I’ve barely written about the Planned Parenthood controversy because I don’t like to dignify these right-wing collective freak-outs, but they’re holding hearings on the Hill today and the New York Times has an article up on the results of an investigation about the allegations that was carried out by Missouri’s Attorney General, Chris Koster.
Planned Parenthood has repeatedly denied the claims made in the videos, which were made surreptitiously by an anti-abortion group called the Center for Medical Progress and released during the summer.
The Missouri attorney general’s report said that it reviewed more than 3,500 pages of documents and conducted multiple interviews of representatives at the clinic and the pathology laboratory. The 47-page report included copies of lab reports and waste-disposal tracking documents.
It said the investigation covered 317 surgical abortions that took place in June, a month that was chosen because the procedures happened before the release of the videos in July.
“As a result of our investigation, the Office of the Missouri Attorney General has found no evidence that PPSLR has engaged in unlawful disposal of fetal organs and tissue,” the report said, using the abbreviation of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region.
I hear the Republican committemembers aren’t having much more success in their show trial hearing.
Unfortunately, in Idiot Nation facts do not matter.
And Repubs comically think they are the “informed”, “hardheaded” and “analytical” ones, when in reality everything floating around in their heads is simply taken on faith. If they sincerely want to believe it, then it’s true.
Results reported in latest MSNBC poll:
The net favorable rating for Planned Parenthood is +16. No major change from the July poll. Don’t know/don’t care dropped from 25% to 22%. Negatives increased from 30% to 31% and positives increased from 46% to 48%. If the GOP wants to go all in on this issue, I say bring it on.
Wish PP had a simpler message. Like:
And look at what else we have – WaPo Conservatives wonder: Why aren’t Planned Parenthood’s poll numbers falling?
Recall what happened when Congress quickly passed legislation and GWB interrupted his vacation to fly back to DC to sign the “protect one brain dead woman” act? It broke through to that large swath of Americans that don’t know/don’t care about most political antics and they then left the GOP holding a minority card. 1992 — the so-called year of the woman — was the delayed response to the GOP attacks on Anita Hill and shoving through another anti-reproductive freedom SCOTUS candidate.
Like almost everything the Republicans have conjured up over the last thirty years, it has nothing to do with what is actually true. They have proven that “evidence” is simply optional, and irrelevant if it turns out to be inconvenient to their ultimate goal.
All one has to do to confirm this is to try and have a conversation with any one of their tribe who spends their days immersed in right-wing talk and punditry, or who stays surrounded by those who do. Failure of that conversation is a certainty. Because the world they inhabit is, by and large, made up. Sometimes there are snippets of actual facts sprinkled around on the ground in their world. Often just enough to give it a very thing veneer of believability. But its foundation is constructed mostly of fantasy or plain lies.
So it is never about finding out what is true and what is false. It is only about creating perceptions and solidifying narratives within the broader media world, which is where most people get their information in a very cursory way. So if they walk by the TV a few times in a week and hear mainstream news figures talking about Planned Parenthood videos, and they hear about it at church and in the coffee shop on Sunday morning, then it that’s all they need to form their opinion about how loathsome a group that Planned Parenthood is. We are a nation brimming with happily ignorant sheeple who simply want to feel comfortable with all the other tribe members. Even if that means believing things that are simply not true.
Exactly what I say below. If you want to sound like an idiot, say “The videos were edited” or other stuff like that. THIS IS IRRELEVANT.
What matters is the perception, and the perception is killing PP.
If PP doesn’t turn this around, they will be frozen out in all but 6 states by this time next year. And what they should be doing is FIRING that moron who drank the wine and talked about baby parts. NOW.
If we had responsible national media in this country, this story would have died without creating much more than a blip on the national radar screen. It has now just turned into another case of dueling narratives, dutifully reported by a stenographic media who simply want to report both sides without exercising their responsibility to discern the truth from the fiction. But as it stands, PP is now having to play defense, which is a bad position when you are fighting something that is essentially made-up.
All this just helps to accelerate the destruction at the state level of women’s health services, especially those serving the lower income brackets.
And yes, the cavalier discussion of “baby parts” was a very stupid thing to do. As many of us know, offhand comments are often the hardest to explain away when someone seizes on them. It happens all the time in a myriad of circumstances.
We don’t have a “responsible national media” — probably never did — and it’s not going to change anytime soon.
