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PoliGAF 2013 |OT2| Worth 77% of OT1

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RDreamer

Member
Wisconsin GOP is so confident in its 49th place job creation that they've moved on to other things like abortion.

Madison — Amid tumult on the state Senate floor, Republicans cut off debate and approved a bill Wednesday requiring women seeking abortions to get ultrasounds.

Democrats protested the bill's merits and the process by which it was passed. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) cut off debate after half an hour Wednesday and Democrats howled in protest. The bill had been debated for hours Tuesday, but Democrats managed to block a final vote on it that day.

The measure passed 17-15, with all Republicans for it and all Democrats against it. Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) was absent.

The bill also requires physicians performing abortions to have admitting privileges within 30 miles of the clinics where they work. That provision would shut down one of the state's four abortion clinics, according to opponents. Closing Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin's Appleton clinic would mean Milwaukee and Madison would be the only cities in the state where abortions were available.

Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) introduced the bill last week, on June 4. It is expected to pass the Senate on Wednesday and could be taken up by the Assembly as early as Thursday.

GOP Gov. Scott Walker has said he would sign the bill.

Republicans who control the Senate gave preliminary approval to the measure on Tuesday, but Democrats blocked a final vote.

Lazich said the bill would ensure patient safety and reduce the number of abortions by giving women more information. Democrats argued the bill is meant to bully and intimidate women.

Republicans are also seeking other changes to Wisconsin's abortion laws. On Thursday, the Assembly is to take up bills to ban use of taxpayer money to cover abortions in public employees' health insurance plans and outlaw abortions meant to choose the sex of a fetus.

The bill the Senate is considering would mandate that a physician or ultrasound technician display the ultrasound's images and describe to the patient the heartbeat and physical description of the fetus. The woman would not be required to look at the ultrasound's images.

The bill includes exceptions from having to get ultrasounds in cases of rape, incest and imminent medical emergencies.

Cases of rape and incest must be reported to the police for those exceptions. About half of rapes are reported, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

The bill would also require doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.

Planned Parenthood announced Monday it would have to close its Appleton clinic if the measure were to become law because no one at that clinic has admitting privileges. Applying for admitting privileges for doctors in Appleton could take months and likely wouldn't happen before the bill takes effect, according to Nicole Safar, the group's policy director.

Planned Parenthood also operates clinics that offer abortions in Madison and Milwaukee. Affiliated Medical Services also operates a clinic that provides abortions in Milwaukee, and doctors at that facility have admitting privileges.

The proposal is part of a national trend. If it's signed into law, Wisconsin would become the ninth state to require women seeking abortions to get ultrasounds and the eighth state to mandate hospital admitting privileges for doctors performing abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive research group that supports abortion rights.

Admitting privilege requirements have threatened to shutter abortion clinics in other states, such as Mississippi.

In September, the clinic applied to about seven nearby hospitals but was rejected by all of them. It has managed to stay open, at least for now, because its challenging the law in court.
 
"Republicans are also seeking other changes to Wisconsin's abortion laws. On Thursday, the Assembly is to take up bills to ban use of taxpayer money to cover abortions in public employees' health insurance plans and outlaw abortions meant to choose the sex of a fetus.

The bill the Senate is considering would mandate that a physician or ultrasound technician display the ultrasound's images and describe to the patient the heartbeat and physical description of the fetus. The woman would not be required to look at the ultrasound's images."


wat. Man, these people are despicable.

Also, David Simons piece on the NSA stuff is brilliant.
 

delirium

Member
So the more I read about this NSA thing, the more I find that the leaker wasn't really telling us the truth; rather hyperbole. I mean, doesn't this kind of undermine his whole message?
 

Tamanon

Banned
So the more I read about this NSA thing, the more I find that the leaker wasn't really telling us the truth; rather hyperbole. I mean, doesn't this kind of undermine his whole message?

I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the leaker who exaggerated, but Greenwald who did so.
 

delirium

Member
I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the leaker who exaggerated, but Greenwald who did so.

Well, I really don't read Greenwald that much. I think he gets way too much mindshare online in the far left. He's a hack in my opinion. Nothing comes out of that man's mouth that isn't hyperbole, but there are direct quotes from Snowden himself. Unless the source of those quotes are from Greenwald, Snowden himself has his hand in the cookie jar of hyperbole.
 
So the more I read about this NSA thing, the more I find that the leaker wasn't really telling us the truth; rather hyperbole. I mean, doesn't this kind of undermine his whole message?
An exaggeration like last year when Slate said that Obama made protesting illegal?

Or how Obama ordered the deaths of four American citizens, when three of them actually just got blown up incidentally when we blew up Al Qaeda camps and the other one was actively a top member of Al Qaeda riding around Yemen in an armed convoy? And that that meant Obama can kill anyone he wants to, whenever?

Exaggerations like those? I would say that's entirely possible.
 

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
Something I don't understand. Snowden was supposedly a low level employee, right? How did he get his hands on such top secret documents? I didn't see his interview, so I don't know if that has been answered, but just curious.

