Re my previous entry here — I just received the following email from CNN:
Evacuation fees for Americans being helped to leave Lebanon will be waived, two Republican senators tell CNN.
Overheard At Rehearsal For “Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical”
"No doubt we are all going to hell" — Emily Mark
Same Sex Amendment Fails House, Too
Because the proposed anti-same-sex marriage amendment to the Constitution failed the Senate a few weeks ago, the vote in the House today was entirely symbolic.
Even then, the proposal to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman failed: 236-187, 47 short of the two-thirds majority needed.
UPDATE: An ultra-conservative Congressman (and a Democrat, believe it or not) from Tennessee speaks against the amendment because — wait for it — it doesn’t go far enough. Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN) said Congress shouldn’t just ban gay marriage, but should also “outlaw divorce in this country” and “outlaw adultery and make it a felony.” In addition, Davis said, “we should also prevent those who commit adultery, or get a divorce, from running for office.” Watch the video.
U.S. Citizens Trapped In Lebanon Have To Pay For Their Evacuation
From the website of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut (follow the link if you doubt me):
A message to the American citizens in Lebanon:
The Department of State continues to work with the Department of Defense on a plan to help American citizens depart Lebanon. As of the morning of July 15, we are looking at how we might transport Americans to Cyprus. Once in Cyprus, Americans can then board commercial aircraft for onward travel. Commercial airlines provide the safest and most efficient repatriation options to final destinations.
The Department of State reminds American citizens that the U.S. government does not provide no-cost transportation but does have the authority to provide repatriation loans to those in financial need. For the portion of your trip directly handled by the U.S. Government we will ask you to sign a promissory note and we will bill you at a later date. In a subsequent message, when we have specific details about the transporation arrangments, we will inform you about the costs you will incur.
Nice.
By the way, here’s what it says at the website for the Canadian Embassy in Lebanon:
The Canadian Government has arranged for sea vessels to assist Canadians wishing to depart Lebanon. All costs related to the evacuation of Canadians citizens from Lebanon will be borne by the Government of Canada.
UPDATE: More to this story here.
Kill The Penny
Count me among those who think the penny is worthless in the single, and costly in the aggregate:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Representative Jim Kolbe wants to do away with the penny – and for the second time has introduced legislation that would effectively kill it.
The Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation (COIN) Act would force the rounding off of all cash transactions to the nearest 5 cents, making the penny coin useless for everyday transactions.
The move is in part a reaction to the rising cost of zinc – the penny’s main ingredient – which at current prices brings the cost of making the coin to 1.4 cents each.
Kolbe (R-Arizona) introduced similar legislation in 2001 when prices for metals weren’t as high. The bill failed to pass or even to make it to a floor vote. Since then, however, zinc costs have nearly doubled.
Over half of the U.S. Mint’s coin production comes in the form of pennies, which are made of 97.5 percent zinc. The cost of producing the coin has risen from 0.97 cent per penny in 2005 to 1.4 cent per penny. At that rate, the Mint would spend some $44 million producing pennies this year, nearly $14 million more than in 2005.
As with the 2001 bill, the new one calls for rounding down any cash transaction that ends in in 1,2,6 and 7 cents; totals ending in 3,4,8, or 9 cents would round up.
Bush PERSONALLY Blocked DOJ Investigation
Remember earlier this year, when the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) announced that it could not pursue an investigation into the role of DOJ lawyers in crafting the NSA warrantless wiretapping program? The OPR said it was denied security clearance to conduct the investigation.
Previously, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would not explain why the security clearances had been denied, saying he did not want to “get into internal discussions.”
But in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning, Gonzales said President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an investigation of the warrantless eavesdropping program.
In other words, Bush blocked an investigation into his own administration’s possible wrongdoings. 1972, anyone?
Mr. Creepyhands
"A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They’re loud and ostentatious. Perhaps they’re frightened and defensive, or maybe they’re not properly trained and make mistakes out of ignorance." — The Ugly American, William Lederer & Eugene Burdick
I’m going to go with "not properly trained".
Our President is really doing a bang-up job representing our country at the G8. First, he cusses, while talking with his mouth full, and displays a frightingly childlike view of the current Middle East crisis.
On the heels of that, German newspapers are talking about our President invaded the personal space of German Chancellor Angela Merkel by giving her an uninvited neck rub …or something.
