A House Republican lawmaker likened the implementation of a new mandate that insurers offer coverage for contraceptive services to Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.
Pennsylvania Rep. Mike Kelly (R), an ardent opponent of abortion rights, said that today's date would live in infamy alongside those two other historic occasions. Wednesday marked the day on which a controversial new requirement by the Department of Health and Human Services, which requires health insurance companies to cover contraceptive services for women, goes into effect.
"I know in your mind you can think of times when America was attacked. One is December 7th, that's Pearl Harbor day. The other is September 11th, and that's the day of the terrorist attack," Kelly said at a press conference on Capitol Hill. "I want you to remember August the 1st, 2012, the attack on our religious freedom. That is a day that will live in infamy, along with those other dates."
Republicans cried foul when the Obama administration first announced the new rule, reasoning that it would force employers with a religious affiliation to act in a way that contradicts their beliefs. The outcry included criticism from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and President Obama subsequently announced a compromise in which employers wouldn't be forced to offer insurance plans that cover contraception, but insurance companies would be required to offer coverage to women who wish to purchase it.
Republicans rejected the compromise, and subsequently attempted several times to advance legislation to reverse the mandate. The imbroglio contributed to Democratic charges of a GOP-led "war on women."
"This is a right that every American should be outraged, outraged about what this administration and Secretary Sibelius has set forth here on August the 1st," New York Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R) said at the same press conference as Kelly. "And as Mike said, August the 1st is a day that we as American will look at as the largest assault on our First Amendment rights."
*UPDATE* Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, a veteran of World War II, condemned Kelly's comments in a statement.


Mothership....
Those who are against the use of contraception are like the Vargyr from Homeworld. They want women to be slaves to them for their own devious purposes of breeding humans just to brainwash the child so that the person can then establish a religious facility so to make tax fee money from by making the brainwashed child attend religious services where the money then goes to fund politicians like Romney.
To put it frankly he is an embarrassment to the state of Pennsylvania. Such an asinine comparison to make is repugnant to veterans of WWII and the victims of 9/11.
Mr grover, the gop, & the rushbo often will intentionally misanalysed situations. Pearl harbor was such a long time ago that we need not go into it. But take 911 and the gop actions during that day in 2001. Look at the video again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykC-ioYJKOA
Ok. Question - what was darth vader's cheney's order to our air defense that day. I tell you it had to be 'don't shoot the passenger jet down because we want it to crash into the pentagon' because the airman asked the question at 10 miles away and not when the passenger jet was 50 miles away.
Ok. Ok. But how is that like contraception. Ok. Ok. Look at the population numbers again.
0000 - 230M
1000 - 300M
1900 - 1.6B
1930 - 3B
2010 - 7B
2090 - 25B
The numbers of people are exploding by leaps & bounds. No longer increasing by millions as in year 0000 when modern religion was taking form, but by billions. 3.5 times more people every 80 years. And now 98% of climate scientists saying that people are causing a change in climate which already causing massive decreases in animal & plant life. That co2 emissions is directly related to the soaring growth in the numbers of people. But mr grover, the gop, & the rushbo say bunk to science. That they have a war on science.
Ok. Ok. All repeated many times before. It's all over the papers and the radio and tv too. Everybody knows about how mr grover, the gop, & the rushbo feel about science. What does climate change have to do with 911.
Moving the country ahead is all but impossible according to cnn.
'Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party. The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. It makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country's challenges.'
Mr grover, the gop, & the rushbo. The party of NO. Their motto - My way or the highway.
It might help if you did some fact checking before you post, but given how rambling and incoherent it was, that might be asking too much.
Poor Old Mitt Romney
A political parody of The Beatles song: Eleanor Rigby,
written by Bruce-1628250
Kudos for the creativity, even if the message is blatantly wrong and hypocritical.
Thanks Jim, but it really depends on your point of view, doesn't it?
New song coming out soon! Stay tuned!
Jim, since your icon is Reagan, what do you think of this "gentleman". Reagan was Pro-Choice. I don't think he would like the idea of Republicans restricting Birth Control.
Just when you think Republicans can't possibly say anything stupider than what they've already said, up pops some moron with even more over-the-top drama-queen idiocy. What are they going to say if there's ever anything to actually complain about, having squandered even the most extreme analogies on trivia? People are going to keep using birth control no matter how hard Republicans try to prevent them. What will that be, the Holocaust?
Insanity. Pure, unadulterated insanity. White male Republicans apparently are still on their macho overlords of women thing.
Wow. That's really all I can say....wow. I wonder what the widows and orphans of 9/11 would say to this moron if they heard his comparison. I doubt, very much, that they would agree that the pain ad sorrow and loss that they've gone through from 9/11 compares with the right of a woman to use birth control.
Anymore...being a Republican is a "mental illness". !
