GOP Ices Sanford Campaign | Judge Keeps Jackson Abortion Clinic Open | Teen Sex Primarily Uses Contraception

1. GOP ices Sanford Campaign. The House GOP’s campaign committee announced Wednesday that it will no longer have any involvement in the comeback bid for Congress from former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford.

The decision comes after yesterday’s news that Jenny Sanford, the former governor’s ex-wife, has accused him of trespassing at her home more than once and in violation of their divorce settlement. The couple is due in court two days after a special House election on May 7 between Sanford and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Colbert Busch. Busch is a businesswoman and older sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, who is helping her campaign.

The couple divorced in 2010 after Mark Sanford admitted to having an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina. The then governor disappeared for days, leaving his wife, staff and voters clueless as to his whereabouts. Sanford is now engaged to Maria Belen Chapur. Jenny Sanford has custody of the couple four sons.

“I am doing my best not to get in the way of his race,” Jenny Sanford told the AP this week about her ex-husband’s race. “I want him to sink or swim on his own. For the sake of my children, I’m trying my best not to get in the way, but he makes things difficult for me when he does things like trespassing.”

2. Judge keeps Jackson abortion clinic open. The Jackson Free Press reports that a celebratory mood turned quickly to panic yesterday at the Jackson Women’s Health Organization “when a young bearded man wearing a military-style waist pack entered the abortion clinic unescorted and without an appointment.” After putting his hands in the air, proclaiming that he was unarmed, a police officer escorted him out of the clinic.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III halted a process that seemed likely to close JWHO, making Mississippi the first state without an abortion clinic. Jordan ruled that the state cannot close the clinic before the conclusion of a pending federal lawsuit over a 2012 state law requiring all abortion doctors to obtain admitting privileges from a local hospital.

The Republican-appointed judge Jordan said that Mississippi was attempting to create a patchwork of law in which constitutional women’s rights apply in some states and not others. JWHO is owned by Diane Derzis, who finds herself engaged in a similar lawsuit in the state of Alabama.

Leslie Hanks, a pro-life demonstrator from Colorado, says she recently helped put Personhood on the ballot for the fourth time in Mississippi.

3. CA Gay Conversion Ban in Court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is hearing arguments for and against a new California law banning gay ‘conversion therapy’ for minors. The new law which is the first of its kind in America, bars licensed therapists from trying to change the sexual orientation of people under the age of 18.

A small group of therapists — frequently conservative Christians — challenge scientists, arguing that reparative therapy intervenes where gender confusion is caused by childhood trauma, resulting in reshaping one’s sexual orientation.

Large numbers of gay men say they suffered deep harm over reparative counseling that left them guilt-ridden and anguished.

The lawsuits to be argued on Wednesday were brought by two conservative legal groups, the Pacific Justice Institute, based in Sacramento, and Liberty Counsel, which is affiliated with Liberty University in Virginia, reports the New York Times.

The state of California’s brief argues that the law “prohibits licensed mental health professionals from treating children and teenagers with a discredited, ineffective, and unsafe therapy in a misguided effort to change their sexual orientation.” 

Similar bills have been introduced in New Jersey and Massachusetts.

4. Women = ‘vaginas’. New Hampshire state rep Peter Hansen is under severe criticism after referring to women as ‘vaginas’in an email sent on New Hampshire House internal email. Hansen was arguing with Republican Rep Steve Vaillancourt, who defended retreating from violence, rather than confronting the force with force. Hansen said that his colleague hadn’t considered the case of women and children. Choosing not to use those words, Hansen initially wrote:

‘What could possibly be missing from those factual tales of successful retreat in VT, Germany, and the bowels of Amsterdam? Why children and vagina’s [sic] of course,’ he wrote. 

The comments were imemdiately picked up by Democrat State Rep Rick Walrous, who wrote: ‘Are you really using ‘vaginas’ as a crude catch-all for women? Really? he wrote.

‘Please think before you send out such offensive language on the legislative listserve.’

Local political blogger Susan the Bruce reported the exchange adding ‘That the representative chose to describe women as ‘vagina’s’ is certainly an affront to half the population. That he failed to properly pluralize the word adds insult to idiocy.’

