Mitt Romney Supports Personhood

Mitt Romney told Mike Huckabee on Fox News that he supports personhood at the moment of conception. In Mississippi, voters will decide if a "person" is created at the moment of the egg's fertilization.

Be it Enacted by the People of the State of Mississippi: SECTION 1. Article III of the constitution of the state of Mississippi is hereby amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION TO READ: Section 33. Person defined. As used in this Article III of the state constitution, "The term 'person' or 'persons' shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof." This initiative shall not require any additional revenue for implementation.

If this becomes law, not only abortion would be outlawed, so would all forms of birth control. Christian conservatives are demanding that people forgo sex. This amendment is absolute insanity.

Law professors I. Glenn Cohen and Jonathan F. Will are mistaken to think that anti-choicers accidentally made the amendment too broad.

Indeed, even opponents of abortion rights who would like nothing more than to give the courts an opportunity to reverse Roe v. Wade may find this amendment a bad vehicle for doing so. Courts frequently read ambiguous language as a strategy to avoid raising serious constitutional questions. By endorsing a ballot initiative that is deeply ambiguous, pro-life constituencies could be inviting courts to read the amendment in a way that sidesteps the very constitutional question they want to force.

Can you name an anti-choice organization that has ever supported contraception or pre-martial sex. The Christian Right repeatedly says that abstinence is the only form of sex education that should be taught in public schools. We have seen states that teach abstinence-only sex education have their teen pregnancy rates increase. This is what Texas public schools are teaching.

I. How they relate to God
A. Is Jesus their first love?
B. Trying to impress people or serve God?

Another public school district uses this:

Question: "What does the Bible say about sex before marriage/premarital sex?"

Answer: Along with all other kinds of sexual immorality, sex before marriage/premarital sex is repeatedly condemned in Scripture (Acts 15:20; Romans 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13,18; 7:2; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Jude 7).

This so-called education does not teach kids about STDs or how to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. This is designed to religiously indoctrinate kids. The result is more teen pregnancies in Texas.

The Mississippi anti-choicers don't even contemplate what kind of social services are needed for the increase of of newborn babies. These toddlers are going to need to be fed and some of the parents will put these babies up for adoption. The only thing that the anti-choicers care about is stop people from having sex.

Rick Perry Wants Gays to Practice Abstinence

We know that Gov. Rick Perry believes in abstinence. Perry believes so much that he wants gay people to share the joy of abstinence. From Perry's book "On My Honor."

In “On My Honor,” Perry also punted on the exact origins of homosexuality. He wrote that he is “no expert on the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate,” but that gays should simply choose abstinence. Perry’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether he maintains this view.

Perry goes on to compare homosexuality to alcoholism.

“Even if an alcoholic is powerless over alcohol once it enters his body, he still makes a choice to drink,” he wrote. “And, even if someone is attracted to a person of the same sex, he or she still makes a choice to engage in sexual activity with someone of the same gender.”

Perry has had to disown the positions in his book "Fed Up!" I doubt Perry will backtrack on his views on homosexuality. Perry wants the Christian conservatives that make up the tea party. Perry will have trouble in a general election with his views. The problem with Perry is he is already imploding. Mitt Romney has kept a low profile and let the other Republican candidates Attack each other (Huntsman) or self-destruct (Gingrich).

It be interesting to see what Perry's fate will be. A serious politician with national ambitions would not talk about Texas seceding or abolishing Social Security. Perry is not ready for prime-time.

Rick Perry Attempts to Defend Abstinence Education

Gov. Rick Perry poorly defends his policy of abstinence education. The interviewer points out that Texas has the third highest rate of teen pregnancy. Perry says that abstinence education is a good use of tax dollars. Perry makes his case cites a policy of testing Texas teen for steroids and only finding 7 to 15. That steroid testing program was so successful that it was almost cut from the budget.

Perry is pushing his Christian Right worldview on public school students. This is the literature teens have to read in abstinence sex ed classes.

One Texas public school district's sex ed handout is entitled "Things to Look for in a Mate:"

I. How they relate to God
A. Is Jesus their first love?
B. Trying to impress people or serve God?

Another public school district uses this:

Question: "What does the Bible say about sex before marriage/premarital sex?"

Answer: Along with all other kinds of sexual immorality, sex before marriage/premarital sex is repeatedly condemned in Scripture (Acts 15:20; Romans 1:29; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13,18; 7:2; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Jude 7).

