When you don’t have the support of the voters of Michigan, you have to go around them. Or OVER them. Graphic by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog. Last May, I wrote about how the forced-birth group Right to Life of Michigan, furious that Governor Snyder had vetoed the “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” legislation send to him by the […]

There are two sides to this story Earlier this month, the Detroit News printed an op-ed from an anti-union corporatist group known as the Franklin Center. This Koch brothers’ funded group is nothing more than a propaganda arm of the corporate-funded effort to destroy unions, stop the regulation of corporations whenever possible, and to pass laws that benefit corporate profits […]

You have GOT to be kidding me [Photo credit: Anne Savage, special to Eclectablog] After high school kids in Steubenville, Ohio were busted for repeatedly raping an unconscious 16-year old fellow classmate and then posting their exploits on the internet, a federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, has come up with a solution: teach young rapists how to avoid […]

Fear the tampon

[Photo/meme credit: Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog]

Last night the Texas Senate passed some of the most restrictive anti-Choice legislation in the country. It will reduce the number of clinics where Texas women can obtain a safe and LEGAL abortion to just five for the entire state.

At 2:22 p.m. yesterday, Burnt Orange Report reported that women were being forced to discard their tampons and pads before entering the legislative gallery. I’m not kidding.

Much more after the jump including a larger version of the Eclectameme.

All eyes are on Texas

My pals at Burnt Orange Report have published a new website where you can follow all of the goings-on in Texas in the Republican’s War on Women. It’s called STAND WITH TEXAS WOMEN.

Their announcement after the jump.

Can you hear me NOW? Anne and I were up until after 1:00 a.m. watching the livestream of the Texas Senate last night, riveted by the drama and tweeting like mad people. We weren’t alone. At 1:00 a.m. ET, there were nearly 200,000 people watching the livestream. In the end, I ended up with three new heroes yesterday, all of […]

Ms. Davis Goes to Washington

In honor of Texas Democratic Senator Wendy Davis’s filibuster of anti-woman, anti-choice SB 5 being rammed through by Republicans in the Texas legislature:

Click through for a larger version for tweeting, pinning, and loving

Yeah, that’s a panhandle.

Get all the news you need to know about Senator Davis’s 13-hour talking filibuster at the Burnt Orange Report. They’re killing it.

Decline to sign

It’s not often that less than 3% of a state’s citizens get to create new law without having to let the voters decide or the governor to sign it into law but that is exactly what’s about to happen in Michigan. Yesterday, the State Board of Canvasser approved petition language submitted by Right to Life of Michigan that would force women to purchase a separate rider on their insurance to cover abortion. Not just government-subsidized or government provided health insurance. ALL health insurance. I’m calling it the “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” law. If Right to Life can get only 258,088 in 6 months, the measure goes to the legislature which has 40 days to approve it. If they do, and they will, it becomes law. The rest of Michigan voters will have no say in it and it won’t require Governor Snyder’s signature.

It’s clever, for sure. Right to Life Michigan KNOWS they are on the wrong side of this issue from the majority of Michigan residents and from Governor Snyder himself so they have to bypass the normal process and exploit a loophole made possible by a legislature full of conservative extremists put in place by decades of Republican gerrymandering.

More, including video, awaits you after the jump.

Actions speak louder than words

As Michigan Republicans continue their corporatist agenda of eviscerating the middle class, destroying unions, harming public employees and taking women’s rights back to the middle of the last century, Michigan Democrats are proposing important pieces of legislation that solve actual problems.

The first comes from Representatives Jim Townsend, Vicki Barnett, and Andy Schor. They are introducing a package of legislation designed to reduce gun violence in our state and to increase public safety. A separate package of bills will be introduced by State Representatives Gretchen Driskell, Jeff Irwin, Adam Zemke and state Senator Rebekah Warren that will reverse some of the restrictions Republicans have put on women’s health care, educate women about health care options, support rape survivors and address health care inequities women face.

Details after the jump.

“Planned Parenthood is not going anywhere”

President Obama delivered remarks to the national Planned Parenthood conference today. He had been scheduled to deliver them earlier in the week but, instead, delayed his speech to spend more time with the victims of the explosion in West, Texas. When it was announced that his original speech was cancelled, the anti-Choice group Susan B. Anthony List declared victory (as did others).

They were, of course, quite wrong.

Details and a full transcript of his speech after the jump.

Sugarcoating an odious vote doesn’t make it palatable

Earlier this month, I wrote about Congressman Tim Walberg’s lying about his vote against the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). He claimed in an interview that he had, in fact voted FOR the VAWA. As it turns out, he voted for a watered-down House version but voted against the version that eventually passed.

I wrote to my Congressman about this and, this weekend, received a reply. You can read his offensive response after the jump.