Oh, and I completely called it when I said we should wait till more info comes out since the media has a shitty track record of exaggerating or making things out to be worse than they are.. :/
 

delirium

Member
Something I don't understand. Snowden was supposedly a low level employee, right? How did he get his hands on such top secret documents? I didn't see his interview, so I don't know if that has been answered, but just curious.

Oh, and I completely called it when I said we should wait till more info comes out since the media has a shitty track record of exaggerating or making things out to be worse than they are.. :/
Low level employees can get TS easily. Most CIA/NSA analysts have TS clearance. It's just very compartmentalized, you have information on what you need to do your job, nothing else.
 
So the more I read about this NSA thing, the more I find that the leaker wasn't really telling us the truth; rather hyperbole. I mean, doesn't this kind of undermine his whole message?

It's The Guardian's fault IMO. The overplayed their hand and lost some credibility. They're still better than a lot of news sources, though.
 

delirium

Member
It's The Guardian's fault IMO. The overplayed their hand and lost some credibility. They're still better than a lot of news sources, though.
The problem is they did a lot of damage. They're walking back some of their allegations but in the mind of many, the program is Big Brother x100000 and its no where near that. It will distorts real meaningful discussions that are going needed about privacy and terrorism.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
In your 874757th edition of Dat Outreach™, House Judiciary Committee today passed a bill that would make abortion illegal beyond the first twenty weeks.

My biggest problem with that is that every single Republican on that committee is male: http://judiciary.house.gov/about/members.html

And this is different from any other time they've tried to restrict women's reproductive rights how? Their committee's on this shit are always all men.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
So the more I read about this NSA thing, the more I find that the leaker wasn't really telling us the truth; rather hyperbole. I mean, doesn't this kind of undermine his whole message?

This is how I kind of felt at the beginning, and why I wanted to wait for more details before seriously committing to a position.
 
so, Issa was called out on his bullshit and is now running scared.

WASHINGTON -- One week after he released partial transcripts of interviews with IRS officials involved in the scandal surrounding the targeting of conservative groups, the chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said releasing the full transcripts would be "reckless" and "irresponsible."

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) pushed back Tuesday against calls to put out more information on the committee's investigation into the controversy, sparked after a Treasury Department Inspector General report revealed the IRS had singled out tea party groups applying for nonprofit status for extra scrutiny. Responding specifically to criticism from Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking Democratic member of the committee, Issa said that releasing full interviews conducted with IRS employees would hurt the ongoing investigation.

"Your decision to publicly announce that the investigation should wrap up was irresponsible, but not surprising," said Issa, in a letter to Cummings. "However, your push to release entire transcripts from witness interviews while the investigation remains active was reckless and threatened to undermine the integrity of the Committee’s investigation."

The position is a tenuous one for Issa, who during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union" just over a week ago promised that the full transcripts would be released. On that same program, Issa revealed several partial transcripts that suggested the directive to screen tea party groups came from officials in Washington.

Since then, The Huffington Post has sent four emails asking Issa's office when the full transcripts would be made public. Not one was returned. When asked why Issa's release of a partial transcript was fine but he opposed releasing the transcripts in full, a spokesman for the congressman referred HuffPost to another statement.

“Limited releases of testimony may also serve to empower other witnesses to become whistleblowers and serve to vindicate individuals who have been subjected to criticism or retaliation at the hands of their managers," said Issa, in that statement. "On the other hand, if a full transcript were released, it would serve as a roadmap of the Committee’s investigation."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...igation-transcripts_n_3424166.html?1370992365

Fucking clown.
 
Don't tell me Markey is fucked, guys.
lol?

http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/contests/ma-senator-13-special-election

Wisconsin GOP is so confident in its 49th place job creation that they've moved on to other things like abortion.
well hey, when your unemployment rate is a stunningly low
7.4% 29th in the nation
nowhere to go but up!

i hope walker's pivot to social issues shits on his reelection efforts, considering he's the favorite right now
 

gcubed

Member
I still don't like them collecting "everything" but if this is true, Snowden is lying and fear mongering in that interview about them going back rewriting your life.

Guy also writes for the guardian

the backpat brigade of Greenwald has been silent since most of the information was shown to be disingenuous.
 
the backpat brigade of Greenwald has been silent since most of the information was shown to be disingenuous.

I initially was impressed with Greenwald's reporting (the NSA phone story) as it seemed restrained from bombastic claims. Since he jumped on twitter I've lost respect.

He's not a journalist, he's a blogger and muckraker. Not that its bad to be those things but its different from "reporting," compare his handling of the reaction to the WaPo guy.
 
I still don't like them collecting "everything" but if this is true, Snowden is lying and fear mongering in that interview about them going back rewriting your life.

Guy also writes for the guardian

I don't know why anybody would believe congressional testimony. The only trustworthy information is classified information, at least without additional corroboration. That lesson should have been learned at least by the time the Pentagon Papers leaked.
 
