Texas
Related: About this forumDan Patrick: It Is A Myth That Planned Parenthood Has Anything To Do With Women's Health
During the Republican Lieutenant Governor primary run-off debate, Dan Patrick said that "it is a myth that Planned Parenthood has anything to do with women's health." Patrick went on to claim that Planned Parenthood makes all of their money by providing abortions.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/08/texas-gop-candidate-its-a-myth-that-planned-parenthood-does-anything-for-womens-health/
This statement is manifestly false and has been proven time and time again by anyone researching truthful and uncorrupted sources regarding the activities of Planned Parenthood in the Lone Star State. Planned Parenthood not only provides preventative healthcare to women and their infants that the Republican-controlled State of Texas doesn't fund, it also provides assistance in helping women to conceive.
This sort of lying is part and parcel of today's Texas Tea-publican operating procedures. Lie, expand, lie again, lie, expand, lie again.
Tens of thousands of less-prosperous Texas women depend on Planned Parenthood clinics for primary healthcare. Texas voters have been given yet another heads-up as to the intentions of right-wing Republican ideologues and politicos regarding public health and the health of less-prosperous Texas women.
Republicans profess outrage when their activities are described as a "war on women." I believe they're especially outraged when they know that such progressive claims are true.
pinto
(106,886 posts)RW tunnel vision in play on this.
Vogon_Glory
(9,118 posts)Planned Parenthood also provides a wide range of services here in Texas, despite the budget cuts pushed through by anti-abortion fanatics, right-wing ideologues, and Tea-publican opportunists.
I have reached the point that whenever a Texas Republican politico bloviates on just about anything, I wonder whether they're lying, and by how much.
Voter suppression is one thing, apathy is far more dangerous. One of the main reasons that Republicans are still so powerful here in Texas because so many potential voters just don't bother to vote, particularly Texas Hispanics. It is most unfortunate that so many Texans choose to be politically apathetic. If, for example Texas Hispanics were to go to the polls in the same percentages as their Golden State counterparts, the Texas Republican Party's grip on statewide offices would be broken.
pinto
(106,886 posts)I'm watching this one a bit. Brother is a big supporter. I even donated a few bucks to her campaign from here.
Vogon_Glory
(9,118 posts)I don't know. The pundits already claim that Mrs Greg Abbott can start thinking about how she'd like to redecorate the Texas Governor's Mansion, but I'm of the opinion that the corporate media here is solidly in the pockets of Texas Republicans (State newspapers and broadcasters make the lazy, arrogant, and apathetic US national corporate media establishment look like a pack of tough, hard-hitting and antagonistic investigative reporters).
The Texas Republican Lieutenant Governor's primary run-off is coming up on the 27th. I suspect that David Dewhurst, the establishment Republican candidate, is going to lose to Dan Patrick. I suspect that a Patrick win will not only make the Lieutenant Governor's race more competitive, but it's also going to splash Greg Abbott and convince more voters that he, too, is a right-wing nut case.
I'm taking the Yogi Berra saying to heart: It ain't over 'til it's over!
pinto
(106,886 posts)Yep.
Gothmog
(145,291 posts)Patrick is an idiot and a nut case who is going to scare moderate voters.
Ilsa
(61,695 posts)Everyone needs to realize he'll say anything to get what he wants.
RussBLib
(9,019 posts)If you know the truth and you lie anyway, you are a fucking scumbag. Are you really counting on the ignorance of your voters?
If you don't know the truth, then you are just unwilling to learn the truth.
Neither choice is worthy of high office in the state of Texas, or anywhere for that matter.
Vogon_Glory
(9,118 posts)Last edited Sat May 10, 2014, 08:07 AM - Edit history (1)
Why lie about Planned Parenthood? For two reasons if you're a right-winger.
First, because if you're a right-winger here in Texas, there are no consequences for telling such falsehoods. The zealots and ideologues who have shuffled off more moderate politicians to the sidelines don't bother with fact-checking. Since there are more of them voting in Tea-Publican primaries than more center-leaning (wherever the h#ck the center is these days), the aspiring wing-nut's Republican Party nomination is assured. And since in recent decades turn-out is lower in off-year general elections, there's a very good chance they'll get elected anyway.
The second reason is perhaps even scarier. To many right-wingers' minds, if you say something , that makes it true, regardless of any inconvenient facts. All you gotta do is believe. And, if a Rightie is waving a Bible or drapes himself in a flag, he or she can say just about anything and be given a free pass by other right-wingers.
RussBLib
(9,019 posts)Which just highlights that the Bible is one of the biggest impediments to progress ever created.
Paul Krugman touched on this (blatant lying) at the national level in a recent column.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/05/opinion/krugman-inventing-a-failure.html?emc=edit_ty_20140505&nl=opinion&nlid=55286731&_r=0
Vogon_Glory
(9,118 posts)I must disagree here. As practiced by Jesus of Nazareth and some of the early Christians, the NT is a pretty radical document, even by today's standards. Imagine what would happen if debt forgiveness (The Jubilee) was made into civil law.
The Bible does have a lot of very useful stuff (as well as some bad stuff) on how to live an honorable, upright, decent life. Much of that advice is ignored by the Radical Rightists who wave their Bibles as props and quote selectively instead of reading it the whole way through.
The Radical Right has taken advantage of an existing thought-system called "Christianity" which is an excuse to prop up the wealthy and powerful and to oppress women and the poor. Their so-called "Christianity" is more a means of tribal identification than anything preached by the son of Mary and Joseph.