Cheesehead Wingnuttery

Full disclosure:  we have ties to Wisconsin (now becoming a subsidiary of Koch Industries), so it's painful to report continuing outbreaks of right-wing nuttery there, to wit:

1).  Last Friday, in a private bill signing not open to press or public, on the 4th of July weekend, Wisconsin's Rethug Gov. and Koch employee-of-the-year Scott "Koch Head" Walker signed a law requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion and for doctors providing abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.  Fortunately, U.S. District Judge William Conley has issued a temporary restraining order on the law's implementation with reference to the hospital privileges.  A full hearing will be held on July 17. 

2).  As part of the Rethugs' plan to corporatize Wisconsin, an outfit called Gogebic Taconite purchased land for iron ore mining in northern Wisconsin.  When environmental protesters showed up, they were met by militia-type guards, dressed in camouflage with their faces masked, and carrying assault-style weapons.  Follow the link to read about the lovely company providing the "security."  This is what you get when you elect a Governor who's completely in the tank for the worst corporate predators on the planet.

The Republican War on Women: Buckeye State Edition

Move over, Texas.  We have another Rethuglican-run state that wants to severely restrict a woman's reproductive rights:

The new [Ohio state] budget, which takes effect on Monday, includes at least five new anti-abortion provisions. HB 59 will defund Planned Parenthood clinics, reallocate family planning funding to right-wing “crisis pregnancy centers,” strip funding from rape crisis centers that give their clients any information about abortion services, impose harsh restrictions on abortion clinics that will force many of them to shut down, and require doctors to give women seeking abortion information about the presence of a “fetal heartbeat.”
 
Taken together, the budget amendments ensure that Ohio now has some of the most stringent abortion laws in the nation.

The culture war continues, in states from Virginia to Texas to Ohio, and the front-line soldiers on the other side are all white, male and Rethuglican.  Amazing how they know what's best for women, and what women really want.

UPDATE:  Some are fighting back, um, hard.

Today's Dispatches From The Stupid Party

There's unfortunately an endless supply of this stupidity, but we'll hold it at two today:

Indiana Rethuglican State Sen. Travis Holdman would like some ladyparts inspected,  for their own good, mind you:

"Women obtaining an abortion-inducing drug would be required to undergo an ultrasound before and after taking the drug under a bill approved Wednesday by an Indiana Senate committee.

Though the bill doesn’t specify that it be a transvaginal ultrasound, in which a several-inch-long probe is inserted in the woman, that’s exactly what Indiana would be requiring, said Dr. John Stuts­man, an Indiana University School of Medicine professor and obstetrician-gynecologist."

We repeat, "What Rethuglican war on women?"  Also:  Branding!

Moving on to Oklahoma, an elected Rethuglican toadstool (no offense to toadstools) has introduced a bill that Mr. Pierce has dubbed "The Dare To Be Ignorant Protection Act of 2013:"

"On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Common Education committee is expected to consider a House bill  [ed:  it since passed the committee] that would forbid teachers from penalizing students who turn in papers attempting to debunk almost universally accepted scientific theories such as biological evolution and anthropogenic (human-driven) climate change.

"Gus Blackwell, the Republican state representative who introduced the bill, insists that his legislation has nothing to do with religion; it simply encourages scientific exploration. 'I proposed this bill because there are teachers and students who may be afraid of going against what they see in their textbooks,' says Blackwell, who previously spent 20 years working for the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. 'A student has the freedom to write a paper that points out that highly complex life may not be explained by chance mutations.'"

Oklahoma currently ranks 42nd among states in science and math learning by high school students.  Should this bill become law, Rethugs can take pleasure in knowing that they will be more competitive in a race to the edumacational bottom with other deep-Red states like cellar-dwellers Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana and Alabama.

What Raising The Minimum Wage Means To Women

Think Progress has done an analysis of why raising the minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour to $9 an hour by 2015 is so important to women. Not only are the majority of people earning the minimum wage women (64%), they are also the primary or co-breadwinner for the family (60%).

Not surprisingly, the Rethuglican leadership in Congress is calling the President's proposal to raise the minimum wage a non-starter. They've never accepted women in the workforce, and never been willing to give equal pay for equal work (see Lily Ledbetter Act). It's another example of their war on women, which is based on a nasty fundamentalist, right wing creed that scorns working women, blames them for rape, and refuses to protect them against violence or unwanted pregnancies.

