Letter in Opposition to the State Department's "Commission on Unalienable Rights"

A trio of clear and present dangers to human rights.

In a post yesterday I looked at the Trump/Pence regime's dangerous and disingenuous "Commission on Inalienable Rights" which appears designed to roll back LGBT and women's rights.  The Commission's membership is full of far right Christian extremists to the exclusion of legitimate experts on human rights issues.  Now, a letter has been made available to stand in opposition to the Commission and to demand that resources be directed to legitimate and non-sectarian resources to fight human rights abuses both in America and across the globe.  The letter, which I encourage  both individuals and organizations to sign can be found here.  Follow the instructions to join the list of signatories.  Here are excerpts from the letter:

We . . . . write to express our deep concern with the Department of State’s recently announced Commission on Unalienable Rights. We object to the Commission’s stated purpose, which we find harmful to the global effort to protect the rights of all people and a waste of resources; the Commission’s make-up, which lacks ideological diversity and appears to reflect a clear interest in limiting human rights, including the rights of women and LGBTQI individuals; and the process by which the Commission came into being and is being administered, which has sidelined human rights experts in the State Department’s own Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL).

We urge you to immediately disband this body, and to focus your personal attention on the significant challenges currently facing the protection of human rights globally, including those threats to human rights generated by Trump administration policy and rhetoric.

We are likewise dismayed by the well-documented views of a significant majority of the Commission’s 10 members. Taken as a whole, the Commission clearly fails to achieve the legal requirement that a federal advisory committee “be fairly balanced in its membership in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed.” Almost all of the Commission’s members have focused their professional lives and scholarship on questions of religious freedom, and some have sought to elevate it above other fundamental rights. The right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion is a fundamental right, but one of among 30 such rights enshrined in the [1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights] UDHR.

No Commissioner focuses nearly as exclusively on any other issue of pressing concern contained with the UDHR, including the right to asylum, the right to be free from torture, the right to equal protection against any discrimination, or any of the UDHR’s enumerated economic, social, and cultural rights, among other topics.

Moreover, the Commission’s chair and members are overwhelmingly clergy or scholars known for extreme positions opposing LGBTQI and reproductive rights, and some have taken public stances in support of indefensible human rights violations. The Commission’s chair has stated that marriage equality presents a danger to children. A Commission member has similarly stated that “the unavoidable message” of same-sex marriage “is a profoundly false and damaging one.” A third Commission member has argued publicly against the use of contraception even when that use is meant to limit the spread of deadly disease. A fourth has described questions of gender identity as “a matter of mental illness or some other pathology” and “a mark of a heartless culture.” A fifth has suggested that widespread outrage at the Saudi Arabian government’s premeditated murder and dismemberment of journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi is grounded in U.S. domestic political considerations. A sixth has described the government of the United Arab Emirates as one “committed to tolerance…committed to civil society,” despite that government’s egregious and well-documented human rights record at home and abroad.

Rather than continue with this Commission, we urge you to use the resources of your office to take action on the great many grave human rights issues facing the world today, including those you have the power to improve directly. These include actions that have exposed children and other migrants to acute distress and, in some instances, long-lasting psychological damage. They include extreme selectivity and hypocrisy in raising human rights concerns, and rhetoric from the president and administration supportive of many of the world’s leading human rights violators, from Kim Jong Un to Vladimir Putin to Mohammed bin Salman. They include routine attacks on a free press and independent judiciary, behaviors emulated and applauded by strongmen worldwide. And they include policies that will exacerbate the impacts of climate change, which threatens the rights of every one of us.

Join me in signing this letter.   A piece in Slate further elaborates on the danger this commission poses to human rights. 

The Justice Department’s Troubling Ties to Alliance Defending Freedom

Jeff Sessions announcing his new anti-gay task force.

While the "Alliance Defending Freedom" ("ADF") describes itself as a "Christian" law firm, the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups across America, has certified ADF as a hate group.  The principal target of ADF's efforts is the LGBT community whose civil rights it seeks to rescind in order that Christofascist can discriminate at will and be exempt from public accommodation laws.  Given the significant overlap between ADF's evangelical base and white supremacists, the LGBT community is not ADF's lone target.  A prior blog post earlier this week noted how  Attorney General Jeff Sessions - a man with a long history of homophobia and racism - announced at "task force" within the Department of Justice which would enforce exemptions from non-discrimination laws. A piece in Media Matters looks at the insidious relationship between the Trump/Pence DOJ and ADF.  Trump may be breaking promises to much of his base, but he is pandering overtime to the Christofascists thanks in no small part I suspect to Mike Pence, an extreme far right wing religious zealot in his own right.  Here are article highlights:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the creation of a Department of Justice (DOJ) task force to enforce “religious liberty” rules that make it easier to discriminate against the LGBTQ community and others under the guise of “religious freedom." Such discrimination is a major part of the mission of anti-LGBTQ legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), and the announcement was followed by a panel that included a major ADF client and was moderated by an ADF staff alumna. Coupled with ADF's involvement in the announcement, the new task force demonstrates the influence of the group's extreme anti-LGBTQ views on the administration.

On July 30, Sessions launched a new “Religious Liberty Task Force” that would enforce discriminatory religious exemptions guidance that the DOJ released in October 2017. (Sessions had worked with ADF on the guidance before its release.) Religious exemptions policies, such as those the DOJ released, allow people and businesses to be exempt from nondiscrimination laws and policies by citing a burden on their religious beliefs. People have frequently used the exemptions to discriminate against the LGBTQ community and others.

ADF was one of the first to break the news of the July 30 “Religious Liberty Summit” in which the task force was announced, noting that the event would feature a panel including the group’s client Jack Phillips, a Christian baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple and who took his case to the Supreme Court in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commision. ADF’s news release, however, did not mention that the panel’s moderator, DOJ media affairs specialist Kerri Kupec, worked at ADF for four yearsbefore joining DOJ in January. 

