Tag Archives: women

GOP Abortion Investigation May Endanger Researchers, Democrats Warn

by KaceySdpmoki Posted on February 18, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The House Energy and Commerce Committee panel that formed last October to investigate Planned Parenthood’s policies regarding how fetal tissue is handled has issued requests for documents to more than 30 agencies across the nation. The “Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives” was formed by Speaker John Boehner as a final act before he stepped down over a possible government shutdown due to the battle over funding for Planned Parenthood.

Committee Chair Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) announced last week that the committee had issued subpoenas to three of those groups because they “failed to fully cooperate with document requests.” The subpoenas went to Stem­Express, a California firm that provides human tissue for medical researchers, the University of New Mexico, whose Health Sciences Center conducts medical research using fetal tissue, and Southwestern Women’s Options, which has abortion clinics in Albuquerque and Dallas that perform late-term abortions.

A letter from the panel’s Democratic members expressed outrage at the demands, and called Rep. Blackburn’s subpoenas “unilateral and unjustifiable.” They urged the panel to “abandon your plan to issue subpoenas or immediately schedule a special meeting of the Select Panel in order to vote on your proposed use of compulsory process to force healthcare providers and others to disclose the names of doctors, medical students, and clinic personnel.” The Democratic members described the actions as “an abusive and unjustifiable use of the chair’s unilateral subpoena authority.”

Recalling the attack on a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Colorado—in which a gunman murdered three and injured, later saying in court that he is a “warrior for the babies”—Democrats expressed concern that the subpoenas could put the subjects of the investigation at risk.

This is not the first time that StemExpress has found itself in the middle of controversy. As Mother Jones previously reported, the Placerville, Calif. tissue provider cut ties with Planned Parenthood after the Center for Medical Progress’ discredited sting videos, which purported to show evidence of the illegal sale of fetal tissue, prompted a congressional inquiry into Planned Parenthood and made StemExpress’ CEO, Cate Dyer, a target of anti-abortion trolls on Fox Nation. Dyer’s home address was posted alongside threats against her life.

The subpoena demands documentation of all entities from which fetal tissue was procured and documentation of recipients of tissue samples. It also requests the “name and title of all StemExpress current or former personnel whose responsibilities included procuring, researching, storing, packaging for donation, sale, transport, or disposal of fetal tissue, and the identity of any supervisory personnel under whom such individuals worked.” A statement from StemExpress said the company has been cooperative in all the government investigations thus far. “Throughout this process, StemExpress has continued to protect its clients’ confidentiality, and to abide by its legal obligations,” the statement reads. “The Select Investigative Panel now seeks confidential client information and the identity of individual scientists and researchers through the issuance of a subpoena.”

Southwestern Women’s Options is a clinic that provides abortions through the third trimester at its New Mexico location. It serves women from the Southwest, and as abortions become more difficult to access in the state of Texas, the clinic serves an even greater population. The subpoena sent to Southwestern Women’s Options also calls for documentation of “all entities to which any fetal tissue was transported, sold, donated, or moved from Southwestern.” The committee also wanted to know the names of those involved in the procurement or disposal of fetal tissue and their supervisors, as well as documentation of any partnership that Southwestern Women’s Options had with the University of Mexico.

The University of New Mexico’s Health Science Center has used tissue from abortions conducted at Southwestern Women’s Options over the past decade for research aimed to improve outcomes for premature babies. In December, the Health Science Center halted their medical training program at the Albuquerque clinic, which teaches UMN School of Medicine fellows and residents specializing in reproductive health and family planning how to perform abortions, among other obstetric and gynecological procedures.

Also this week, a lawyer for New Mexico Alliance for Life filed a suit against the university that alleges the UNM Health Sciences Center violated the state Inspection of Public Records Act by failing to release documents from a 2015 study “that used extracted eyeballs from babies aborted up to 24 weeks gestation,” according to a statement from the anti-abortion group. The committee subpoena to the University of New Mexico is along similar lines, requesting identities of employees who have worked with tissue, a list of tissue suppliers, and documentation of any UNM physician who assisted Southwestern Women’s Options as an abortion provider.