Everybody recognizes the guy who sidles up and starts "casually" gives a woman a backrub without even looking at her, because he wants to preserve deniability in case she freaks out. That’s exactly what happened here.
Is Bush trying to out-Clinton Clinton?
UPDATE: German captions translated here.
MORE: Green Knight:
So let’s keep score. On this trip alone, Bush has
- Made a fool of himself over a roast pig.
- Been rebuked publicly by Vladimir Putin.
- Showed everyone that he chews with his mouth open and talks with his mouth full.
- Said "shit" on camera.
- And now, attempted to assert quasi-sexualized dominance over an international leader.
All of this, while demonstrating that he has no idea what to do about the crisis in the Middle East, or any ability to affect it.
A Very Unamicable Divorce
Dr. Bartha, the guy who blew up his Manhattan townhouse with him in it (and he eventually died) so that his wife couldn’t take possession of it in their divorce proceedings . . . was kind of a prick:
The ex-wife hid from the Nazis as a child; he drew swastikas all around their house. Their children tried to call him, but he sputtered curses and hung up the phone: he accused them of siding with their mother. Finally, the authorities suspect, he destroyed the house so she wouldn’t get it.
More On Lying To Women About Their Health
Tbogg sez it all:
If you lie with a man, it’s fair game to lie to you:
Women who consult with pregnancy resource centers often get misleading information about the health risks associated with having an abortion, according to a report issued Monday by Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee.
Congressional aides, posing as pregnant 17-year-olds, called 25 pregnancy centers that have received some federal funding over the past five years.
The aides were routinely told of increased risk for cancer, infertility and stress disorders, said the report, which was prepared for Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.
Only a small fraction of the more than 4,000 pregnancy clinics nationwide get any federal funding, mostly for promoting sexual abstinence.
With a few exceptions, the federal government doesn’t give money specifically for the counseling operations, but Waxman’s staff said 25 centers got ”capacity building grants.” Thus, Waxman said, they should be held accountable for the information they dispense.
Of the 25 centers called, two could not be reached. Eight told the caller that abortion leads to a greater risk of breast cancer, the report said.
Care Net, an umbrella group for evangelical pregnancy centers across the country, instructs its affiliates to tell callers there is a possibility that abortion can lead to greater risk of breast cancer, according to Molly Ford, an official with the organization. She said there have been several studies that say it does, and several that say it doesn’t.
”I know the report is wanting to say that it’s conclusive, but it isn’t,” Ford said.
So who are you going to believe, the National Cancer Institute and the New England Journal of Medicine:
The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society agree that concerns about breast cancer should not influence a women’s decision about abortion.
See the NAF (National Abortion Federation) website for further analysis of the breast cancer studies.
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, published in 1997, induced abortions have no overall effect on the risk of breast cancer, based upon a review of the study in Denmark of 1.5 million women.
Or Molly:
Molly joined the Care Net team in 2006 to assist the Vice President of Communications with the expanding responsibilities of the department. She serves as web editor for the corporate website and is a regular contributor to the Center of Tomorrow Journal, Care Net’s leading publication.
In the spring of 2004, Molly participated in the Witherspoon Fellowship, an academic internship program under the direction of the Family Research Council. She spent the following summer working on Capitol Hill for Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte.
She graduated from Liberty University in May of 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in government and history and spent several months working as an associate for Jerry Falwell Ministries and the Helms School of Government before accepting a position as Communications Manager for the American Conservative Union, the nation’s oldest conservative lobbying group.
…from CrackerJack University?
Call Molly and tell her to quit lying to women.
The Stem Cell Showdown
With the Senate expected to vote on H.R. 810 — the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act — and with Bush’s threat of a veto (his first ever in 6 years), it’s important to know some background and falsehoods behind Bush’s recent statement:
FACT: GOV’T STEM CELL LINES UNUSABLE: Bush originally justified his position by claiming there were “more than 60” stem cell lines for researchers to work with; now we know that “many if not all of the…lines are now contaminated and unusable” because they were developed using mouse cells.
FACT: PROPOSED ETHICS GUIDELINES STRICTER THAN BUSH’S: The White House statement says that H.R. 810 “advances the proposition that the Nation must choose between science and ethics.” But H.R. 810 actually advances ethical guidelines on stem cell research “tighter than those under the President’s policy, specifically when it comes to requiring the individuals seeking fertility treatment to provide written informed consent when donating their surplus embryos.”
