No Surprise: Contraception Prevents Unwanted Pregnancy

The Guttmacher Institute has released this their findings on how consistent use of contraception prevents abortions.

The two-thirds of U.S. women at risk of unintended pregnancy who use contraception consistently and correctly throughout the course of any given year account for only 5% of all unintended pregnancies. The 19% of women at risk who use contraception inconsistently account for 43% of unintended pregnancies, while the 16% of women at risk who use no contraceptive method at all for a month or more during the year account for 52%.

These simple statistics demonstrate how effective contraceptive use can be. They also categorically refute claims by anti-contraception activists that access to contraception somehow leads to more unintended pregnancies and subsequent abortions.

Only five percent of women that properly use contraception account for abortions. Conservatives would have you believe that contraception will lead to the downfall of mankind and abstinence is the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Never mind that when (then comedian) Al Franken sent letters to Bush administration officials asking for their stories on how they abstained from sex until they were married, he never got an abstinence confessional.

In bizarro world: Fox News host Laura Ingraham absurdly claims that rapists will give their victims Plan B. Stupidity ensues.

It’s a good deal for pedophiles, a good deal for people who commit statutory rape against young girls. If mothers and fathers across this country hear this, and they think, ‘Well, I guess my daughter or her boyfriend or her rapist can go out to a pharmacy and get a bunch of, you know, hormone pills to give a little girl’... We don’t really know the effect of a spiking or dropping a little girl’s... in many cases a young woman’s or a little girl’s hormonal levels. It’s outrageous!

Of course, Ingraham provides no evidence to back her conspiracy theory. Other conservatives, such as Trent Franks, thinks that women rarely get pregnant after being raped.

"The incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low," Franks said, according to a transcript.

Franks made this argument in defense of a DOA bill to ban abortion nationwide after 20 weeks of gestation. This falls under the same form of bogus science as Todd Akin's infamous comment.

"First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare... If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

The reality is Ingraham, Franks, and Akin want women to have no control over their own bodies if they are raped. They also don't want women to have access to birth control. It is a fact that the pill lowers the amount of abortions in this country. If conservatives really want to eliminate abortions then they would back access to the pill. Conservatives don't because they are held hostage by the Christian Right that views sex as a dirty thing.

Update: Massachusetts Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez (R) distances himself from Trent Franks.

"I think that he’s a moron and he proves that stupid has no specific political affiliation,” Gomez told ABC News on Wednesday. “I have no idea what goes into the mind of a moron like that ... These kinds of comments only come from a moron and they shouldn’t be tolerated one bit."

Fox News Hearts Separate but Equal

Fox News talking head John Stossel argues in favor of businesses barring people from their businesses based on race.

JOHN STOSSEL: Private businesses ought to get to discriminate.

Fair and balanced news you can trust.

I don't know if Stossel believes his bullshit or is carrying water for Rand Paul. What is interesting is the assinine libertarian arguments of people like Glenn Reynolds is entering the public sphere. Libertarian views do not go over well in mainstream politics. Unsurprisingly, Paul is in serious backtracking mode. Paul went on Laura Ingraham's show for friendly cover.

"These are settled issues," Paul said. "I have no intention of bringing up anything related to the Civil Rights Act."

Paul told Ingraham he was being attacked by the "loony left." It is not loony to ask a Senate candidate his views on one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history. Loony is accusing Obama of not being born in America. A rationale question is asking a potential legislator how he will legislate.

Howard Kurtz's Obsession With Lara Logan

Jon Stewart asks Lara Logan if she watches American news coverage of the Iraq and Afghanisthan wars.

"No," Logan said. "If I were to watch the news you hear in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would just drive me nuts."

Logan answers critics that make the silly accusation that her war coverage is hurting America.

Jon Stewart: Have we lost our humanity with the entire situation?

Lara Logan: Yeah, we have.

Logan: I was asked once, "Do you feel responsible for the American public having a bad view, a negative view about the war in Iraq." And I looked at the reporter and said, "Tell me the last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier? What does that look like?" Who in America knows what that looks like because I know what that looks like. And I feel responsible for the fact that no one else does. That's what I feel responsible for that nobody really understands.

Logan: And the soldiers feel forgotten. They do. No doubt. From Afghanisthan to Iraq they absolutely feel...

Logan's exasperation with her media colleagues is understandable. The interview Howard Kurtz did of Logan started with the question if she is helping terrorists spread their message. Kurtz then asked her why she isn't covering more positive stories. Logan told Kurtz that it is hard to be all sunshine when so many American and Iraqis are dying. Logan rightfully told Kurtz she "resented" people questioning her reporting.

Logan called it "an outrage" for critics question her coverage, when journalists can not travel without military or private security. It's clear that Logan is angry with Kurtz. Her voice and body language becomes increasingly agitated. The latter defended Laura Ingraham attacks on Iraq war correspondents by pointing out the conservative talk show host spent eight days in Iraq. Logan sarcasticly retorted, "For Eight days."

