Grafic by Dan

Guest Post — April 26, 2013

Note from Dan: Some of you will remember the video below, from March 2012, when police in Richmond mistreated women who marched on Capitol Square to protest Virginia Republicans’ “War on Women.” Well, it’s happening again tomorrow, and below, Sally Foster Mullikin tells us a little about it. She’s a Franklin County native who now lives in Richmond, where she’s active in a number of causes.

By Sally Foster Mullikin

Roanoke’s demographics have been forced into the spotlight of Virginia politics. Last year, starting in February, women throughout the State of Virginia and beyond descended on our State Capitol in response to Del. Chris Head’s (R-Roanpoke) co-sponsorship of the Transvaginal Ultrasound bill (along with Lynchburg’s Kathy Byron who drafted and sponsored it).

The women of Virginia were furious over this as well as a personhood bill and many other attempts by the General Assembly to force government into our uteruses. February began with a protest called “Speak Loudly with Silence” where nearly 1500 or more women, men, and children lined the streets of the Capitol from the administration buildings to the house chambers.

My fondest memory was Senator Donald McEachin with tears in his eyes walking the gauntlet of silent protestors saying, “thank you for standing up for your civil rights, God bless you.” After that initial rally, women’s rights supporters picketed the Governors Mansion and ultimately were arrested sitting on the steps of the State Capitol. (The essay continues below the video)
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(From upper left) Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina; Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona; Rep. Peter King, R-New York; Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia

Don’t look now, but there’s a sanity virus quickly spreading among Republicans on Capital Hill. Some of them are talking about ditching their pledge to Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquists’s outfit.

Sen. John McCain, meanwhile, is saying the GOP ought to quit talking about abortion rights during their campaigns, because that only gets them in trouble (Rep. Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, anyone?).

Here are the highlights:

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Georgia: “I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge. . . If we do it [Grover Norquist's] way, then we’ll continue in debt, and I just have a disagreement with him about that . . . But I don’t worry about that because I care too much about my country. I care a lot more about it than I do Grover Norquist.”

Rep. Peter King, R-New York: “I agree entirely with Saxby Chambliss. A pledge you signed 20 years ago, 18 years ago, is for that Congress. For instance, if I were in Congress in 1941, I would have signed a declaration of war against Japan. I’m not going to attack Japan today. The world has changed, and the economic situation is different.” Read more »

AP Photo

From the You-Can’t-Make-This-Stuff-Up (but he can) Department:

“There’s no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda,” Romney told the Des Moines Register Tuesday.

From Talking Points Memo:

Shortly after Register interview, Romney’s campaign clarifed the abortion quote to the National Review.

“Governor Romney would of course support legislation aimed at providing greater protections for life,” Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said.

Romney’s remarks on abortion on The O’Reilly Factor:

AP Photo

Attorney General (and gubernatorial hopeful) Ken Cuccinelli has some strong words for members of the Virginia Board of Health. Basacially it’s this: They better regulate abortion clinics the way he says to. Otherwise, the attorney general’s office won’t defend them and they’ll have to hire their own lawyer.

What has excited the Cooch’s uncharacteristically pro-regulation fervor? It all goes back to 2011, when some canny parliamentarians in the Virginia General Assembly took an innocuous bill and amended it late in the game to subject abortion clinics to the same building regulations as hospitals. They got it passed by a single vote.

The law required the Board of Health to write those regulations. But when it did, it made them applicable only to new abortion clinics.

Existing abortion clinics were grandfathered, so they wouldn’t have to make changes that could cost a lot of money, or be forced to close (which is the actual intent of the lawmakers who passed the bill).

This has outraged Cuccinelli and Gov. Bob McDonnell. Read Cuccinelli’s letter here.

It’s his way, or the highway!

I wonder if he feels that way about other building-standards regulations?

Carolmooredc | Wikimedia Commons

Note from Dan: Dave Gresham is a real estate broker and regular on this blog. A while back, I incorrectly characterized him as an atheist.

By Dave Gresham

Just as plants grow, mature, and then fade, so it is with people’s bodies. The vessels our spirits dwell in are literally organic machines, for our body’s growth and decline happens automatically, from start to finish, just as it does with plants.

The only part of us that is not organic machinery is our spirit, that life force which animates us and wherein each of us recognizes the “I am” of our individual essence. So the vessels we will dwell in begin at conception, but our actual spiritual life inside these machines begins when?

Surely we do not put on clothes while their fabrics are being woven, though after weaving, the cloth might possibly be cut and sewn while wearing it. Surely no one moves into a house at the start of construction, though once the foundation is in and the framework erected, then we might live there while the building is completed. So some amount of structure must come to pass before a thing can actually be used, and this same principle applies to our souls inhabiting our bodies while they are under construction in the womb.

As to the moment a soul takes up residence in a fetus happens, we do not know. Personally, I believe the moment of unity between flesh and spirit depends on the parents and the child to be, so it might be very early in the pregnancy in some cases. But it is also clear that some pregnancies are miscarried or stillborn, often when the parents truly wanted a child. So where was the unity of body and soul in those cases? It was absent is the answer. So who can truly know the moment of union? Or why it does, or does not happen?

But this we do know… Read more »

Gov. Weathervane utters the key words: abortion should be legal in cases “of rape and incest and to save the health and life of the mother.” He also calls it a “settled” issue.

UPDATE: A Romney spokeswoman said he used the term “health” by accident, and that he’s not in favor of that exception for legal abortion.