The Trump-Pence administration has shown a coziness with extreme anti-LGBTQ groups and with ADF, in particular. Sessions’ DOJ issued an unusual brief on behalf of Phillips before oral arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop, and ADF alumni and allies have been hired by various agencies and nominated for federal judgeships. As Media Matters’ recently released research book details, ADF holds dozens of extreme anti-LGBTQ positions on nearly every every aspect of life, including supporting laws that would punish sodomy by imprisonment, writing in favor of Russia’s so-called “gay propaganda” law, and advocating against efforts to protect LGBTQ youth from the harmful and discredited practice of conversion therapy. The group is in many ways the most influential group working to roll back LGBTQ equality in the country, frequently targeting basic protections for transgender students and pushing religious exemptions policies.

The “Religious Liberty Task Force” is yet another example of a cabinet-level agency devoting significant resources to make it easier to discriminate against LGBTQ people. In January, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new division to enforce laws protecting “health care workers who express religious objections to performing abortions and certain other procedures,” including providing medical services to transgender and other LGBTQ people.

When groups like ADF have a seat at the table with the upper echelons of our federal government, discriminatory policies such as these come as no surprise.

Many secular straights and other minorities likely yawn at this news and figure that it does not affect them.  However, if one has followed the Christofascist agenda for years, gays are only the first on ADF's hit list.  These folks are so extreme that they would like to make contraception illegal once more.  If Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed to the Supreme Court, they might just have the votes needed to overrule Griswold v. Connecticut.  ADF and its supporters are nothing short of frightening. 

Exposing The “Real” Mike Pence

In many ways, I believe Mike Pence embodies many of the worse elements of the Christofascist extremists who have a stranglehold on the Republican Party base.  Pence engages in false piety while doing violence to the Gospel message, he claims to be "pro-life" even though his party's policies are  anything but pro-life once a child - especially a poor minority child - is born, and he is fanatically anti-LGBT (I suspect because of his own sexual orientation issues).  On the latter point, the president of the Human Rights Campaign recently stated: “Mike Pence has made a career out of attacking the rights and equal dignity of LGBTQ people, women and other marginalized communities. Now as vice president, he poses one of the greatest threats to equality in the history of our movement. With the world distracted by Donald Trump’s scandal-ridden White House, Mike Pence’s nefarious agenda has been allowed to fly under the radar for too long.  . . ."  HRC and others in the LGBT and progressive community are seeking to expose Pence for what he really is and, hopefully expose the extremism of the GOP agenda in the process.  A piece in Politico looks at the effort.  Here are highlights (please take the time to check out the HRC website):

A leading progressive group is launching a campaign-style effort to [correctly] paint Vice President Mike Pence as an extremist who wields unprecedented power in the White House — an early sign that as the vice president takes a lead role in midterm campaigning, he also risks making himself a target.

The Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBT rights organization, is launching a sustained attack against Pence, with a website, videos and a lengthy report to be released on Thursday. The materials were shown to POLITICO early.

And as President Donald Trump’s legal troubles expand, from the special counsel probe to a federal investigation of his personal attorney, some Democrats are beginning to train their fire on Pence in case the president doesn’t run for reelection in 2020 or gets removed from office. The broadside comes as Pence has taken on an outsize role in the Republicans’ work to prevent a Democratic wave in 2018. In the next week and a half, Pence will be making campaign stops in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Indiana and California. Those trips come after Pence has already crisscrossed the country stumping and fundraising for Republicans. The HRC effort highlights what it describes as Pence’s “extremist ideology”: his opposition while in Congress to Employment Non-Discrimination Act protections for sexual orientation; his opposition to ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which barred openly gay people from serving in the military; his opposition to hate crime protections for transgender individuals; and a statement on his 2000 campaign website that appeared to endorse federal funding for the controversial practice of “conversion therapy.”

The report, which highlights these positions, also hits Pence for his handling of an HIV/AIDS outbreak in Indiana during his governorship and for signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which critics said would legalize discrimination against LGBT people and which nearly derailed his governorship.

Along with the report, HRC produced a series of videos, including one in which Pence decries the use of condoms and another in which he lobbies against hate-crime legislation. . . . . Clips of Pence speaking on the floor of the House — including one in which he says, “Abstinence and marital faithfulness before condom distribution are the cure for what ails the families of Africa” — are spliced in. “We’ve seen Mike Pence fly underneath the radar,” said Chris Sgro, HRC’s communications director. “The unfortunate reality is that Mike Pence has tried to hold himself out there as the moderate, grown-up voice in the room. But we know, and this report exposes, that he’s anything but. He is a dangerous extremist.” [GOP strategist, Rick] Tyler said even if HRC and other groups beat up on Pence as November approaches, he believes voters are more likely to make ballot-box decisions based on their views of Trump.

“When [House Speaker Paul] Ryan announced he wasn’t running for reelection, that was in many ways the end of the Republican Party the way I knew it and the way Ryan knew it,” Tyler said. “The cord is severed, this is now Trump’s party, for better or worse, for good or bad, and 2018 is now a referendum on his party.”

Under Trump/Pence, It’s Church Over State

The regime  of Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Trumpenführer, and Mike Pence is relentlessly striving to place far right Christian beliefs above the laws that govern the rest of society.  Since last week, real or feigned extremist religious belief allow companies to role back contraception coverage in their employee health insurance plans and allows individuals to make a mockery of non-discrimination laws that bar discrimination based on religion or religious belief.  Yet, now, if one is LGBT and does not adhere to Christofascist dogma, you can be fired, denied service and refused accommodations and housing by the self-anointed "godly folk."  The irony on the war on contraception coverage is that it will increase the number of unwanted pregnancies and increase demand for abortions, something the same "godly Christians" to whom Trump and Pence are prostituting themselves also claim to abhor with even more fervor.  As numerous studies have shown, the USA has the highest unwanted pregnancy rate of any advanced industrial nation specifically because of the restrictions on access to contraception and the lunatic abstinence only sex education programs so loved by Christofascists.  Everyone who believes in religious freedom and equality under the laws should be concerned.  Today it's contraception and gays, but tomorrow it could be those who are Jewish, non-Christian who the Christofascists also dislike and hate. An op-ed in the New York Times attacks this exultation of one religion over the civil rights of citizens and the law.  Here are excerpts:

Saudi women are gaining the right to drive. American women are losing the right to employer-provided birth control.

