All-purpose news and politics thread: Two Steps Beyond!

[numberthirty]

I'm fairly sure that Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights will be better off with Hillary in there. Certainly far better than with a Donald Trump who has at once praised them and then also said they need to be defunded.

If you mean "In Serious Danger" instead of "In Really Serious Danger", maybe.

The real question is "Are either one of those what you actually want?"

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I'm fairly sure that Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights will be better off with Hillary in there. Certainly far better than with a Donald Trump who has at once praised them and then also said they need to be defunded.

As my articles show , Hillary has been close with them for years. They have endorsed her in 2016 election as well....


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b0cad15e6419f9

[numberthirty]

Its pretty clear Clinton and Planned Parenthood have went back that far. Its not some sudden thing. She took up for it in 2015 as the top article shows. So yeah...you were wrong.

Dude, "Consistently"...

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Dude, "Consistently"...

I'll let another article do my talking to show the ties that Clinton and Planned Parenthood have.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/0...od-ties-120794

Hillary Clinton is friends with Planned Parenthood’s president and took a rare pause from her duties as secretary of state to keynote a Planned Parenthood gala, while her family foundation has worked with the group to promote birth control.
So when Planned Parenthood found itself in the middle of a major scandal last week when anti-abortion activists released graphic undercover videos of executives discussing the alleged sale of aborted fetal tissue, Clinton’s support for the group was not so much a choice as a foregone conclusion — Planned Parenthood’s problem was Clinton’s problem, too.


“I have seen pictures from them and obviously find them disturbing,” Clinton said in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader Tuesday, distancing herself from the content in the videos. But she was quick to reiterate her support for Planned Parenthood as an organization, saying, “Planned Parenthood for more than a century has done a lot of really good work for women: cancer screenings, family planning, all kinds of health services.”
And while Republicans seized on the scandal to attack Clinton — demanding that she return the group’s campaign contributions — some Democrats were quick to see some silver linings. A full-throated defense of Planned Parenthood helps shore up Clinton’s support among wavering liberals, while the GOP’s efforts to defund the family-planning group allow Clinton to make the case that her election would be a bulwark against efforts to roll back women’s rights.
“The first job is to become the nominee, and the best route is to speak to the ideological base,” explained Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf. “Their basic language is protecting choice and that is what Planned Parenthood symbolizes. Those who don’t agree are likely not voting for her anyway, and if she is the Democratic Party nominee, will not be voting for her in the fall of 2016.”

Indeed, when the scandal began to spread last week, Clinton was quick to put it in the context of years of attacks on an organization synonymous with support for abortion rights.
Planned Parenthood has been “the object of such a concerted attack for so many years, and it’s really an attack against a woman’s right to choose, to make the most personal difficult decisions that any woman would face,” Clinton said at a campaign appearance in South Carolina.
But Clinton’s relationship with Planned Parenthood goes beyond a shared belief in a woman’s right to choose. The group is interwoven with a network of women’s organizations that are among her strongest backers, and Planned Parenthood leaders and activists are among her personal friends, including President Cecile Richards.
When Clinton announced her candidacy for President last April, Richards tweeted that “there has never been a presidential candidate with as strong a commitment to women’s health & rights” and called the moment #Historic. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund noted in a news release at the time that Clinton had a 100 percent congressional scorecard every year she served in the Senate, during which the fund tracked 16 votes.
In an added sign of bonhomie between Clinton and the top Planned Parenthood executive, Richards’ daughter, former Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Lily Adams, signed up last spring with the Clinton campaign as Iowa press secretary, a high-profile portfolio for a campaign eager to shore up support in the important early state that rejected Clinton in 2008.
Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the group’s federal political action committee, gave $8,000 to Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign, and $1,837 to her presidential committee in the 2008 cycle, records show. Many of Planned Parenthood’s PAC biggest donors are also longtime Clinton donors, some of whom supported the Ready For Hillary PAC as early as 2013, and have maxed out with $2,700 contributions to her primary campaign this year.
Longtime Democratic donor and proponent of women candidates Barbara Lee, for example, was one of the top 20 Planned Parenthood Action Committee donors in the 2012 cycle. She also donated $7,000 to Ready For Hillary in 2013. And other major Planned Parenthood donors like Susan Mandel, Democratic bundler Naomi Aberly and major Democratic donor Amber Mostyn, have all maxed-out for Clinton with $2,700 donations.
Clinton’s relationship with Planned Parenthood also extends to the Clinton Global Initiative. For the past two years Planned Parenthood has been a member of CGI and in 2012 committed to train “youth peer providers” in Latin America, Africa and the U.S. on ways to promote birth control.

