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27Mar2011
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Archive for the 'Human Rights and Equality' Category
The Republican march against adult Americans’ right to make their own decisions about really private matters remains so unbelievable that parody has become a legitimate legislative response. Oklahoma got the “Every Sperm Is Sacred” protest amendment. Virginia got ameasure to require prostate exams for Viagra prescriptions.
And now Georgia State Representative Yasmin Neal has a bill that would ban vasectomies. After a Republican lawmaker introduced a bill taking away women’s reproductive rights, Neal decided that fair is fair. I typed out what she says in her announcement video, because I think it’s worth reading the whole thing:
“Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies. It is patently unfair that men can avoid unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such matters is more valid than the judgment of the General Assembly, while women’s ability to decide is constantly up for debate throughout the United States. Women, our bodies, and what we do with it are always up for debate.
“This bill has been drafted for all women who have the wherewithal to choose. The day has come where men should feel the same pressure and invasion of privacy that women have faced for years. I have introduced this legislation because it is the purpose of the General Assembly to assert an invasive state interest in the reproductive habits of the men of this state and substitute the will of the government over the will of adult men.
“This bill states that vasectomies can be performed to avert the death of a man or to avert serious risk of substantial or irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the man. This bill mimics the abortion bills throughout the nation, and just like the abortion bills interfere with a woman’s right to choose, it’s only fair that the General Assembly debate the men’s right to choose, as well.”
Representative Neal is holding a hearing on her bill this afternoon.
*******
Readers: Thoughts? Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog.If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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One of the most frustrating characteristics of multi-national drug corporations is their commitment to the corporate mantra of maximizing profits for their shareholders at any cost, including that of human lives.
The testing of dangerous drugs and vaccines on children is an area that is particularly risk-filled…
The Nuremberg Codei provides ethical guidelines for medical researchers to protect human test subjects in scientific experiments from injury, disability or death.
The first principle of the Nuremberg Code—that doctors must obtain voluntary informed consent from the person about to be experimented on—appears to be frequently ignored, especially when it comes to clinical trials of experimental vaccines.
In recent news, the Argentinean Federation of Health Professionals accused GlaxoSmithKline of misleading participants and pressuring impoverished, disadvantaged families into enrolling their children in clinical trials of the experimental Synflorix pediatric pneumonia vaccine.
Fourteen of the children participating in the experimental vaccine trial died. Glaxo Smith Kline denies the charges and says it will appeal the nearly $240,000 fine imposed on the company and two doctors. According to CNNii:
“The deaths of 14 children, who reportedly died after participating in the trials, have drawn widespread attention in Argentinean media… GlaxoSmithKline categorically denies that the vaccine caused the deaths… But the health professional federation pointed to the children’s deaths in its call for increased regulations on drug testing.”
The death of 14 children in a vaccine trial SHOULD draw widespread attention, but while it’s a major news item in Argentina, the US approach seems coldly indifferent, to say the least. Why is this? Why are U.S. health officials expressing concern when children die from other causes but are turning a blind eye to the tragedy of children being killed by both experimental and licensed drugs and vaccines? That makes no sense at all!
Preying on the Poor and Illiterate
This certainly is not the first time children have died during drug company trials. It’s also not the first time a pharmaceutical company has been accused of being less than completely honest about experimental vaccine or drug risks, when they want to persuade poor, under-educated people into signing up for clinical trials.
For example, according to Nigerian authorities, Pfizer illegally tested an unapproved drug on children with brain infections at a field hospital in 1996. Eleven of the children died and dozens were disabled before the illegal activity was exposed.
Similarly, two years ago, the Indian government suspended Merck’s Gardasil study after they discovered that four of the young clinical trial participants had died after receiving Gardasil, and more than 120 girls suffered severe adverse reactions. A civil society-led investigation into the vaccine trial highlighted serious violations of ethical guidelines for clinical research and informed consent rights of study participants or their legal guardians.
