Attention, American Women: “Republicans” Really, REALLY Want You to be Stupid.

Almost none of the women that this writer knows are stupid. In fact, a preponderance of them are smarter than, well, stupid old white guys like him. And thank the Gods for that. The world needs more smart people. But the GOP has a desperate need for the exact opposite: they need women to become stupid. Lots of women. In a big hurry. But only until they cast a ballot this November.

You see, Repubs know that their War On Women has pissed off a lot of women. So now they are trying to find a way to fool women into thinking that the GOPee really doesn’t hate them, so that they can get a few more votes. And the way they’re going about it?

By f***ing women out of getting their birth control covered by insurance, and pretending that it is a “benefit”. Here is a good piece on the matter. A few excerpts:

A string of Republican candidates for Senate are supporting an issue usually associated with Democrats: increased access to contraception.
They’re supporting it on the road and in ads, like this one from pro-life conservative Cory Gardner:In it, he says he believes “the pill ought to be available over the counter, round the clock, without a prescription.”

The catch? OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDS ARE ALMOST NEVER
COVERED BY INSURANCE, that’s the catch. It’s Hobby Lobby 2: another way to screw women out of equal access to health care. At a stroke, they would further fatten rich people’s wallets and discriminate against women. Not that Repubs are admitting it. But even NPR has cottoned on:

Calling for an over the counter pill allows Republicans to support access to birth control while also supporting the right of corporations to avoid covering it. Getting the pill at a pharmacy without a prescription leaves insurers and employers out of the picture altogether.

Got it, Gentle Reader? We’re talking maybe hundreds of dollars a year that women would have to cough up. It’s a cynical ploy, and an insulting one at that. Add to that sexist, unfair, and any number of other perjoratives. Republicans hate women and have indeed declared war on them. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t act towards females as Ray Rice does in elevators (Offended by the comparison? Well, OK, maybe it’s unfair. After all, the “Republican” party has injured LOTS more women than Mr. Rice has).

Women are not deserving of such blatant and systemic hostility and abusive action from anyone, be it individuals or an entire political party. We all owe it to ourselves to vote the scum out of office. AND cover everyone’s health care without caveats.

We’re ALL smart enough to know that it’s unfair for men to get their Woody Pills covered while women can’t get their reproductive prescriptions paid for as well. Let’s act like we’re that smart when we vote.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

An Open Letter to all Women who Vote “Republican”

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_XGR_ABORTION_RESTRICTIONS_TEXAS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-07-13-01-02-01
Briefly put, Elephants from around the country are trying to control your reproductive organs. They want to control your fertility, menstrual cycles, and family planning. They want to dictate whether or not you will have children. They want access to your medical records and the rights to tell your OB/ GYN how to manage your care.

And not only do they want the right to control these aspects of your life, they are giving themselves those rights. Bit by bit, law by law, state by state.

Also, they mock you, taunt you and ridicule you with the consequences of your votes:
http://m.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/13/1223212/-Erick-Erickson-tells-liberals-to-go-buy-coat-hangers-after-TX-abortion-bill-passes And from their point of view, it makes sense to mock you: after all, you gave them your support. You gave them the rope with which they will “hang” your liberty and pursuit of happiness. Why SHOULDN’T they make fun of you? For decades, the Repubs have been straight up and out front with their intentions for American women. And American women vote for them anyway.

Finally, notice one more thing: with all of these laws controlling you and your bodies, they are not, repeat NOT, passing similar legislation to control men and our bodies. That is not a coincidence.

And you vote for these “Republicans”, WHY? For God’s sake, stop while you still have any rights remaining to you.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

OB/GYN Doctors to Politicians: “Get Out of our Exam Rooms”.

The American College of Gynecologists has finally had enough of lying, grandstanding, glory-hound yahoo politicos and their bulls*** anti-abortion laws. In fact, they are calling these “representatives” out, and (rhetorically) whacking them with very large sticks.

It makes sense that people who actually do something would be considered the experts at that thing, yes? So doctors who are trained in a medical specialty and work at it every day would be the authoritative sources, nicht wahr? And those OB/GYNs should be listened to, n’cest pas?