Additionally, Planned Parenthood will sponsor two global youth fellowship programs and create a national youth organizing strategy to help push for increased investment in access to reproductive health care, according to CGI’s website. Planned Parenthood does not contribute money to CGI, according to sources familiar with the organizations.
Clinton and Planned Parenthood also share consultants and allies.
Planned Parenthood has enlisted Democratic consultant SKDKnickerbocker’s Hilary Rosen, another close Clinton ally, to help with the current public relations crisis. And Planned Parenthood Action Fund hired Democratic pollster Geoff Garin — who is also the pollster on the Clinton super PAC Priorities USA and served as a chief strategist of Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign — to conduct a poll about attitudes toward the organization.
Emily’s List, which has been leading the movement to stand with Planned Parenthood, raising money off the most recent defunding threats while collecting 22,000 signatures from its members standing with Planned Parenthood, is a major backer of Clinton’s campaign. It’s president, Stephanie Schriock, was a short-lister for Clinton’s campaign manager.
“Planned Parenthood is something that women and families rely on all over the country,” said Emily’s List spokeswoman Jess McIntosh. “Hillary has such a strong record of understanding the realities of women that of course she understands that, too.”
Some of Clinton’s Republican rivals are eager to tar her with the most recent scandal.
“Hillary Clinton in particular should be made to answer if she is proud to have received such enthusiastic support from Planned Parenthood while they are under investigation for multiple felonies,” Sen. Ted Cruz told POLITICO Wednesday in the Capitol. “I think Hillary Clinton should be made to answer if she supports an organization that buys and sells the body parts of unborn children in direct violation of federal law. [She] ought to be asked: Do you share those values? Does that reflect the core values of your campaign?”
At an anti-abortion rally earlier in the week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), another 2016 GOP hopeful, called on Clinton to refund Planned Parenthood contributions.
“Hillary Clinton’s hands are stained by accepting this money,” Paul said. “She needs to immediately return every red cent she has received from Planned Parenthood employees.”
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton listens to questions during a campaign stop ,Tuesday, July 28, 2015, in Nashua, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Cruz and Paul’s attacks on Clinton may be aimed at rallying support among the Republican base, but they are also what many Democratic strategists said they are hoping for — that Republicans will get mired in fighting Clinton on social issues, rather than fiscal or economic issues.
“Both Democrats and independents overwhelmingly support continued support for Planned Parenthood, and women voters in particular look at Planned Parenthood as a trusted source of health care,” said Garin, who conducted a recent poll on the issue for Planned Parenthood Action Fund. “In political terms, it’s very clear that Hillary Clinton is on the right side of public opinion. The Republicans who have a mania against Planned Parenthood are digging a deep hole for themselves with general election voters.”
A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood did not respond to requests for comment.

So there ya go. They are endorsing her in the 2016 election. So yep....you are wrong. Planned Parenthood is not in danger with Hillary Clinton. Just admit it.

[numberthirty]

Yes, I am well aware they they are endorsing the sort of Democrat who has defended them so well that they need a Democratic president to veto them being defunded.

That is a dangerous position to be in.