Christian Right activists like Perry have a problem with sex. The fact is teenagers are going to have sex. If Perry truly believes that teens can be programmed to not have sex than he is too delusional to be president.

Astinence Education Fail

Project AIM (Adult Identity Mentoring) is a abstinence program used for STD prevention in Florida and other states. The program doesn't teach teenagers about condoms, identifying STDs on a sexual partner or anything that might actually prevent the spread of STDs. Which might explain why STDs and teen pregnancies have increased in Florida.

Project AIM teaches the nonsense called the “Theory of Possible Selves.” Basically, it is role playing. Apparently, conservatives think preventing STDs is like a community theatre acting class.

BACKGROUND
The intervention program is based on the “Theory of Possible Selves.” The theory states that a person’s motivation is determined by a balance of positive and negative ways in which people see themselves in the future.

Individuals who are able to imagine both positive and negative futures are more likely to work toward their life goals and achieve future success. Project AIM encourages at-risk
youth to imagine a positive future and discuss how current risk behaviors could be a barrier to a successful adulthood.


PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Project AIM consists of 12 50-minute sessions delivered to groups of 10 to 20 youth. The intervention is divided into four parts, using group discussions and interactive activities.

Part 1 encourages youth to explore their personal interests, social surroundings and what they want to become as an adult. Youth identify people in their lives who may be barriers to success or supporters. Young adults from the community who are on their road to success are invited to speak with youth.

In Part 2, youth envision themselves in a future career and connect current behavior with success as an adult. Activities
include completing a career interest inventory, developing business cards and resumes and participating in interviews.

Part 3 engages youth in role-playing around communication and small group activities involving planning and decision making.

In Part 4, youth think about their futures in terms of milestone goals to accomplish and potential obstacles that must be overcome.

Worst PSA Ever

The Candie's Foundation couldn't find anyone better than the Situation and Bristol Palin to promote safe sex and/or abstinence? Really? Was bigger celebrities like Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson busy?

Anyone notice that Bristol Palin has backed off her previous position that abstinence doesn't work.

"No, I don't want to get into detail about that. But I think abstinence is, like -- like, the -- I don't know how to put it -- like, the main -- everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all"

Provider Clause Is Dangerous

I have serious objections to the provider clause in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

PROVIDER CONSCIENCE PROTECTIONS.—No individual health care provider or health care facility may be discriminated against because of a willingness or an unwillingness, if doing so is contrary to the religious or moral beliefs of the provider or facility, to provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.

A 21 year-old Tampa woman was wrongly incarcerated after she reported being raped during the Gasparilla event. A jail health care worker refused to give the victim a second morning after pill. The female health care worker refused to administer the morning after pill because it was against her religious beliefs. TPD spokeswoman Laura McElroy said the health care worker acted against policy.

Democrats need to stop pandering to the Christian Right. The Senate bill contains $50 million for abstinence-only sex education. An Oxford University study found abstinence-only sex education did not prevent teenagers from having sex.

Researchers found none of the abstinence-only programmes had an impact on the age at which individuals lost their virginity, whether they had unprotected sex, the number of sexual partners, the rates of sexually transmitted diseases or the number of pregnancies.

One trial did show a short-term benefit with participants reporting that they were less likely to have had sex in the month following one abstinence-only programme.

But the researchers said this finding was offset by six other trials that showed the programmes had no effect on the participants' recent sex lives.

Christian fundamentalism does not belong in health care. Ever.

Worst Headline of the Year

William Saletan latest Slate op-ed is titled "Is it wrong to murder an abortionist?" The question does not even need to be asked. In case Saletan is wondering the answer is yes.

Saletan comes up with the solution to end abortions. Unfortunately for Saletan, the pro-choice movement has been preaching birth control for years.

If you don't accept what he did, then maybe it's time to ask yourself what you really believe. Is abortion murder? Or is it something less, a tragedy that would be better avoided? Most of us think it's the latter. We're looking for ways to prevent abortions—not just a few this month, but millions down the line—without killing or prosecuting people. Come and join us.

The Christian fundamentalists that make up the anti-abortion movement only support abstinence-only sex education. The conservative state Texas teaches abstinence-only sex-ed. During Gov. George W. Bush's tenure, Texas was ranked last in teen birth decline for the ages of 15 to 17. The Bush administration literally had no science to back up that abstinence worked. They cooked the numbers and forced scientists to attend abstinince workshops.

