From our Dept of WTF??? Issa has finally jumped the shark.
Where are the women on this woman's issue Issa?
Knowing what a misogynist bag of shit Darrell Issa is, his move today to hold a hearing on contraception for women, which excluded women as witnesses, and only included males that are against any form of contraception for women did not shock me.
But it sure as hell pissed me the fuck off. That this fucknut only had witnesses that support the GOP’s War on Women, even though many Catholic groups have come out in favor of Obama’s compromise, just shows how far out of touch this asshole is with his constituency and the women of America:
Among the witnesses invited by Issa to attend the hearing was a representative of the Catholic bishops, who oppose the Obama administration “accommodation” on birth-control coverage. Joining them are many other men of other religions. Not invited, complained Democrats, were representatives from the Catholic Health Association, which is run by a woman and actually runs the Catholic hospitals, nor Catholic Charities, both of which said Friday they supported the president’s plan.
It also pissed off the Democrats enough that they walked the hell out of his bullshit hearing:
Three Democrats walked out of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on religious liberty and the birth control rule on Thursday to protest Chairman Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) refusal to allow a progressive woman to testify in favor of the Obama administration’s contraception rule. The morning panel at the hearing consisted exclusively of men from conservative religious organizations.
“What I want to know is, where are the women?” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) asked Issa before walking out of the hearing after the first panel. “I look at this panel, and I don’t see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventative health care services, including family planning. Where are the women?”
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), told reporters in the hallway outside the hearing that she marched out because it was being conducted like an “autocratic regime.” The other members who left were Maloney and Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.).
There are 10 witnesses testifying at Thursday’s hearing. None of those individuals — listed as testifying prior to hearing — is in favor of the Obama administration’s birth control rule, and few are women.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, was listed as a witness for the hearing, but Simon Brown, a spokesman for Americans United, told The Huffington Post that Lynn will not be testifying. (He will, however, be submitting written testimonyto the committee.)
Democrats say they tried to invite another witness — a young woman — to testify, but were blocked by Republicans.
Issa said at the hearing that he rejected the Democrats’ female witness, Sandra Fluke, because, as a Georgetown University law student who “appears to have become energized over this issue,” she was “not appropriate or qualified.” He said that in lieu of allowing her to speak at the hearing, he instructed his staff to post a video online of Fluke speaking at a previous press conference.
Ranking Member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) complained about the matter in a letter to Issa on Wednesday.
“When my staff inquired about requesting minority witnesses for this hearing, we were informed that you would allow only one,” Cummings wrote. “Based on your decision, we requested as our minority witness a third-year Georgetown University Law Center student named Sandra Fluke. I believed it was critical to have at least one woman at the witness table who could discuss the repercussions that denying coverage for contraceptives has on women across this country.”
In his letter, Cummings wrote that Issa’s staff told Democrats that the chair had decided, “As the hearing is not about reproductive rights and contraception but instead about the Administration’s actions as they relate to freedom of religion and conscience, he believes that Ms. Fluke is not an appropriate witness.”
Fluke has been a vocal supporter of the Obama administration’s decision not to exempt religiously-affiliated employers from having to offer contraception, without a co-pay, to their employees under their health insurance. The White House recently rolled out a compromise, where insurance companies would have to pick up the cost of the contraception if an organization determined the requirement violated its religious sensibilities.
After walking out of the hearing Thursday, Holmes Norton pulled Fluke into the hallway to allow her to speak to reporters. Fluke began to cry as she told the story of her 32-year-old friend who was diagnosed with ovarian cysts and prescribed birth control pills as the only remedy for her condition that could save her from becoming infertile. Because her student insurance did not cover contraception, Fluke’s friend could not afford her medication, and she eventually lost her ovary and began experiencing symptoms of early menopause.
“Those are the consequences of this policy, and those are the voices the chairman silenced today,” Fluke said.
Pelosi wasn’t silent either. Watch her presser here. That these men controlled a subject that exclusively affects women tells America everything it needs to know about the GOP and their war against Women’s Reproductive Rights and their access to contraception.
I hope to hell that Issa gets what’s coming to him when his next run for office comes around. This political grandstanding using Women’s Rights as an issue is a stupid move, as more women than men are registered voters in this country. It ain’t gonna fly Issa…it just ain’t …so you and all those fucking males who think you can control our rights to access reproductive health concerns can kiss our female asses…one cheek at a fucking time, you dipshit sons of bitches.
Dusty
I am a..brown Cali bitch that is quite the opinionated,political, pain-in-the-ass, in your face kinda girl that also loves baseball and music to a fault.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.--Albert Einstein-*24 Responses to “From our Dept of WTF??? Issa has finally jumped the shark.”
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If condoms were covered by insurance we would not be having this discussion. This is just another example of republican men trying to control all women. Freedom of religion has nothing to do with it…although the use of religion to control women is very relevant.
Great post, Dusty. Keep fighting!
If men could have babies this issue would of been gone years ago. Fucking religious bastards.
Thanks Jerry….this really pissed me off. Fighting back against assholes is my job and it keeps my soul alive and well.
This whole contraception thing is nothing but a political ploy……hey, the GOP, see they are losing the independents and this is something that they try to influence the moderate Catholics and such……I know where the vagina is….but where are the jobs?
Even moderate Catholics have to be appalled at this shit as they are the ones using birth control, in spite of the dude’s in the black dresses decree for the last hundred years or so. My Catholic friends have always told me they ignore many of the decree’s these idiots put down as it has nothing to do with believing in their ‘deity’ in the first place.
I doubt they are pissed. They are in the middle. They probably understand their fundy comrades but also choose a more liberal path in their lives. They probably vote based on other issues. They are probably happy with the compromise.