It is bizarre for a media critic wanting journalists like Logan to do Iraq fluff stories. Kurtz publicly criticized Logan for refusing to do a story about female sailors keeping virtual online pets. Kurtz complaint as a media critic is that Logan is not furthering the White House's fantasy-based narrative.

In case you haven't figured it out: Howard Kurtz is the unnamed journalist Logan spoke of to Jon Stewart. I have watched the Logan/Kurtz interview several times. Kurtz's passive-aggressive anger on Logan staggering. Logan looks like she wants to get on the next plane from Baghdad to personally smack the shit out of Kurtz. John McCain was publicly laughed at for stating the streets of Baghdad were safe for Americans to go on a stroll. Kurtz hammers Logan Fox News-style for not promoting such propaganda.

The most cowardly thing about Kurtz's attack is he hides behind so-called "critics" of Logan. It is Kurtz whom is obsessed about Logan's reporting. No one on in the Bush administration has publicly condemned Logan for not doing more virtual pet stories. At least Bill O'Reilly will personally lambast Bill Moyers. Kurtz cites unnamed conservatives against Logan to mask his personal contempt. Ingraham did not personally go after Logan. (I can't find an Ingraham quote before the Kurtz interview.) Howard Kurtz did and behind a woman to attack Logan. Kurtz hardly displayed the kind of moral courage that would actually go into a warzone to find those feel good stories.

John McCain At CPAC

Last year, Tas covered the lunacy that is CPAC. Nowhere present was John McCain. The Maverick knew the the base hates him. This year, conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham made no effort to hide her dislike of McCain.

"Here's another little nugget for you. I don't think it's enough to say that you were a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution," Laura Ingraham told the CPAC crowd. "I think the question is... what have you been doing for conservatism lately?"

Ingraham took one more swipe at McCain: "An obsession with endless bipartisan compromises does not keep us free."

McCain was forced to speak at CPAC this year. McCain was booed when he brought up the touchy subject of immigration. McCain needs these activists to help get him in the Oval Office. Their enthusiasm is underwhelming.



The base would rather lose in 2008 than have the Rockefeller Republicans take over the party. What is fascinating is the base would rather rally around a phony like Romney than McCain. Romney's record is more liberal then Nelson Rockefeller's. The base would rather hear sweet lies, grind Congress to a halt, and get nothing accomplished than get part of their agenda passed. These take-no-prisoners policies made Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay and George W. Bush lose power.

The GOP base wants government Armageddon. If they can't drown government in a bath tub then they take their water torture victim home.

Lara Logan Stands Up For Journalists Covering Iraq

This video is from last year, but is worth posting.

Howard Kurtz insanely asks Lara Logan about the lack of postive Iraq news coverage from journalist. Logan explains that the country is in shambles and proceeds to passionately defend her colleagues. Kurtz is unmoved and proceeds to play a tape of Laura Ingraham bashing the press.

Ingraham: To do a show from Iraq means to talk to the Iraqi military. To go out with the Iraqi military. To actually have a conversation with the people, instead of reporting from hotel room balconies about the lates IEDs going off.

Logan said Ingraham's comment is easy to make "from the comforts of the United States." Logan points out it is impossible for journalists (and Iraqis) to freely drive around the country. Ingraham is living in John McCain's fantasy.

"I do want to point out that Laura Ingraham was in Iraq for 8 days," Kurtz said.

"8 days," laughed Logan. She was not impressed.

Kurtz's fair and balanced sthick of bashing Irsq coverage is really getting fucking old.

Update: Lara Logan gives an eloquent response to commenters who attacked her CNN interview.

The reason we are unable to go cover every school or bridge opening or “good news” story, is not because of concern over our own safety - it is first and foremost because of concern over the safety of those involved in the project.

Where schools have been highlighted in the media, teachers have been executed and the buildings bombed. Where reconstruction projects have been highlighted by the media, workers have been murdered and the projects bombed.

Following media reports about the Baghdad soccer team, soccer matches have been bombed, with almost a hundred players and civilian spectators killed in multiple attacks.

It is very often those involved in the projects that ask us to stay away.

And for those who question my moral courage I would like to point out the following:

- At age 17 I was counting the bodies from the weekend violence in our local morgue, fire station and hospitals during the anti-Apartheid struggle.

- Since then I have lived with, (often on my own, the only woman for a sustained period of time) Unita rebel troops on the frontline in Angola, Afghan Northern Alliance forces during their war against the Taliban, Palestinians fighting Israelis in the occupied West Bank and Gaza and Albanian rebels in Tetovo, Macedonia, to name a few examples.

Let's just get this out of the way. Lara Logan is the best damn journalist in television media. She is also breathtakingly beautiful.