Why The “Conscience Clause” for Pharmacists is so Bogus

ArchPundit April 13, 2006 1 Comment

The people pushing for the conscience clause and attacking Blagojevich for his order that pharmacies which stock contraceptives actually dispense what they sell upon presentation of a legal and safe prescription are trying to misrepresent the issue as being about abortion. It is not. Plan B is the primary pharmaceutical that is causing the controversy with many trying to claim it causes an abortion. It no more does that than normal birth control pills.

For a basic bit on the science, see PZ Myers’ simple, but accurate description of how Plan B works. .

This is an issue on which we can completely ignore any assertion that life begins at fertilization (which I personally find absurd), because it’s irrelevant: fertilization doesn’t take place. No zygote, no fetus, no embryo, no babies. The claim that this argument is about the life of a baby is null and void, and the opposition to Plan B makes it glaringly, brilliantly clear that this isn’t about the sanctity of life at all: it’s all about controlling a woman’s ovaries. She will not be allowed to tamper with the timing of ovulation.

Remember, if a *pharmacy* doesn’t want to carry contraceptives, it does not have to. However, if a *pharmacy* does carry contraceptives, the *pharmacy* has to dispense those contraceptives upon presentation of a legal and safe prescription. If the individual pharmacist wants an accomodation for some reason, that is between the pharmacist and the pharmacy.

The arguments these pharmacists and their backers are making about Plan B causing abortions is scientifically unsound and should call into question their competence as pharmacists.

I believe Judy backs the order as well so this isn’t a big issue between candidates, but it is essential to understand that many who are pushing this agenda aren’t arguing about abortion, but about a woman’s access to contraception. That is very scary.

I have many, many complaints with this Governor, but let me also point out this issue which he has been clear, has not grandstanded, and simply did what was right.

*Quick point* in comments you want to spell anything like pharmacy as ph*rmacy to get around the spam filters*

Why Bush?

ArchPundit April 13, 2006 2 Comments

Topinka is going to appear with Bush at a fundraiser he is headlining for her–and while there is some puzzlement since Bush is one of the few people to consistently make Blagojevich look popular even on the Guv’s worst days, think about her first problem—securing the base.

While I don’t think the primary was the worst ever, it was one in which Judy was portrayed as a liberal and even to the left of Blagojevich at times. How do you cure that? Well, one way is to tack right, but Blagojevich is ready for that with proposals and press releases and commercials. The other way is to run to the Gold Standard of conservative Republicans and that is George Bush.

While Bush has consistently been unpopular in Illinois, he has 1/3 of voters who support him, apparently no matter what he does and appearing with him and having his blessing will help mend those fears. It also gives Blagojevich a target, but not a fatal one–though, as I’ve said, Blagojevich wants nothing more than to turn this into a race against George Bush and Washington Republicans.

Add George Ryan in there and a repackaging of the Pay to Play Polka commercial and that’s a campaign. That doesn’t mean he’ll win, but it is a strong message if well executed in Illinois.

One Way or Another, It’s a Problem

ArchPundit April 6, 2006 No Comments

This follows up on the comments below though I hadn’t read the article yet. The Pantagraph blasts the Senate Democrats for confirming Tim Martin for the second half as head of IDOT. They are right–perhaps confirming him might be reasonable, but grilling him harder and getting firm committments to improve performance is what an independent Legislative Branch is supposed to do.

The hyperpartisanship of the last few years can probably be argued back to Isaac and Ishmail, but the problem is that few are willing to point out problems on their own side. The series of Holland Audits have put this to the test for many Democrats. Holland has issued a series of blistering reports on the Blagojevich administration, some of which have been referred for criminal prosecution.

The problem is a basic accounting problem that is simply unacceptable:

All the auditor said was that Martin’s office had not documented $700,000 in spending and didn’t dispute his findings when given the opportunity. Holland thought it serious enough to turn the matter over to state and federal investigators.

In a meeting with some senators before his confirmation, Martin said the questionable expenses were closer to $100,000.

Whether its $100,000 or $700,000, there are still questionable expenses. And senators didn’t bother clearing up the matter before taking an ill-advised vote.

Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, called for the vote. He said it was inappropriate to raise the audit issue during a confirmation vote. How ridiculous. What was inappropriate was for senators to confirm Martin before they know what is going on.

If the $700,000 in undocumented spending wasn’t enough, senators also had to be aware of the March audit from Holland’s office criticizing management within IDOT’s Division of Traffic Safety.