The first development signifies a theocratic kingdom’s bow to the inexorable onslaught of modernity. The second is a cynical bow to the forces of reaction against modernity.

It would be too far a stretch to see in Saudi Arabia even the glimmer of the emergence of civil society. But it’s not much of a stretch to see in the rules issued by the Trump administration last week the fraying of civil society as the United States has known it. Ours is a diverse society in which all are expected, with limited and precisely defined exceptions, to abide by the rules that apply to all. The alternative, as Justice Antonin Scalia observed decades ago, “would be courting anarchy.”

The new rules, which went into immediate effect, create exceptions that are anything but limited. They are, in fact, there for the taking. Any “entities” that claim not only religious but also “moral” objections to birth control are entitled to refuse to comply with the federal contraception mandate that until last Friday was enabling 55 million women to receive birth control without charge as part of their work- or college-related health insurance coverage.

The list of religious objectors includes churches and religious orders (which from the beginning have been completely exempt from the mandate anyway); nonprofit organizations; a “closely held for-profit entity;” a “for-profit entity that is not closely held” (including publicly traded companies); and ”any other nongovernmental employer” along with institutions of higher education.

We are talking, in other words, about the American workplace.

It’s hard to overstate the radical nature of what has just happened. Just three years ago, in the Hobby Lobby case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Obama administration could not impose the mandate on a closely held for-profit business owned by a family with religious objections to birth control.

Now the Trump administration has played the Supreme Court justices for chumps. The accommodation, carefully worked out and fought over, is a thing of the past. In its place is a flat-out exemption, with no requirement that women be offered any alternative route to coverage.

The administration says the average price of a year’s birth control is $584. That’s probably low . . .  but that’s not really the point. Others have called attention to the administration’s truly astonishing effort to show that birth control really isn’t all that important and may even be counterproductive. Statements like the one on page 46 of the religious exemption document, “Contraception’s association with positive health effects might also be partially offset by an association with negative health effects,” are hogwash, the result of careful cherry-picking of the literature, some of it quite dubious.

The real point is that the Trump administration has outsourced a crucially important building block of national health care policy, enabling a fanatical fringe of the Republican base to exercise raw political power, clothed in religiosity under cover of the grandiloquently named Religious Freedom Restoration Act. That 1993 law, passed by overwhelming bipartisan majorities and signed by President Bill Clinton, is the object of growing buyer’s remorse on the part of liberal and moderate Americans — and should be.

The Obama administration did as the Supreme Court said and offered the accommodation as Justice Alito described it. But a group of religiously affiliated nonprofits, mainly but not exclusively Catholic-run schools, colleges, nursing homes and other social service organizations, refused to accept it. Not good enough, they said, claiming that they would still be complicit in the sin of contraception, even if the employees’ receipt of the benefit required no action on the employer’s part beyond notifying the government that it was opting out. Only the complete exemption offered to actual churches would suffice.

Extending the rescission to employers with “moral” objections has no statutory basis. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act at least requires a claim that has something to do, however implausibly, with religion.

Conservatives, even the publicly pious ones, don’t seem to have a problem with limiting the size of their families. (Vice President Mike Pence has two children, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions has three. Need I say more?) The problem they have is with what birth control signifies: empowering women — in school, on the job, in the home — to determine their life course. That’s what they don’t want to normalize. It comes as no surprise which side Donald Trump is on. . . 

Women in Virginia should be very worried.  Republican attorney general candidate John Adams is a religious freedom fanatic and a darling of Christofascists.  If elected, he would champion special rights for Christian extremists over the rights of all others.  Get out and vote for Mark Herring for attorney general, Ralph Northam for Governor, and Justin Fairfax for Lt. Governor.  The extreme Trump/Pence must be stopped. 

The Frightening Ascendancy of the Christofascists Under Trump

Trump with white supremacist and hate group leader Tony Perkins

I have written about the Christofascists and the threat they pose to America for as long as this blog has existed and first came face to face with individuals like Pat Robertson and Ralph Reed back during the latter phase of my eight (8) year period  as a member of the City Committee for the Republican Party of Virginia Beach.  These people have a single minded agenda of making their toxic religious beliefs supreme in America.  They seek to end the separation of church and state and mold government policies and laws to their beliefs.  They have contempt for the religious freedom rights of others and, if give the opportunity, would make contraception illegal nationwide.  They are that extreme.  Sadly, most white, Christian heterosexuals are unfamiliar with the Christofascists' agenda. We in the LGBT community have battled them for years.  Now, Der Trumpenführer has surrounded himself with right wing Christofascists and has given easy access to a veritable who's who of hate group leaders who masquerade as proponents of "family values."  Not only are these folks religious extremists, but beneath the surface a majority are white supremacists as well.  The New York Times looks at the ascendancy of this dangerous and toxic element under Der Trumpenführer.  Here are highlights:

The people who filled the pews of St. John’s Episcopal Church for a private service on the morning of the inauguration were a testament to the ascendancy of the religious right in Donald J. Trump’s Washington: James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family; Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council [a certified hate group]; James Robison, the Christian television preacher.

Right after Mr. Dobson blessed Mike Pence, and just before the congregation sang “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” Mr. Robison took to the pulpit and asked Mr. Trump to rise.

The religious right’s influence is evident in the policies the new administration has prioritized in its first weeks, from Mr. Trump’s clampdown on federal funding that could indirectly support abortion to his directive to give persecuted Christians special dispensation to enter the United States. His pick to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, has written opinions favorable to businesses that have religious objections to government mandates. And the White House has told leaders of the movement that the president will select nominees for the lower courts who are opposed to expanding abortion rights.

