Sarah Palin, Health Care Reform, And Childless By Choice

Sarah Palin won't go away, but perhaps Stupak-Pitts will. Also, childlessness by choice comes out of the closet.

 

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Links in this episode:

It's No Joke

Nancy Pelosi discusses Stupak-Pitts vote

Mitch McConnell talks about stalling health care reform out of existence

Sean Hannity exploits swine flu

Wanda Sykes on health care reform

Palin on Oprah

Media Matters debunks the lies

David Brooks is in denial

 

 

On this episode, I'll be interviewing author Laura Scott about childlessness by choice.  Also, the Stupak-Pitts amendment and attempts to kill health care reform, and Sarah Palin just won't go away.

 

Kudos to the Center for Reproductive Rights for this pro-choice ad called "It's No Joke".

 

• no joke *

 

Remember, the fight is far from over on the Stupak-Pitts amendment. The Senate doesn't have such a thing in their bill, and with effort, we can keep it that way.

 

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And now for combining a topic I know is at the tip of your minds, the Stupak-Pitts amendment, and a theme that's dear to my heart, disingenuous conservative nonsense.  Nancy Pelosi went to the JFK School of Government at Harvard to explain the health care reform process, and when she was asked about how it came to be that the Stupak-Pitts amendment was put to a vote, she explained the reasoning. 

 

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Now I don't know about Bart Stupak's opinions on health care reform, though I'm sure you understand why I'm skeptical of the idea that he was all gung-ho for it.  Sure, he voted for the final bill that he managed to amend, but he pretty much had to, because he was selling the Stupak-Pitts amendment on the theory that he would vote for a health care reform bill with such an amendment attached.  It's worth noting that Pitts did not vote for the final bill, so he was amending a bill he had no intention of supporting. 

 

But if Stupak was sincere in his support for health care reform while attacking women's rights, he is what you might call a useful idiot.  As Pelosi explained, the people really egging Stupak on were eager to kill the bill altogether.  We don't even need to surmise this.  They're practically bragging about it.  Listen to Mitch McConnell dissemble, but make it clear that he plans to kill the bill through endless delays. 

 

• health care 2 *

 

People really don't need this endless delaying.  Once this bill is passed, it's going to take a long time for all of it to get implemented correctly, and so every day that they stall is a day where people who are desperate for health care aren't getting it. 

 

But even as Republican politicians dissemble while expressing a desire to kill the bill, right wing pundits are waging all out war.  They will use anything to wage war on health care reform, no matter how inappropriate, misleading, or dishonest.  For instance, right wing pundits are making hay over the fact that Obama hasn't managed to cure swine flu yet, which they take as evidence that health care reform should be jettisoned.  Sean Hannity was up on that rant.

 

• health care 3 *

 

Like how he slipped in some paranoia about the detainees in there?  Like it's not enough to hold these people without trial or evidence, but now we have to take swipes at their basic humanity? 

 

Anyway, the point is that opponents of health care reform have no shame.  No shame at all.  The reason there's a swine flu vaccine shortage is because the private company that makes it wildly underestimated how much they would need.  No telling why the manufacturers are dragging their feet, though it's worth wondering if the fact that vaccines aren't profitable for pharmaceutical companies might have something to do with that.  But I'm just speculating.  They may have just been ill-equipped to handle the amount of vaccine they'd have to make, and bluffed about it to the government. 

 

But if opponents of health care reform are willing to use terrorism and swine flu, they're sure going to be willing to use abortion to stall health care reform.  And while I think many of the side benefits of the Stupak-Pitts amendment were also appealing, such as stripping women of their already-existing coverage, at the end of the day, I think Nancy Pelosi is right.  This was always about stopping health care reform, by any means necessary. 

 

The good news is that Wanda Sykes has her own TV show now, and she lays out the ridiculousness of this entire situation. 

 

• health care 4 *

 

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insert interview

 

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Sarah Palin, right wing nut and failed Vice Presidential candidate, has decided not only to be a person who can't take a hint and go away, but someone who will grab that hint, crumple it into a ball, and wipe her butt with it.  It's hard to miss the Palin extravaganza that's being rolled out because of her new book Going Rogue. Full disclosure: I submitted a piece to the Nation's new book criticizing Palin called Going Rouge.  I won't give it all away, but suffice it to say, I have some fun imagining the thorn that Levi Johnston will be in Palin's side as she transitions from politician to her new status as somewhere between a reality show contestant and an evangelical preacher. 

 

Which is why I was gleeful when Palin went on Oprah's show and fielded a question about the soon to be Playgirl model and the father of her daughter's baby. 

 

• palin 1 *

 

From what I understand, this is pretty much her strategy.  Deny that you're going to go on the low road so you can go on the low road pretending it's the high road.  So deny that national TV is a good place to talk about it, and then proceed to take a bunch of potshots at this young man that's become an uncontrollable thorn in your side.  And have your dwindling followers refuse to see what's wrong with that. 

 

It only promises to get better from here.  Presumably, Palin wrote this memoir to save her reputation as well as cash in.  I'm afraid that while she may make the money, her tour is really going to backfire on the reputation front.  The less she talks, the more people can pretend she's smart, and so a whole book is going to do her in.  Already it's been revealed that she's a creationist.  And of course, for those of us who oppose her abstinence-only fundamentalist beliefs, this moment from the Barbara Walters interview was full of win.

 

• palin 2 *

 

If you think about that statement for even a moment, you can see why Palin and her abstinence-only ilk are not the people to put in charge of educating the nation's young about sexuality.  You're shocked that 17-year-old has sex?  You're devastated?  While respecting that it's not easy for parents to adapt to their teenagers growing up, I have to say that people who have a more realistic view of the world might be better equipped to put together sex ed curriculum.  Shocked and devastated that human biology didn't change when you had kids isn't really a good starting point.

 

Palin, of course, is staying in the spotlight in part because she's a hero to anti-choicers.  This is because she chose to have a baby after a Down's diagnosis, and therefore she believes others should not have that choice.  Or any choice at all, no matter how early in a pregnancy.  People who hold themselves as heroes like she does should realize that without choice, they aren't so special.  They fade into the background with the women who are forced to give birth against their will.  But logic has never been a strong suit for the anti-choice movement, as you know.

 

If you want a full run-down of all the lies Palin tells in her new memoir, and what the truth is, please check out Media Matters.  Palin is pushing the thoroughly discredited lie about how doctors kill babies they've already delivered, and they have a thorough refutation.

 

Does Palin have a future as a politician?  I'm skeptical.  But I think David Brooks is going too far here. 

 

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That is a man in deep denial. Leaning on Bob McDonnell, who is on the record against women even having jobs, as some evidence that Republicans are going to get serious now?  I'd like to think Brooks is joking, but honestly, he's just cracked.  He wants to believe that the Republicans are going to be able to kick the Christian right habit, and he's ignoring the fact that McDonnell is just as much a Bible thumper, if not more so, than Palin.  Seriously, I can't even believe we're having this discussion.

 

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And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, minimizing rape while kicking up hysteria edition.  Glenn Beck, in his search for new lows to reach down to, came up with this.

 

• glenn beck*

 

I will point out that he, like many wingnuts, has a really bad idea of how a metaphor works.  Within the space of 10 seconds, he moved the "American people" of his imagination from the role of rape victim to role of rapist.  Where are his sympathies again?

 

Follow Amanda Marcotte on Twitter, @amandamarcotte