Obama on abortion

From ABC News:

We've gotten a response from Sen. Obama on his comments this week that he would support a ban on abortions after 22 weeks--even if a woman sought the procedure because she was in "mental distress." Obama told a Christian magazine, Relevant, that only women with a "serious physical issue" should be able to get an abortion post-viability.

As I wrote yesterday, that's contrary to 35 years of Supreme Court jurisprudence on the issue, which has always demanded that abortion bans contain an exception to allow the procedure to protect a woman's "mental health," as well as her physical health. Only Justices Thomas and Scalia have expressed the view that a "mental health" exception is not required.

Today, Obama tried to explain what he meant. I'm going to print his response in its entirety, because he's trying to walk a very fine line on what is one of the most divisive—and deeply felt—issues in America today.

And yet, Obama is still attacked as the most pro-abortion presidential nominee ever. Read the rest of this post...

Archaeologists locate 13 royal tombs in Egypt

What an amazing place.

The agency said that the discovery, made by a team from the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities, could be dated back to the Old Kingdom (3,000 B.C.) -- the golden age of pyramid building in ancient times.

The team "has found what could be a royal complex of 13 tombs of different shapes and sizes that could have belonged to high officials from that period or people who contributed to building these tombs," MENA said.

The agency said that human bones were found inside the coffins, although it did not specify how many coffins were discovered.

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Pass the Salmonella, please

Yep, they've found even MORE Salmonella, and they have no idea where it's coming from. Maybe jalapeños this time (but it could also be cilantro, they say). I didn't even know spices could get Salmonella. The FDA has no clue what's going on. This should scare the hell out of everybody. We have a third-world currency and a third world government in terms of its respect for the law. And now we can't even trust unwashed vegetables. Hell of a country John McCain and the Republicans have turned us into. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

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The pendulum has swung too far

Business always complains about costs, though they always find the cash to shovel over millions for incompetent leaders. For a few decades, the balance has been swinging heavily in their favor at the expense of employees. Laws originally written to protect employee benefits is increasingly being used by employers to get around death benefits. Congress could do something about this and if they were looking for examples of "the system gone bad" they need not continue their search.

Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer.

"He was obsessed with dotting every `i' and crossing every `t'," Melissa Amschwand-Bellinger recalled about her husband, who died in 2001 at age 30.

But Spherion Corp., the temporary staffing company where Amschwand worked, told Amschwand-Bellinger she would not receive any of the $426,000 in benefits she believed she was due. When she went to court, Spherion succeeded in getting her lawsuit thrown out. The Supreme Court on June 27 refused to review the case.

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McCain campaign, not doing so well

False outrage only gets you so far in the polls. At some point you have to stand for something other than more wars and fewer jobs. Not that McCain can't catch up. Following the Democratic Convention in 1988, Dukakis had a 17% point lead over Bush-the-father. Dukakis lost. Politics is the art of the possible - anything can happen and everything can change before the game is over. Still, it's good to read that McCain is having problems. More from Joe's buddy, Liz "the Donut" Sidoti at AP:

John McCain calls himself an underdog. That may be an understatement. The GOP presidential candidate trails Democrat Barack Obama in polls, organization and money while trying to succeed a deeply unpopular fellow Republican in a year that favors Democrats.

McCain also doesn't seem to have a coherent message let alone much of a strategy despite securing the nomination three months earlier than Obama....

McCain's troubles are so acute that he recently gave senior adviser Steve Schmidt "full operational control" of the day-to-day campaign and, effectively, scaled back the duties of campaign manager Rick Davis. The shift in responsibilities came after weeks of Republican quibbling that McCain had not adequately made the transition for the fall.

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Weak dollar gives Iran more power

I hadn't thought about it in those terms, but the weak dollar which has fed high oil prices is hurting the US in many ways. The pro-Big Oil policies of the Republicans come home to roost again. Read the rest of this post...

Sunday Talk Shows Open Thread

Slow day on the Sunday shows. Only two of them have real quests. McCain is represented by Lieberman and Graham, of course. McCain never goes anywhere without them -- those two are pretty much his whole surrogate operation.

Watch out for any attempt by the GOP spin machine to falsify a statement from one of the Obama surrogates. The pattern has developed: GOP sends out a press release lying about Obama or another Democrat. The traditional media fully accepts the GOP's spin, immediately over-reacts and blows up the fake controversy. Couple days later, media realizes they've been had -- again. It's not a new pattern. Bush and the Republicans have been lying to the media for years about the war, Valerie Plame and a host of other critical issues, so it's no surprise that the GOPers are lying about Obama. It's just disconcerting and appalling that the media-types are still falling for it.

Here's the lineup:

ABC's "This Week" — Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut; Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I.; Bob Barr, Libertarian presidential candidate.

___

CBS' "Face the Nation" — Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Lindsay Graham, R-S.C.

___

NBC's "Meet the Press" — pre-empted by coverage of Wimbledon tennis.

___

CNN's "Late Edition" — Retrospective on the show's 10th anniversary.


"Fox News Sunday" _ Media panel

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Mbeki continues to coddle Mugabe and promote violence

The long time friend of Robert Mugabe delivers another new plan to divide the opposition and make life easier for the violent despot. Looking at this, of course the MDC opposition sees Mbeki as a dishonest broker. It's even easier to see why his own people voted him out of power. In American terms, this would be like negotiating with Nader, saying he was a relevant leader of the left instead of a fringe element. In an American sense, this would be dishonest. With the violence and murder in Zimbabwe, this is promoting even more violence, if not death.

South African President Thabo Mbeki met Saturday with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and members of a breakaway opposition faction, the South African Foreign Affairs Department said.

Mbeki -- appointed by the Southern African Development Community last year to mediate between Mugabe and the opposition -- met in Harare with the Zimbabwean president and members of a faction of the Movement for Democratic Change.

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Church of England schism

My first thought would be to tell the knuckle-draggers to drop head. Come to think of it, that would be my final thought on the debate as well. Some in the church argue that it's not the right time to add women. Uh huh, that's right. Shoulda been done centuries ago.

Divisions appeared to widen yesterday between senior Church of England clergy on opposite sides of the debate over the consecration of women bishops, as the issue dominated the agenda at the General Synod.

The Synod has already agreed to the principle of women bishops, but has yet to decide what should be done to appease the 1,300 clergy who are threatening to leave the Anglican Church over the issue. A debate on what special arrangements might be made for objectors to the idea has been tabled for tomorrow, but a final decision was looking unlikely last night as bishops called for further research to be carried out.

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