own NSA. Someone mush have looked at the transcripts and seen that the WH has been trumpeting their rhetoric well into the period that Hadley described.

Doesn’t really matter if the year estimate is wrong. By Hadley’s own admission, the US has been continuing along the warpath despite knowledge by the President himself that the assessment of Iran’s capabilities and intent was false.

Our one remaining troop is probably breathing a sigh of relief.

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Things not going so well? Seemingly every single poll predicting ALP defeat? Anti-immigrant fear mongering less popular than in previous election cycles?

You may want to consider reconciliation!

Speaking [11 October] to the Sydney Institute, [Prime Minister Howard] indicated he now accepted that the symbolic side of [Aboriginal] reconciliation — which he previously rejected — was important, along with the practical side of reconciliation.

It’s incredible timing - what with the PM’s return to Canberra tonight indicating that he’ll likely call the election tomorrow. It’s almost as if the PM’s new-found feelings toward the indigenous population are cynically timed to coincide with the election. But don’t take it from me:

Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser said whatever Mr Howard did now was election driven, because he was desperate. He said a referendum would not do anything unless it was accompanied by a 20-year commitment on health, education and housing.

Luckily, Mr Howard knows how to spin it both ways:

“There have been low points when dialogue between me as Prime Minister and many indigenous leaders dwindled almost to the point of non-existence. I fully accept my share of the blame for that.”[...]

“I have always acknowledged the past mistreatment of Aboriginal people and have frequently said that the treatment of indigenous Australians represents the most blemished chapter in the history of this country.

So while indigenous relations have been poor, mistreatment is just history and not, say, policy of the Howard government.

“Some will no doubt want to portray my remarks tonight as a form of Damascus Road conversion. In reality, they are little more than an affirmation of well-worn liberal conservative ideas,” he said.

I don’t think there’s many who would confuse John Howard with Paul. The road to Damascus wasn’t to the polling booth.

Links:
Howard’s 11th-hour rethink on reconciliation [The Age]
10 Ministers Face Wipeout: Poll Warning [The Age]
Community’s Anger Spills Over [The Age]
The Aboriginal Intervention Policy Isn’t Working [The Age]

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Yet another study has shown that there is no link between abortion and breast cancer. Anti-choicers love to scare women with the big-C, so don’t really expect much to change. In fact, here’s what the woman who runs the fantastically-named Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer had to say (seriously, go for something a little more subtle):

“Clearly [the cancer institute] must suspect a link, or else they know that a link really exists,” Malec said. “Why else would they continue to pay for these studies?

Um, okay. I think the answer might be - because scientists get pissed off when you continue to create/cite ’studies’ that use bad science to achieve bad ‘data’.

[Seriously, I can't believe they couldn't think of any better name for their org! Just something with a little more euphemism. Like Coalition for Women's Breast and Reproductive Health. You know, something that hides what you're about a little bit better. Take a cue from those supposed women's health clinics that show women fake ultrasounds and try to convince them not to have abortions. They're always named something like, 'Comforting Place for Abortion Women's Home'.]

Anyway, I naturally thought of Minnesota’s Women’s Right to Know law. The LA Times article mentions that Minnesota, Texas, and Mississippi all have laws on the books requiring doctors to ‘inform’ women of the risks of breast cancer, fetal pain, puppy drowning, nuclear war, and depression that are associated with abortion.

Lots of people in Minnesota were pretty shocked when the 24-hour waiting period and state-scripted info were put into place (and not just because they were hilariously attached to a law about circus regulation and linked Minnesota inextricably with Texas and Mississippi). As anyone who has ever spoken with me knows, the laws are an undue burden on women who work hourly-wage jobs (i.e., working-class and poor women) and those who live far from the 90% of MN abortion clinics located in the Twin Cities. The City Pages wrote a good article at the time about the stupidity of the pamphlet that doctors were forced to ’share’ with their patients.

In addition to pictures of developing fetuses and graphic descriptions of abortion procedures, the pamphlet includes a passage suggesting a link between abortion and breast cancer. “Findings from some studies suggest there is an increased risk of breast cancer among women who had an abortion,” it reads, “while findings from other studies suggest there is no increased risk. This issue may need further study.”

Today the pamphlet reads a little differently:

Cancer of the Breast: Findings from earlier studies suggested there was an increased risk of breast cancer among women who had an abortion.

In March 2003 the National Cancer Institute (NCI) released a consensus report finding no link between abortion and breast cancer. An additional report issued in March 2004 by a cancer research group at Oxford University also indicated there is no link between abortion and breast cancer. Read summaries of these reports

Women who have a strong family history of cancer or who have clinical findings of breast disease should seek medical advice from a physician regardless of their decision to become pregnant or have an abortion.

It’s a little bit better, but it’s still in there. Alerting women to something and then saying, “But I wouldn’t worry about it” is pretty much the same as telling them to worry about it. Plus it comes under the heading “Long Term Medical Risks.” You can look for it just after the bit telling you “But I wouldn’t worry about it” for your future childbearing. And it’s just before the section on fetal pain.

Presumably, Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dianne Mandernach will want to update her pamphlet to include these new findings. Also, maybe hire a professional writer. The 19 pictures of fetuses are important, but if the writing isn’t there you can’t effectively scare women out of an abortion:

Counseling or support before and after your abortion is very important. If family help and support is not available to the woman, the feelings that appear after an abortion may be harder to adjust to. Talking with a professional and objective counselor before having an abortion can help a woman better understand her decision and the feelings she may experience after the procedure. If counseling is available to the woman, these feelings may be easier to handle.

Remember, it is your right and the doctor’s responsibility to fully inform you prior to the procedures. Be encouraged to ask all of your questions.

Good god that’s awful. The method of describing the subject (Chris do we have an editorial phrase for that?) changes in every sentence. Seems like they were just copying and pasting from somewhere else (Texas? Mississippi?). And “Be encouraged”? Is that a command or an expression of a medical ideal?

Speaking of ideal, Minnesotans could also stop electing Tim Pawlenty.

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Do you know anyone having sex? Are you, yourself, having sex? Are you under 30? The federal government wants you to know that it’s bad, bad, bad.

And they’re spending your tax dollars to do it.

“The message is ‘It’s better to wait until you’re married to bear or father children,’ ” Horn said. “The only 100% effective way of getting there is abstinence.”

The revised guidelines specify that states seeking grants are “to identify groups … most likely to bear children out-of-wedlock, targeting adolescents and/or adults within the 12- through 29-year-old age range.” Previous guidelines didn’t mention targeting of an age group.

…

For last year’s state grants, Congress appropriated $50 million. A similar amount is expected for 2007, but the money has not yet been allocated, according to the Administration for Children and Families.

The government must also insist that you finish your broccoli and be in bed by ten.

Via Just About Everyone This Morning and USA Today

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