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The Republican "War on Women" ® continues, this time in Georgia where eight state senators walked out in protest over more asinine legislation which looks like it'll soon be law..

via WXIA in Atlanta:

ATLANTA -- Women members of the Georgia Senate staged a brief demonstration against the Republican and male majority in the Senate, complaining that the GOP is waging a war -- against women and their access to abortion and contraceptives.

Eight of the nine women senators -- the eight women Democrats -- walked out of the Senate chamber in protest as the Republican majority passed two bills they oppose.

The Senate voted, 33 to 18, to prohibit state employees from using their state health benefits to pay for abortions.

And the Senate decided, by a vote of 38 to 15, that employees of private religious institutions have no right to demand that their insurance policies pay for contraceptives, as the Obama Administration wants to require.
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As for the contraceptives issue, it was in 1999 when the women's caucus in the Georgia legislature first won passage of the current state law that requires insurance companies to cover the cost of contraceptives.

"It's a good law. Never had a problem with it," said Sen. Nan Orrock, (D) Atlanta. "But here come the right-wing shock troops, marching, marching, marching. And women are on the bullseye target."

TGIF! What I love about Fridays....a new Professional Left podcast....and it's the day before Saturday morning and Up With Chris. Love the #uppers crowd!

Disaffected and it Feels So Good: Republicans Plan to Turn America Into a Slave State

Faith in Public Life: A Real War on Religion

Muddy Politics: Lee Atwater: Romney Can't Win

Thump and Whip: Have More Than Thou Showest, Speak Less Than Thou Knowest, and Leave Britney Alone

Nomadic Politics: A Nemesis in Washington: How The Evangelists in Reagan’s Administration Undermined the War on AIDS 1/2

Round up by Swimgirl.(tweeter @miamiswimmer) Send tips to mbru AT crooksandliars.com.

From Mark Fiore; well worth watching 'til the end.

Open thread, below....

This song by Belgian-Australian act Gotye has been blowing up my Facebook newsfeed lately, and with 102 million youtube views it looks like the whole world is sharing it. It's certainly a fine song. What's floating your boat tonight?

Somebody That I Used To Know
	Price: $0.99 (As of 03/09/12 05:41 am details)

Earlier this week it happened again. We don't know all the details, but what we do know is this. A young man named T.J. Lane walked into high school—here in my home state of Ohio—approached a table full of kids and started shooting.

By the time the smoke cleared, three kids were dead. Three tragedies of unfulfilled dreams, unrealized potential, and abrogated Constitutional rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," their "general welfare" not protected by the state. More accurately, sacrificed on the altar of the arms industry's puffery and profit-driven deceit.

Like with any tragedy such as this, there were many handmaidens. Certainly, chief among them was the violence this young man bore witness to regularly, in a household reportedly filled with it. His parents, both charged with domestic abuse and other violent behavior in the past, seemingly helped nurture a disturbed and dangerous kid.

But it's also been reported that the killer's grandfather—from whom Lane accessed the gun used—had so many weapons lying around that he couldn't figure out a gun was missing until afterwards. Read that sentence again.

Teaching a child that violence solves everything and giving him access to an arsenal. That should make his family criminally liable—although, current Ohio law will not allow that to happen.

Perhaps, if Ohio state lawmakers hadn't been so busy letting fetuses testify or extending concealed-carry permits to drinking establishments (shots and shooting! Two pastimes that go hand-in-hand like crack cocaine and boating!), they could've found some time to work on that one.

Because, make no mistake, it's a love affair with guns by an obsessive and loud minority and the resulting lax regulation, which are key reasons these things just don't happen on a regular basis in any other Western country. While TJ Lane had easy pickings among a bevy of unaccounted-for weapons, the state of Virginia—under its culturally-Ragtime-Era governor—was removing a law that limited buyers to one handgun purchase per month.

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Fox News host Bill O'Reilly on Thursday said that Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke was wrong to want contraception to be covered by her health insurance, referring to the medication as "lifestyle help."