A group that has felt shunted aside by the Republican establishment is finding doors open more quickly and willingly than it did even under friendly presidents like Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Now that he has the movement’s support, he has good reason to keep its adherents happy. He needs them to preserve his cobbled-together base of voters. And given how few votes put him over the top in the Electoral College — 77,000 total in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where socially conservative Republicans are a key constituency — he may indeed owe them the election.

This close relationship has consequences not only for how policy will be shaped over the next four years on issues like health care, education and free speech, but also for how the federal courts will decide cases for a generation or more.

What the religious right wanted, perhaps above all else, was the nomination of a solidly conservative judge to the Supreme Court. And Mr. Trump delivered with his selection of Judge Gorsuch, whom he picked from a list of 21 candidates blessed by conservative groups.

The Trump administration has moved fast to enact new policies that the religious right considers important, including vowing to “totally destroy” a law known as the Johnson Amendment that restricts the activities of tax-exempt entities like churches in politics.

Mr. Trump’s cabinet is filled with deeply religious people who hold conservative views on religion, morality and social policy.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a Methodist, has questioned the wisdom of separating church and state.

Mr. Robison, the televangelist who was among those who spoke at St. John’s, spoke later that day to a crowd gathered for the Faith, Freedom and Future inaugural ball. He told a story of how he had called Mr. Trump’s cellphone just to see if he would still pick up after he had won the election.  Mr. Trump, he said, answered.

Trump and an Emboldened Christian Right

When he met with Christofascist leaders last summer in New York, Donald Trump, a/k/a Der Fuhrer, sold his soul - assuming he has one - in order to win the support of these foul theocrats and, more importantly, their networks that could be used to motivate their robotic followers to go to the polls and vote for Trump.  Trump has kept his promises to these hate merchants and, to date, his appointments have included a who's who of anti-LGBT zealots.  Therefore, it is no surprise that the Christofacists feel quite triumphal at the moment.  Long term, their willingness to support a Vladimir Putin backed candidate may come back to haunt them, just as happened to German denominations that rallied to Adolph Hitler. A piece in New York Magazine looks at the current moment and what I hope could be the longer term downfall of the Christofascists.  Here are excerpts:

Before the 2016 elections, amidst evidence of some stress in conservative evangelical leadership circles over the religious implications of the community’s strong support for Donald Trump, the possibility that this could represent the Last Hurrah of the Christian Right as we have known it was a pretty lively topic of discussion. Personally, after years of challenging the wishful-thinking premise of secular folk and religious progressives alike that the Christian Right was on the decline, I argued in October that the spiritual gymnastics associated with supporting Trump might stretch the alliance of religious and nonreligious conservatives to the breaking point.

The big question for those triumphant Trumpites of the Cloth will be whether and how quickly he delivers on his big promises to this particular constituency.

For conservative evangelical clergy, the shiny bauble held out by Trump that they most value is probably repeal of the Johnson Amendment that prevents outright ex officio electioneering by leaders of tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. That will require a statute. But the fact that this involves the Internal Revenue Service will probably be enough to justify nestling the provision into one of the budget reconciliation bills congressional Republicans will probably seek to pass next year, making it both relatively inconspicuous and filibuster-proof. If Republicans fail to do this, it will be noticed with dismay by its intended beneficiaries.

The bigger item probably most valued by politically active conservative evangelical laypeople is a reliable vote on the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade and if possible Obergefell v. Hodges (the decision that legalized same-sex marriage) — though the latter is probably a stretch —while also strengthening “religious liberty” protections for conservative Christians who don’t want to contaminate themselves with same-sex marriage rites or access to contraceptives by women. Thanks to the current vacancy on the Court, this is one promise Trump will be expected to keep almost immediately, and if he double-crosses the Christian Right with a nominee that is less than 100 percent certain on these issues, its Senate allies could credibly threaten to prevent confirmation.

Aside from repeal of the Johnson Amendment, fully defunding Planned Parenthood will be a must-pass budget item for the Christian Right. And they will be very avid for Trump to back Education secretary Betsy DeVos (assuming she is confirmed) to the hilt as she tries to convert federal education funding into a lever for convincing states to move public-school dollars into private-school vouchers.

All in all, 2017 looks like it will be a happy, fulfilling year for the culture warriors of the Christian Right, but there are some potential stumbling blocks in the path of a renewed “marriage of convenience” with the GOP.

Evangelical leaders are divided over immigration policy, which is likely to be a hot-button issue after the inauguration, as it was during the campaign. And any fresh incidents of Trumpian crudeness and overt hostility to Christian values could serve as an irritant as well. You can expect Mike Pence to serve as a soothing ambassador to this constituency if the Boss gets all heathenish again.

But the long-term tensions between the religious and political interests of conservative evangelicals, and their tendency to conflate those interests, have hardly been dispelled by an election victory.

If in the next few years the Christian Right turns out to be “losers,” as Trump would put it — either losing in elections and policy fights, or by losing their own professed convictions — the crisis people like Moore sensed when the Trump candidacy slouched towards Bethlehem to be born could return in a big-league way.

Of course, the Christofascist ignore the reality that their homophobia, racism, and general misogyny are repulsive to the younger generations and that to the extent they "win" with Trump, they in reality only accelerate the flight of people from religion and Christianity in particular.  I continue to believe that the Christofascists will ultimately kill Christianity - which overall will be a good thing. 

The Insidious Threat of the Catholic Church Owning Your Doctor

With science deniers and Christofascists pushing for "religious liberty laws" that apply to businesses, not just individuals, the argument takes on a whole new dimension when you realize that eight of the largest health care systems in America are owned by the Catholic Church.. As I have argued before, business entities do not merit conscience clauses or religious belief exemptions that allow them to flout general laws and, worse yet, discriminate against citizens.  The rule ought to be that they either comply with all applicable laws or lose their tax-exempt status.  A piece in Salon looks at the threat posed by the Catholic Church's control of major health care systems.  Here are highlights:

Angela Valavanis had already had one bad encounter with the Catholic health care system when St. Francis Hospital, the hospital in Evanston, Ill., where she delivered her second baby, refused to allow her OB/GYN to tie her tubes because of Catholic restrictions on the procedure. When she went to her doctor’s office for a check-up after the birth and asked about going back on the Pill, since she hadn’t gotten the sterilization she wanted, she got another shock: “My doctor told me that she couldn’t prescribe birth control because she had sold her practice to a Catholic health system,” said Angela. “My mouth dropped open. I was so confused to hear those words coming out of the mouth of an OB/GYN.”