The Catholics that vote Republican because the Democrats support birth control (or are at least alleged to support), are going to vote Republican no matter what. This little fight was no different than the other similar fights and I bet most Catholics, and most voters, didn’t have their mind changed either way.
Any woman who votes for the Republicans and isn’t a millionaire should have her vagina taken away….and put wherever her brain went to.
It’s really stunning, in this day and age, how unimportant women are to Republicans. On so many social issues, it’s like America is some lost tribe of jungle dwellers who last had contact with civilization in the 1800′s.
.and put wherever her brain went to. I think the question is actually if they had a brain in the first place. The GOP has historically kept all women in the back of the bus..its not a new position for them.
Why would any self respecting woman be a member of the republican party?
Personally I don’t think any ‘self-respecting’ female belongs to the GOP in the first place. Collins is an idiot and a politician…in that order.
The very same criticism can be made for Democratic women.
Why would any self respecting non-millionaire woman vote for the Democrats?
Are the Democrats really any better?
This whole fake fight is a distraction. The Democrats have done about jack and shit for women, or have you been so dazzled by that Lily Ledbetter law that y’all failed to notice?
The reality is that the Democrats care about these issues about as much as Issa and his gang care–which is to say they don’t. So they created a fake fight to inflame their bases (I bet ZERO independents or other people were swayed–the people that vote on this issue are already voting Republican no matter what).
The Democrats have done about jack and shit for women, or have you been so dazzled by that Lily Ledbetter law that y’all failed to notice? Witless m’dear friend..I have told you before that I and my commenters are NOT obama apologists…none of us will vote for that fuckwit again..
I also told you, on another post, that I am NOT registered as a D and haven’t been for over two decades as I realize its one party with two names. Both represent the Corporatocracy, with the exception of only a couple of folks, like Berrnie Sanders who is actually registered as a socialist I believe..but I know it’s not as a D. .
I know Dusty. I don’t know who I’m “calling out” . . .I don’t want to call you out (I know you’re no O apologist), or your readers out . . . just another scream in frustration that I feel like a lot of people are going to get pushed into the Democrats’ clutches because of ploys like this . . . .
No problem then Bro..I get it. I feel that way a LOT too.
Oddly enough, I posted a similar comment to the “millionaire” one I did above on somebody else’s blog, except on that blog I included a shot about Democrats no longer caring much about women either. But that blog has a much wider column for comments, which encouraged me to type a more complete message
But let’s face it, the Democrats can’t possibly be as bad on “womens’ issues” as the Republicans are. Democrats can’t win without women. They may no longer give a shit, but at least they’re not out to move the clock as far backwards as they can. The Democrats look great by comparison, even while doing nothing.
The bottom line is that a large swath of the Republican party really does want women to be pregnant, barefoot and in the kitchen, with their mouths sealed shut except to say “Yes,sir. Right away, sir.”
The Democrats look great by comparison, even while doing nothing. What a sad but friggin true statement Sedate Me. Thanks for your thoughts.
The only solution is Medicare for All. Plus maybe some good old fashioned socialized medicine in addition to having a single payer.
Like devoting a doctor or nurse practitioner in every school. Girls (and boys) should be guaranteed reproductive health care from these health professionals.
If the Democrats supported average women, they would advocate that.
And universal day care.
Actually, even before that, how about at least 6 months (or better yet, a year) PAID maternity/paternity leave. In fact, we should pay the mother whether she had a job previously or not.
To be more explicit, the reason Medicare for All is the only way is because it would cover reproductive health. At least that’s what I’m assuming.
There wouldn’t be lots of different entities and insurance–the government would be the only entity one would need to convince to cover birth control. So I’m assuming if we were rational enough to choose Medicare for All we are going to be rational enough to cover reproductive health care.
Of course Medicare for all is the only solution. We are intelligent folk here and we realize the truth behind the political mask.
Damn straight.
Just noting the Democrats are way away from good policy here. They intentionally created a half-assed solution to health care, ACA, where people had to fight at the margins over crap like this and to fully implement it. They could have fought for justice from the beginning and they are giving us scraps and telling us its a feast.
Why wasn’t this stuff decided when ACA was passed? Why are we still having this incessant fight? The whole health care debate charade went on so long I needed health care in response . . . and it’s still going on? Oh yeah, Obama designed it that way! uuuugh
He designed his legislation so that these little debates over reproductive rights would pop up so it would keep the parties busy talking about their minimal differences and so Obama could come in and “compromise” (which really means making the policy more conservative).
All social issues are, by design, a way to keep us from the important issues. Makes me so pissed I wanna take a baseball bat to all of them, including Obama.
Santorum will lose any thinking voter by keeping this shit front and center…do you agree?
Man, I love it. The truth is, Obamacare has been a godsend for the health insurance industry, in toto. Republicans, using the “data” from their “think” tanks, proposed the same shit, because it gave everyone to the insurance sharks to gorge on. Sure, they have to enroll a few “sickos” in as well, but they get the whole fucking seafood platter to dine on. That’s why Obama and his cohorts decided, welll before the plan was rolled out, to marginalize and silence those of us clamoring for Single Payer. It’s just a new paint job on an already bashed up clunker, and we’ll spend decades seeing almost nothing gained.
Sorry I haven’t been here in awhile, Musty. You know I still love you, baby! It’s just that my new gaming rig has such a nice ass…ortment of graphics upgrades!
Hugs Froggy..good to see you. Gotta get ready for another damn doc appt.
One o’ these days, you gotta double up on the pain meds, and really let us know how you feel about our gov’t. today!
I’d buy THAT for a dollar!
Hope everything works out for your backside, ya backside, ya.
Big sloppy puppy kiss to you m’dear Frog.