Welcome to Tuesday, the day after the Duke-pocalypse. Everyone’s least favorite college basketball team won the NCAA championship tonight. So, is anything else on your mind? Tell us in today’s open thread.
This Saturday, the Church of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan — a once-powerful organization that in 1960 coordinated more than 1,000 simultaneous cross burnings in a frightening display of Southern resistance to desegregation — held a rally in Gloverdale, S.C. It was attended by a single Klansman: state leader Tim Bradley.
Not making an appearance were the 1,000 people from four states that a confederate of Bradley’s had predicted. A promised speech never materialized, only endless rounds of Bradley giving interviews to local reporters while some 100 curiosity-seekers looked on. And the 30 or so Klansmen who Bradley said were headed to the rally that day? Well, they got lost on the way from North Carolina. Bradley kept telling reporters his comrades were about to arrive. But they never did.
Go read at the link to see why this particular KKK group is referred to as the Keystone Kops of the white supremacist movement.
Republicans hate both abortion and contraception. From John Boehner’s website:
Remember when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said last month “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it?” Tucked away inside President Obama’s new health care law is a controversial provision dramatically expanding taxpayer funding of contraceptives and the abortion industry. Washington Democrats actually tried to insert this legislative language in the original trillion-dollar ‘stimulus,’ but were forced to remove it under pressure from Republicans and the American people. No matter: Democrats just hid it in their government takeover of health care instead. After all, no liberal special interest giveaway could be spared in order to force this job-killing monstrosity through Congress over the objection of the American people.
Specifically, all states are now free to offer Medicaid “family planning” services – even for those who are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid – without receiving approval from the federal government. This will pave the way for more taxpayer dollars to go to clinics that undercut parents and promote abortions. Inside Health Policy has the details:
“Tucked into the health reform legislation is a controversial provision allowing states to expand coverage for family planning services under Medicaid without a waiver from the federal government. Democrats had tried to insert the language into the Recovery Act in January 2009, but pulled back after it became a lightning rod for GOP attacks … Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) championed the provision in the Senate, adding it to the Senate Finance Committee version of the legislation during mark-up, sources said, and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) pushed for it in the House. … ‘How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that stimulate the economy?’ House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said of the provision, according to Reuters.”
Most normal-thinking people know that contraception is a normal part of women’s health care and that increased access to contraception leads to lower abortion rates.