Again and again we see how major drug companies scheme to enlist people, who do not have full information about experimental vaccine or drug risks and are effectively turned into human guinea pigs in scientific experiments. In fact, this almost seems to be more the rule than the exception.
Likewise, we see how conventional medicine, in general, downplays the inherent risks of drugs and vaccines. Fourteen children died in GSK’s pneumonia vaccine trial and, yet, we’re supposed to believe that every single one of those deaths was completely unrelated to the vaccine. Another case in point is the shocking lack of respect for individual human life in the approval of a pediatric anthrax vaccine trial by the National Biodefense Science Board!
Pediatric Anthrax Vaccine—A Disaster in the Making?
Last year, I interviewed Dr. Meryl Nass about anthrax, and she was the one who brought this terrible situation to my attention. The idea of public health officials promoting the testing of anthrax vaccine on children is truly unfathomable considering the fact that the military’s controversial mandatory anthrax vaccination program has already resulted in many reports of anthrax vaccine injuries and deaths in soldiers and civilian military personnel. Side effects occur in one to two percent of those given anthrax vaccine and 11 percent of all anthrax vaccine adverse event reports are considered serious.
The FDA’s definition of a “serious adverse reaction” to a vaccine includes a reaction that leads to:
Hospitalization
Permanent disability
Life-threatening event
Death
Anthrax vaccine was mandated by DOD for all soldiers deployed in the Gulf War to theoretically protect them against a bioterrorism attack using weaponized, inhalation anthrax. Since then, the anthrax vaccine has been implicated in the development of so-called Gulf War syndrome, and Dr. Nass believes it’s a viable candidate as one of the contributing factors. Meanwhile, animal studies have shown the vaccine to be rather ineffective against anthrax infection… So, what might the ramifications of giving anthrax vaccine to infants be? I shudder to even consider it! The very idea of subjecting infants to such a hazardous vaccine seems, quite frankly, unconscionable.
“It’s completely crazy, and it’s illegal. It can only be done because the Department of Health and Human Services is denying that there are serious adverse reactions. They have their National Biodefense Science Board, which by the way has two people who were very important in running the anthrax vaccine program in the military on that board, and their job is to protect the good name of the anthrax vaccine.
One is John Grabenstein. He ran the military vaccine program and ran the anthrax vaccine program first. He was instrumental in creating a whole series of scientific studies that were misrepresented and poorly done to try to show that the vaccine was safe when it wasn’t safe. He’s a very unethical researcher. He is a pharmacist with a PhD, and of course where did he go after he left the military? He went to Merck and works as a so-called scientist in their vaccine division… Merck knew that this guy was unethical; that he was cooking the books on the research, and they hired him anyway.”
Unethical Drug Trials Overseas: A Growing Problem
According to a 2011 investigative report published by Vanity Fairiii, 6,485 clinical drug trials were conducted overseas in 2008, up from just 271 overseas trials in 1990. And tracking of these trials is virtually non-existent. This can be a very serious problem when you consider that about 80 percent of the applications submitted to the US FDA for new drugs contain data from these foreign trials… Worse yet, drug companies are not required to report studies conducted overseas, which leaves the door wide open for studies with negative results to simply disappear.
There’s also very little accountability in terms of the accuracy of these trials because many of them are not performed by academic researchers but by independent contractors, who do everything from devising and performing the trial, to reporting on the results, ghostwriting technical articles and creating promotional campaigns for the drug. There can be no doubt that scientific experiments and clinical trials that do not contain adequate informed consent protections puts innocent human participants at risk for injury and death and is a violation of our most basic freedoms and human rights.
Is a Pneumonia Vaccine Even Necessary?
Getting back to GlaxoSmithKline’s pneumonia vaccine trial—in which 14 children died—a big question that really deserves an honest answer is whether such a vaccine is necessary. It is true that pneumonia, which is a severe form of acute lower respiratory infection that specifically affects your lungs, can have serious, life-threatening complications. According to the 2006 UNICEF report, Pneumonia: The Forgotten Killer of Childreniv, complications from pneumonia kills more children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.
