Month: November 2004

Do As I Say Not As I Do

Digby delivers a big fat kick in the pants this morning and he’s got a hugely valid point, which is: all the trumpeting about how ‘moral’ the Red States are is plain old hypocracy. We should not pander to it.

the fact is that somebody in the red states is watching Will and Grace and somebody is watching Girls Gone Wild and a whole bunch of somebodies are downloading pornography. I’m sure they tut-tut those terrible liberals while they pass the popcorn and laugh over The Bachelor’s latest catfight.The biggest hit of the TV season is the sexually adventurous Desperate Housewives and it ain’t just because people in New York and LA are watching it. The National Enquirer and the Globe are hugely popular in Middle America with their fascination with Hollywood dirt.

This is mass consumer culture and it plays very successfully all across that great swathe of red. Somebody’s watching all this stuff and buying all this stuff and consuming all this stuff.

I could quote the whole thing becasue it’s all good, but that’s the gist. Enjoy.

New Attorney General

The Rude Pundit says it well about our new AG, Alberto Gonzales:

We get to be happy that the guy who feared marble breasts is gone and that the guy who thinks torture’s okay is in as Attorney General.

Click through for the rest, but if you’re reading this from work, remember that he’s not called the Rude Pundit for nothing.

Balkinization give more in-depth reasons why this is not a good thing:

he has done something that is, in my mind, inexcusable. He commissioned and put his name on a series of despicable legal memos that justified torture and prisoner abuse and that tried to avoid America’s obligations under international law

To be fair, though, the Washington Post points out some potential positives about his track record. However, given his longtime history as a loyal friend of President Bush, I seriously doubt we’ll see any deviation from the administration party line on Gonzales’ watch.

He’s Finally Dead

So Arafat is really dead this time.

At one point I might have been sad to see the man go, but taking his legacy all in all, he could not bring himself the be the man who made a real peace with Israel. And all I can say is, good riddance.

What will happen next, we don’t know. Depending on the outcome of the political infighting, it could be good or bad. But at least there’s a chance to get some new cards on the table now.

More on ‘Values Voters’

Apropos of yesterday’s post on access to birth control pills, Atrios chimes in with some very good points about why the Democratic party should have no problem finding common ground with many anti-abortion folks:

Look, if you have a problem with abortion and want to find ways to reduce them rather than outlaw them, come on board. I for one don’t much care about reducing abortions as a policy goal in and of itself, but I do care about reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. And, as long as the pro-life right is also battling contraceptive availability, fighting against OTC access to the “morning after” pill, which really isn’t an abortaficient (or, to the extent than it is, should be much less offensive than the consequences of IVF procedures), fighting for laws allowing pharmacists to refuse to prescribe the pill (which is also prescribed for legitimate medical reasons other than to stop pregnancy), destroying sex education, and supporting economic policies which increase poverty, then it seems like supporting Democrats are the way to go.

If your pro-lifeness is wrapped up in a general anti-sex religious agenda, then stick with the Republicans.

The problem, of course, is that this is way too common-sense an approach and thus will get totally overlooked.

More on Red State Moralism

Sorry for the longer than usual quote, but Josh Marshall has the beginning of a highly interesting take on the red state / blue state issue that’s worth a notice:

The oddity of this Red State moralism argument emerges most clearly when you look at statistics for virtually every form of quantifiable social dysfunction. Divorce, out-of-wedlock birth, poverty, murder, incidence of preventable disease — go down the list and you

No Pills For You!

A friend of mine recently pointed out that abortion is all-but unavailable already in large portions of America; not due to anti-abortion laws, but because nobody is choosing to provice that service. Is birth control next?

It’s a long article and one that does not lend itself to easy pulling of quotes. Here’s the gist, though:

Some pharmacists, however, disagree and refuse on moral grounds to fill prescriptions for contraceptives. And states from Rhode Island to Washington have proposed laws that would protect such decisions.

Mississippi enacted a sweeping statute that went into effect in July that allows health care providers, including pharmacists, to not participate in procedures that go against their conscience. South Dakota and Arkansas already had laws that protect a pharmacist’s right to refuse to dispense medicines. Ten other states considered similar bills this year.

The American Pharmacists Association, with 50,000 members, has a policy that says druggists can refuse to fill prescriptions if they object on moral grounds, but they must make arrangements so a patient can still get the pills. Yet some pharmacists have refused to hand the prescription to another druggist to fill.

No need to change any laws – just get enough phramacists to refuse to fill perscirtions, and poof! Away goes the ability of women to get access to one of the easiest and most effective methods of birth control.

I’m over the initial wave of reaction from Election Day, but this is the kind of news that makes me think the apocalyptic fears of those first 48 hours are not, in fact, so far off base. It’s bad enough that Roe v Wade is under attack, but if we have to fight for Griswold too, it’s really, really bad.