Fri, 02/24/2012 - 10:07am — Michael Keegan
A message to People For the American Way supporters from PFAW
president Michael Keegan:
Fighting contraception. Stopping domestic violence protections.
Extending tax cuts for the wealthy, while hiking taxes on the middle
class. Welcoming white supremacists to a conference, but banning gay
conservatives. The GOP has followed its extremist fringe off the deep
end, leaving the rest of us back in the reality-based world befuddled.
Their strategists warned them not to do this, but it appears that to
the GOP, radical fringe issue positions are like catnip. In last
night's Republican presidential debate in Arizona, the candidates even
spent several minutes discussing which of them is least in favor of
allowing rape victims to have access to emergency contraception.
Perhaps Bruce Bartlett, who was an economic policy official under
Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, said it best on last night's
Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Discussing the obstacles to getting smart
policies agreed upon and passed in government, he said, "the problem
is purely political ... frankly, one of our political parties is
insane, and we all know which one it is." (Hint: he was not talking
about the Democrats.)
Standing Up for Women's Health -- We all heard about the War on
Women's Health last year, when Tea Party-empowered state legislatures
passed a record slew of anti-choice laws -- like Arizona's ban on
"race-based abortions" and Virginia's attempt to shut down most
abortion clinics in the state. These state legislatures were joined by
an enthusiastic right-wing Congress that attempted to defund the
entire $317 million federal family program, tried to redefine "rape"
and eagerly promoted lies about their favorite bogeyman, Planned
Parenthood. Well, the War on Women's Health is back, and it looks to
be more an all-out War on Women. PFAW members spoke out when Susan G.
Komen for the Cure threatened to cut off funds for Planned Parenthood
because of internal influences from right-wing staff and board
members. We're currently fighting an amendment in the U.S. Senate that
would give employers the power to deny any health care to their
employees that they take "moral" issue with personally. And we
continue to track closely dangerous and extreme state legislation like
the recent bill passed by Virginia's right-wing Assembly that would
force women considering abortions -- even rape victims -- to undergo
invasive transvaginal ultrasounds.
Exposing the GOP Candidates' Extremism -- PFAW's Right Wing Watch last
week uncovered the audio recording of a speech Rick Santorum gave to
students at Ave Maria University in 2008 in which he said Satan, the
"Father of Lies" was focusing all his attention on the United States
of America. He said that academia had long ago fallen to this Satanic
attack, derided mainline Protestant churches as no longer Christian
and said that we are involved in a "spiritual war," as opposed to a
political or cultural war -- a war in which we could only assume
people with opposing views to Santorum's are on the side of Satan. The
story took off like wildfire in both the blogosphere and the
mainstream news media. It became the dominant storyline of the GOP
debate for the two days leading up to the last debate and even had
right-wing pundits like Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh, and
politicians like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, asserting that
Santorum's religious extremism is too much for a majority of
Americans.
Fighting Judicial Obstruction -- A new PFAW fact sheet shows the
extremity and unprecedented nature of Senate Republicans obstruction
of judicial nominees, as well as its impact on Americans' access to
justice. While a vacancy crisis persists on many of the nation's
federal courts, our persistence is paying off and we're finally making
headway in getting some of the president's qualified nominees
confirmed. This month, the Senate confirmed Cathy Ann Bencivengo and
Jesse Furman to U.S. District Courts in California and New York
respectively, and Adalberto Jose Jordan to the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals, all of whom had been waiting months on the Senate calendar
for a vote despite the fact that they came out of the Senate Judiciary
Committee without any opposition. But dozens of other qualified
nominees, most of whom had little or no opposition in Committee, still
await confirmation. We'll continue to hold Republicans accountable for
their obstruction and keep the pressure on to confirm these judges as
swiftly as possible, and one at a time if necessary.
Youth Spotlight: Young Elected Officials take on Citizens United v.
FEC -- In state, city and municipal governing bodies in at least seven
states, members of our affiliate PFAW Foundation's Young Elected
Officials (YEO) Network have put forward resolutions that call for the
end of corporate personhood and unlimited special interest money in
politics. One of the first big victories in this coordinated national
effort was that of Missoula, Montana Councilwoman Cynthia Wolken.
After attending a session on Citizens United at the 2011 YEO National
Convening, Councilwoman Wolken took a sample resolution and introduced
a city-wide referendum calling for Congress to pass a constitutional
amendment that made it clear that corporations are not people. The
referendum passed overwhelmingly, with over 75% of the vote, bringing
an abundance of media attention to the issue and forcing leaders in
Montana's state government to weigh-in as well.
As always, thank you for your support, without which none of our work
would be possible.
Best,
Michael Keegan
More:
http://blog.pfaw.org/content/deep-end
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
--
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