An OB/GYN who can’t prescribe birth control? It’s not some bad joke. It could be a reality if your doctor’s practice is purchased by a Catholic health system that then imposes the Ethical & Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, a set of rules created by the U.S. Bishop’s Conference that prohibits doctors from doing everything from prescribing the Pill to performing sterilizations or abortions.

And Angela’s experience may be just the tip of the iceberg. Driven by health-care economics and incentives in the Affordable Care Act, health systems, which are a collection of hospitals and ancillary services, are acquiring physician practices at an unprecedented rate. The percentage of doctors who were employees of health systems increased from 20 percent to 26 percent between 2012 and 2013 alone; more than 40 percent of primary care doctors like OB/GYNs are now employed by health systems directly, and experts don’t see the trend slowing.

And with Catholic hospital systems accounting for eight of the 10 of the largest nonprofit health systems in the U.S., these hospitals are poised to become major owners of doctors’ offices, which could severely impede access to contraceptives if doctors are forced to follow the Directives. “The more we see these Catholic systems buying up these practices, the more we are going to see what Angela saw,” predicted Lorie Chaiten, director of the Illinois ACLU’s Reproductive Rights Project, who notes that such refusals are legal under Illinois’ Health Care Right of Conscience Act.

[F]or some women, changing doctors may not be an option. Health insurers are becoming increasingly restrictive about which hospitals and doctors a patient is allowed to use and may charge a steep penalty for going out of the network of preferred providers. Smaller towns and rural areas may not have a large selection of OB/GYNs. The ACLU is backing a measure in the Illinois Legislature that would require health systems to tell patients beforehand what services they don’t provide and where they can get them. Chaiten also encourages women who have been denied reproductive health services for religious reason to report it to the ACLU, which is tracking this trend.

Ironically, Angela’s experience with her OB/GYN wasn’t her last run-in with Catholic health care. After she was refused a tubal ligation and a prescription for birth control, Angela’s husband decided to get a vasectomy. His doctor, who was also part of the Catholic system, said his practice couldn’t do the procedure or make a referral. “The whole situation is so unbelievable to me. I had no idea these limitations occurred,” she says. “When I tell my friends about it, they say it’s medieval. We have to worry that if they keep buying up all these practices, it will get harder and harder to find someone who can prescribe birth control.”

And lest we forget, the Roman Catholic Church is exceedingly anti-gay and one has to wonder who married days and the families will fare under the Medieval world view of the U.S. Catholic Bishops.

Anti-Abortion, Anti-Contraception Group Trying To Buy Virginia’s Governor’s Mansion

If LGBT Virginians have reason to wake up with night sweats at the thought of Ken "Kookineelli" Cuccinelli in the Governor's mansion come 2014, so too do women.  Kookinelli would cause untold damage to women's rights if elected, packing boards and commissions with extremists hand picked by The Family Foundation and virulently anti-abortion and anti-contraception groups.  As note here earlier in the week, the farcically named Susan B. Anthony List (Anthony was an early feminist and thought by some historians to have been a lesbian) has launched the extremist effort to buy the governor's mansion for Kookinelli.  A piece in Think Progress looks at not only this effort by extremists but also Kookinelli's views towards women which echo those of failed senatorial candidates Todd Akin (R-MO) and Richard Mourdock (R-IN).  Anyone who isn't a far right Christianist or angry while male who wants to disenfranchise blacks and sabotage freedom ought to be terrified at the prospect of Kookinelli winning in November.  Here are article highlights:

Virginia’s gubernatorial election, is eight months away, but a leading anti-choice group is already spending big money to buy the governor’s mansion for Tea Party Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA). Susan B. Anthony List — an anti-abortion group that launched a program early this year to teach Republican candidates how to talk about rape without using words like “legitimate” or “gift from God” — pledged at least $1.5 million to Cuccinelli’s campaign, an amount that approaches the entirety of its spending on federal races in 2012.

Cuccinelli has not been captured on film expressing the kind of career-ending gaffe about rape that kept candidates Todd Akin (R-MO) and Richard Mourdock (R-IN) out of the United States Senate last year, but his stance regarding the rights of women who are raped is more or less identical to Akin and Mourdock’s. In his first campaign for elected office, Cuccinelli said that he “opposes abortions that are not for the purpose of saving the mother’s life.” So women who are pregnant because of rape or incest are out of luck.

Rape survivors aren’t the only people who face a bleak future in Ken Cuccinelli’s vision for America. In a book he published last month, he endorsed the view that Medicare is “despicable, dishonest, and worthy of condemnation.” He claimed that Social Security, Medicaid and Food Stamps are attacks on people’s freedom. And he suggested that we should stop spending money on these programs because “[y]our government will never love you.”

The man is down right scary and, in my opinion, certifiably mentally ill.

Anti-abortion Group Pledges $1.5 Million to Ken Cuccinelli

Less there be any doubt that uncrowned GOP gubernatorial candidate is and will continue to be the puppet of religious extremist elements in Virginia - e.g., The Family Foundation and its network of extremists - and nationwide,  a national organization that opposes abortion and contraception will announce tomorrow that it is pledging at least $1.5 million to Cuccinelli's gubernatorial campaign.  Women in Virginia and the men who love and care about them truly need to wake up to the threat Cuccinelli and his Christofascist allies pose to women's rights.  In a post earlier today I looked at what "Biblical marriage" actually looks like and sadly that is precisely the model Cuccinelli and the anti-modernity Christofascist want to enshrine in the laws of Virginia.  The Virginian Pilot looks at the development.  Here are excerpts:

The Susan B. Anthony List, a national organization that opposes abortion, will announce Thursday that it is pledging at least $1.5 million to the Republican gubernatorial campaign of Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia.  "It's an easy call," Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Washington-based group, said in an Associated Press interview Wednesday. "This is hands-down the most important election in the country right now."

