Nicely spun. But in reality the strings are that it cannot be taken away from an organization that has done nothing wrong.
Did Texas propose a plan to replace the services previously provided by PP?
I’m not sure how you cannot.
Sure I can. The administration is attempting to preserve funding for an organization that does a remarkable amount of good for women, especially low-income women.
And what are “women?” Why the quotes?
-a-
Obviously there are some people who’ll blame Obama if it rains on a weekend.
But most reasonable people are going to see that it’s not Obama shooting himself in the foot here. Obama offered the money and the Texan politicians turned it down. The people who needed that money aren’t going to be blaming Obama in November.
In general, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Finger.
I disagree somewhat. If a state seeks to use Planned Parenthood for particular services, let’s say cancer screenings, I would expect that the amount that PP charges for such services includes reasonable justification: the doctor’s time costs so much, consumables cost so much, overhead is so much, etc. One should be able to audit those charges to see that the costs are fair and reasonable. If PP were to charge 100% of its overhead rates to Medicaid-funded activities, so that the fee charged to a woman for an abortion did not fairly capture the actual marginal cost of the procedure, then there would be a fair reason to be concerned about Medicaid indirectly “subsidizing” abortions. If costs of Medicaid care are fair, supportable and reasonable, then it is untrue to argue that Medicaid billings are subsidizing abortions, condoms, or the discounted Coke in the soda machine.
Sauce is a condiment to be used by the individual consumer. The cook doesn’t put the sauce on the meat at all. I assume that’s what you meant there.
ETA: What was this thread about? Oh yeah, Texas definitely sucks. Can’t even barecue right.
Why do I feel like every single negotiation with religious, conservative, economically-ignorant nuts is the same? “Do what I want, no matter how petty my reasons, or I will impinge on, burn the house down, and tell them it was your fault for not agreeing to my terms.”
Reminds me of the debt ceiling shit, the gov shutdown shit, etc etc etc etc.
That’s right. Maybe they should require registration of firearms, then.
If you replace the bolded part with “Republicans” it saves you a few keystrokes.
First off, OMG is correct in characterizing this as a big middle finger to Obama. Medicaid already does not cover abortions in Texas (and 34 other states), so there’s no way this is about abortion access. This is strictly a bank shot off Planned Parenthood which leverages several conservative bugaboos (abortion, federal spending, states’ rights) in an effort to embarass Obama.
Obama’s best option is to continue the Medicade funding for Texas and use the bully pulpit to rally the rest of America against the perceived injustice of the rule: “Texas Republicans are willing to hold the poor hostage to press their out-of-step social agenda”, that kind of thing. Cutting Texas’ funding would be a mistake; that just gives the right-wing noise machine something else to whine about. And according to this CNN poll from April 2011 (pdf; see question 17), about 2/3 of Americans think the federal government should provide support for Planned Parenthood. So outside of Texas, this could be a net-win for the Dems.
So I did a little googling: it seems that the Texas legislature passed a similar law in 2003, but subsequent court rulings found that if Planned Parenthood formed an associate, but separate, organization to perform abortions, the parent (heh) organization was free and clear to continue to receive Medicaid funds. Further, the courts seemed to acknowledge that Planned Parenthood, in suing Texas over the cutoff of Federal funds, was likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that Texas cutting off access to Federal funds was a violation of the US Constitution. At least, that’s how Planned Parenthood of Houston v. Sanchez seems to read.
So, if the legal principle has indeed been tested and found that Texas cannot direct the use of Federal funds in the manner that is again being discussed in 2012, then it seems that the state of Texas, rather than the US Government, is the party causing the potential disruption to the health care of poor women.
I’ve known some intelligent people to come out of Teas. And never go back.
I assume the bit about science books is about textbooks and I know about that. Can you explain the chemistry remark please? Thank you.
Take it to the pit please.
The chemicals I can understand – they’re not exactly the things you’d use in a chemistry hobby kit. Or even your typical undergrad chemistry lab.
But I can’t believe the equipment
The description at the top is a pretty broad brush – “adapted” to manufacture a controlled substance? Heck, a test tube can be “adapted” for that purpose. And distillers, flasks, funnels, and heating mantles? Heck, my old Golden Book of Chemistry was filled with home-made examples of these. It’s about as basic as you can get.
And the fact that you can cobble your own versions of these together makes this a futile exercise, anyway.
As an Alabamian, I have to point out that Emmylou Harris was born in Birmingham, Alabama. 