Szaboforsheriff.com

Some people hide their bizarre and extreme views; others wear them proudly on their sleeves. Frank Szabo, the Republican candidate for sheriff in Hillborough County, N.H., definitely falls into the latter category.

Elective abortion may be legal in New Hampshire, but Szabo doesn’t care about that. The would-be sheriff (a businessman who has never worked in law enforcement before) won’t be fettered by puny legalities. He says he’s going to stop abortions one way or another.

From WMUR9:

Frank Szabo said that as sheriff, he would arrest any doctor performing elective or late-term abortions in his jurisdiction.

. . .But Szabo may have inflamed the issue further when asked if he would use deadly force to prevent an abortion.

“I would respond specifically by saying that if someone is under threat, a full-grown human being, if they’re under threat, what should the sheriff do? Everything in their power to prevent them from being harmed,” he said.

When pressed about what he would do if he learned that a doctor was about to perform an elective abortion, Szabo replied he would do what it took to prevent that from happening.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Well, I would hope that it wouldn’t come to that, as with any situation where someone is in danger, but again, specifically talking about elective abortions and late-term abortions, that is an act that needs to be stopped.”

Perhaps this guy is trying to one-up Rep. Todd Akin, R-Missouri, who earlier this week lectured us on the unlikelihood of pregnancy from “legitimate rape.”

What I don’t understand is, if Szabo doesn’t care what the law says, and he feels so strongly about the issue, why isn’t he out there killing doctors who perform abortions now?

The New Hampshire House Speaker, who’s also a Republican, has called on Szabo to drop out of the race.

UPDATE: Szabo says today that if elected he won’t kill abortion docs, and that his previous comments were “inexcusable.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Richmond

You could fill plenty of Roanoke Civic Center coliseums with the number of pundits who think my old pal Dave “Mudcat” Saunders is fighting a lost cause working  as a campaign strategist for Richmond lawyer and retired Army colonel Wayne Powell.

Powell’s the latest in a long line of Democrats who have tried to unseat Republican Rep. Eric Cantor, who as House Majority Leader is one of the most powerful people in Washington.

The problem for Powell is, not a one of previous challengers has ever come close. And because of redistricting, the 7th Congressional District is more Republican now than ever.

But a new poll out today highlights what may be a surprising vulnerability for the veteran congressman among 7th District voters: Women’s health issues, something that’s been in the news a lot lately here in Virginia.

From Think Progress:

Voters say they would support a pro-choice candidate over a candidate who is pro-life by an unexpectedly large margin, 68 percent to 23 percent. The finding comes after intense media coverage of efforts by state Republicans to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds prior to obtaining an abortion, a procedure described by critics as “state-sponsored rape.” The resulting backlash from women in Virginia forced Governor Bob McDonnell (R) and his allies at the statehouse to moderate their efforts. Read more »

Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday and Harry Morgan as Detective Bill Gannon in Dragnet, from the late 1960s | NBC Television | Wikimedia Commons

It was Saturday morning, and I had just finished reading the news.

The most intriguing story was about the Virginia Board of Health, and the recent regulation it approved allowing state inspectors to procure lists of clients from abortion clinics, and to remove client files from those clinics, too.

Then I heard a stiff knock on the front door.

I opened it and found two somber men in drab suits on the front porch. One was holding a manila folder.

“Mr. Casey?” the bigger one asked.

“That’s me,” I said.

“I’m Sergeant Joe Friday.” He motioned to the shorter guy. “This is Detective Bill Gannon.”

Friday squinted, and flashed a badge.

“We’re inspectors from the Virginia Board of Health. It’s about your daughter, sir.”

I inhaled sharply. “Has she been in an accident?”

“She’s fine,” Gannon said. “No accident.”

“Thank goodness,” I replied.

Friday frowned. “The problem is, she’s been to Planned Parenthood, sir.”

READ THE REST OF THIS COLUMN HERE.

From the Family Foundation's Facebook page

Note from Dan: This email came in Tuesday. I asked the sender for a copy of the flyer — he said it so disturbed him that he threw it away Monday. I don’t want to render any judgments on it until I’ve seen it. Has anybody? If so, scan it and send it to me.

I live in the 8th House District, am pro-life, and believe that political discourse should be genuine, polite, and reasonable.  Yesterday I received a mailing that greatly disappointed me – especially since it was sent from what is theoretically “my side” of the political spectrum.

A group known as The Family Foundation (I know nothing about them) sent a flier – I assume to all citizens in the 8th HOD – praising our two state elected officers for their pro-life votes.  Those two officials are Greg Habeeb and Ralph Smith.  Regardless of how much I agree or disagree with Habeeb and Smith on issues in general, I am thankful that they are pro-life.  However, this mailing disgusted me.  It was not genuine – as the pictures it used attempted to portray falsely pro-choice advocates as lawless.  It was not polite – as it attempted to demonize the “other side.”  It was not reasonable – as it did nothing to further a thoughtful dialogue but instead fanned flames of discord.

I assume that neither Habeeb nor Smith authorized this mailing.  It looked like something that truly came from a third party with our local officials names simply stamped on it.  (I assume that other districts in the state received the same mailing.)  However, if I was in either of their shoes, I would be highly upset for including my name on something like this as though I had asked for it to be mailed on my behalf.

I wish 3rd party groups on both sides – like this so-called Family Foundation – would work to build genuine, polite, and reasonable discussion and debate.  Maybe that’s too much to hope for.

Albert