Cuccinelli, a conservative with a record of advocating abortion restrictions during more than three years as Virginia's attorney general, is unopposed for the GOP nomination at the party's statewide convention in May.  Last year, he forced the State Board of Health to back away from drafting regulations that would have exempted existing Virginia abortion clinics from a new law that subjects the clinics to the same architectural standards as new hospitals.

In a January interview with a conservative Iowa talk show host, Cuccinelli said he recommends civil disobedience to the point of jail time as an effective way for employers to protest a federal mandate to include coverage for contraceptives in their workers' health insurance plans.

"We don't find people like this very often," Dannenfelser said.

"Cuccinelli and this extreme group share a dangerous agenda that would make abortion illegal even in cases of rape, incest and when a woman's health is threatened," said state Democratic Party spokesman Brian Coy. "Virginians should be deeply concerned about their extreme agenda to make abortion illegal even in cases of rape, incest and when a woman's health is threatened."

Dannenfelser said $1.5 million is just for starters, "an initial budget" to aid Cuccinelli, and that more would be there if he needs it.

The irony is that this anti-abortion, anti-women's rights organization has misappropriated Susan B. Anthony's name.  Anthony was a forceful advocate of women's rights and campaigned tirelessly to win women the right to vote.  What's even more ironic see how the Christofascists have commandeered her name is this via Wikipedia:

As she got older, Anthony continued to move further away from organized religion in general, and she was later chastised by various Christian religious groups for displaying irreligious tendencies. By the 1880s, Anthony had become agnostic.

Even better yet, there is much speculation Anthony was lesbian.  These far right wing nuts are idiots!!

Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli Book May Boost Democrat Campaign

As regular readers of this blog already know, in my opinion Virginia Attorney General Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli is certifiably insane and belongs in a mental ward rather than the Virginia Governor's mansion.  He is a religious extremist of the highest order and unlike EVERY attorney general who has run for the governorship over the last 30+ years, Kookinelli has refused to resign from office while he campaigns full time for governor.  In effect, Kookinelli is forcing every Virginia tax payer to underwrite his extremist campaign as he pushes an agenda dangerous to the rights of countless Virginians.  Now, Kookinelli is publishing a book that may well help document just how crazy this man is and how unfit he is for any elected office, including the office he currently holds.  It is also noteworthy that Kookinelli wrote the book of his director of communications who is also on the state payroll.  As Politico reports, Kookinelli's delusional book may well be embraced by Democrats seeking to convince voters that Kookinelli is a clear and present danger to Virginia and every Virginian who isn't an angry white ultra conservative Christian. Here are highlights from Politico:

Ken Cuccinelli will publish a book next month that could boost Democratic efforts to define him as an overly-ideological conservative in the increasingly purple state of Virginia.

Promotional materials promise that “The Last Line of Defense: The New Fight for American Liberty,” out Feb. 12, will offer “a behind-the-scenes account” of the Republican nominee’s clashes with the Obama administration as the state’s attorney general.

The synopsis provided by the publisher notes that Cuccinelli was the first state attorney general to argue in federal court against Obamacare, as well as “an unapologetic defender of the Constitution, and a man admirers and detractors alike said ‘was tea party long before there was a Tea Party.’”

The book was written in collaboration with Brian Gottstein, who is employed by the state of Virginia as the attorney general’s director of communications. The longtime activist was formerly a radio host and columnist for the Roanoke Star Sentinel, an alternative newspaper

Polling shows that “tea party” has become a more politically-perilous term over the last three years. The movement now is viewed unfavorably by many independents in places like the Northern Virginia suburbs that will be critical to the outcome of November’s general election.

Professionals believe Cuccinelli’s best hope to win the race is to replicate outgoing Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell’s successful 2009 campaign model of focusing on pocketbook issues such as the economy and roads — and deemphasizing many of the controversial social issues that have been centerpieces of Cuccinelli’s tenure as attorney general.

Just last week, he [Cuccinelli]  told an Iowa-based radio show that opponents of a federal mandate for contraception coverage should be willing to “go to jail” to fight the law.

Campaign-year books are not unusual. Many politicians with national followings write books to drum up support, lay out plans and cash in on their celebrity. The list price for this book is $25.

But books can also backfire, giving ammunition to opposition researchers. Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) was damaged during his failed 2006 reelection bid for questioning two-working-parent households in a book that came out in 2005 called “It Takes A Family.”

Rick Perry published a book called “Fed Up!” in the wake of his 2010 reelection that called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and “violent attack” on traditional American values — among other controversial points later seized upon by Mitt Romney’s campaign.

Indeed, the only explanations for the timing of the book are (i) that Cuccinelli is insane and (ii) Cuccinelli hopes that other Neanderthal religious extremists will buy the book and then be convinced to contribute to his Inquisition inspired agenda.

Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell Losing Support of Virginians

It appears to be more bad news for Bob "Taliban Bob" "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell as he scurries about trying to land himself the GOP VP nomination slot: his popularity in Virginia and Virginians' outlook for the state are falling.  Not that McDonnell hasn't help inflict much of the damage on himself - with the aid, of course, of the religious extremists within the Virginia GOP.  McDonnell's ratings still exceed the 50% mark, but sizable drops are not what one needs when trying to whore himself out for the VP nod.  Especially in the demographic groups most needed by Mitt Romney to win in November.  An article in the Washington Post looks at Governor Ultrasound's woes.  Here are excerpts:

After a contentious legislative session that drew large protests and national ridicule to the state Capitol, Virginians are less supportive of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and less optimistic about the direction of the state, according to a poll by The Washington Post.

The approval rating for McDonnell (R) dropped six points over the past year, from 62 percent to 56 percent. Thirty-five percent disapprove of the job he is doing — a nine-point increase from a year ago.

The governor still has firmly positive ratings at a time of political discord nationwide. But he has lost support among independents and urban women after a 12-month period that closed with a partisan standoff over the state budget and an uproar over a bill requiring women seeking an abortion to first undergo a vaginal ultrasound.