An estimated 2 million children die from pneumonia each year, accounting for almost 1 in 5 deaths of children under the age of five, worldwide, with South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa bearing the burden of more than half of the total number of pneumonia cases. That said, the debate is not about whether pneumonia is a serious infection or not—it is.
However, UNICEF has also detailed the most effective forms of prevention of pneumonia, which include:
Exclusive breast feeding
Promoting adequate nutrition and zinc supplementation
Reducing indoor air pollution
Expanding vaccine coverage
While vaccination is on the list, it’s by no means the most important prevention strategy. To highlight the effectiveness of simple and inexpensive nutritional intervention, consider this: After reviewing a total of 10 studies, investigators at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that zinc supplementation alone reduces the risk of pneumonia by 41 percent!
Some people, who prefer to use more natural holistic health approach to staying well, have used essential oils to help prevent respiratory infections like pneumonia. Some essential oils — oregano, thyme and rosewood oils in particular – appear to create an autolytic reaction in organisms, including Streptococcus pneumonia. One researcher found that spraying these essential oils on S. pneumonia cells in the laboratory setting prompted the cells to fall apart!
How to Reduce Your Risk of Infectious Disease Without a Vaccine …
Most people, who have become educated about vaccination and health, would be quite skeptical about voluntarily enrolling their child into a vaccine clinical trial. But, as discussed, many of these trials are conducted overseas, in underdeveloped countries, where families do not have the education to understand the risks they are taking or the means to protest being used as human guinea pigs in drug company sponsored scientific experiments. Some of these unsuspecting research subjects die and others are left with permanent health problems that can destroy their lives and their families.
This is a travesty. I long for the day our medical system will stop violating the informed consent rights of human subjects participating in clinical trials and drug companies will stop treating the people, who die and are injured in clinical trials, as the cost of doing business. Unfortunately, I don’t think the system will change on its own. It will only change once enough people see through it, and refuse to buy into the false promise that a pill will cure every ill and a vaccine will prevent every disease…
It’s so important to understand that, overall, your best defense against any disease is a robust immune system. Vaccines can actually compromise healthy immune function and this is true, regardless of your age. Two of the most important factors influencing the health of your immune system are:
Your gut flora, and
Your vitamin D status
About 80 percent of your immune system resides in your gut, so maintaining a healthy gut flora is imperative for a fully functioning immune system. Also, if your child’s gut is populated with too many pathogens, he or she is likely to be more prone to vaccine damage. For more information about this, I highly recommend listening to my interview with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.
Vitamin D is another crucial component for maintaining optimal health, so I urge you to get your children’s vitamin D levels tested, and, if found deficient, to follow my recommendations for optimizing their levels.
Artificially manipulating your immune system with a vaccine does not produce the same kind of immunity and sought after disease-fighting results that a healthy lifestyle can. It may actually make you less healthy in the long run. For more information, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) is a good place to start to do research and obtain information that you need to make intelligent, informed decisions about vaccination.
Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know
The media is quick to warn about the dangers of infectious diseases but rarely discuss the dangers of the vaccines against those diseases. This has created a very lopsided view of the safety of vaccines. So please, if you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury or death, talk about it. If we don’t share information and experiences with each other, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper, or make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.
I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the “other side” of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.
We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than “statistically acceptable collateral damage” of national one-size-fits-all mass vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn’t be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.
Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More
To learn more about informed consent, the six principles for protecting your vaccine choices, and a summary of the U.S. law pertaining to vaccine exemptions, please review the article, STOP! Read This Before Vaccinating for Anything.
I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:
NVIC Advocacy Portal: Protect vaccine exemptions in YOUR state. Sign up to use the free online Advocacy Portal and stay informed about threats to your legal right to make voluntary vaccine choices so you can take immediate action by contacting your state legislators with the click of a mouse or touch on your SmartPhone screen.
NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors or government officials for making independent vaccine choices.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog.If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
*S*I*C*K*O*S*
Thoughts? Rants? Blog me.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)
Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:
Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129
So I’ve decided to mix it up a bit and change locations of where I blog…ya know just to make it more interesting than blogging in bed. :) (Calvin you inspired me – Congrats on the numero uno spot :)
I used to step to a different venue on Sundays but I rather like stepping out during the week as well. So hear I am at “Actual Cafe”, a very cool joint with big open windows, soothing music and a low-key crowd. And like my Cubano Con Leche made with condensed milk (yummy!), and my fresh HUGE raspberry morning bun (another “yummer” – I know not a word, but I’m back to creating words again, and since this is my blog, I can do that. By the way, feel free to do as well :) , I’m diggin’ this place big time – right now life just can’t get any better. It certainly is what I needed this morning.
I HOPE your day is starting off as well as mine. However, I hate to say it, but if you live in some if the more “conservative”(I call them “controlling”) states and like to have a say over what can and what cannot happen to your body – read on. I’m talking to you girls out there, especially the ones who support the republican party…because girls…those “boys” you support have figured out another way to control you through sexual assault – rape and get away with it.
Virginia is poised to send two of the most abhorrent anti-choice bills to Governor Bob McDonnell to sign. The governor, eyes trained on a vice presidential bid, has indicated he will sign at least one if not both of the bills.
The first is a bill requiring the use of trans-vaginal ultrasound prior to a woman obtaining an abortion, the other is an egg-as-person bill. Like other failed “personhood” bills, the Virginia provision would outlaw not only abortion but also forms of hormonal birth control.
Although the Governor has said he will consider the personhood bill he has been clear he would sign the forced ultrasound bill. But let’s start calling this what it really is: state sanctioned rape.
A. If any person has sexual intercourse with a complaining witness, whether or not his or her spouse, or causes a complaining witness, whether or not his or her spouse, to engage in sexual intercourse with any other person and such act is accomplished (i) against the complaining witness’s will, by force, threat or intimidation of or against the complaining witness or another person; or (ii) through the use of the complaining witness’s mental incapacity or physical helplessness; or (iii) with a child under age 13 as the victim, he or she shall be guilty of rape.
I called and emailed McDonnell’s press secretary Jeff Caldwell asking if the forced vaginal ultrasound bill would in-fact overturn the rape statute. Caldwell did not return my call or email by the time of publication.
During the debate Republican State Del. Todd Gilbert said:
“the vast majority of these cases [abortion] are matters of lifestyle convenience.” And, “We think in matters of lifestyle convenience and in other matters that it is right and proper for a woman to be fully informed about what she is doing.”
NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia Executive Director Tarina Keene said of the ultrasound bill alluding to Gilbert’s ludicrous statement:
“This bill and comments on the House floor show the disrespect anti-choice lawmakers have for women’s personal and private reproductive decisions made with their doctors and their families.”
Gilbert embodies the nature of the debate in one sweeping statement; women choose abortion willy-nilly and women aren’t smart enough to make their own decisions about their bodies so big government and men will (he has since issued an apology.)
The ignorance Gilbert displayed is the norm and I encountered similar stupidity first hand when confronted by a group of men on Facebook regarding the Texas ultrasound law. This is the relevant passage from a my piece written for The Frisky on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade:
Last week I got into a heated exchange with a group of men on Facebook about abortion. It was regarding the Texas law requiring a woman view an ultrasound prior to getting an abortion. The man starting the thread praised the Texas Supreme Court for upholding the ultrasound law.
