Astonishingly, some Republicans decided a proposed bill banning abortions after 20 weeks was a mistake. The bill has been dropped without coming to a vote, though Repubs are forging ahead on a bill to ban federal funding for abortions (apparently the current ban has to be reapproved annually). According to the Washington Post article linked to in the blog post, some Repubs are concerned about their ability to stay competitive in blue-red states (I don’t know if the fact the Repubs quoted in the article are women signifies something about who opposed it, or that the Post thought those were the better voices to way in with).
•LGM celebrates the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I’m with them on that one. The post also points out the lies being flung around over the Congressional decision—that Roe vs. Wade allows abortion throughout pregnancy with no restrictions, that the bill that got shot down was banning “Infanticide” (as LGM points out, why does it then not punish mothers?) … Another lie popularly tossed around is that Roe was bad because abortion policy is a state-level decision. Somehow nobody saying that objects to Congress over-ruling states’ right to legalize abortion after 20 weeks.
•Southern Baptist leader and theocrat Al Mohler has coined the phrase “erotic liberty” as a short-hand for gay rights. He would like people to think that it’s all about gay sex and not about the right to marry, to collect on pensions or the right to simply be gay without being harassed or arrested.
•A lawsuit charges one McDonald’s franchisee with trying to fire enough black employees that the racial ratio would be 50 percent.
•Israel’s leader, this article says, is working with the Republicans to undermine Obama’s Iran policy.
•A look at how white criminals are portrayed in the media. Where Michael Brown was a pot-smoking rap-loving thug, an 18-year-old fleeing a burglary rap with a 13-year-old girlfriend (which is young enough to be statutory rape) they’re just “sweethearts” or “Missing teens.”
•A USAF general says any airman who talks to Congress about the A-10 Warthog (which the Air Force wants to scrap) to endorse the plane is committing treason (short answer: No, he or she wouldn’t be). LGM explains this a little.
•Echidne discusses one school’s decision not to perform The Vagina Monologues because some trans-women (for example) don’t have one.
•Some conservatives continue to insist that as they’re the ones who want a colorblind society and black people keep playing the victim card, ergo the Tea Party is Martin Luther King’s true heir. This is not a new idea. Of course, it’s undermined by the number of times white Christian conservatives keep bringing up how oppressed they are (when I brought up one case of racial discrimination last year, a friend of mine immediately demanded to know why I wasn’t focusing on discrimination against white people).
•And then there are the states that celebrate Robert E. Lee Day alongside MLK Day.
•To balance that out, Hullabaloo links to some great thoughts by MLK and Chris Rock