Today's Dispatches From The Stupid Party

We never have very far to go to find The Stupid (Party).

Rethugs in Michigan want to examine some ladyparts (you'd think they'd have learned their lesson from the 2012 election -- guess not):

"Michigan Republicans have introduced a bill requiring all women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, a move that rekindles last year’s firestorm when other GOP-led states were considering similar measures."

More hijinks in Alabammy, from our new friend, Rethuglican State Sen. Shadrack "Where Did Meshach and Abedne Go?" McGill:

"A Republican lawmaker in Alabama says that he wants to pursue a so-called "personhood" bill outlawing abortion rights for women because the Bible proves that a fetus 'is life inside of a mother,' but he's not sure if 'aborted babies' are going to Heaven or Hell."

Well, we certainly know where you're going, Shitrack.

In Idaho, State Sen. John Goedde (Rethug-Galt's Gulch) has a splendid idea (he claims it's only a symbolic gesture - kind of like the gesture I'm making to him right now):

"A Republican state senator in Idaho on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require every high school student in the Gem State to read Ayn Rand's novel 'Atlas Shrugged,' The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Wash., reported."

Give Up Your Seat Tweet of the Day

Newsweek's Michelle Goldberg points out a classic example of Rethug behavior at their "pro-life" event:

You might think that someone at the RNC For Life event would offer a pregnant lady a seat, but you'd be wrong. #GOP2012

— Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn) August 28, 2012

Cartoon of the Day - Rethuglican War on Women, Convention Edition

(click to enlarge)



(Ben Sargent, via gocomics.com)

Republican Women for Obama

We don't think the Etch-A-Sketch is going to work with these women:

Rethuglican War on Women - Arizona Edition

The spotlight this week on the Rethuglican war on women focuses on Arizona and its questionably sane Governor, Jan "I See Headless Bodies in the Desert!" Brewer. The Romney-endorsing, female Quisling Brewer just signed a Rethuglican bill to cut Planned Parenthood access to taxpayer funding that's funneled through the state. Planned Parenthood, which is contemplating a legal challenge, says this will affect preventive health care and family planning services for as many as 20,000 women in Arizona. It's instructive to note that Rethuglican Governors and Rethuglican-controlled state legislatures have been leading the charge back to the past on issues of women's health (wave your magic wand, Virginia!), which is just one reason why progressives need to do better in state and local elections (or as Charles Pierce puts it, "...electing the unqualified and the half-bright simply because they say the things that you also hear on your radio for 12 hours a day is not a recipe for moving the country forward.")

UPDATE: Which, of course, is not to say the Rethugs aren't trying to push back time on the national level. Misogynist assholes.

War on Women Cartoon of the Day

(click to enlarge)
From Rethug-majority state legislatures passing legislation on everything from defining a zygote as a "person" and requiring transvaginal probes prior to legal abortions, to voting against fair pay legislation and the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, Rethug extremists are trying to turn the clock back to the 1920s on almost every issue of importance to women. They'll try their damndest to fool women voters in November by some clever Etch-A-Sketching, but they've played their hand for all to see.

Recap of Last Week's Skirmish in the War on Women

Stephen Colbert looks back on a week that provided a useful distraction for Rethuglicans, their media water-carriers, and Willard "My Wife Reports To Me About What Women Are Thinking" Romney:

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Willard's Women Woes

It's apparent from polls that the Rethuglican Party has a real problem with a large majority of women. With ultra-right wing Rethugs pushing everything from "personhood" legislation aimed at undermining Roe v. Wade and severely restricting contraceptives, to transvaginal exams aimed at humiliating and intimidating women seeking a legal abortion, the Rethugs have shown that they don't get it.

Their eventual nominee and 3-dollar bill Willard "Weird Willard" Romney keeps stepping in the anti-women poop that his party keeps dropping. He's even hesitant to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that gives women the tools to fight against pay discrimination. Weird Willard is so tin-eared that he actually said this:

"My wife has the occasion, as you know, to campaign on her own and also with me. And she reports to me regularly that the issue women care about most is the economy and getting good jobs for their kids and for themselves."

"She reports to me regularly...?" What does he see her as, a staff member of his? Does he need a female translator or emissary to understand issues of concern to women? Apparently so.

(photo: Weird Willard reacts to the latest "report" from his wife)