This opinion piece from The Houston Chronicle (via AlterNet) gives you an idea of what a the government mandated ultrasound law in Texas could mean:
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 88 percent of abortions occur during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Because the fetus is so small at this stage, traditional ultrasounds performed through the abdominal wall, “jelly on the belly,” often cannot produce a clear image. Therefore, a transvaginal probe is most often necessary, especially up to 10 weeks to 12 weeks of pregnancy. The probe is inserted into the vagina, sending sound waves to reflect off body structures to produce an image of the fetus. Under this new law, a woman’s vagina will be penetrated without an opportunity for her to refuse due to coercion from the so-called “public servants” who passed and signed this bill into law.
Under the Texas penal code penetration of a woman’s vagina without her consent is sexual assault. In other words, it is rape — which is punishable by imprisonment.
In my bizarre Facebook exchange mentioned above, a man brazenly told me rape by the state was analogous to paying taxes, “If you want to talk about government rape, let’s talk about paying taxes to the IRS!”
The conversation deteriorated from there, culminating with a man writing that I was “lucky your mom didn’t abort you” and to shut my “pie hole.” It would have been simply hilarious if the premise of the conversation weren’t so disturbing.
And then there is Iowa – Iowa is no stranger to waging war on women’s reproductive rights, it has been the hobby of the religious right there for years. State GOP Representatives have brought forward three bills; egg-as-person, forced ultrasound and a so-called “Woman’s Right to Know” bill.
The forced ultrasound bill passed out of a House subcommittee and is on to the full Human Resources Committee – and then its on to the floor for full debate and vote. This bill is likely to pass out of the House but State Senator Steve Sodders told me (if it did make it out of the house) it would certainly die in the Senate. The Iowa Senate is the sane chamber dominated by Democrats functioning under the leadership of bulldog Senator Mike Gronstal.
While it may be true that the ultrasound bill will not pass in Iowa, these attempts at passing forced ultrasound bills and other anti-women legislation must continue to be called out no matter if the bill will pass or not. And like Texas and Virginia, the Iowa ultrasound bill could lead to forced trans-vaginal ultrasounds.
Marge Baker, Executive Vice President of People for the American Way puts it this way when talking about Virgina’s bill but can be applied across the board, “…Virginia’s ultrasound bill takes the war on women to a new level. These politicians aren’t only invading women’s hospital rooms, they’re requiring women to undergo an incredibly invasive procedure without their consent. That’s not only insulting to women, it flies in the face of our values as a free nation.”
The bottom line is pro-choice legislators in state houses around the country as well as physicians and women’s rights activist must start drawing the clear line between state forced transvaginal ultrasounds and rape.
******
Readers: Can you believe some of the comments that these men are saying. I’m so sick of their attitude towards women…How can you compare paying taxes to the government to women getting raped? It is so cold and uncaring. I agree with the writer over the bizarre exchange – it would be hilarious if it wasn’t so very disturbing.
And I’m so sick of men making a comment one day and then apologizing for it the next day as if that just erases everything. Some apologies don’t mean shit anymore. It’s just a way to mollify those affected by the stupid statement. The meaning is still there, and the intention is still there. The apology is just a bunch of BS to get us to move on while the individual(s) continue to follow through with their sick plans. Don’t buy it.
It’s happening again. The “line” is not clear. What are we going to do? What are you going to do? Blog me.
Anna of Guam: I like it. I think I’ll celebrate a day early next year. HOPEfully my love will remember as well.
Calin: I take it you read the above article that I posted. This is exactly what you are talking about with respect the female voters “voting away the benefits other women got for them through sweat and anguish and any chance of gaining parity from men”.
The forum is open – blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog.If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)
Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:
Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129
Declaring “There Is No Room For Compromise,” Republicans Push For Extreme Measures That Would Let Any Employer – Secular Or Religious – Deny Women Access To Range Of Critical Health Services, Including Mammograms, Sonograms and Contraception
Republicans Ignoring Polls Showing Broad Support For Administration Compromise – Including Among Catholic Women
New Push Is Just The Latest In Litany Of Republican Efforts To Curtail Women’s Access To Health Services
DECLARING “THERE IS NO ROOM FOR COMPROMISE,” REPUBLICANS VOW TO PURSUE EXTREME MEASURES TO RESTRICT WOMEN’S ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES.