FACT: NO ‘LIFE OR DEATH’ DECISION INVOLVED: Today’s statement claims H.R. 810 “would use Federal taxpayer dollars to support and encourage the destruction of human life for research.” This is wrong on two counts. One, there is already a federal ban on funding for the destruction of human embryos, and H.R. 810 maintains this ban. Two, the embryos funded by H.R. 810 were “created for the purposes of in vitro fertilization…which are spare or in excess of clinical need and in every single case are slated for medical waste.” In other words, the “life and death” decision has already been made — “the donors have decided to discard these embryos and they will be discarded.”
Via Think Progress.
For a good primer and FAQ on the whole issue, start here.
UPDATE: Conservative K-Lo at The Corner quotes Mike Spence’s objections to stem cell research:
The proponents of this legislation don’t just want to be able to do embryonic research. They want me to pay for it and like 43 percent of the American people in a survey out today, I have a problem with that.
Well, tough titty. I have a problem with my tax dollars going to pay for certain wars. EVERYONE has that beef about one government program or another.
Hot Enough For You?
Oddly enough, I haven’t read about blackouts, as power stations fail to meet air conditioning consumption.
Maybe that’ll be later this week.
UPDATE: Apparently, we’re still okay when it comes to power demands.
LATE UPDATE [3:50 p.m.]: Ah here we go: Power outages hit New York subway, LaGuardia
Quote Of The Day
George Will blasts neoconservative foreign policy in the Middle East:
[I]t is not perverse to wonder whether the spectacle of America, currently learning a lesson — one that conservatives should not have to learn on the job — about the limits of power to subdue an unruly world, has emboldened many enemies.
Read the whole thing. He rejects the neoconservative ability to turn the current Mideast crisis into a “Let’s get Iran” war drive. To Will, it’s clear that neocons haven’t learned the lessons of their mistakes in Iraq. Ouch.
Baghdad Falling
From The London Times – Baghdad Starts To Collapse:
A local [Baghdad] journalist told me bitterly this week that Iraqis find it ironic that Saddam Hussein is on trial for killing 148 people 24 years ago, while militias loyal to political parties now in government kill that many people every few days. But it is not an irony that anyone here has time to laugh about. They are too busy packing their bags and wondering how they can get out alive.
The War On Truth: Faith-Based Pregnancy Clinics Lie To Girls
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Advisers working at some federally funded pregnancy resource centers mislead pregnant teens about the risks of abortion, falsely telling callers it raises the risk of breast cancer, infertility and mental illness, a U.S. congressman said on Monday.
Democratic staff on the House of Representatives Government Reform Committee who called up some faith-based pregnancy resource centers said they received incorrect advice aimed at discouraging abortion.
"Twenty of the 23 centers reached by the investigators (87 percent) provided false or misleading information about the health effects of abortion," California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman said in a statement.
Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the committee, asked staff to check on pregnancy crisis centers, which were given $24 million in federal funding between 2001 and 2005.
Female staffers posed as pregnant 17-year-olds and called the 25 pregnancy resource centers that have received grants from the Compassion Capital Fund.
One center told a caller that an abortion would ‘affect the milk developing in her breasts’ and that the risk of breast cancer increased by as much as 80 percent after an abortion," Waxman’s office said.
The Institute of Medicine and the National Cancer Institute have discounted any link between abortion and breast cancer, although the Institute briefly carried a statement on its Web site making such a link — a statement that was taken down after a public clamor by scientists and doctors.
Callers were also told, wrongly, that a standard, first-trimester abortion would raise the risk of infertility, Waxman said.
And contrary to research, 13 centers told the caller that the psychological effects of abortion are severe, long-lasting, and common, Waxman said.
"There is a medical consensus that induced abortion does not cause an increased risk of breast cancer. Despite this consensus, eight centers told the caller that having an abortion would in fact increase her risk," Waxman’s report reads.
"Pregnancy resource centers are virtually always pro-life organizations whose goal is to persuade teen-agers and women with unplanned pregnancies to choose motherhood or adoption."
A spokeswoman for the Health and Human Services Department, which funds the centers, could not immediately be reached for comment.
This is what happens when you start funding "faith-based" initiatives in the area of women’s health: a propaganda campaign that puts ideology above fact.