South Dakota Approves Near-Total Abortion Ban
In South Dakota, state legislators voted Wednesday to ban all abortions unless they’re performed to save the life of the woman. The New York Times notes the law makes South Dakota "the first state in 14 years to start a direct legal attack on Roe v. Wade." Some abortion opponents said the vote was motivated by recent changes to the Supreme Court, with two Bush nominees -- John Roberts and Samuel Alito -- having been appointed in recent months.
the above is a headline from today's democracy now and it's not a surprise.
the extreme right has wanted roe v. wade overturned for years. they've been foot soldiers in this battle. and, as democracy now noted, they now have some fruits for their labor: john roberts and samuel alito. this is their test case to begin destroying roe v. wade.
though you wouldn't know it from the genteel 'miss diane' and her performance at both confirmation hearings, how they will rule isn't considering a surprise or cliff hanger.
the dlc has wanted to ditch abortion for some time. they don't like fighting for anything. they want to turn the democratic party into a carbon copy of the republican party that differs not on principles but on ways of execution.
they think they can strip away principles and still have a party in place. that's not the case.
if roe goes down hold every senator who refused to filibuster alito accountable. they acted like it was no big deal. john kerry, out of the country at the time, was not the person to be leading a filibuster.
that's not me taking anything away from him. thank god he stepped up to the plate. but with senators in dc, they should have had someone willing to lead on that. (ted kennedy backed kerry up.)
dianne feinstein is a joke and she needs to be voted out. i wish cindy sheehan had declared and was running against feinstein.
di-fi likes to make statements about how 'serious' she takes her responsibility as the only woman on the judiciary committee. i didn't see it. i didn't see it in her questioning of roberts or alito. i saw a woman pushing the bounds of middle-age trying to act like a deb at a coming out party. i saw a foolish, dithering idiot.
she took her responsibility (and her re-election requirements) seriously enough to put on a show of asking questions but she didn't do her job. she needs to step down from the judiciary committee. and we need to stop accepting the mealy mouth words of senators who say they are for choice but never fight for it.
they've got their test case now, the extreme right, if roe goes down, we can thank the likes of di-fi.
every pro-choice american should know that di-fi stabbed us in the back. and she should be held accountable for her lame 'i don't know nothing 'bout no lawyering' because it reflects badly on women when the only woman sitting on the committee has to make excuses for herself repeatedly and seems more comfortable lapping up compliments from arlen specter than in doing her job.
she embarrassed herself in the nsa hearings as well. in fact, i'm going to add isaiah's the world today just nuts on that to the top of this post.
we need leaders and di-fi isn't a leader. from iraq to alito, she's shown a failure to lead.
for another woman who clowns, elisabeth bumiller, check out c.i.'s 'other items' this morning.