Meanwhile, the committee is waiting for the results of the subpoenas.

“While it was our hope that these organizations would voluntarily work with us in this effort, some have refused to cooperate by withholding information that is critical to providing us with answers to questions the American people are asking,” Blackburn said in a committee statement. “Consequently, if forced to do so, we will issue subpoenas to any organization that refuses to fully cooperate with our investigation.”

Original article:  

GOP Abortion Investigation May Endanger Researchers, Democrats Warn

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on GOP Abortion Investigation May Endanger Researchers, Democrats Warn

A New Poll Says Ted Cruz Is Now Leading the Republican Race, But It’s Probably Wrong

by freereportcredit Posted on February 18, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The big campaign news of the day is a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showing that Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump nationally, 28-26 percent. But this seems unlikely: Four new national polls have been released since yesterday, and three of them continue to show Trump with about 38 percent support compared to 17 percent for Cruz.

So what’s going on with the NBC poll? If it’s an outlier, it’s a hell of an outlier. I couldn’t even find a table extensive enough to tell me how unlikely it is to be just a sample error. One in a million, maybe? So maybe it’s a problem with NBC’s likely-voter filter? Could be. Or maybe there’s been an enormous negative response to Trump’s debate performance last Saturday? The NBC poll is the only telephone poll done entirely after the debate, so if that were the case it would show up most strongly there.

Very odd. I guess we wait and see.

View this article:  

A New Poll Says Ted Cruz Is Now Leading the Republican Race, But It’s Probably Wrong

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A New Poll Says Ted Cruz Is Now Leading the Republican Race, But It’s Probably Wrong

Republican Tax Plans Will Be Great for the Ri—zzzzz

by KirkWainwright Posted on February 12, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Our good friends at the Tax Policy Center have now analyzed—if that’s the right word—the tax plans of Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio. You can get all the details at their site, but if you just want the bottom line, you’ve come to the right place.

The chart on the left shows who benefits the most from each tax plan. Unsurprisingly, they’re all about the same: middle income taxpayers would see their take-home pay go up 3 or 4 percent, while the rich would see it go up a whopping 10-17 percent. On the deficit side of things, everyone’s a budget buster. Rubio and Bush would pile up the red ink by $7 trillion or so (over ten years) while Trump would clock in at about $9 trillion. That compares to a current national debt of $14 trillion.

No one will care, of course, and no one will even bother questioning any of them about this. After all, we already know they’ll just declare that their tax cuts will supercharge the economy and pay for themselves. They can say it in their sleep. Then Trump will say something stupid, or Rubio will break his tooth on a Twix bar, and we’ll move on.

Read more:

Republican Tax Plans Will Be Great for the Ri—zzzzz

Posted in Everyone, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Republican Tax Plans Will Be Great for the Ri—zzzzz

Here’s a Chart That Puts the Bernie Bro Phenomenon In a Whole New Light

by OPMDottymr Posted on February 11, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Why do millennials love Bernie Sanders? Here’s a weirdly intriguing possibility: because they don’t have enough daughters. According to Michael Tesler, millennial parents with sons overwhelmingly support Sanders. But millennial parents with daughters overwhelmingly support Hillary Clinton. (There’s a similar effect among older voters, but it’s very small.) And although Tesler doesn’t say this, presumably single millennials are big Bernie fans too.

Is this kind of eerie, or is it totally predictable? I could make a case either way. But even if it’s predictable, the size of the effect is eye-popping. Make of it what you will.

Originally posted here: 

Here’s a Chart That Puts the Bernie Bro Phenomenon In a Whole New Light

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Here’s a Chart That Puts the Bernie Bro Phenomenon In a Whole New Light

Heavy Drinking Is Primarily a Women’s Problem

by DanielISJE Posted on February 10, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Back in 2005, South Dakota adopted a program called 24/7 Sobriety. It’s pretty simple: if you’re convicted of drunk driving, you have to take a breath test twice a day while you’re on pretrial release or probation. If you fail, you get tossed in jail for a couple of days.