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5. Teen Sex Survey. “Policymakers and the media often sensationalize teen sexual behavior, suggesting that adolescents as young as 10 or 11 are increasingly sexually active,” writes lead author Lawrence Finer, about his new study of sexual activity in America’s youngest adolescents. “But the data just don’t support that concern. Rather, we are seeing teens waiting longer to have sex, using contraceptives more frequently when they start having sex, and being less likely to become pregnant than their peers of past decades.”

Among adolescents were did report having sex said that it was coerced. Sixty-two percent of females who had sex by age 10 said it was coerced, as did 50% of those who experienced sex by age 11.

Contraceptive use is common among teens, according to the study, with use among girls as young as 15 similar to that of older teens. More than 80% of 16-year-olds used a method at first sex. A year after having first sex, 95% of those teens had used contraceptives. via Guttmacher Institute

Related: 2008 State-Level Teen Pregnancy Data Now Available. (Yes, 5 yrs. later)

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Rep Allyson Declares PA Governor Run | Republicans Say Americans Have No Stake In Educating Any Kids But Their Own

French Roast News

Anne is reading …

FEMEN Strikes Again

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a bad day with the ladies yesterday. Standing next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin was chastised with Merkel’s government’s disapproval of the way nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are treated by the Kremlin. The New York Times writes that Merkel’s comments make her the first Western leader to have confronted Putin publicly on this issue.

Two of Germany’s most important and respected foundations have been searched by Russian police.

“I made it clear that a vibrant civil society can only exist when the individual organizations can work without fear or concern,” Merkel said.

To emphasize the growing frustration with Russia’s crackdown on free expression, a group of female protesters bared their breasts while shouting that the Russian leader was a ‘dictator’. 

The well-known, principled activist group Femen posted a picture of the ‘sextremist’ attack on the group’s Facebook page at 10.00 am GMT. The same post said that activists had been shouting “F*ck you dictator!”. The message written- in Russian- across the back of the single topless activist visible, reads: “F*ck off Putin!”. The women were two Germans, two Ukrainians and a Russian. 

(Read: FEMEN & SlutWalks: Body Politics Is On The Move)

The Kremlin has called for the women to be punished as Putin traveled on to The Netherlands, where rainbow flags were flying in protest against a bill pending in the Russian Parliament that would make public events and the dissemination of information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities subject to fines up to $16,000. The Netherlands legalized same-sex marriage over a decade ago. German politicians have also criticized the bill. 

“Thank god, the gays didn’t strip naked here,” Putin joked at a press conference in Amsterdam. 

Melissa Harris-Perry’s Hot Seat

Are Kids Private Property?

MSNBC chost Melissa Harris-Perry’s recent Lean Forward ad for MSNBC has caused a dust up among Republican right-wing pundits. 

If you thought having a civic interest in properly educating America’s children so that our kids are properly prepared to continue America’s legacy as strong nation in the future, you are probably a communist, according to right-wing pundits like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. If you are a single professional believing that you have a civic obligation to contribute to the educating of America’s kids, you are probably targeting the destruction of America.

So call me a communist, but I am simply stunned by the right’s outrage over Harris-Perry’s comments. 

Glenn Beck told listeners that the Tulane University teacher’s comments reveal the United Nations’ plans to use mind control to establish a communist dictatorship in America. Beck also asserts that the Obama administration is using school testing standards for ‘leftist indoctrination.’ 

Beck doesn’t mention that these testing standards were introduced by the Bush Administration, not Obama, as part of Bush’s No Child Left Behind strategy. 

Sarah Palin tweeted that Harris-Perry’s remarks were ‘Unflippingbelievable’.

The National Catholic Register writes in the headline Proof that Progressives Hate Catholic Schools and Homeschooling Families:

“The media and the public school systems are the greatest vehicles of indoctrination for the progressive worldview. How long do you think they’re going to be ok with homeschoolers? How long will they be ok with Catholic schools filling kids heads with hate about traditional marriage and life beginning at conception? Not too much longer, right?”

Call me dumbfounded. Christianity embraces Aristotle as a founder of Western thought and principles. Note that Aristotle expunged women from being participants in civic society. But all free men brought a collectivist mentality to the concept of civic engagement in creating a thriving society. 

Rep. Allyson Schwartz Files

Rep. Allyson Schwartz will run for governor of Pennsylvania against Republican incumbent Tom Corbett in 2014.US Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) will run for governor of Pennsylvania against Republican incumbent Tom Corbett in 2014. 