You can also take a look at Rich’s post on standardized tests not being delivered on time.

These are issues of basic competence and the breadth of them tell me more that it’s about incompetence and less about corruption–though I’m open to clear evidence. For those of us who want to support a Democratic Governor and more importantly, All Kids and universal access to quality early childhood education, we need to see some adult supervision. The Governor is good at the politics in general, but his inability to manage effectively is a huge problem. If it isn’t corrected, why should someone believe he can institute an effective statewide early childhood education plan?

Madigan insisted on Memorandums of Understanding. That’s unheard of from the same party. While Jones and the Governor has had a generally better relationship, everyone understands the Governor’s attention span isn’t so good when it comes to managing. That’s not always a horrible thing–if one hires a staff that can compensate for his particular strengths and weaknesses. Early on, that clearly wasn’t the case, whether the administration is taking the problems to heart or not and making improvements is a something it has to sell to the voters and the best way to do that would be to demonstrate some seriousness to actual management.

For an incumbent, his numbers are bad, but not unsurvivable. I expect much of the election to turn on wedge issues and it’ll probably be incredibly negative. There are some interesting stats from recent poll Rich posted that I’ll go into.

Pharmacy Rule Minus Blagojevich

ArchPundit March 27, 2006 2 Comments

Even more popular. (pdf)

Lots of worrisome overall results, but the Governor’s rule comes out looking well.

Pharmacists should not be able to refuse 77%
Pharmacists should be able to refuse 19%
Not Sure/No Opinion 3%

Other interesting issues
Tax Dollars for Embryonic Stem Cell Research
Approve 50%
Disapprove 40%
No Opinion/Not Sure 10%

Smoking Ban Statewide
Favor 58%
Oppose 38%

Details are in the report for MOE and specific questions.

Via Bill Baar at Illinoize

New Survey USA Numbers

ArchPundit March 21, 2006 No Comments

The Governor is still below 50% at 44% approval and 52% approval. Those are bad numbers, but they are part of a steady trend upwards.

For today, the important numbers are 60% Democratic approval, 36% Disapproval. That might well mirror his results today.

Another interesting set is that for pro choice individuals with a 49% approval and 47% disapproval. This is why the choice of Republican nominees is so critical to him—if it goes to Brady or to Oberweis he gets a huge jump on them by solidifying that group. They may not like him, but they’ll vote for him .

Gubernatorial Primary

ArchPundit March 13, 2006 5 Comments

Goobernatorial Primary is what I was thinking of labeling this.

Look, the Governor is a pain the ass. He’s like Al Gore in many ways in that he seems to want to piss me off everyday just to see what it would take to make me vote against him. Let’s be real though and deal with the current situation, his numbers are far better than Bob Holden when Holden lost the primary to Claire McCaskill. And Claire didn’t sound like Peter Brady–she has a deeper, more consistent voice. I can complain all I want about the Governor. And I will.

But ultimately the primary that matters is the Republican primary where we have four candidates (Andy Martin doesn’t count)

Ron Gidwitz who is a slumlord and the media is giving him a pass on the issues surrounding Evergreen Terrace.

Bill Brady who frighteningly enough has best kept his dignity, but doesn’t have the ability to win given his finances at this point.

Uberweis who every Blagojevich supporter has to be thinking about pulling a Republican ballot for.

Judy—not perfect, but a reasonable enough candidate to make me think about which party I’d vote for. Let’s face it, Kovarik’s story is lame, but, dude, Judy doesn’t have better taste than that? Jeeeshhh…

I suppose you can vote for Eisendrath as a protest vote and hell I might do it if I voted in Illinois–I didn’t vote for President in 1996 over welfare reform (but I did vote, I just didn’t cast a vote for Clinton). The reality for Democrats is that Rod Blagojevich is going to stand for reelection. He’s a flawed candidate and perhaps more importantly, an annoying candidate.

After the 21st the question is going to come down to what the Republicans do. If they vote for anyone besides Judy, it’s quite clear that a

1) Slumlord
2) Right wing downstate Senator who is none too bright
3) a right wing ass who sold his soul to the devil (AKA Jack Roeser)

means a vote for Blagojevich.

If Judy is the nominee, it’s more complex. Is she going to find a way to support an All Kids type proposal? So far no, but let’s see in the general

How will she address school funding?

