Today's Cartoon Twofer - Unplanned Indictments

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(Matt Davies, Newsday)

 
(Jim Morin, The Miami Herald)

Still blissing in the schadenfreude from the indictment of the extremist auteurs of the doctored "baby parts" anti- Planned Parenthood video!

Today's Cartoon - Republicans Continuing Dishonest Assault On Planned Parenthood

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(Tom Toles, once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle)

Item:

Republicans are determined to push on with their investigation of Planned Parenthood, even after a Texas grand jury cleared the organization of wrongdoing on Monday and instead indicted two anti-abortion activists who targeted the family planning provider in a series of undercover videos.  [snip]

The grand jury’s decision hasn’t affected Republicans' plans to continue investigating Planned Parenthood, however. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who is chairing a select investigative committee that purports to be investigating “big abortion providers" -- but for all intents and purposes is only scrutinizing Planned Parenthood -- said in a statement Tuesday that “the mission of our investigation has not changed.”

Republicans on the Presidential campaign clown car bus are also lamenting the turn of events and continuing to pursue the false case against Planned Parenthood, because, well, assholes.

In A Surprise Switch, Auteurs Of Bogus Fetal Tissue Video Indicted, Not Planned Parenthood

Bwahahaha:

A Harris County grand jury investigating allegations that a Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston illegally sold the tissue of aborted fetuses has cleared the organization of wrongdoing and instead indicted two anti-abortion activists behind the undercover videos that sparked the probe.

Secret videographers David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were both indicted on charges of tampering with a governmental record, a second-degree felony that carries a punishment of up to 20 years in prison. Daleiden received an additional misdemeanor indictment under the law prohibiting the purchase and sale of human organs.

The investigation was requested by uber- nut Gov. Greg "Abbadabba" Abbott (R- Texass), who was clearly hoping a kangaroo jury would throw some indictments, or at least more mud, at Planned Parenthood.  Making it even more remarkable, the District Attorney leading the grand jury is a Republican appointed by former Gov. Rick "Oops" Perry.  So, Planned Parenthood is cleared and the ratf*ckers are indicted. To quote Abbott's Republican predecessor, "Oops."  Funny how that turned out.

The deceptively edited video, widely flogged by Republican candidates clowns to discredit Planned Parenthood, was of course debunked as yet another fraudulent attempt by a radical wingnut ratf*cking outfit to take down an organization supported by Democrats or anyone not subscribing to their crackpot agenda =cough= James "G. Gordon Diddy" O'Keefe = cough=.  But not after it had done damage to Planned Parenthood and caused a chorus of despicable Republican officeholders like Abbott to take political potshots at it. 

Oh, the schadenfreude, it is sweet!

UPDATE:  Making the schadenfreude even sweeter, Fox "News" spittle- flingers are having the predictable meltdown.

UPDATE II:

If you're madder at the GOPs who cleared Planned Parenthood than the GOPs who've been lying to you about it, the ones who lied thank you.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) January 26, 2016

House Republicans Launch Latest Political Witchhunt

This time, it's not Benghazi!!!, but Planned Parenthood that will be in for the taxpayer- funded hatchet job:

The House voted Wednesday to create a special committee to investigate Planned Parenthood and the handling of aborted fetal tissue, all but ensuring an already-fierce partisan battle will continue into 2016.  [snip]

The four-page bill does not mention Planned Parenthood by name. Instead, it charges the committee to investigate “fetal tissue procurement,” “federal funding and support for abortion providers” and “born-alive” abortions, generally.

But Republicans were clear that the committee’s work is intended to deepen three existing House committee probes into Planned Parenthood, which began in early August. The committees have held three hearings as part of their investigations, which has prompted Planned Parenthood to turn over at least 20,000 documents, according to Democrats.

Of course, this is all about emptying the pockets of the dim-witted while simultaneously riling them up to go out and re-elect this collection of extremist nihilists.  They have no interest whatsoever in ... what's that word? ... governing.  They have no programs or policies except to cut, obstruct, roll back and, of course, lie about it all.  How these skunks got such a foothold in American politics would be a mystery if not for the 800- pound gorilla in the room:  the 40- years- in- the- making right-wing media and "think" tank bullshit apparatus, funded by plutocrats and abetted by a cowardly "mainstream media," that has a sizable portion of the electorate engaged in doublethink and voting against its best interests.

Fortunately, they're fighting an uphill battle when it comes to Planned Parenthood:

One thing Congressional Republicans haven't helped themselves with recently is their war on Planned Parenthood. By a 12 point margin, 49/37, voters say they have a higher opinion of Planned Parenthood than the Republicans in Congress. That includes a 45/35 edge with independents.  (our emphasis)

However, connecting the dots to the true malevolence in American politics is still a bridge too far for many:

Congress on the whole has its requisite atrocious approval rating at 11/82. Despite the Republican control though that doesn't have the electorate positioned to vote for massive change- the generic Congressional ballot splits evenly with each party getting 43%... (our emphasis)

Sic transit gloria, America.