In a statement on his website over the weekend, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said he “sincerely” apologized to Fluke, who he had called a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she testified before Congress about the need for contraception coverage at colleges and universities, even if they are owned by religious institutions.

Appearing on ABC's The View on Thursday, O'Reilly agreed that Limbaugh's choice of words had been "inappropriate."

"The bigger issue is the entitlement state versus Ms. Fluck's [sic] opinion that she is owed a certain amount of lifestyle help," O'Reilly remarked.

Hosts Barbara Walters and Joy Behar pointed out that drugs to treat erectile dysfunction, like Viagra and Levitra, were covered by most insurance companies.

"The Centers for Disease Control basically categories things, and they say this is a malady, this is a medical condition and this isn't," O'Reilly explained. "And so Viagra comes under the government's guidelines for medical condition. Contraception doesn't. So look, I don't care. Doesn't matter to me."

"It's in motion now that if you need birth control and you go to a federal clinic, you get it," he continued. "So there really isn't any problem, you can get it. And then if you don't want to drive down to the clinic, you can go to Walmart or you can go to Target and get it for $9 a month. So, to insert this into a giant Obamacare bill seems to be unnecessary to me."

"So do you consider a vasectomy a health issue then?" Behar asked. "Because that's covered."

"I don't consider anything anything," O'Reilly grumbled. "I'm not a doctor. I don't know."

(H/T: The Huffington Post)

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What a crock. And what a cynical misuse of their church non-profit status, trying to push out this director on the basic of her religious and political beliefs -- all the while screaming about "religious freedom" for whatever universal restriction they want to push that week. When will American Catholics finally get fed up enough to break off with Rome?

The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento no longer will fund programs at Francis House, a nonprofit agency that serves homeless people, because of its new director's views supporting abortion rights and gay marriage.

In a letter last month, the diocese's director of social services said the Rev. Faith Whitmore's public statements on the issues clash with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Therefore, said the Rev. Michael Kiernan, the social services director, it is "impossible for the diocese to continue funding Francis House" as part of its annual Catholic Appeal.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

Really? What part of that clashes with what Francis House does?

Each morning, dozens of poor people line up at Francis House, in Sacramento's homeless services epicenter on C and 14th streets, for help with basic services such as housing and transportation. Now in its 42nd year, the organization is one of the largest homeless services agencies in the Sacramento region, serving upward of 25,000 people. It has an annual budget of about $500,000.

For at least two decades, Francis House has received annual donations from the diocese ranging from $7,500 to $10,000, said Michael Miller, a member of the agency's corporate advisory board.

If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.

The diocese's letter made it clear that it was shifting policy and removing Francis House from its fundraising campaign because of Whitmore's affiliation with the organization.

Whitmore, a United Methodist minister, took over leadership of Francis House in April after the sudden death of longtime executive director Gregory Bunker.

Within her own denomination, she has been a strong advocate of same-sex marriage. In 2008, during a short period in which gay marriage was legal in California, Whitmore openly defied church law by marrying same-sex couples. She has said publicly that she supports a woman's right to obtain an abortion.

In an interview Wednesday, she called the diocese's decision to discontinue its support "surprising and disappointing."

A diocese spokesman said part of the reason was that Francis House used to be a Catholic charity, and that people get confused because they don't know it's been a non-denominational agency for some time. No one's complained yet, but "We like to get out in front of these things."

Imagine that. Think of all the recent scandals that have happened in the Catholic church, and see if you can remember anyone in power taking decisive action to "get out in front" of any of it.

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Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher is lashing out at CNN for asking if he still holds negative views about LGBT people even though he is seeking to represent them in Congress.

On Thursday, Wurzelbacher appeared on CNN's morning show to plug his campaign for office in Ohio's 9th Congressional District, but he apparently wasn't prepared to be face questions about the homophobic comments in his past.

CNN host Zoraida Sambolin pointed to an interview with Christianity Today where he had said he would never let "queer" people around his children.

"I personally still think it's wrong," Wurzelbacher opined in 2009. "People don't understand the dictionary—it's called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It's not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we're supposed to do—what man and woman are for."