I don't know why anybody would believe congressional testimony. The only trustworthy information is classified information, at least without additional corroboration. That lesson should have been learned at least by the time the Pentagon Papers leaked.
I guess we shouldn't believe testimonies when they don't fit our views
 
The way the GCHQ guys and a bunch of our reps called straight bs leads me to think that they're not too worried about the leaks incriminating them. Feels like Snowden/Greenwald may have been guessing at some of their claims.

We'll see though what happens. This is certainly exciting.
 
I don't know why anybody would believe congressional testimony. The only trustworthy information is classified information, at least without additional corroboration. That lesson should have been learned at least by the time the Pentagon Papers leaked.

"if its true"

And I'm sure you'd use testimony that shows US corruption.
 
The way the GCHQ guys and a bunch of our reps called straight bs leads me to think that they're not too worried about the leaks incriminating them. Feels like Snowden/Greenwald may have been guessing at some of their claims.

We'll see though what happens. This is certainly exciting.

What we saw were internal documents and outlines a court order. How do we know what actually they are collecting? Did they actually collect all those phone records? Did they actually troll through emails.

I have no doubt greenwald stretched some of his claims. Prism as already been walked back in the Washington Post.
 
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...vernment-has-been-hacking-hong-kong-and-china

He's now talking to Chinese reporters and revealing things like this

Snowden said that according to unverified documents seen by the Post, the NSA had been hacking computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland since 2009. None of the documents revealed any information about Chinese military systems, he said.

I’m neither traitor nor hero. I’m an American
One of the targets in the SAR, according to Snowden, was Chinese University and public officials, businesses and students in the city. The documents also point to hacking activity by the NSA against mainland targets.

Snowden believed there had been more than 61,000 NSA hacking operations globally, with hundreds of targets in Hong Kong and on the mainland.

“We hack network backbones – like huge internet routers, basically – that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one,” he said.

This isn't about civil liberties or violating laws, its about his ideology and opposition to US policy. And those documents that the Post and the guardian refused to publish? Guess whose hands they are in? The Chinese.

Guy isn't a hero in the slightest.
 
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' views of former president George W. Bush have improved, with 49% now viewing him favorably and 46% unfavorably. That is the first time since 2005 that opinions of him have been more positive than negative.

George W. Bush's favorable rating is more positive now among all party groups than it was in March 2009, when it dipped to 35% overall. Currently, 84% of Republicans, 46% of independents, and 24% of Democrats have a favorable view of Bush, each up more than 10 points since 2009.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/163022/former-president-george-bush-image-ratings-improve.aspx

:(
 

Tamanon

Banned
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...vernment-has-been-hacking-hong-kong-and-china

He's now talking to Chinese reporters and revealing things like this



This isn't about civil liberties or violating laws, its about his ideology and opposition to US policy. And those documents that the Post and the guardian refused to publish? Guess whose hands they are in? The Chinese.

Guy isn't a hero in the slightest.

Wait, now we're supposed to not hack other countries also? What's the point any more!? :p
 

Could this just be time? Futher away things get the less people remember? It's not like the last 4 years has been a cake walk for us either.

Part of it could be the GOP blaming the economey on Bams too even though he's just trying to pick up Bush's mess.

Pretty depressing either way though. Also, this has to be a recent thing. I remember Romney trying to distance himself from Bush policy as much as possible during the debates becayse he was still so caustic.
 
Wait, now we're supposed to not hack other countries also? What's the point any more!? :p

Its the whole globalism run amok, "we're all one people," Marxists, anti-nationality stuff that anonymous reddit and 4chan spew. Its on gaf too.

It has no place in IR.

These people are the anarchists (historical) of the 21st century. These leak are the new propaganda of the deed, they don't like the current order and would like to see it completely upended.


He's not running. What does it matter?

Obama will get more popular after he leaves.
 
Wait, now we're supposed to not hack other countries also? What's the point any more!? :p

His point was that the US has claimed that the difference between it and China is that the US limits its spying to governmental institutions and does not spy on foreign private entities. He is saying that claim is false: "Snowden said he was releasing the information to demonstrate 'the hypocrisy of the US government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries.'"
 
His point was that the US has claimed that the difference between it and China is that the US limits its spying to governmental institutions and does not spy on foreign private entities. He is saying that claim is false: "Snowden said he was releasing the information to demonstrate 'the hypocrisy of the US government when it claims that it does not target civilian infrastructure, unlike its adversaries.'"

What purpose for the US public does that serve? How is that a "public good" And if you answer its good for the "world public." Than your illustrating the point that kind of leak is treasonous "giving of aid and comfort to the enemy".

And its absurd to compare the US's actions to that of China on this issue. It's bullshit false equivalence.
Matters for Jeb's chances, I'd say. He wins or loses on the Bush brand.

Jebs bigger problem is the GOP. Not bush. I don't think jeb is going to run anyways
 
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