Fifty-two percent of women in Virginia approve of McDonnell’s job performance despite an 11 percentage point increase in his disapproval rating. Among independent women his disapproval jumped by 18 points.
More than seven in 10 independent voters, men and women, say that adding McDonnell to a national ticket would not affect their presidential choice — 8 percent are more likely to back Romney and 18 percent say it would push them toward President Obama.

Doug Murray, 70, an independent voter who said he probably would cast his ballot for Romney, said McDonnell spends too much time thinking about his next job.

A majority of those polled — 59 percent — think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
However, half of them oppose the ultrasound law. Democrats and independents are against the measure, and Republicans narrowly support it, the poll found. Men and women oppose it in nearly equal numbers.
Scott Hall, 41, a Republican from Loudoun County, said he has never voted for a Democrat and would like to see abortion outlawed. Yet he said he thinks Virginia is going in the wrong direction largely because of measures such as the ultrasound law.

Fifty-three percent in the poll support stricter gun-control laws. And 71 percent oppose the repeal of the limit, with solid majorities among Democrats, Republicans and independents.

Extremism comes with a price, and Governor Ultrasound may well be poised to pay the price if Romney passes him over.

Seven Reasons Obama Will Beat Mitt Romney

Click image to enlarge

I don't typically read the Washington Times since the publication often requires that one take a huge gulp of Kool-Aid before reading it.  However, there is an interesting column that lays out Mitt Romney's electoral problems and why he's likely to lose to Barack Obama.  Given the Washington Times' copyright policies, I will not publish quotes from the piece which can be found here.  However, I do want to summarize the points because I believe that they are valid and because some are of Romney's own creation.  Here's the summary of some of the points (read the article for the rest):

1. Romney is a radical capitalist who has furthered some of the most ruthless characteristics of unfettered capitalism while at Bain Capital.

2. Romney is utterly out of touch with average Americans and try as he might, he just can't relate to them.  Ditto for his wife despite her "stay at home mom" image.

3. Romney is a hostage of the Christofascists - as demonstrated by the quick demise of Richard Grenell - and he will find it difficult to now Etch A Sketch himself into a moderate thanks to Bryan Fischer and others who will continue to inflame the Kool-Aid drinker set.

4. Women are turned off by Romney's policies that despite Romney's efforts to dance around the subjects, track the Christianist opposition to abortion under any circumstances, contraception, and same sex marriage.

5. Romney is a hard sell to Hispanic voters because of his anti-immigration talk which aligns with the far right's animus towards Hispanics and immigrants.

6.  The GOP primaries force Romney to the right and he will be hard pressed to escape many of his words and positions.

7. If Ron Paul hasn't left the scene and may force Romney to tale positions unpopular with independents and moderates.

New Poll Shows Romney Trailing in Virginia

Romney with extremists Michele Bachmann and Bob "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell in Portsmouth, Virginia

In 2008 Barack Obama was the first Democrat to carry Virginia since LBJ in 1964.  If current polling holds, Obama may repeat the trick again in 2012.  For a state that in a moment of insanity gave control of the state government to the Virginia GOP - and as a result witnessed utter anti-woman and theocratic batshitery as the norm for the Virginia GOP during the last legislative session - the news is encouraging.  Just perhaps non-Kool-Aid drinking Virginians have come to their senses.  As the new Washington Post poll indicates, Obama's 7 point lead stems in large part to a belief that the Obama's ideology is a better fit for the state than that of Mitt Romney who has shown himself to be a hostage of the Christianist extremists. Meanwhile, Romney has tried to bolster his popularity by appearing in Hampton Roads with Bob "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell and the certifiably crazy Michele Bachmann.  I hope the polling holds and that, if we are lucky, 2nd District Christofascist Scott Rigell goes down to defeat along with Romney come November.  Better yet, that the ever despicable Eric Cantor gets voted out as well.  Here are highlights from the Washington Post:

A majority of Virginians — 52 percent — say that “Barack Obama’s views on most issues are just about right” as compared to 37 percent who say the same of Romney’s views. Among electorally critical independents, 52 percent say Obama’s views were about right as opposed to just 34 percent who say the same of Romney.

Worth noting: Among all Virginia registered voters, the gap is slightly more narrow; 49 percent of registered voters in Virginia say that Obama’s views on issues are “just about right” while 39 percent of registered voters say the same of Romney.

Why does this data point matter? Because lots (and lots) of people make up their minds about who they will vote for based on which candidate they think best understands them.  And, at the moment, a majority of Virginians believe that Obama is closer to how they think about issues than is Romney. That matters — big time. 

The Post does note, however some reasons for caution for those pleased by the poll results:

First, Romney has been hurt across the board by the protracted Republican presidential primary which, in the final few months of the campaign, wound up focusing on contraception and other social issues that played into a preconceived notion among many independents that the GOP was beholden to their social conservative wing.

Second, the Virginia presidential primary was a non-event as only Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul spent any time in the state. (Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum did not qualify for the ballot.) That means that Romney has not been properly introduced — and by that we mean through a slew of positive television ads — to many voters in the Commonwealth.

The more time Romney spends in the state and the more money he and his campaign (and various super PACs) spend on TV ads promoting him as a centrist problem solver and the President as a liberal partisan, the more likely it will be that he can close this “thinks like you” gap.  But the gap is real. And to win — in Virginia and elsewhere — Romney has narrow it.

It will obviously be crucial that the Christianists remain tied firmly around Romney's neck.  One can only hope he does more appearances with nut jobs like Bachmann and that his visit to the coven of religious extremists at Liberty University for that institutions commencement gets LOTS of coverage.  Liberty is increasingly making Pat Robertson's Regent University look moderate, so I hope the Obama campaign has plenty of folks on the ground for the commencement taking photos and recording the theocratic craziness that will likely mark the event. 