One scientist, recently departed from a high-ranking position at the CDC, recounts that, on one occasion, even top staff scientists at the agency were required by the administration to attend a day-long session purportedly devoted to the “science of abstinence.” As this source puts it, “out of the entire session, conducted by a nonscientist, the only thing resembling science was one study reportedly in progress and another not even begun.”8 Despite the absence of supporting data, this source and others contend, CDC scientists were regularly reminded to push the administration’s abstinence-only stance. As he puts it, “The effect was very chilling.”9

The anti-abortion movement and Republicans have no interest in promoting birth control. The Catholic Church has denounced the use of all birth control. Pro-Life America has a web page calling forms of birth control abortion. This is scientifically ignorant. Birth control keeps the sperm from fertilizing egg.

Physicians across America -- and around the world -- are now confirming that the Pill, IUDs, Depo-Provera and Norplant cause early abortions.

Saletan has penned horrible op-eds on reproductive issues. Contemplating whether George Tiller deserved to live and having the fantasy the anti-abortion movement is willing to discuss birth control are new lows for him.

Jill Filipovic:

Fourth: Saletan is right that the reason pro-lifers are able to say that killing abortion providers is wrong is because they don’t actually equate fetuses or fertilized eggs with born human beings. Of course they don’t. But he fails to adress the issue of why these groups oppose abortion and birth control so strongly — he only offers the idea that there’s a “third way” of trying to decrease the abortion rate through prevention (which is actually the long-time pro-choice position and not exactly a new invention, but if it makes Saletan feel good to think he invented the Pill, then ok). In fact, anti-choice groups have a widespread social agenda that is about much more than just ending abortion. They’re against birth control. They’re against single parenthood. They’re against egalitarian parenting. They’re against planning the number and spacing of your children. They’re against women who work outside the home. They’re against any challenge to the nuclear, male-dominated family where Dad is in charge and Mom stays home and has as many babies as God gives. Think maybe that their real agenda in opposing abortion is about controlling women?

Short answer: anti-abortionists are sexist.

Jessica Valenti on the Today Show

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Jessica Valenti appears on the Today Show. Valenti explains how abstinence-only education has been a policy failure. Valenti explains how the virginity Purity Myth does not teach women that they are more than their bodies. Valenti does not urge young women to rush into sex. She also supports abstinence as part of comprehensive sex education. Valenti makes it clear abstinence-only sex ed is a health policy failure.

Bristol Palin Deserves Better

Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston have broken up. Republicans will continue to support abstinence-only education and make rants against fictional unwed mothers.

In 2007, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found unwed mothers made a record of 38.5 percent of all births. out-of-wedlock teenage pregnancies also spiked. The abstinence-only policy of the Bush administration was failing. Tony Perkins went in defense mode.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins expressed his worries and stated that the so-called comprehensive protective effect of condoms promotes unsafe behavior. This results in an increase in STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) rates in young people, and an increase in out-of-wedlock teenage pregnancies.

Tony Perkins said,” What we’re really witnessing are the effects of contraceptive-focused sex education, often labeled as comprehensive sex education”. Tony Perkins further comments, “When people talk about ‘abstinence until marriage,’ both parts are important”.

Columnist Maggie Gallagher was paid $21,500 by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote Bush's marriage initiative in 2002. Gallagher was paid to promote abstinence until marriage. The scandal would have gotten Gallagher fired from most American publications. (Tucker Carlson was booed by stating the need for the conservative media to have ethical standards.) Gallagher's editor Rich Lowry did not see any reason to fire Gallagher.

"We would have preferred that she told us, and we would have disclosed it in her bio." Lowry told Howard Kurtz.

Gallagher is writing for the Washington Times. She weighed in on Bristol Palin's Fox News interview.

Note: I wonder if Bristol really thinks sexual virtue is harder these days than it was, say, 30 years ago when her mom and I were teenagers. That would be circa 1979. I could tell Bristol some stories - the sexual revolution has been swinging pretty hard for a good long time now.

Gallagher goes on to write: "Is it really wise for an entire society to adopt the point of view of the average inarticulate 18-year-old kid?"

Did Gallagher actually watch the interview? I'm sure it was hard for Bristol to talk to a national television audience for the first time. Here were my thoughts about Bristol's interview.