Will she strongly back the pharmacy rule (so far she has)

Will she support reasonable immigration reform instead of pandering to Oberweis’ clan?

Is Rod going to avoid legal trouble?

Is Rod going to turn into annoying Rod again (He’s been on good behavior lately).

You can vote for Blagojevich or for Eisendrath. I’ll suggest whatever makes you feel best. That said, the real questions will be begun or ended on March 21st by the Republicans.

The Disadvantages of Being Down South

ArchPundit March 13, 2006 2 Comments

I had no idea how big this would be–though neither did many in Chicago. Worse, the Governor is, again, making me praise him–it’s some sort of plot.

Actually, I do believe that in one sense, but it doesn’t involve angry people on the internet. The best thing you can do right now from a Team Blagojevich vantage point is activate the Oberweis anti-immigration supporters to get them to the polls on election day. It’s good policy meets good politics. It also makes Judy take a stand which puts her in a sticky position–though I think it’s safe to say Oberweis won’t be running any immigration commercials in the primary.

This was huge and make no mistake about it–in Illinois, a strong anti-immigration campaign isn’t going anywere.

Biting the Heads off Chickens

ArchPundit March 10, 2006 1 Comment

Rich has a classic up in his first monthly Sun-Times column. Funniest damn thing I’ve read in a long time.

In Oberweis’ defense, he’s not Alan Keyes. However, he’s good enough to give me stuff for the next six months or so.

Handicapping this race in any normal environment, I have to give the advantage to Judy and Joe as a team. That said, given the ability of the Republican Party to have spasms of insanity, I’ll say the race is about even. That’s good for me, but bad for the state. The Governor needs a tough race. It’ll hold his feet to the fire at a minimum and he and his administration need that sort of pressure to force them to get their act together.

What if Oberweis is the nominee? Blagojevich is going to Disneyland.

And I’m getting good material.

UPDATE: As Rich points out, that’s biting the heads of kittens not chickens. I must have Ozzy on the brain.

Nation of Islam and Dems

ArchPundit March 8, 2006 No Comments

Why the hell do any Dems worry about this right wing nuthouse of an organization? It’s essentially a fundamentalist version of Islam crossed with a cult with a good dab of social conservatism, a platter of homophobia, a nice touch of racism, and finally a healthy scoop of anti-semitism all mixed together.

Eric has the most recent rant by Farakhan:

These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength. ? It?s the wicked Jews, false Jews that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic.

Does everyone get that is essentially referring to Jews like Ari Emanuel, Rahm’s brother?

And they are homophobic dammit! Let ’em go join IFI–they have more in common with them the Democratic Party. IFI runs all sorts of fun stuff like bin Laden has a point…

They’d fit in well in the Catholic Leage. I bet Farakhan and Bill Donohue would be peas in a pod.

WILLIAM DONAHUE, PRESIDENT, CATHOLIC LEAGUE: I spoke to Mel a couple of weeks ago about this. And I don?t think it really matters a whole lot to him. It certainly doesn?t matter to me. We?ve already won.

Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It?s not a secret, OK? And I?m not afraid to say it. That?s why they hate this movie. It?s about Jesus Christ, and it?s about truth. It?s about the messiah.

Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common. But you know what? The culture war has been ongoing for a long time. Their side has lost.

You have got secular Jews. You have got embittered ex-Catholics, including a lot of ex-Catholic priests who hate the Catholic Church, wacko Protestants in the same group, and these people are in the margins. Frankly, Michael Moore represents a cult movie. Mel Gibson represents the mainstream of America.

I bolded the above, if it wasn’t clear.

Let right wing bigots be right wing bigots, just not in my party.

Uniquely Bad Campaign Commercial

ArchPundit February 18, 2006 No Comments

Rich points out the horrendous production problems with the Eisendrath ad quite well.

But there is another quality about it that I couldn’t quite place which transcended bad production into a classic of bad campaign advertisements. It just struck me what it was, but I had to go back to January 14, 1972 when Christopher Knight hit that awkward point in his character’s life when his voice changed–yes, the Brady Bunch sings the “Time to Change” song with Peter Brady croaking out his lyrics in a heartwarming episode about growing up and adjusting to life’s challenges.

Can’t you just see Edwin there with his lines “I love this state” and “It’s just wrong that…”

It’s Peter Brady with his voice changing. Lyrics Available here

And who the hell runs as Edwin and not Ed?