"I've had some friends that are actually homosexual," he added. "And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn't have them anywhere near my children."

"Have you changed your positions on this at all?" Sambolin asked the GOP candidate on Thursday.

"So, this is TMZ. This isn't CNN is what you're saying?" Wurzelbacher complained. "No, I want everybody to have a job."

"What about these comments that you made?" the CNN host pressed. "Do you stand by these comments?"

"Listen, in my dictionary and in everyone's dictionary from the 1970s, the word queer did mean strange and unusual. There was no slur to it. Do you challenge that?" Wurzelbacher shot back. "Come on. You're trying to do a gotcha moment, it's quite obvious."

"No, no, it's not a gotcha moment," Sambolin replied. "These are things that you said and I think people voting for you should have an opportunity to understand whether or not you have changed your positions on these two issues here."

"I'm allowed to have my opinion as an American but it seems the left becomes very intolerant when you have an opinion other than what they state," Wurzelbacher insisted. "My opinions are mine."

Later on Thursday, he told Politico that CNN's questions were "seventh grade shenanigans."

Wurzelbacher, who became widely known as "Joe the Plumber" during the 2008 election, will face Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) in November. The Human Rights Campaign rated (PDF) the incumbent congresswomen at 83 percent in 2010 for her support of LGBT rights. She supported the repeal of the military's ban on gay and lesbian service members, but has also voted in favor of the federal ban on same sex marriage.

Kaptur has defeated every Republican challenger in her district since 1983.

(H/T: Towleroad)

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The Laborers' International Union of North America has started running ads in Ohio and Kentucky -- targeting the home states of Republican congressional leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell -- calling for a highway bill that will create jobs and repair crumbling infrastructure. The first ad "London Bridge" features children singing "America's bridges are falling down" to the tune of the famous song. The problem is obvious:

America’s roads and bridges – once the envy of the world – are desperately in need of repair. The average U.S. bridge is 45 years old – dangerously close to the lifespan of 50 years. Congress must rise above the acrimony and partisanship of recent years and address the problem by passing a Highway Bill that protects investment in our transportation systems.

Congress is considering reauthorization of the Highway Bill to invest in roads and bridges, but Republican leaders are playing politics with the legislation.

A bi-partisan Senate bill would keep highway and bridge investment level for two years. That bill has been stalled by politically-motivated unrelated amendments.

In the House, Republican leaders are trapped between extremists who want to dangerously slash investment and those who want to hold legislation hostage to unrelated issues.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 1.5 million construction workers are unable to find work. More than 2 million construction jobs have been lost since 2006, leaving the industry with a 17.7 percent unemployment rate.

The ads are part of an aggressive and original campaign that includes other provocative efforts. Mailers are being sent to voters in both states entitled "How to Survive a Collapsed Bridge," that include statistics about the problem and excerpts from the Army survival manual about how to really survive a collapsed bridge. A flatbed truck is being sent through the two states that carries a giant roll of duct tape and carries a sign that says 'Emergency Bridge Repair Team'.

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So what does a Republican politician do when they can't give a good answer on why they think it's acceptable to disenfranchise millions of people with a voter ID law they just sponsored? Why blame it all on a Democratic sell out and Blue Dog, Artur Davis, who was rejected by the electorate in 2010, naturally.

Politics Nation's Al Sharpton did a good job of hitting Alabama State Rep. Kerry Rich for just that during an interview this Wednesday on MSNBC and with pushing back at the notion that invoking Davis justified the impact of the law and the fact that it is designed to do exactly one thing, and that's keep people from voting. As Sharpton noted during the interview, actual cases of voter fraud are virtually nonexistent, but that didn't keep Rich from insisting repeatedly that it was a problem. Of course there's voter fraud going on, because Artur Davis told me so. Pitiful. And these guys claim to be the party of "personal responsibility." Except of course they never want to take responsibility for anything they do. Either blame it on someone else, deny the facts and if that doesn't work, just make up your own alternate reality.

Sharpton wasn't buying it and Rep. Rich looked none too happy by the time the interview was over after Al's grilling.

Transcript below the fold.

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