I am glad Bristol Palin did the Fox News interview. She proved herself to be a very intelligent young woman. It was surprising to hear her say abstinence doesn't work. Bristol's mother, Sarah Palin supports abstinence-only sex education and has presidential ambitions. Bristol used her television time to tell other teens to wait before having a child.

Bristol has a good head on her shoulders. It is nice to see a real person and not a symbol for teen pregnancy. We need to understand issues affect the lives of Americans. The rhetoric of talk radio and cable news turns every issue into an us vs them event.

The abstinence-only advocates Perkins and Gallagher barely view young women, such as Bristol Palin, as real people. Gallagher's "I wonder if Bristol really thinks sexual virtue is harder these days" snark is evidence that social conservatives view unwed mothers with contempt. Miss Gallagher, Bristol Palin is the the one with the problem.

Quote of the Day

"No. I don't want to get into detail about that. But I think abstinence is, like -- like, the -- I don't know how to put it -- like, the main -- everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all."

Bristol Palin

I am glad Bristol Palin did the Fox News interview. She proved herself to be a very intelligent young woman. It was surprising to hear her say abstinence doesn't work. Bristol's mother, Sarah Palin supports abstinence-only sex education and has presidential ambitions. Bristol used her television time to tell other teens to wait before having a child.

Bristol has a good head on her shoulders. It is nice to see a real person and not a symbol for teen pregnancy. We need to understand issues affect the lives of Americans. The rhetoric of talk radio and cable news turns every issue into an us vs them event.

I didn't buy that momma Sarah didn't know about the interview until the day before. Momma Sarah's surprise appearance came off a bogus. Palin's spiel about how it is not government's role to help teen mothers bothered me. Palin vetoed funds for Passage House. The facility is used to house teen mothers. There is a difference between being conservative and throwing young mothers out on the street. Palin is a conservative, but lacks compassionate.

Florida Progressive Radio: Shelby Knox

Shelby Knox is the subject of a documentary. As a student, Knox fought against the Lubbock, Texas school district's policy of abstinence-only sex education. Knox is now 22 years-old and has written about sex education policy.

Correction: the show airs at 4:00 PM. I will post the audio.

Update: the audio works now.

Quote of the Day

"Explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support."

Sarah Palin, on a 2006 Eagle Forum questionnaire. I'm not shocked that Palin's daughter Bristol is pregnant. The Republican establishment really isn't socially conservative. In fact, they hate the Christian Right. Tucker Carlson made that clear to Chris Matthews.



CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in…

MATTHEWS: How do you know that? How do you know that?

CARLSON: Because I know them. Because I grew up with them. Because I live with them. They live on my street. Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. And the evangelicals know that, and they're beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don't share their values.

MATTHEWS: So this gay marriage issue and other issues related to the gay lifestyle are simply tools to get elected?

CARLSON: That's exactly right. It's pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out.

What matters is that voters figure it out.

The base hasn't figured that out. Peer Review defends Palin's hypocrisy and predicts the attacks will backfire. The fall out has already been bad. Jamie Lynn Spears has come to the rescue and defended Bristol. You may remember the McCain campaign's attempt to link Barack Obama to Jamie's older sister. The Spears family can hardly be considered role models. There is also the negative US Weekly cover.



Democrats aren't attempting to ram unsuccessful abstinence-education programs down America's collective throats. Palin used a line item veto to cut housing for teen mothers.

According to Passage House's web site, its purpose is to provide "young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives" and help teen moms "become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families."

Pathetic.

Update: I forgot that McCain didn't vet Palin until after he offered her the VP candidacy.

Quote of the Day

The bizarre mind of Ronda Storms never fails to amaze me.

Storms said that the sex education amendment went too far, adding that the measure did not belong in the bill and that it could lead to "prematurely deflowering kindergartners and first- and second-graders."

The Tampa Tribune did a recent series on how abstinence education is a policy failure.

But a recent federally mandated study shows that middle-school students who attended abstinence-only classes were just as likely to have sex as those who did not. Half had sex by age 15, a rate that held for students who attended abstinence classes and those who didn't.

At the same time, the teen birthrate rose last year for the first time in 15 years. Also, the rate of sexually transmitted diseases has grown unacceptably high, with half of new infections occurring in people aged 15 to 24.

Quote of the Day

"In my parents' day and age, they were sent away. They were shunned. They were called what they are ... There's no sense of shame today. Society condones it ... They're sluts. And I don't mean just the women. I mean the men, too."