BONUS:  And it's only going to get worse.

Clinton: "Support And Stand With Planned Parenthood"

Hillary Clinton name-checks some of the "talent" and "well-qualified"  numbnuts candidates running for the Republican Presidential nomination on their records on women's health:

The Republican War On Women - Planned Parenthood Edition

As Congress moves toward its summer recess, plans are afoot among the knuckle-draggers to deal a crippling blow to Planned Parenthood:

With conservatives hungry for a confrontation over Planned Parenthood, and Democrats moving to protect the organization, the battle is brewing over a must-pass spending bill that Congress has to deliver to the president’s desk by Sept. 30 to avoid a repeat of the 2013 shutdown

Conservatives figure using the power of the purse is the best way to force the action, while Democrats say that strategy plays into their hands and will tar Republicans with another shutdown.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is promising to block any effort to strip Planned Parenthood’s federal money, and though the White House hasn’t weighed in officially yet, Democratic aides insist President Barack Obama would not sign any spending bill that eliminates the funding.

This is, of course, fallout from the continuing release of debunked, highly edited video and audio tapes produced by the extremist, ironically named "Center for Medical Progress," and is part and parcel of the far-right's long-term strategy to destroy pro-choice organizations and associated women's health services in general. (Planned Parenthood annually serves approximately 3 million women in America, providing cancer-  and HIV-screening and contraception through roughly 700 clinics.)  This latest gambit has been clearly coordinated between the knuckle-draggers and their co- crackpot, craven Republican politicians fundraisers.  Far-right Republicans, however, have a long history of not being willing or able to learn from their mistakes ( "Fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me... You can't get fooled again!'"), and will doubtless try to pass this spending bill with the poison pill Planned Parenthood defunding included, shutdown be damned!

When all is said and done, we heartily endorse Sen. Harry Reid's (D-NV) response to Republican threats to shut down government over Planned Parenthood funding:

To Republicans who are trying to defund Planned Parenthood: Good luck with that.

— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) July 28, 2015

Letters We Wish We'd Written - Ongoing Smear of Planned Parenthood Dept.

From today's once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle, this letter comes in response to an op/ed by Republican shill Kathleen Parker:

Using legally donated fetal tissue to advance medical research and possibly even treat diseases that debilitate millions of people is hardly, as Kathleen Parker contended in her July 19 op-ed column, “A modern proposal,” an action “made in hell.”

Donations of organs and tissues are selfless acts. Heaping such animus on Planned Parenthood for taking part in medical donation — and making judgments on the basis of eight edited minutes taken from a nearly three-hour video — is a sad reflection of how politicized and demonized abortion and the women who choose it have become in our society.

Savaging medical practitioners and a network of medical clinics that provide a comprehensive range of essential health services and resorting to such hyperbole as asserting that fetal livers are “selling like hotcakes” do nothing to further any honest, nuanced and intellectually curious conversations about abortion.

 Sarah Erdreich, Washington

As we note below, Republicans and their goons in the anti-choice movement are pushing this discredited "evidence" as a means of destroying Planned Parenthood while energizing their bible-thumping base.  Media enablers like Parker give them a bigger megaphone, which is why it's important to confront them at every opportunity, as Ms. Erdreich has done.

The Ongoing Smear of Planned Parenthood (UPDATED)

A deceptively edited video alleging that Planned Parenthood sold fetal tissue for profit has been debunked after an investigation by FactCheck.org.  The group behind the video has also been revealed to be an extremist anti-choice organization, the so-called "Center for Medical Progress," which has connections to the violent "Operation Rescue" organization. Fetal tissue is used by a range of medical research organizations, including the National Institutes of Health and university medical centers, to find a cure for such illnesses as Parkinson's disease, HIV, hepatitis, and congenital heart defects. When requested, Planned Parenthood provides such tissue to medical research at cost, with no profit involved.

Rethuglican politicians fighting for restrictions on women's reproductive rights had pounced on the fraudulent  video, while they resumed their attacks on Federal funding for Planned Parenthood.  However, as the New York Times editorial board wrote today about the edited video:

"….it is the latest in a series of unrelenting attacks on Planned Parenthood, which offers health care services to millions of people every year. The politicians howling to defund Planned Parenthood care nothing about the truth here, being perfectly willing to undermine women’s reproductive rights any way they can."

Another day, another lie propagated by the extreme right, their Rethuglican representatives, and their media enablers.

UPDATE:  Democrats are now requesting the Justice Department investigate the "Center for Medical Progress"  and it's discredited "sting" operation on Planned Parenthood.