GET A GRIP Republicans! From an avowed CENTRIST I can tell you this has NOTHING to do with fiscal policy...YOU who scream about the Government taking away your freedom? How about RELIGIOUS NUT JOBS taking away mine. Freedome is freedom....restrictions on it - whether they come from government OR someone's ridiculous dogma are restrictions. So live and let live why don't you and realize that if you don't pay for birth control now, you pay for Medicaid, SNAP, WIC and all the rest of the entitlements if you don't.
TURNING and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of i{Spiritus Mundi} Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at laSt, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Meanwhile...NYC is busy locking up formula in hospitals and requiring mothers to be "educated" on breastfeeding. Isn't this sort of tactic the very thing the left screamed was a violation of women's rights with the abortion bill requiring the mother to be presented with info to make an informed decision?? Sure seems like it...so where's the outrage???
"Required to be presented with information to make a informed decision."
Yes that's sounds awful.
When states want to restrict abortion, they are not providing information to make a informed decision. They are MANDATING invasive procedures, wait times and lots of government hoops to jump through to make it as difficult as possible to get a abortion.
I guess outrage is better spent on REAL examples of government invasion.
So how's Governor State Rape of VA doing these days? Has anyone introducing a bill mandating VA Governors undergo a colonoscopy every two or three weeks? Just to keep them informed, you know, and make them safer.
But then, in his defense, Governor State Rape wanted to do it with a plastic tube, not the real thing.
Jim, I don't know about NY but here in Oregon it is the crazed Conservatives who had formula removed from the hospitals. It's seems they think bottle feeding is anti-woman. I suppose it also has something to do with if a woman is breat-feeding that means she is tied to the home and the baby and not in the work force. So that leaves men a greater job market in these tough economic times. It is funny how a pregnant woman just became the CEO of Yahoo, and now there is a push to force women to breast feed their babies. It make go, hummmm.
What an A-hole
I like it. Succinct and sums up the situation very nicely.
Still the GOP/Tea Party tries to paint President Obama as the enemy and a terrorist just because he is a black man that was elected as president by a generation that sees past the color of a mans skin and too his intelligence.
Those against Obama are nothing more than racists and a generation that is slowly dieing.
If I were the mother, wife, sister, daughter aunt, niece, whatever of someone who died in WWII, 9/11, Iraq, or Afghanistan, I would want to see this guy beheaded on prime time TV.
But, of course, I'm not any of those things.
So, the republican party has stated, in no uncertain terms...
...if you don't have a Sexually Transmitted Disease, or not pregnant, then your not a true republican.
So republicans holding government positions in Congress and the Senate are either pregnant, getting pregnant, or has AIDS, shingles, Crabs....
So we have a bunch of infested pregger crabby people in office that believe in Unplanned Parenthood and giving Sexually Transmitted diseases.
I'm not going to vote for a bunch of people that do not believe in Planned Parenthood, or goes around trying to infect diseases on the population.
Just when will they get it?????
This country is founded on religious freedom.
But our founding fathers made sure that the government is a separate entity from it all.
Thus it is written into the Constitution of the United States that there will be a separation of church and state.
If you are offended by what laws are written and passed by the Congress of the United States and passed
by the Executive Branch, ie; the President and upheld by the Judicial Branch, ie: The Supreme Court and
feel offended that the religions of the country have been abused, then you should go and live in a country
governed by religious law. Like say Iran where all workings of the Government and the peoples are told
what to do by the religious leaders who dictate their interpretation of the laws of their religion onto the
nation.
Then you can participate in the stoning's, mutilations of your body, ie hands or head removed and the
women in your life, who deserve living on an equal footing both in wages and in divorce, in driving, in
clothing to wear, in wanting women to walk behind you, use a different door to enter a building and not
free to talk with the male members of the family, sit apart from you in the house of religion, not of
your choice but of the country's religious leaders, or of any circle of friends that includes male friends on
their own; then that is what and where you should live if you are offended by what the separation of
religion and state means in this country.
By the way, I am not a Native American but both sides of my family have been in this country since the
beginning of the 1600's and I have an Aunt, now deceased, who was one of the scribes of the Social
Security Act under Roosevelt.
Who when it was her turn to use the benefits of the system turned it down because she was adamant that
it became and is used for personal identity. They were never supposed to use the numbers in that manner
and she was pissed.
Be careful of what you wish for.
I myself will continue to enjoy meeting all members of this free nation and its people on a compassionate
and loving basis of FREEDOM.
It's a choice, not a baby.
Yes, I pay part of my insurance coverage and, no, my insurance carrier doesn't allow me to decide how my money is spent on others' healthcare once I hand my money over to them. It would be impossible to trace and the idea of it is ludicrous, anyway. This crop of TPers is the biggest bunch of cry babies and drama queens ever assembled outside of a day care center. I'm not being sarcastic, either; I really believe that. They all reached their level of incompetence the day they entered kindergarten.
Ok all of you conservative types, at what threshold do you start being embarrassed to consider yourself to be aligned with this group ? First this, then all the hoopla over the Chick Filia thing, I mean come on your an embarrassment..
The Repugnicans and TeaPartiers are going to make Sharia Law look like a benign religion compared to their hysterical, rabid and delusional rantings.