Rep. Larry Liston (R-Colorado Springs), on teenage parents.

Now is a good time to mention that bstinence-only education does not work. Contrary to what conservative would want you to believe.

It is hypocritical for Listen to condemn teens for decide to keep their babies. Treat these teens like shit if they get and abortion and if they decide to keep it. How pro-life.

How to Waste Taxpayers Dollars

Question: how do you waste $176 million?

Answer: spend it on abstinence-only sex education programs.

The birth rate among teenagers 15 to 19 in the United States rose 3 percent in 2006, according to a report issued Wednesday, the first such increase since 1991. The finding surprised scholars and fueled a debate about whether the Bush administration’s abstinence-only sexual education efforts are working.

We all knows that nothing gets horny teenagers to listen like telling them not to have sex.

Unwed mothers reached an all-time high of 38.5 percent. It would help if these idiotic abstinence-only programs told teens that contraception always fails. The policy isn't about lowering pregnancy numbers. Republicans are pandering to Christian conservatives with serious hang ups about sexual issues. Politics drives the policy.

Matt Lauer Interview of Larry Craig

PoliticsTV has compiled the top ten moments of the Larry Craig interview. My favorite moment is he has never cast negative judgement of another person's sex life. That doesn't pass the laugh test.

SEN. CRAIG: Well, I don't know where the Senate's going to be on that issue of an up or down vote on impeachment, but I will tell you that the Senate certainly can bring about a censure reslution and it's a slap on the wrist. It's a, "Bad boy, Bill Clinton. You're a naughty boy." The American people already know that Bill Clinton is a bad boy, a naughty boy.

I'm going to speak out for the citizens of my state, who in the majority think that Bill Clinton is probably even a nasty, bad, naughty boy.

I am so glad Craig is sticking around for the 2008 elections. He is a poster boy the the Republicans hypocrisy of moral values. The GOP demonizes gays and Hispanics for political gain. They played to the most hateful of the electorate to gain power. Nevermind that kingmakers such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson are unhinged, greedy and equally hypocritical.

The party of abstinence is having a tough time keeping it's pants up. David Vitter likes hookers. Mark Foley obsessively went after male teen pages. Bob Allen laughably claimed he offered to pay a man and give him blowjob because he was in fear for his life.

The Christian Right leadership would back any of these people if they at a legimate shot of being re-elected. James Dobson will certainly back the philandering Giuliani or Morman Romney over a Democrat. Republican victories matter more than actually helping the sick and poor. Falwell and Robertson gleefully told their audience that America deserved the 9-11 attacks.

Falwell: The ACLU has got to take a lot of blame for this. And I know I'll hear from them for this, but throwing God...successfully with the help of the federal court system...throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked and when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad...I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen.

Robertson: I totally concur, and the problem is we've adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government, and so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do, and the top people, of course, is the court system."

Falwell: Pat, did you notice yesterday that the ACLU and all the Christ-haters, the People for the American Way, NOW, etc., were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress, as they went out on the steps and and called out to God in prayer and sang 'God bless America' and said, let the ACLU be hanged. In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time, calling on God."

How can these men be so hateful while the rest while the rest of the country is reeling? The Bush campaign went out of their way to cater to them. Falwell gave the opening prayer at the 2004 Republican National Convention and was allowed to attend the Washington National Cathedral memorial service. Even though President Bush didn't want to be seen near him.

The GOP is now in facing the prospect of losing the presidency and more seats in Congress. Jesus said, "But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand." The same holds true for houses built on shit.

Write A Caption: Diamonds Are For Girls

Amanda Marcotte explains why young girls are being told to guard their diamond.

Like A Virgin (For the Second Time)

I have written several times before about the silliness of abstinence-only sex education. It came as no surprise to me that Florida is second to Texas in federal abstinence education money. Those tax dollars go to telling kids that they can be a "secondary virgin" if they already did the nasty.

Take back control. Secondary virginity means that you care enough about yourself and your future to save sex for the right person and the right time – marriage. Deciding to start over is the hardest part.

Your decision to choose abstinence shows to others that you value yourself. Ways to help keep this commitment may include:

communicating your standards to your friends,
avoiding compromising situations, or
finding nonphysical ways to show you care.

If someone decides he or she doesn't want to have sex again then that is the person's choice. However, one can not become a virgin for a second time. That is not a safe sex choice. That is denial. We should have teens living in reality. Not have them pretend to be something they are not.