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November 30, 2006

The lame duck makes one last quack

The "Do-Absofuckinglutely-Nothing" Congress currently in their waning days of power in DC is trying extra hard to earn that moniker:

While they still can, House Republicans are looking at scheduling a vote next week on a fetal pain abortion bill in a parting shot at incoming majority Democrats and a last bid for loyalty from the GOP's base of social conservatives.

The measure is tentatively on House GOP leaders' list of bills to be considered in a lame-duck session before Democrats assume control of Congress. It has no chance of passing the Senate during the waning days of Republican control. But, with Democrats ascending to agenda-setting roles, passage isn't the point, said one conservative leader.

"Next year, the leadership of the House will be hardcore pro-abortion loyalists," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee. "They will block votes on even modest pro-life measures like this one."

The vote would be the first on the measure, which was introduced in September and referred to a health subcommittee, where no action on it was taken. Johnson said his group wants a House vote to test support for the measure.

The bill, by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., defines a 20-week-old fetus as a "pain-capable unborn child" - a highly controversial threshold among scientists. It also directs the Health and Human Service Department to develop a brochure stating "that there is substantial evidence that the process of being killed in an abortion will cause the unborn child pain."

Abortion providers would be required to inform the mothers that evidence exists that the procedure would cause pain to the child and offer the mothers anesthesia for the baby. The mothers would accept or reject the anesthesia by signing a form. The bill allows for an exception for certified medical emergencies.

If GOP whackonuts can't make abortion illegal, they'll just whack a woman upside the head as hard as they can with the guilt factor. How very special.

Not ones to be deterred by real medical science, these guys have to trot out bullshit in order to make their point.

I have a nephew who was born at 28 weeks gestation. He's 10 years old now. But even today he has trouble with some neurological functions. One of them is pain perception. He's been badly burned twice from touching something hot because it takes him an extra long time to feel pain.

This bill has no shot of making it past the senate. We've got soldiers dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, people in the US without health care, spending bills languishing without being voted on, private contractors profiting from our occupation of Iraq, New Orleans still in need of major cleanup and fixing....but this is the Congressman from New Jersey's hot issue.

Posted by Carla at November 30, 2006 10:07 AM