Keep An Eye On HB1

All of you Georgia bloggers who are keeping an eye on our current legislative process, you lucky dogs, please let me know if there's any news about our HB1's, hopefully lack of, progress/news in the Legislature. Even though I blogged my impressions about an initial hearing for HB1, I don't follow politics as much as I do culture and media issues, so often Georgia's wide world of psycho political items can slip through my cracks, even pro-choice issues. So I need some backup in the Gold Toilet Bowl Dome.

Emily Bazelon, a Slate.com editor and indie reporter who wrote this week's key NYTimes Magazine cover story: Is There A Post-Abortion Syndrome?, has expressed interest in our lovely little HB1 and its (the bill) ties to the Justice Foundation. (The Justice Foundation, and the things they do, was critical to her cover story.) So help me help her stay on top of this bill. Thanks!

Nobody Does It Better

No one can keep women in a perpetual state of hysteria better than our Dear Lord Jesus Christ. Ever since He stepped foot on the planet, women have been doing really odd things to themselves in His name.

The latest I-Love-Jesus-More-Than-You trend is the "Heritage Doll" - used to frame the "post-abortion syndrome" debate and to manipulate the most emotionally vulnerable women in our society: those in prison.

I can't decide who's committing the biggest sin here: the "Heritage Doll" maker, Rhonda Arias, 0r the lawmakers and officials who allow her access to the penal system to let her ply her vile, sick trade in hysteria and manipulation. From today's NYTimes Magazine cover story, Is There A Post-Abortion Syndrome?:

She (Arias) instructed the women (in prison) to stand up, speak in memory of their lost babies and take their heritage dolls to the altar. The women stood one by one. They clutched their dolls and said they were sorry. They imagined a baby with his father’s dimple or curly hair or green eyes. One woman mentioned a child who had been born and taken into state custody, and the woman who kissed the pictures of her daughters sent them her love. For the most part, though, the messy mothering of living children — and the reality of their lives outside the prison — did not intrude on the ceremony. The women focused on mourning the elusive, innocent loss represented by the dolls. They gave them fairy-tale names: Sarah Jewell, Angel Pillow, Xavier Dante. At a side table, Kimbrough and Harper wrote the names on certificates for children “expected to be born.” The documents promised, “By virtue of being conceived, the spirit of this child lives eternally with Jesus and in the heart and the mind of the mother, now and forevermore.”

Ahhh... the eternal comedy of abortion morality issues. And we haven't even gotten to the funny political gig yet! Someone at the NYT online edition has a delightful sense of humor though. They put a feature on Sarah Silverman just across from the shot of the heritage doll. I chortled long time over that. But only when my anger and disgust subsided.

Jesus Kept Me From Losing It

So I wander down to the Gold Dome this morning, the Coverdale Building actually, to see some gen-u-ine legislation in action for the first time in my life. What was going on was a public hearing on HB1, see post below, a bill written to completely ban abortion in Georgia.


What really was going on in Room 606 was a freakin' Jesus rally! An arms-in-the-air, bad music playin', Jesus worshipping prayer rally by fundamentalist Christian righties, masked as a legislative hearing of course.

Oh hon, believe me when I tell you there were tears and testimony and testifying and fiery God-like righteousness everywhere you looked. Pure theocracy-in-action, certainly not democracy.


For a moment there, I thought the righty goons were gonna all crawl along on their knees towards the altar, only there was no altar in this room, just the State Seal of Jesus Camp, I mean Georgia.

My new hero, Bernita from Blog For Democracy, blogged the whole freak show live. I was too stunned to do much except take a few of the shots you see here, then pray for the strength to keep my mouth shut and not get arrested by blurting out things like, "Oh God, just free us from these total fucktards!!!!"


We all need to now get on our knees and pray that HB1 never makes it out of committee.

FYI, the stack of documents in the above shot is "testimony" taken by women who have had abortions. (See Bernita for more on that nonsense.) The docs should now include blog entries written by women subjected to the horror of democracy being thrashed into theocracy by the psycho Christian Right.

The three shot below the seal is of the men (the people actually elected to public office by other people) who wrote and support this bill designed just for a woman's body.

I gotta go have a shot of something now. Just like Bernita. (You had to have been there. You'd be drinking now too, trust me.)

Pro-Choice Voices Need Hearing

Because the stupid people who want control of our most vital body parts are at it again. Honestly, what planet do these anti-choicers come from? Planet Georgia! Select members of the Georgia Legislature have once again taken it upon themselves to decide for us women folk what we will or will not do with our uteri. (Like that'll ever really happen.)

House Bill #1 kicks off the '07 session with a special anti-choice rally this Tuesday to urge the Legislature to pass the abortion ban, or HB1.

According to NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia:

Tuesday, January 9, 2007, from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm (in room 606 of the Coverdale Building), the American Life League and Rep. Bobby Franklin (sponsor of HB1, the near-total abortion ban) plan to hold a "public hearing" (a rally) pushing an abortion ban similar to the one defeated by voters in South Dakota last year.

We will not lose this fight for our reproductive health!

NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia wants you to know what anti-choice forces are doing and that we won't let their outrageous efforts go unnoticed.

We will be at the rally to observe and then inform our members and the media about these anti-choice activities that threaten our reproductive freedom.

Call 404-875-6338 for more details about this public hearing.

Please join us at the Coverdale Building anytime from 10am-3pm Tuesday the 9th, if you can, to counter this fundamentalist-driven, (some other person's) religion-based nonsensical babble they call legislation in this backasswards state. And believe you me, you'll need a smoke and a martini after wading through the fucktard drivel of HB1.

Abort That

How do you silence a blowhard talk show host? Tell him you had an abortion! If he responds at all, chances are it will be with total fucktard idiocy, as in this case. One day men will de-volve themselves right off of this planet, mark my word. From Stephanie Kline's blog:

Obviously, he (talk show host) didn't hear me. "What's your baby daddy up to these days?" (asked the talk show host.)

"I don't have a baby daddy. When I discovered my husband was off running around town with another woman while I was pregnant, I had an abortion and a divorce. That's what the book is about, moving on when you find yourself in a situation you'd never imagined." DEAD AIR. He said nothing. I nearly said, "Hello?" to check if anyone was on the other end of the phone.

After a really long silence, he responded, "I don't even know what to say to that." I'd shocked the shock-jock. I hadn't meant to. It's not my fault he didn't bother to skim Straight Up And Dirty before plugging it on his show. Instead, he spent a good portion of air time talking about how much he favors a Grey Goose Dirty Martini.

Then after more silent reflection, he added, "Did you know abortions can affect future pregnancies?" He said this to punish me, somehow. He wanted to make it clear that what I did was wrong, and that I would be punished. He didn't discuss God or his beliefs, but I could tell, in the response he managed to muster, his God punished people.

It was an ignorant statement, assuming abortions lead to problems sometime down the line. "Well mine is progressing just fine," I responded. Fuck you very much.

Order a copy of Straight Up And Dirty in the meantime. Praise the Lord and pass the martinis and a copy of this book. Ha. There are a few total fucktards in this town, and elsewhere, who'd be real nervous real quick if I ever decided to blog as honestly as Ms. Klein.