Reminds me of the Miami "gusanos" Cubans, who want their own people to die before allowing the useless embargo to end.
Mike Kelly should resign. If he thinks democracy is so bad and people seeking birth control are evil I am sure they will welcome him with open arms in the Taliban.
That's really funny. Because I liken the Republican Party to Hiroshima.
You know, in the end this is probably good news. They're idiotic stance on this issue is going to cost them truck loads of votes on both sides of the gender line. Should slap an awkward grin on Romney's face during the debates when Obama brings it up too, along with all the other obstructionist crap that house republicans have been pulling for the last 1.5 years at our expense.
Obama/Biden 2012!
~Brought to you by a former republican
dear less.invations: "they're" should be "their idiotic stance"....and by the way...here's to more Republican and Conservative "obstruction".
I know. It's called a typo. I didn't know I was being graded. Care to offer a counterpoint instead of calling the spelling/grammar police?
Benefits for Homeless Veterans- Would have expanded benefits to homeless veterans and homeless veterans with children. Republicans blocked this.
Health Care for the 9/11 First Responders who got sick from being at Ground Zero- Would provide billions of dollars in health care to help the 9/11 First Responders who were at Ground Zero on 9/11 and are now sick because of it. Republicans blocked this.
The Jobs Bill- Offsets the payroll tax for 1 year for companies that hire new employees, or people receiving unemployment insurance. Also gives other tax incentives to companies hiring new employees. Republicans attempted to block this.
Small business lending bill- would give LOCAL, community banks access to billions of dollars to loan to small businesses. Republicans blocked this.
Financial reform- Puts stricter regulations on the banks, preventing them from becoming "too big to fail". Curbs reckless spending practices that caused the banking crisis. Republicans attempted to block this.
Stimulus Bill- Pumped billions of dollars into state and local Governments to prevent us from sinking into a second Great Depression. Republicans opposed this but now want to take credit for the parts of it that we know are successful.
Oil Spill Liability- Raises the liability on what companies can be made to pay to clean up after an oil spill. Republicans blocked this.
Political Ad disclosure bill- Would have required all donors to political campaigns to reveal themselves. Republicans blocked this.
Immigration- Republican suggested comprehensive immigration reform until Obama supported it. Now they're rabidly opposed to it and even voted against their own legislation. Republicans blocked this.
There's just a small cross section of what your republican representatives have been up to. I hate to go off topic, but you didn't seem too convinced at my "obstructionist" remark. They only want Obama out of office. If that means they have to hold the country hostage to do it, they will...and they have. Don't just swallow whatever they tell you.
*Source republicansforobama.org/node/8775
The GOP and the Democrat's continue to use abortion and gay rights to keep the people of this country divided so they don't have to deal with issues that they have no idea how to fix. How many times are we going to argue the same issues. Why don't they leave social issues alone for a couple of years and fix our fiscal problems? We get the kind of government we deserve. The approval rating of our Congress is about 10% yet we have many members who have been in office for 20+ yrs. How stupid can we be as a nation to allow 2 groups of people to run us 16 trillion in debt and continue to elect them into office. As I said we get the kind of government we deserve.
The problem is this: social issues shouldn't be part of the Federal agenda. The only reason they are is because the Court made the mistake of trying to move us into the 20th century in 1973, and since then, every redneck cracker has been trying to drag us back to the 19th, on both social and economic issues. This is why we can't fix anything- because half the country believes in going backwards. There are only a select few intelligent people who want to move beyond what has come before- who don't believe in old wives tales that sufficed for reality, prior to the advent of science. Until we get a consensus on moving forward, we are going to have division, and as you say, we won't fix anything.
This isn't about liberal or conservative, it's about facts, figures, correct and incorrect. More of the same, 19th century style laissez-faire capitalism and supply-side economics is not the answer. Obama is not the answer, because he buys this cr*p, too, but Romney is not going to fix that, he's going to make it worse, because he's COMPLETELY beholden to cave men who got rich off oil, which is like getting rich off heroin- it requires no effort, and little intelligence.
Until we start to admire intelligence in this country, learn the ACTUAL facts, and respond accordingly, instead of just running around talking about what we "believe", which along with a couple of bucks will allow me to leave Dunkin' Donuts with a cup of coffee in my hand, we will be in this sinking ship, forever. This is why I'm afraid it all needs to collapse- it's the only way some people are going to wake up. Once we're ALL hungry, then we WILL have to figure out how to do it the right way.
PS- I almost said, "with coffee in my hand,: instead of, "with A CUP OF coffee in my hand," but then I remembered the right wing penchant for semantics. Their answer to my argument here would have been, "you pour coffee into your hand?" This is why we get nowhere in this country.
Romney-crat Concession Song
(A political parody song written by Bruce-1628250, based on Elton John's song: Honky Cat)
wow its the reverse discriminationist.
You know the whole ( IM a looser because ..of the Rich.) Routine is so lame..you should look in the mirror there you will find your problem....and Get a Hugo..