Sen. McConnell Pledges Senate Vote On Blunt Proposal To Give Employers Unprecedented Power To Deny Women Access To Critical Health Services. SCHIEFFER: “Well I guess what I’m asking you though is are you willing as far as Senator Blunt now wants to go and just write in legislation that would ban any group that had just a, quote, moral objection, not just a religious group but just any group that had a moral objection to that? Would you be willing to push that in the senate?” MCCONNELL: “Yeah. You know, if we end up having to try to overcome the president’s opposition by legislation, of course, I’d be happy to support it and intend to support it. It would be difficult as long as the president is rigid in his view that he gets to decide what somebody else’s religion is. I assume he would veto it. But yeah, we’ll be voting on that in the Senate. And you can anticipate that that would happen as soon as possible.” [Face the Nation, 2/13/12]
Speaker Boehner Vows Push To Restrict Women’s Access To Contraception. “House Republicans say religious leaders are not convinced the White House contraception compromise ‘doesn’t constitute an attack on religious freedom, which has been a fundamental American right for more than 200 years,’ a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner said Friday. He urged the president to work with the Catholic bishops, and in the meantime the House would work on legislation ‘that respects all Americans’ constitutional rights.’” [Politico Pro, 2/10/12]
Sen. Coats: “There Is No Room For Compromise.” “Today’s announcement changes nothing. Whether religious employers are forced to pay directly for contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs or to act as facilitators, their religious liberty remains compromised. But what the president fails to understand is that when it comes to freedom of religion – a core American principle – there is no room for compromise.” [Press Release, 2/10/12]
Sen. Hatch: Anything Short Of Full GOP Position “Is No Compromise.”“This is about religious freedom, and anything short of a full exemption is no compromise” [Press Release, 2/10/12]
Sen. Blunt: Administration Compromise Is An “Accounting Gimmick.” “Just because you can come up with an accounting gimmick and pretend like religious institutions do not have to pay for the mandate, does not mean that you’ve satisfied the fundamental constitutional freedoms that all Americans are guaranteed. I’ll continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to ensure that we reverse this unconstitutional mandate in its entirety.” [Press Release, 2/10/12]
Sen. Johanns: Repeal Entire Mandate. “Though he may call this a compromise, asking people of faith to turn their backs on their deeply held beliefs is anything but. The one thing you cannot compromise is your conscience, and the only way to avoid this dilemma is to repeal the mandate and protect fundamental rights granted by the Constitution.” [Press Release, 2/10/12]
Sen. Rubio: Solution Is Full Repeal Of Health Reform. “It’s good that the president reaffirmed that the federal government cannot force faith-based institutions to provide services that they teach are wrong. Unfortunately, as more of these rules are written, our constitutional rights will continue to be threatened by the administration’s policy goals. This issue exemplifies the problem with putting the federal government in charge of health care, and shows why we must fully repeal Obamacare.” [Sunshine State News, 2/10/12]
REPUBLICANS BACK RADICAL PROPOSAL TO ALLOW EMPLOYERS TO DENY COVERAGE FOR CONTRACEPTION AND OTHER CRITICAL HEALTH SERVICES TO WOMEN
Senator Blunt’s Proposal Lets Any Employer Deny Anyone Access to Health Care. As part of their ongoing effort to politicize women’s health, Senator Blunt’s extreme measure would essentially allow any employer or health plan to decide not to provide any essential health benefit or preventive service to any American.