[numberthirty]

If anything, Planned Parenthood's best shot is Trump winning the nomination and possibly creating down ticket chaos.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Yes, I am well aware they they are endorsing the sort of Democrat who has defended them so well that they need a Democratic president to veto them being defunded.

That is a dangerous position to be in.

It's like you're clumsily trying to gaslight us on this issue, which is frankly insulting. We know what happened to Planned Parenthood's approval ratings. Republicans engineered a fake video that made it looked like Planned Parenthood was killing babies to sell their parts. Republican candidates like Carly Fiorina ginned this up until they literally inspired a terrorist to attack a Planned Parenthood clinic. Republicans then seized this bad press that they created to try to defund Planned Parenthood.

It was not because it supported Hillary Clinton.

Going back in time and electing more candidates like Bernie wouldn't have made a difference. Planned Parenthood or feminist issues are not his prority. He can't see anything else but income inequality.

[Tendrin]

I'm having fun reading Ta-Nehisi Coates' twitter right now and watching him discuss with the 'class not race' types.

[Paradox]

SUPERECWFAN1 surprises me:

Yeah who wants to support the candidate Chachi supports ? Not me....just wait til Trump gets the valued support of Potsie and Ralph Mouth.

Tsk. Malph, SuperE. Ralph Malph.

[Paradox]

numberthirty keeps banging the drum:

Planned Parenthood is not Social Security.

As for the "If" you are laying out, twenty point drop in twenty years.

No matter how that came to be, the idea that you can just ride it out is a bad one.

Enough. That Gallup poll was taken just after all the BS propaganda of those tapes was released. We have NO DATA AT ALL until way back in '93. You're claiming this big drop without any clue what it was in between. As has been noted, the biggest changes are from Republicans, who've gone off the rails in the last 5 years. Your "twenty point drop in twenty years" could just as easily be "a twenty point drop because of the stupid tapes". For all anyone has data on, it could be that it was the same favorability it was back then. Your clinging to this ONE piece of very incomplete data as if it were some kind of gospel is ridiculous, and your usual disingenuousness. "How it came to be" not only does matter, it's CRUCIAL in parsing the data.

[Tendrin]

I...I...

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/03/t...cR72Gc.twitter

Fayetteville councilman John La Tour is being accused of confronting a woman he assumed was transgender and threatening to wave his penis at her at a crowded restaurant.

The Arkansas Times reports that La Tour is a Tea Party conservative and is a self-professed crusader for “Conservative Values.” The lawmaker recently scored a $2,000 campaign donation from Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.

After the incident, a manager apparently asked La Tour to leave Arsaga restaurant. This inspired him to post a now-deleted Facebook message that urged people to ban the eatery. (“Everyone who lives in Fayetteville, AR should never eat or treat themselves at any of Cary Arsaga’s establishments. I will never go to any of these again.”)

What? WHAT?

[Malvolio]

It's already burning.

As I've said before, it's easy to say, "let it all burn!" when you live in a house made of asbestos. But when you live in a house made of asbestos, sooner or later, you get cancer.

[numberthirty]

What? WHAT?

There is probably not a "This is what" that is going to be anything except "Way Bonkers".

[numberthirty]

As I've said before, it's easy to say, "let it all burn!" when you live in a house made of asbestos. But when you live in a house made of asbestos, sooner or later, you get cancer.

I'm not saying "Let it burn."

I'm saying "If your neighbor has been trying to light your house L/R/C for years and you manage to stop it before the whole neighborhood is cinders, "How can I do the minimum to try to keep this from happening again?" is probably not the play."

[numberthirty]

It was not because it supported Hillary Clinton.

Going back in time and electing more candidates like Bernie wouldn't have made a difference. Planned Parenthood or feminist issues are not his prority. He can't see anything else but income inequality.

Supporting HRC and "Go Along To Get Along" Democrats is exactly how they wound up where they are.

Set aside an poll you don't like. That their funding is now up for grabs is real.

As for that last part, you might not need an independent. That doesn't change that you need something besides what you have if you plan on a different outcome.