04.06.13
Kansas secedes
The latest extremist tactic in legislatures of red states is to practice nullifications, tactics to supersede settled federal law. It’s white Confederacy strategy without firing on Ft. Sumter.
Kansas lawmakers have approved a a sweeping anti-abortion bill that bans Planned Parenthood from providing sex education materials in schools and defines life as beginning at conception. The 70-page bill passed 90-30 in the Kansas House of Representatives late on Friday night after easily clearing the Senate earlier in the day. Governor Sam Brownback, a Republican who is strongly against abortion, was expected to sign it …
The bill defines life as beginning at fertilization, but does not ban abortion from that point. Several other states are considering so-called “personhood” measures that seek to enshrine life-at-conception in state constitutions. Such measures have failed in the past when put to a referendum, most recently in Mississippi.
And:
TOPEKA — Schools across Kansas could pick teachers or other employees who could carry concealed guns under a measure approved by lawmakers on Friday.
And Kansas-made guns would be immune from federal regulations within state borders under the Second Amendment Protection Act also approved by lawmakers.
Both bills now head to the governor’s desk for his signature …
Fears of the federal government coming to take Kansans’ guns dominated the debate, with Rep. Allan Rothlisberg, R-Grandview Plaza, pointing to the 1993 federal siege on a compound in Waco and the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff and sniper shooting in Idaho as examples of the federal government attacking citizens.
“This state, along with many others, should be sending a message that we’re going to protect our citizens, even from the federal government if need be,??? he said. “If a citizen is protecting themselves against federal agents where they come in for no reason whatsoever, that person should not be prosecuted.???
Rep. Arlen Siegfreid, R-Olathe, said Kansas has to defend its sovereign rights.
Sovereign rights is old white man code for nullification of federal authority. The idiot legislation, which is probably not enforceable or constitutional, puts local and federal law enforcement at odds.
In the Los Angeles Times this morning, one of the women columnists reflects on WhiteManistan’s current attempt to strip women of their reproductive rights:
North Dakota is trying to ban all abortions. Arkansas is trying to ban them after 12 weeks. Mississippi is down to its last abortion clinic.
If you think the abortion question in this country was settled after the Supreme Court made its historic Roe vs. Wade ruling in 1973, you haven’t been paying attention. Tossing Roe was not just a plank of the 2012 Republican Party platform, it was a reliable applause line in every 2012 Republican presidential candidate’s stump speech.
Friday’s federal court ruling in New York that girls of all ages should have unrestricted access to the so-called morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy is an unvarnished victory for reproductive freedom at a time when its opponents are pushing hard in the opposite direction.
U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman’s opinion was a vindication of sorts for folks who have been surprised, and angry, about how the Obama administration has rolled over on a number of reproductive rights issues.
The Times columnist points out that over-the-counter morning after (or Plan B) pills for girls are a very good idea.
Not in WhiteManistan, though, where it’s another example of how the Republican Party desires theocracy, government determined by its religious beliefs and paranoid manias. While it failed at the federal level, it continues through nullification legislation at the state level.
From earlier this week:
Time will render WhiteManistan into dust except in the places that don’t matter. But will it happen fast enough?