Under Blunt Proposal, Any Employer Could Invoke Vague “Moral Conviction” To Deny Health Services To Employees. The Blunt measure would allow employers and insurance companies to deny coverage of any health service – not limited to birth control – based on “religious beliefs or moral convictions.” This definition is so broad, for example, that CEO’s with a “moral objection” to Type 2 Diabetes or HIV screening could deny coverage of these services to all employees. [NWLC, 2/10/12]
Employers Could Discriminate Against Individuals Under Blunt Proposal. The Blunt proposal would allow health plans to discriminate against individuals based on sex, race, color, national origin, age, and disability. As a result, if a CEO of an insurance company had a “moral objection” to out-of-wedlock births, the company could deny single, pregnant women access to routine sonograms. [NWLC, 2/10/12]
Blunt Proposal Creates An Unprecedented Right of Action for “Threatened” Violations. Any individual would have the right to file a lawsuit in Federal court for actual or “threatened violations.” As a result, state officials might be less likely to enforce any law which could be perceived as a threat, thereby resulting in further restricted access to critical services. [NWLC, 2/10/12]
POLLS SHOW AMERICANS – INCLUDING CATHOLICS – BROADLY SUPPORTS BIRTH CONTROL BENEFIT
Poll: Fifty Six Percent of Voters Support Birth Control Benefit. According to a poll conducted by PPP, 56 percent of voters support the birth control benefit, while only 37 percent are opposed, with women supporting the measure by a margin of 63 -29 percent. Among independents 55 percent support it while only 36 percent oppose it. [PPP, 2/10/11]
Poll: Fifty Three Percent of Catholics Support Birth Control Benefit. According to a poll conducted by PPP, 53 percent of Catholics support the birth control benefit while only 44 percent are opposed. [PPP, 2/10/11]
THIS IS JUST THE LATEST IN LITANY OF REPUBLICAN EFFORTS TO CURTAIL WOMEN’S ACCESS TO HEALTH SERVICES
Republicans Threatened to Shut Down the Government to Defund Planned Parenthood. In April 2011, during the debate over funding the government, Republicans threatened to shut down the federal government in order to gut women’s access to healthcare. [ABC News, 4/8/11]
235 House Republicans Voted To Eliminate All Funding For Title X, Jeopardizing Critical Preventive Health Services for Women. HR.1, the House Republican’s spending bill eliminated $327 million from Title X, whose providers served close to 5 million women with preventive services including screenings for breast and cervical cancer. [Wall Street Journal, 2/9/11; H.R. 1; Vote 147, 2/19/11]
Republican Budget Raised Prescription Drug Prices on 2 Million Women.The House Republican budget re-opened the Medicare Part D prescription drug “donut hole.” As a result, senior women would have had to pay an additional $599 on average under the Republican proposal. [HHS, 2/2/12]
And, last night on “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell:
Readers: Heard enough? When will women’s health be taken seriously and supported? In my opinion, any woman who votes republican needs to have her head examined. Thoughts? Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog.If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)
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In the summer of 1865, a former slave by the name of Jourdan Anderson sent a letter to his former master. And 147 years later, the document reads as richly as it must have back then.
The roughly 800-word letter, which has resurfaced via various blogs, websites, Twitter and Facebook, is a response to a missive from Colonel P.H. Anderson, Jourdan’s former master back in Big Spring, Tennessee. Apparently, Col. Anderson had written Jourdan asking him to come on back to the big house to work.
In a tone that could be described either as “impressively measured” or “the deadest of deadpan comedy,” the former slave, in the most genteel manner, basically tells the old slave master to kiss his rear end. He laments his being shot at by Col. Anderson when he fled slavery, the mistreatment of his children and that there “was never pay-day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows.”
Below is Jourdan’s letter in full, as it appears on lettersofnote.com. To take a look at what appears to be a scan of the original letter, which appeared in an August 22, 1865 edition of the New York Daily Tribune, click here. As Letters Of Note points out, the newspaper account makes clear that the letter was dictated.
Dayton, Ohio,
August 7, 1865
To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee
Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.
I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.
As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.
In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.
Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson.
********
Readers: I’d say ‘ol Colonel P.H. Anderson, deserves to be a member in the LSOS Club – don’t you? It’s Friday…Jourdan Anderson flapped his lips. What are yours saying?
Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog.If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)
Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:
Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129
