by Erik Kain on February 16, 2012
Andrew Sullivan thinks that it’s ”hard to believe that the GOP has become so isolated from the American mainstream that they could not find and would not allow a single woman to testify in the Issa hearings today on contraception and religious freedom.” But is it? Is it really?
We’ve all been watching the Republican party deteriorate lo these past five, ten, twenty years. Should anything surprise us anymore?
I share Andrew’s flabbergastedness, even though I probably shouldn’t. One would think that after The Daily Show so effectively outed Sean Hannity’s own all-male contraception and religious freedom panel that the GOP leadership would be quick to change course but…well, let’s just say that women’s issues are not really the Republican Party’s forte. Best leave these things to the men.
Andrew writes:
Added to Santorum’s chief financial backer’s simply staggering and disgustingly sexist recommendation that the only birth control a woman should have is crossing her legs – with the implication that straight men have no responsibility for the matter – and we have really returned to the 1950s, as TPM has pointed out. But that’s who they are now backing: Santorum, the man who wants gays back in the closet and women in their 1950s reproductive place: beneath men without a condom, and denied an abortion thereafter.
Ah, the good ol’ days.
And of course, it will get worse before it gets better. All across the country, women’s access to healthcare is being threatened in one form or another. Virginia is just the latest in a long string of absurd moves by the right to expand government into the bedroom. Because government is only too big if it’s giving poor kids chicken nuggets. When it’s forcing women to have an ultrasound whether or not she wants one it’s no big deal at all.
This is not the right way to go about decreasing the rate of abortions. Universal access to healthcare, prioritizing education, and working toward prosperity for everyone will all lead to fewer abortions in the long run. Cultural and economic forces, not more prying authoritarianism, and yes contraception are more likely to slow the rate of abortion than forced ultrasounds.
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by Erik Kain on January 20, 2012
An internet blackout and protests online and in person helped grind anti-piracy legislation to a halt in congress. But the fight isn’t over yet. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called off a vote on the controversial Protect IP Act (PIPA) after Wednesday’s internet blackout and statements from the president indicating that more discussion was [...]
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by Erik Kain on January 18, 2012
Forbes contributor writes: Both SOPA and Protect IP attempt to combat online piracy by preventing American search engines like Google and Yahoo from directing users to sites distributing stolen content. Both bills also would enable people and companies to sue if their copyright was infringed. Obama has come out against both bills, which killed SOPA and puts [...]
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by Erik Kain on January 17, 2012
Wikipedia, one of the most highly trafficked websites in the world, along with the popular, highly trafficked community Reddit will both go dark Wednesday, January 18th. The sites are blacking out to protest controversial anti-piracy legislation in the House and Senate. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales took to Twitter to talk about the coming blackout. “This [...]
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by Erik Kain on January 14, 2012
Concerns over anti-piracy bills in congress are finally beginning to influence lawmakers. SOPA architect Lamar Smith is, apparently, listening – especially now that the Obama administration is voicing its own concerns over the legislation. In a statement, Smith said he will remove controversial DNS-blocking rules from the bill, though his counterpart in the Senate, Patrick [...]
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by Erik Kain on January 11, 2012
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) showed up at in to issue a stark warning: we’re running out of time to stop legislation aimed at cracking down on copyright infringement. That legislation – the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate – is intended to [...]
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by Erik Kain on January 5, 2012
The Entertainment Software Association has maintained staunch support of internet censorship legislation in spite of alternatives like the OPEN Act. Now the Recording Industry Association of America has voiced its own dissatisfaction with alternatives to the SOPA and PIPA bills. According to The Hill, the RIAA “dismissed an alternate online piracy bill from Rep. Darrell [...]
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by Erik Kain on December 27, 2011
Opponents of online censorship have introduced a bipartisan alternative to legislation that threatens to break the internet. The OPEN Act is far from perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction. Eric Goldman has a really smart, detailed breakdown of the OPEN Act – an alternative to the purely noxious SOPA/PIPA legislation currently crawling [...]
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