So let’s listen to them (bold text courtesy of the Crankster):

“While we can agree to disagree about abortion on ideological grounds, we must draw a hard line against insidious legislation that threatens women’s health like Texas HB2 (House Bill 2) and SB1 (Senate Bill 1). That’s why we’re speaking to the false and misleading underlying assumptions of this and other legislation like it: These bills are as much about interfering with the practice of medicine and the relationship a patient has with her physician as they are about restricting women’s access to abortion. The fact is that these bills will not help protect the health of any woman in Texas. Instead, these bills will harm women’s health in very clear ways.
We’re setting the record straight, loudly and unequivocally, with these simple messages to all politicians:

Get Out of Our Exam Rooms”

“Facts are very important, especially when discussing the health of women and the American public. And a lot of “facts” are being asserted in this debate. Truth be told, the scientific underpinnings of this legislation are unsound. First, there’s the 20-week ban, which is based on the argument that a fetus can feel pain. Recent and rigorous scientific reviews have concluded that there is no evidence of fetal perception of pain until 29 weeks at the earliest2 (third trimester is 28–40 weeks).”

Yes, these doctors are opening up a big ol’ can o’ Whoop-Ass on the “Republicans” in Texas and elsewhere who are prying into our private lives. And they are calling out these reprehensible scumballs for lying, invading our privacy, and endangering the lives of women and children with their meddling ways.

And the crazy part is, these “representatives” of ours are all too often proponents of “small government” and decriers of “Big Brother government”. People, if there is any more egregious example of Big Brother than a politician trying to stick their fingers into women’s private parts, this writer hasn’t heard of it.

Kudos to ACOG for telling these intrusive, corrupt, lying, sleazebucket politiciians to go pound sand.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky.

Republicans Say: Have a Miscarriage, Go To Prison

Or at least, that’s what Virginia’s “Republican” AG-in-waiting thinks. He feels so strongly about it, in fact, that he wrote a law in 2009 that would imprison women who had miscarriages if they did not call the cops to report the event, and save the miscarried fetus to hand over as evidence.

This is the man that Virginia Repubs think should be their next Attorney General, so it’s pretty clear that they like his ideas about what should be legal or illegal. And he believes that women who endure the tragedy and trauma of losing a child-to-be should be assumed guilty of criminal acts until proven otherwise. So, the rest of the Republican Party of that state (and maybe the entire country) thinks women who miscarry are de facto criminals.

Don’t take the Cranky Word for it: it’s right there in Section E:
“When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother at or after the delivery or abortion, the mother or someone acting on her behalf shall, within 24 hours, report the fetal death, location of the remains, and identity of the mother to the local or state police or sheriff’s department of the city or county where the fetal death occurred. No one shall remove, destroy, or otherwise dispose of any remains without the express authorization of law-enforcement officials or the medical examiner. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.” Please note that Virginia already has similar laws on the books.

Class 1 offenses can get you up to a year in prison. A year in prison for someone who did nothing wrong. For a woman who loses a baby. For a heartbroken woman. Yes, that’s what today’s “Republicans” think.

This writer knows families that have lost babies, including his own: indeed, he came within a few months of having a brother named “Chris”, so he gets it. A pity that our Elephantine legislators don’t. Miscarriages are human tragedies, not crimes.

Regardless of one’s political philosophy, how could anyone be so cruel, so callous, so despicable as to summarily imprison grieving mothers who either failed to called the police immediately after suffering a miscarriage, or didn’t keep the remains of the poor lost child in their possession to hand over to the police? How could anyone hate women that much?

And how can anyone (including you) vote for a party that supports such legislation?

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

The Hidden Threat of Religious Exemptions from the Health Care Law

Mr. Blunt and Cranky has written on the Constitutional aspects of religious entities cramming their beliefs down the gullets of their employees, the economic aspects of getting rid of the free riders from churches who hide behind their tax-exempt status, and so on. All good stuff, and important facts to know.

However, there is a very scary paradigm emerging amongst the Religious Right.  Example: Hobby Lobby tried to claim a religious exemption in order to undermine the care that their employees could get under the ACA. They said that the owners of the company had a religious objection to certain kinds of gynecological care, and so should be able to opt out of providing them to their workers. The courts have shot them down like bible-shaped skeet. So far.

Consider a more extreme (but highly probable) scenario: the First Church of Christ, Scientist. These people do not believe in medicine: they are faith-healers. So if your employers were Christian Scientists, they could deny you any and all health care coverage. You’d get nothing.  Except, perhaps, for a bunch of nimrods praying by your bedside as you died of appendicitis. This is a legal church, as legal as the Catholics, Babtists, Methodists and entitled to the same tax and legal benefits as any other religious entity.

If employers are allowed to use their personal beliefs to avoid paying for health care that they find objectionable, this writer submits that many tightwads will quickly “convert” to some sort of faith-healing sect in order to save money by denying their employees the care that that need. Soon, there would be few, if any, people covered by employer-based health care plans.

Think it couldn’t happen? Think again. In a society that rewards greed and glorifies ignorance, it is not only possible; it is predictable.

Mr. B & C