The GOP VP Hunt - Has McDonnell Disqualified

One has to suspect that Bob "Taliban Bob" "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell may be regretting some of the extremist batshittery he's knowingly embraced in the past since it may be what thwarts his ambition to be Mitt Romney's VP nominee.  In a piece that weighs the pros and cons of various possible VP nominees, the Richmond Times-Dispatch describes McDonnell as follows: 

Bob McDonnell Governor of Virginia Pros: Leads key swing state with 13 electoral votes. State’s 5.6 percent jobless rate could bolster economic argument. Cons: Law requiring an ultrasound before an abortion could be a distraction; questions about graduate school thesis could resurface.

McDonnell's other dilemma is what to do with the anti-minority voter ID law that was passed by the GOP controlled General Assembly.  The Washington Post looks at McDonnell's quandary: sign the bill and please the Tea Party crowd and Christofascists or veto it and avoid looking even more extreme to general election voters:

FACED WITH VOTER ID legislation that would disenfranchise thousands of Virginians, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell is in a quandary. He can veto the bill and incur the wrath of fellow Republicans, or sign it and reinforce the GOP’s image of hostility toward young, poor and black voters.

Mr. McDonnell is all too aware that the bill, passed by Republican lawmakers despite his warning about legislative overreach, is gratuitous at best. That’s why he sent it back to the General Assembly with amendments that would eliminate its most obnoxious feature: a requirement that ballots cast by voters who lack identification be thrown out unless the voters make a separate trek to local electoral offices to prove their identity.

But the General Assembly restored that provision and sent the bill back to Mr. McDonnell, who now faces a decision: Does he want to be known as a partisan street brawler, or as a grown-up who governs with restraint?

[M]ost responsible Virginia Republican leaders acknowledge there is no evidence of systematic voting fraud in the commonwealth. The unavoidable conclusion is that the voter ID bill is a solution in search of a problem — the sort of government meddling that the GOP usually hates.

The real reason Republicans have pushed to change the system is that they hope to inconvenience, and thereby disenfranchise, the 12,000 or so Virginians who lacked IDs when they voted in 2008 — a group, comprised disproportionately of blacks, the poor and young voters, who tilted to the Democrats. 

Do I feel any sympathy for McDonnell?  Nope, none whatsoever.  He made this problem for himself.

The Macaca Thesis - And What Does McDonnell Believe

EDITORS NOTE: Some readers may not appreciate why I am giving so much coverage to the Bob McDonnell thesis debacle. If you have read prior posts that have detailed McDonnell's anti-gay agenda over the last six to nine years, then you know that McDonnell has played a significant role in making Virginia one of the most anti-gay states in the nation. To see McDonnell hopefully spiral down to defeat is a potential huge step in turning Virginia around on discrimination against LGBT citizens. The thought of McDonnell in the Governor's mansion is indeed frightening.

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The Washington Post - which launched McDonnell's nightmare on Sunday - has a good column today that looks at why Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell's 1989 thesis is important and why it needs to remain under high scrutiny and a major part of the campaign for Governor. It highlights everything that I have wanted brought out about McDonnell and his extremism and devotion to the agenda of Pat Robertson and The Family Foundation, the Virginia affiliate of James Dobson's foul Focus on the Family. Here are some column highlights:

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Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, didn't really mean it when he equated homosexuality with drug abuse and pornography as evils that "the government must restrain, punish, and deter."

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Or when he urged that "every level of government should statutorily and procedurally prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators," adding, "The cost of sin should fall on the sinner, not the taxpayer."

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McDonnell's thesis is a 93-page, 170-footnote "macaca" moment -- and, like that moment, self-inflicted. Had McDonnell not mentioned the thesis to Post reporter Amy Gardner -- he misleadingly described it as an essay on "welfare policy" -- it might never have surfaced. There are so many delicious aspects to the McDonnell uproar:

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The irony of watching a staunch social conservative complain that hot-button social issues are being deployed against him -- this after years of social conservatives revving up their base with this approach. Now that McDonnell needs votes from the bluest part of the state, it's suddenly foul play that Creigh Deeds, his Democratic opponent, "continues to focus on divisive issues."

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The irony of watching what-they-do, not-what-they-say politics flipped upside down as well. Just a few weeks ago, Republicans were focused on a single sentence from Justice Sonia Sotomayor about the "wise Latina." Then, it made sense to focus on Sotomayor's sentence, not her copious judicial record. Now, it's unfair to look at McDonnell's writings when his legislative history is open for all to see.

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[I]t seems just as likely that McDonnell's supposed restraint stems from pragmatic acceptance of political reality as from a marked change in views. There's every reason to think that McDonnell would govern as conservatively as the current politics of the state would allow. His professions of relative disinterest in social issues are unconvincing. As for his efforts to dismiss the thesis as the idle musings of a callow youth: Those are simply insulting to the voters of Virginia.

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The Roanoke Times likewise goes after McDonnell and ask questions that he needs to be forced to answer. If he refuses to answer, then I venture that it is a safe bet that McDonnell still holds the views laid out in his CBN thesis. That would speake volumes to Virginia voters:

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McDonnell, today, flees his earlier writing lest Virginians see through the carefully crafted mask of moderation he wears while campaigning for governor. We were heartened to hear him reject some of the views he once held.

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McDonnell points to his record in the General Assembly and during his partial term as attorney general as proof that he has changed That record is not as flattering as he seems to think, though. Those who have followed his political career found few surprises in his thesis. Several colleagues say he worked zealously to implement many of the proposals he espoused 20 years ago. He twice won the conservative Family Foundation's legislator of the year award.

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McDonnell owes Virginians a more detailed explanation. He might start by answering some lingering questions based on his thesis, explaining where his views have changed, when and why.

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Should abortion be illegal? In all cases, including rape and incest?

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Do political leaders and the Supreme Court still need to "correct the conventional folklore about the separation of church and state"?

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Will you oppose "special rights for homosexuals or single-parent unwed mothers"? Which rights are special? Which are not?

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Do your Democratic friends and colleagues "seek to shepherd a nation of powerless incompetents"?

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Do all your Republican friends and colleagues share a philosophy that "embraces the talents and worth of all people?" Do you?