Schwartz has established a state campaign committee, “Pennsylvania for Allyson,” which will allow her to raise money for her run and transfer the $3.1 million she’s already amassed from her Congressional account to the new one.

Like Alysson Schwartz Facebook page. 

“I am running because I can’t sit on the sidelines when I have a proven track record of getting results on the issues that matter — growing jobs in the private sector, investing in education, and making the tough choices on budget issues,” Schwartz said in a statement.  “That’s what our campaign will be about.”

Keystone Research Center wrote in July 2012: “In 2010, Pennsylvania ranked 12th out of the 50 states in job growth by percentage, but the state’s ranking has dropped to 36th over the past year (May 2011-May 2012) and 39th over the past six months (December 2011-May 2012), just as state budget cuts have begun to take a toll on the economy.”

The report compares Pennsylvania’s policies under Corbett to those of next-door neighbor New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie. In New Jersey, public-sector job growth has fueled New Jersey’s resurgence, lifting if from 49th in 2010 to 13th between May 2011 and May 2012.

Allyson Schwartz will not run unopposed for the Democratic nomination to beat Corbett, who is one of the most unpopular governor’s in America. Her most viable challenger presently is wealthy York businessman Tom Wolf, who announced he will put $10 million of his own money and raise another $5 million into the campaign. 

Emily’s List is gearing up in a major way to support Schwartz. “Not only would she make history as Pennsylvania’s first female governor, she would provide a clear contrast to Gov. Corbett, who has led a crusade against women and families while putting job-creation on the back burner,” said Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List.

Gay Humanist James McGreevey on Universal Redemption in HBO's 'Fall to Grace' by Alexandra Pelosi

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James McGreevey, This Side of Redemption New York Times

As it happens, this $1.4 million retreat is home to one of Plainfield’s — if not New Jersey’s — most notable couples. James McGreevey is best known as the self-described “gay American” who, threatened with blackmail by a lover whom he’d placed on the state payroll, resigned as New Jersey’s governor in 2004. His partner, Mark O’Donnell, is an Australian financier with a taste for modern art and adventure travel.

Bunnies or no, Easter is about the Passion of Christ in this household. Once a Catholic weighted with shame over his homosexuality, Mr. McGreevey, 55, has made his way back to God. After he stepped down in Trenton, the shock sent him for a month to the Meadows, a rehabilitation center in Arizona. Relentlessly excavating his heart and soul, he later went into psychotherapy and resurrected the calling he said he had felt since he was an altar boy in Carteret, N.J.

Now an Episcopalian with a degree in divinity from the General Theological Seminary, he’s embracing the Lord’s work with the same fervor with which he once pursued politics. Though the Newark diocese denied his bid for the priesthood last year, inciting another painful round of headlines about his past, he says he is at peace.

Anne here, on my to Lancaster, to tend our beautiful new shops at Building Character. I’m struck by this startingly beautiful article about former governor Jim McGreevey and his life after his resignation as governor of New Jersey.

The timing of the article during the Easter season and after two days of US Supreme Court hearings on gay marriage is simply perfect. 

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan stunned millions yesterday when she read aloud from the 1996 Report to Congress that accompanied the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act known as DOMA. The Atlantic shares the story. 

Individual rights are under attack in America from the right-wing who seeks to insure that America remains a purely Christian nation. Many seek a theocracy for America, no different thaa Iran’s — except that it is Christian. Gay rights and women’s rights are the clear target the right-wing who seek to govern both group according to a Biblical code. This is not the vision of America that most of its citizens embrace. 

Noted Kagan: “We have a whole series of cases which suggest the following … that when Congress targets a group that is not everybody’s favorite group in the world, that we look at those cases with some —­ even if they’re not suspect — with some rigor to say, do we really think that Congress was doing this for uniformity reasons, or do we think that Congress’s judgment was infected by dislike, by fear, by animus, and so forth? I guess the question that this statute raises, this statute that does something that’s really never been done before, is whether that sends up a pretty good red flag that that’s what was going on.”

McGreevey and his partner Mark O’Donnell will be featured in a HBO documentary tonight March 28 on HBO in Alexandra Pelosi’s HBO documentary ‘Fall to Grace’.  In an equally lovely twist, Alexandra Pelosi is House Minority Speaker and champion of human rights Nancy Pelosi’s daughter.