* The Republican war on women continues. Today Republican Rep. Darrell Issa showed how much he respects women today when he had only male witnesses today talk about birth control.
Katie Halper has a post at TPM about Issa's latest publicity stunt:
House Oversight Committee Chairman, master car thief and generalcriminal Darrell Issa held a hearing today on the Obama administration's new regulation requiring employers and insurers to provide contraception coverage to their employees. Claiming that the the hearing was "not about reproductive rights and contraception but instead about the Administration's actions as they relate to freedom of religion and conscience," Issa barred a progressive woman from testifying, as that would have ruined the all male conservative religious anti-Obama motif he was going for. This led three democrats to walk out of the house (which must have been extra hard, because their panties were all up in a bunch). But I watched the hearing. And here are some thoughts.
1. I guess I should give the GOP props for voting against the Violence Against Women Act, since it would be hypocritical to condemn violence against women, while at the same time advocating ultrasound rape.
2. This is a really beautiful image of small government and big family values.....
Ana Marie Cox has been tweeting at the Issa hearing. Here is a sample of what she had to say:
Witnesses at Issa contraception hearing have benefit of not ever being able to get pregnant! post.ly/5PF0v (via bit.ly/wXTOLk)
The Republicans wonder why they can't seem to attract women voters!
Planned Parenthood has been tweeting about the absurdity of the all male witnesses at the hearing on contraception. Here is a picture from the hearing provided by Planned Parenthood:
RT @thinkprogress: A picture of the witness table at the GOP hearing right now on #birthcontrol for women: pic.twitter.com/mogiV3W0 #issacircus
> The guy with all the money supporting Santorum had this to say about contraception (ABCnews):
....Foster Friess, the 71 year old Wyoming multi-millionaire offered this retort when Mitchell pressed him about whether he agreed with Santorum’s stance on contraception.....
Here’s the full quote:
FRIESS: “I get such a chuckle when these things come out. Here we have millions of our fellow Americans unemployed. We have jihadist camps being set up in central – in Latin America, which Rick has been warning about, and people seem to be so preoccupied with sex. I think it says something about our culture. We maybe need a massive therapy session so we can concentrate on what the real issues are. And this contraceptive thing, my gosh, it’s so — such inexpensive. Back in my days, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly.”
(FYI: Some women pay as much as $100/month or more for birth control pills.)
If you'd like to contact Issa, try this:
PHONE: (202) 225-5074 FAX: (202) 225-3974 or HERE.