So how has it worked out? According to a new study in Lancet Psychiatry, pretty well. Previous studies had already demonstrated a 12 percent drop in repeat drunk driving, and the new study shows that 24/7 also contributed to a drop of 4.3 percent in all-cause mortality. That’s a lot of lives saved. Mark Kleiman has more of the details here.

So far, none of this is a big surprise. But another result of the study is more interesting: the decline in mortality was largest among women even though men make up the vast majority of drunk driving cases. The chart on the right shows the numbers. All-cause mortality barely budged for men but was down 8.3 percent among women. Even more startling, the decline in mortality was mostly due to fewer deaths from circulatory problems and external injuries.

But why? The authors make a few suggestions:

A well publicised programme such as 24/7 Sobriety…might promote a general deterrent effect. Another potential mechanism is a reduction in drinking-related problem behaviours among participants, which might reduce mortality among non-participants (eg, domestic violence).

With respect to circulatory deaths among women, one might consider reduced stress due to partner’s cessation of heavy drinking. There might also be spillovers due to changes in the drinking behaviour of participants’ family and friends. A husband’s drinking affects his wife’s drinking during the transition into married life and early in the marriage, and transitions in drinking behaviour can have spousal effects even later in life.

This is, obviously, speculative. Still, it confirms our intuition that heavy drinking affects friends and family as much or more than it does the heavy drinker himself. Heavy drinkers are far more likely to assault their wives and girlfriends; are more likely to trigger drinking in others; and just generally cause lots of stress and anxiety in those around them. When you cut out the heavy drinking, all of those things are reduced significantly. And the biggest beneficiaries are women.

Continued here: 

Heavy Drinking Is Primarily a Women’s Problem

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Heavy Drinking Is Primarily a Women’s Problem

Arizona Is Paying a High Price for Cracking Down on Illegal Immigration

by Matthia76J Posted on February 9, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting look today at the costs and benefits of immigration across the Southern border. After Arizona cracked down on illegal immigration in 2007, their population of undocumented workers dropped by a whopping 40 percent—and it’s stayed down since then:

Arizona is a test case of what happens to an economy when such migrants leave, and it illustrates the economic tensions fueling the immigration debate.

Economists of opposing political views agree the state’s economy took a hit when large numbers of illegal immigrants left for Mexico and other border states, following a broad crackdown. But they also say the reduced competition for low-skilled jobs was a boon for some native-born construction and agricultural workers who got jobs or raises, and that the departures also saved the state money on education and health care. Whether those gains are worth the economic pain is the crux of the debate.

You should read the whole thing if you want all the details, including the fact that wages increased about 15 percent for a small number of construction workers and farmworkers—though Arizona’s unemployment rate more generally has been no better than its neighbors’. Beyond that, though, the Journal provides only a graphic summary that doesn’t really summarize much. So I’ve helpfully annotated it for you. It sure looks to me like Arizona has a very long way to go before the benefits of reducing illegal immigration will come anywhere close to the costs.

See original article here:

Arizona Is Paying a High Price for Cracking Down on Illegal Immigration

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Arizona Is Paying a High Price for Cracking Down on Illegal Immigration

Marcobot Has Apparently Exceeded Its Rated Mean Time to Failure

by JanelleWeldon2 Posted on February 9, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Oh hell, now I’m just starting to feel sorry for Marco Rubio. The whole Marcobot thing has apparently made him so self-conscious that he can barely even recite his stump speech anymore. Here he is delivering a line about values being rammed down our throats right after he’s just said it. There’s an almost poignant moment at 0:26 when Rubio suddenly realizes what he’s just done.

This reminds me of a Star Trek episode where Kirk uses some kind of sophomoric paradox to trick a computer into self destructing. That’s about what Chris Christie seems to have done to Rubio.

