Reality

Political Cartoon is by Mike Luckovich in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Warren Defends Planned Parenthood & Asks You To Help

(This photo of Senator Elizabeth Warren is from her own website.)

The congressional Republicans are at it again -- demonizing Planned Parenthood, and trying to cut off all funding for it. They try to paint PP as an organization that just exists to promote abortions. They know it's not true, and they know that defunding PP would cause many thousands of women to go without medical care. They just don't care. They are playing politics to please their ignorant base voters.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is one of those fighting to protect Planned Parenthood, and she urges all of us to join her in that fight. Here is her latest missive to her supporters:

The Republicans have a plan. Just look at the facts:

• In 2013, Republicans threatened to shut down the government unless they could change the law to let employers deny women access to birth control.


• In 2015, Republicans held hostage an easy-to-pass bipartisan bill to stop human trafficking, demanding an unprecedented expansion of anti-abortion restrictions to cover new funds for providing assistance to trafficking victims.


• Republicans have voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act dozens of times, including the portions that require insurers to cover contraception – and stop them from charging women more.  


• In state legislatures, Republicans have passed nearly 300 new restrictions on abortion access in the past five years – more than 50 this year alone.

So let’s be really clear about something: The Republicans’ scheme to defund Planned Parenthood isn’t some sort of surprised response to highly edited videos. 

Let’s call out the Republican vote to defund Planned Parenthood on Monday for exactly what it is: Another piece of a deliberate, methodical, orchestrated right-wing attack on women’s rights. And I’m sick and tired of it.

Defunding Planned Parenthood is a big deal. Whatever your age, wherever you live, I guarantee that you know someone who has used a Planned Parenthood health center.

No one may mention it at Thanksgiving dinner or post it on Facebook, but look at the facts: One in five women in America is a Planned Parenthood patient at least once in her life. Every single year, nearly 2.7 million people show up for help at Planned Parenthood.

Why do so many people use Planned Parenthood? Because they are nonprofit doctors’ offices – more than half are in rural or medically underserved areas.

Young people go to Planned Parenthood for birth control. Women who can’t get appointments anywhere else go to Planned Parenthood for affordable Pap tests and cancer screenings. Couples go to Planned Parenthood for STD treatments or pregnancy tests. And yes, 3% of patients visit Planned Parenthood for a safe and legal abortion with a doctor who will show compassion and care for a woman who is making one of the most difficult decisions of her life.

Rand Paul and Ted Cruz may think it’s fun to play politics with these people to score points with presidential primary voters, but this isn’t a game. This is about cancer. This is about HIV. This is about birth control. This is about access to basic medical care.

The Republican plan to defund Planned Parenthood is a Republican plan to defund women’s health care. Join me now to say enough is enough.

I stand with Planned Parenthood. I fight for my daughter, for my granddaughters, and for people all across Massachusetts and all across this country. We cannot let the Senate Republicans defund Planned Parenthood.

Thank you for being a part of this,

Elizabeth

War (On Science)

Political Cartoon is by Adam Zyglis in The Buffalo News.

A Fairy Tale

In A Nutshell

Hillary Clinton Should Have Answered The Question

Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I am a die-hard supporter of Hillary Clinton. I made a promise to some people important to me that I would support her if she ran in 2016, and nothing that has happened since then has made me think I should break that promise. I think she's a good progressive (not perfect but good), and I think she'd make a very good president.

But I also think she made a serious mistake in a New Hampshire town meeting a few days ago. She was asked a question, and instead of answering it, she side-stepped it.

I understand the question was posed by a Republican, and was probably designed to trip her up. That doesn't matter. It was a issue-oriented question, and she should have answered it without any quibbling.

A man asked her:

"As president, would you sign a bill, yes or no please, in favor of allowing the Keystone XL pipeline?"

And she said:

"I am not going to second guess (President Barack Obama) because I was in a position to set this in motion. I want to wait and see what he and Secretary Kerry decide."

"If it is undecided when I become president, I will answer your question."

That is not a good answer. In fact, it's not an answer at all. It was not an unfair question. It was a question on an issue that is important to many Democrats. If she wasn't running for president, her statement might have been appropriate, but she is running for president -- and voters deserved to hear what she would decide on the matter. It may not be an issue by the time she takes office (as I hope), but her answer could let voters know how she might decide on something similar as president.

We are not Republicans, who love to vote for candidates who lie, quibble, or try to placate with bumper sticker slogans. We are Democrats -- and we expect an honest answer to any issue-oriented question. We expect our candidates to tell us the truth (even if it's a truth we won't like very much).

This is not a deal-breaker for me. I am still solidly in Hillary's camp. But I think she made a serious mistake by not answering the question -- and I hope she doesn't make this a habit.

(The caricature of Hillary Clinton above is by DonkeyHotey.)

