Thomas Jefferson must be rolling in his grave:

If a woman in Virginia has a miscarriage without a doctor present, they must report it within 24 hours to the police or risk going to jail for a full year. At least, that’s what would have happened if a bill introduced by Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R) had become law.

And yet, the Virginia Republican Party wants to make Obenshain into the state’s top prosecutor. This weekend, Virginia Republicans selected Obenshain as their nominee to replace tea party stalwart Ken Cuccinelli (R) as the state’s attorney general.

Under Obenshain’s bill, which was introduced in 2009,

When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance upon the mother at or after the delivery or abortion, the mother or someone acting on her behalf shall, within 24 hours, report the fetal death, location of the remains, and identity of the mother to the local or state police or sheriff’s department of the city or county where the fetal death occurred. No one shall remove, destroy, or otherwise dispose of any remains without the express authorization of law-enforcement officials or the medical examiner. Any person violating the provisions of this subsection shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Under Virginia law, a Class 1 misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of “confinement in jail for not more than twelve months and a fine of not more than $2,500,” so Obenshain’s bill could lead to a woman who decides to take a day to grieve the loss of a pregnancy she’d hoped to carry to term spending a year of her life in jail for that decision.

Unless all the normal people get out and vote, you can kiss sanity goodbye for this state.

H/t Kush Arora.

Government surveillance of the Occupy movement

May 20, 2013December 29, 2014 ~ susie ~ 1 Comment

A new report.

Honestly, if so-called progressives were as feisty about government intrusion as the teabaggers, this report wouldn’t fall on deaf ears. But since they’ll look at it and say they’re “not sure” what’s been proved, nothing will happen.

Because progressives treat everything like they’re in a courtroom, and not as if it’s in the court of public opinion. That’s why we always lose.

Thanks to Montgomery County Injury Lawyers, Price Benowitz LLP.

Every move you make

May 4, 2013 ~ susie ~ 12 Comments

So an FBI agent goes on CNN and says, basically, that everyone’s phone calls are recorded. Which doesn’t really surprise me — I’m just surprised that someone says it out loud.

WTF?

May 2, 2013May 1, 2013 ~ susie ~ 5 Comments

This is the craziest fucking thing I’ve seen in a long, long time.

We’ll never know

April 22, 2013April 23, 2013 ~ susie ~ 7 Comments

From Russ Baker at Whowhatwhy.com on the Boston bombing and the media coverage:

Was there anything else we could have been focused on? There was, but it was just too “distasteful” to broach, at least in the early hours. Perhaps counter-intuitively, it was the Fox brand (admittedly a local station, not the propagandistic Fox News Channel) that dared to raise questions about events that terrorize the public. In this report, the correspondent dares to remind us that the FBI has in the past had close relationships with people who want to blow things up, and has even facilitated these plots up to the point where law enforcement can intervene to thwart the bad guys. Was a similar sting in place at the Marathon – a sting that went horribly wrong?

One veteran marathoner, Alistair Stevenson, the cross-country coach at the University of Mobile, says that he noticed an unusually heavy police presence, including bomb-sniffing dogs and spotters on rooftops, before the race, and that runners were told not to worry—that law enforcement was carrying out “drills.”

Stevenson’s account was reported in an Alabama blog run by a consortium of respectable local news organizations, but it was virtually ignored by the traditional media. Nothing here worth a second-look? Really?

Is it heresy or madness to take a harder look at the metastatic growth of the national security state? History is replete with examples of cynical efforts to create “strategies of tension” in which the public, fearful of growing chaos, turns to the reassurances of those who promise order.

In fact, it so happens that advocates of increasing surveillance are pressing their game on every front. One involves the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), which, if enacted, would authorize your web service provider to pass along your real-time personal data to the Federal spooks. There’s been a lot of opposition to this, but something like the Marathon bombing can be a game-changer. Those who monitor public sentiment understand the power of emotion to alter public stances.
Continue reading “We’ll never know” →