the list of now

Al Franken has been declared the winner in Minnesota.  After a very long recount, in which residents of all nine circles of hell had to go through each ballot by hand while listening to a constant droning soundtrack of lawyers endlessly argue over their validity, Franken came out ahead by 225 votes. 

As soon as that asshat, Norm Coleman, gets his suing and contesting over with, I am confident that Al Franken will be going to Washington. 

And that is a very very good thing.  For Minnesota.  For the Senate.  For everyone.

The End.  Congratulations Al!

I know I wasn’t the only one who caught this gem on MSNBC last week:

Here’s a recap: Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, not only spewed all of the McCain/Palin campaigns most bullshit, hateful talking points but went on to repeatedly use Joe McCarthy’s favorite catch-phrase “Anti-American”, insinuating that Obama and several other “extreme left-wing liberals” might harbor some scary Anti-American views. An increasingly annoyed Chris Matthews kept trying to get her to elaborate, to say something of actual substance, instead of making truly gross generalizations and vague accusations. This pushes her to a rallying cry, calling on the media to do a “penetrating expose” and investigate members of congress for troubling “anti-american” activities and views. (I only wish I was making this up).

It was insane. And she’s got those crazy eyes too! Those “I know you are talking, but what I’m saying is positively riveting, so I can’t hear you” eyes. (Suze Orman, I’m talking to you!)

So, fast-forward to today and here is the delightful fallout. Apparently in Minnesota, if you dare to do something as ridiculous as calling for a witch-hunt, you get yours.   And by “yours”, Michelle Bachmann,  I mean a tasty karmic boost for your political opponent.

You see, she is running for re-election and was favored to win against an elvish democrat who is now (due to humiliating her-damn-self on national television) quickly becoming a house-hold name:

(wait for it…)

Congressman Elwyn Tinklenberg (See, Elvish!)

And in two weeks, Minnesota also may the be proud owner of a brand new Senator Al Franken! (he is leading in the polls, go Al!)

Here is what happened, according to the Washington Post:

In Minnesota, little-known Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg announced yesterday that he has raised $1 million over the past four days for his House campaign, after Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann questioned Sen. Barack Obama’s patriotism and recommended that the news media investigate whether other members of Congress are “pro-America” or “anti-America.”
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The money began flooding in from across the country after Bachmann made the comments in a seven-minute appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball” on Friday. “I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?” she told host Chris Matthews.
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The backlash from Bachmann’s remarks gave Tinklenberg enough donations to quadruple his television advertising, prompted the nonpartisan Cook Political Report to flip its take on the race from “likely Republican” to “tossup” and inspired a Republican who lost to Bachmann in the party’s primary to launch a write-in campaign.

um… 1 million dollars in FOUR days? Amazing!

I love news like this.  I hope when Michelle Bachmann heard it, she thought “wow… I screwed up.”  I think it would be too much to hope she would know how WRONG she is.  So let me spell it out, for her and McCain/Palin and any of the others using this kind of rhetoric:

That is how some really motivated, angry, bleeding-heart liberals who are most decidedly not anti-american say, “We have had enough.  You no longer get to define what is “American” to serve your purposes, elevate your status and line your pockets.  We are tired of you deciding our voices and our issues don’t matter and we are taking our country back.  You hateful, fear-mongering, fuckers.”

More of this, please.

I’ve been reading some information about Bush’s new Department of Health and Human Services rule and it’s seriously fucked up.   In effect, it will deny funding to any medical facility that does not certify in writing that it’s employees have the right to withdraw their care, omit information and in all ways refuse to offer or assist with treatment based on their own personal objections (moral, religious, whatever).

A ruling that protects the “conscience” in very shady vague language can be taken to extremes in application.

What about protecting patients (especially women) and their right to adequate healthcare and information necessary to make choices that will impact their bodies, their health and sometimes their very lives?

Healthcare providers already have a choice to protect their conscience, it’s called “don’t choose that profession.”   By all means, remove yourself from a situation where your own personal issues are infringing on a patient’s right to walk into your office and be treated with respect and dignity.   You do not have the right to make choices for a patient -whether or not to give them complete information about their options, choices and care- based on your feelings.  Sorry.

But if you are going to choose a career in healthcare and you show up for work, you have to do your job.  That’s the way it works.  Or at least, that is the way it should work by all reasonable assumptions.   Those of us in America that have the privilege to be insured (I’m not one of them) pay a fuck lot of money to be able to receive healthcare and there is already a serious lack of coverage that puts the patient, not the profits first.

So the pecking order is what, now?  1. Profits (Insurance Companies)  2.  Profits (Lobbyists)  3.  Profits (Healthcare companies and workers)  4. The arbitrary given privilege of Healthcare workers to now bring their religious and moral objections to care into the workplace.  5.  Patients?  Maybe… I’m sure there are even others profiteering off of this bullshit higher up than the patients.

This is 800 different kinds of wrong.  I wish I could say that I can’t believe this is happening, but really, I can… I just can’t believe that this is being allowed to happen without mega protests and media coverage.  This is huge.

There is a 30-day comment period, in which the DHHS is accepting comments on this proposal before the ruling goes into effect.   It is over on September 25th.

It takes less than 5 minutes -  Planned Parenthood has set up a handy form to help, just fill it out and click it.  PLEASE.   There needs to be more of a public outcry about this.

If you want more info, here is Planned Parenthood’s Fact Sheet about the rule.   And here is an op-ed that was in the NY Times, by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Cecile Richards, urging us all to take action now. Here is an excerpt:

Health and Human Services estimates that the rule, which would affect nearly 600,000 hospitals, clinics and other health care providers, would cost $44.5 million a year to administer. Astonishingly, the department does not even address the real cost to patients who might be refused access to these critical services. Women patients, who look to their health care providers as an unbiased source of medical information, might not even know they were being deprived of advice about their options or denied access to care.

….

The rule would also allow providers to refuse to participate in unspecified “other medical procedures” that contradict their religious beliefs or moral convictions. This, too, could be interpreted as a free pass to deny access to contraception.

Many circumstances unrelated to reproductive health could also fall under the umbrella of “other medical procedures.” Could physicians object to helping patients whose sexual orientation they find objectionable? Could a receptionist refuse to book an appointment for an H.I.V. test? What about an emergency room doctor who wishes to deny emergency contraception to a rape victim? Or a pharmacist who prefers not to refill a birth control prescription?

The Bush administration argues that the rule is designed to protect a provider’s conscience. But where are the protections for patients?

I know there is a lot happening right now in our country – a lot happening in the media that is scary and overwhelming (the pending election issues and financial meltdowns) – but this is just as URGENT and has consequences that will effect people’s lives almost immediately.   This rule is not acceptable.  I seriously can’t just allow this to happen and I hope you feel the same.  Please take a few minutes to send a comment!