Taken from: 

Marcobot Has Apparently Exceeded Its Rated Mean Time to Failure

Posted in FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Marcobot Has Apparently Exceeded Its Rated Mean Time to Failure

Arabic Social Media Goes Gaga Over Sisi’s Red Carpet

by Beau47Tgqggfj Posted on February 8, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Nothing says “I care about poor people” like driving to a new housing project on a red carpet 2.5 miles long. Amirite? But this has a secret subtext: When Egyptian president Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi motored his way to a grand opening ceremony Saturday on a carpet this size, it was apparently a sign that the military is pleased with him. I guess the more they like you, the longer the carpet:

Brig Gen Ehab el-Ahwagy explained on several talk shows on Sunday night that the carpet was not purchased by Sisi’s administration and the same one had been used for more than three years for similar occasions.

“It gives a kind of joy and assurance to the Egyptian citizen that our people and our land and our armed forces are always capable of organising anything in a proper manner,” Ahwagy told the TV talk show host Amr Adeeb. “It is laid out in a way to beautify the general area, so it gives a good impression of the celebration that is being broadcast to the whole world.”

See? No big deal. And certainly no reason to postpone a speech warning that Egypt is in dire financial trouble and will soon have to stop subsidizing water and electricity bills for low-income families.

Source: 

Arabic Social Media Goes Gaga Over Sisi’s Red Carpet

Posted in Casio, Citizen, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Arabic Social Media Goes Gaga Over Sisi’s Red Carpet

Ted Cruz Slams Idea of Women in Combat

by AaronLampungmei Posted on February 7, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Ted Cruz told a crowd of supporters in Peterborough, New Hampshire, this afternoon that he was dumbstruck during last night’s debate that three of his Republican colleagues—Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie—voiced their support for drafting women into the military.

“My reaction was, ‘Are you guys nuts?'” Cruz told the crowd, before launching a tirade against political correctness.

“We have had enough with political correctness especially in the military,” Cruz said. “Political correctness is dangerous and the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them into the military and put them in close combat, I think is wrong. And if I am president, we ain’t doing it!”

Cruz then spoke about his own daughters and began to sound almost like draft protester from the Vietnam War era.

“I’m the father of two little girls, and I love those little girls with all my heart,” he said. “They are capable of doing anything in their heart’s desire. But the idea that their government would forcibly put them in a foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them doesn’t make any sense at all. It’s yet one more sign of this politically correct world where we forget common sense. We gotta get back to a president who just says, ‘No, that doesn’t make any sense.'”

Cruz’s opposition to the idea of women being drafted into combat roles did not appeal to the entire crowd of about 200 people who attended the rally. About half applauded loudly during those lines, while the others sat with their hands folded, suggesting support for women in combat is strong from certain parts of Cruz’s base, but not all.

Read this article: 

Ted Cruz Slams Idea of Women in Combat

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Ted Cruz Slams Idea of Women in Combat

Is "Fragrance" Making Us Sick?

by StacyBagshaw6 Posted on February 1, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

For Joyce Miller, a 57-year-old professor of library science in upstate New York, one sniff of scented laundry detergent can trigger an asthma attack. “I feel like someone is standing on my chest,” she says. “It’s almost like a choking feeling—pressure and choking. And then the coughing starts.”

Miller is just one of countless Americans who are sensitive to “fragrance,” a cryptic category of ingredients manufacturers add to products from cleaning supplies to toiletries. This generic term encompasses thousands of combinations of chemicals that give consumer goods their odors, but the identity of those chemicals is rarely disclosed.

For decades, fragrance makers have insisted on treating their recipes as trade secrets, even as complaints about negative health effects have proliferated. A 2009 study, for example, concluded that nearly one-third of Americans were irritated by the smell of scented products on others, and 19 percent experienced headaches or breathing difficulties when exposed to air fresheners or deodorizers.

Continue Reading »

Continue reading: 

Is "Fragrance" Making Us Sick?

Posted in Anchor, Aroma, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Is "Fragrance" Making Us Sick?