Fighting Progress

Political Cartoon is by Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Bernie Says NO To An Independent Run For President

We've heard a lot recently about Donald Trump possibly running for president as an Independent if he "isn't treated fairly" by Republicans. That thought has Republican leaders scared to death. Trump couldn't win, but he could drag away enough teabagger support to give the Democratic nominee an easy path to the White House.

Democrats have had a similar nightmare scenario. It is the thought that Bernie Sanders might run as an Independent if he doesn't win the Democratic nomination. Although he trails Hillary Clinton by a significant margin, he does have a lot of hardcore supporters -- and it's not unimaginable that they would abandon the Democratic Party to support him as an Independent.

Fortunately (for Democrats), that's not going to happen. Speaking in Washington last Thursday, Sanders said he would not run as an Independent if he doesn't win the Democratic nomination. Here is what he said:

“I would not want to be responsible for electing some right-wing Republican president.”

“As I was contemplating what I’d do, one decision I had to make was, there were a lot of people telling me to run as an Independent. They said the Republican Party is an extreme right-wing party, and the Democratic Party is too conservative, too cozied-up to big money … and that I should run outside of the two party system.”

“I thought about it. But I reached the decision … that the only way at this particular moment in history that we could run an effective campaign was within the Democratic primary and caucus system.”

Although I support Hillary Clinton for the nomination, regular readers of this blog will know that I have an immense amount of respect for Bernie Sanders. I think the senator from Vermont is one of the two best senators we have in Washington -- and this decision of his has just heightened my respect for him (something I didn't think was possible).

Bernie Sanders will support the nominee of the Democratic Party, even if it is not him. He knows how important it is to keep an extremist Republican out of the White House in 2016. I hope his supporters (especially the die-hard "Hillary-haters" among them) have the same love for this country that Sanders does. I hope they understand that he is right, and we must unify behind the winner of the nomination to defeat the Republican candidate. It's just too important to stay home (or vote third-party) this time.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not asking any supporter of Bernie Sanders to abandon his candidacy. I think all Democrats and progressives should vote their conscience and support the candidate of their choice -- and if you support Sanders, that is fine. But once the nomination is settled, it won't be a time for sour grapes. This election is just too important.

(The image of Bernie Sanders above is by DonkeyHotey.)

Cooler Heads ?

Political Cartoon is by Jack Ohman in the Sacramento Bee.

Here Are The Odds On The Presidential Candidates

(The graphic above is from CommonWealth Magazine.)

We've already heard a lot from the political pundits (of all political stripes) and the pollsters about who the favorites are to win their party nominations for president. I thought it would be interesting to bring you the odds on each candidate as established by a gambling website (paddypower.com). These guys don't just have an opinion, they have money on the line -- and if their odds are off very much, they stand to lose a lot.

So, who do they think will win each party's nomination? Here are the odds they have set right now:

DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION
Hillary Clinton..........1-6
Bernie Sanders..........8-1
Joe Biden..........12-1
Martin O'Malley..........25-1
Jim Webb..........33-1
Lincoln Chafee..........no odds listed

REPUBLICAN NOMINATION
Jeb Bush..........7-5
Marco Rubio..........7-2
Scott Walker..........4-1
Donald Trump..........8-1
Rand Paul..........9-1
Ben Carson..........14-1
Chris Christie..........16-1
John Kasich..........20-1
Mike Huckabee..........25-1
Rick Perry..........25-1
Ted Cruz..........25-1
Rick Santorum..........33-1
Bobby Jindal..........33-1
Carly Fiorina..........33-1
Lindsey Graham..........no odds listed
Jim Gilmore..........no odds listed

Aggressor

Political Cartoon is by Dave Granlund at davegranlund.com.

Jane Goodall Speaks Out On Outrageous Killing Of Lion

There has been a lot on the news and the internet about the Dentist who lured Cecil, a beloved lion in Zimbabwe, out of his protected reserve to kill him. I agree with the outrage over this ridiculous killing, and my sentiments were eloquently and beautifully put forward by scientist Jane Goodall.

Goodall said:

“I was shocked and outraged to hear the story of Cecil, Zimbabwe’s much loved lion. Not only is it incomprehensible to me that anyone would want to kill an endangered animal (fewer than 20,000 wild lions in Africa today) but to lure Cecil from the safety of a national park and then to shoot him with a crossbow...? I have no words to express my repugnance. He was not even killed outright, but suffered for hours before finally being shot with a bullet. And his magnificent head severed from his wounded body. And this behaviour is described as a “sport." Only one good thing comes out of this – thousands of people have read the story and have also been shocked. Their eyes opened to the dark side of human nature. Surely they will now be more prepared to fight for the protection of wild animals and the wild places where they live. Therein lies the hope.”

(Both the picture of Jane Goodall and of the lion are from Ms. Goodall's website.)

Ending Abortions

Political Cartoon is by Signe Wilkinson in the Philadelphia Daily News.

Job Creator