Even so, “the best way forward” isn’t totally shut out of people’s minds and awareness. PP is winning this round and this time can push it to an irreversible tipping point.
I hope so. It seems as if this isn’t working out quite like the wingers were hoping and expecting. They are looking like complete idiots to almost everyone, other than their winger comrades who reside with them in their world of make believe.
Not to be missed, the recording in dKos diary of John L Lewis at today’s House hearing on PP.
thanx. and knowing that Putin and Obama et al. are busy addressing the world’s real problems such as Syria and climate change, I’ve been reading funny comments over at TPM on the various issues in the gotp alternate universe, such as a falsely claimed 100 000 person prayer meeting in Peru for Kim Davis, http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/kim-davis-peru-prayer-hoax
or that Utah reps graphically challenged chart about abortions at PP
http://c3.nrostatic.com/sites/default/files/planned-parenthood-abortion-cancer-screening.jpg
It would be helpful if Obama wasn’t presenting such a sour face while purportedly working on resolving some major issues. Guess we’re lucky that we had Kerry doing the actual negotiations with Iran.
discontent with each other. It isn’t a good look on either one of them yet some how you think Putin is not letting his animus towards Obama show.
would be great to know the backstory someday, not sure how much of the appearance to take at face value, and how much of that is for show? and the degree to which it will interfere with moving forward on the issues?
Without it being a priority of the President’s. Your absolute inability to give him any credit for successes and your quickness to blame the US alone for every problem in the middle east shows a decided lack of nuance in your thinking.
Gave him credit for hiring Kerry. I don’t refrain from giving Obama due credit for anything warranted. You probably just don’t notice that from me. However, blogs that exist to cheerlead a POTUS (either DEM or GOP) are boring; so, most of us engage in critiques of the opposition as well as those we would like to have on our side.
for the Iran deal and denying Obama any for it I would say that you do refuse to give him warranted credit.
It isn’t cheerleading to acknowledge successes while pointing out failures and it is condescending to imply it is.
How do you know how much credit is due Obama versus Kerry and the other partners in the Iran deal? Considering Obama’s unilateral belligerence in a number of locations during his first term (and his shameful Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech), I’m more inclined to applaud Kerry and the others, but a boss always deserves some credit for the good work of an employee.
Included in my most recent diary:
A compliment isn’t implied in that?
As a teacher and trainer, I was a fairly easy grader. Turning a solid “C” into a “C+” or “B-” could be more encouraging without distorting the basic performance of the student. However, giving an “A” for “C” work is a lie and I don’t lie.
I really wish that people will stop talking about facts. This has nothing to do with facts. This has to do with perception, and the perception is in State Legislators. Fed House members are not important here.
State after state has defunded PP and it is partially the fault of that idiot in PP who drank wine and talked about dismembering babies. I am a medical researcher. We talk about stuff all the time, but not in such cavalier terms. That woman should be fired, immediately.
The problem is not fixed by laughing at the idiots in Congress. PP had better get better publicity fast, because they are losing in the public opinion.
Again, facts are NOT IMPORTANT here. What matters is perception, and that is fact-free.
They’re not losing in the court of public opinion. Have you seen the polls?
That does not matter. They are losing in the Court of State Legislatures. Have you seen the number of cases in which PP has been decertified?
The truth doesn’t matter. The public opinion does not matter.
All that matters is state legislatures.
I wish people would stop believing in fairy dust. PP is on the ropes right now.
Republican State Attorneys General have investigated Planned Parenthood for criminal activity, and have all closed their investigations with no findings of wrongdoing.
A few Republican-controlled States have indeed rashly cut off finding for Planned Parenthood. Many of them are losing court cases right now and will be forced to restore funding because their States cannot fulfill their requirement to provide Medicaid services for women’s health without Planned Parenthood clinics.
The right wing is making an ass of itself right now. They’re polarizing the holy hell out of the public, which means that they’re not going to win many people over.
You’re not giving us much to support your position other than fact-free assertions. Bernie Sanders’ campaign was not destroyed by his encounters with Black Lives Matters protesters; there’s no reason you’re providing here to presume you’re right on this one either.
Progressives Not Out of Touch:
Specifically WHY is public opinion important here? EXACTLY what will public opinion do in this matter?
EXACTLY NOTHING.
PP has been sitting on its hands. I thought they had a crisis management firm working with them. I sure hope that is true, because I think this is a serious moment of existential crisis for them.
That is, a crisis in which the existence of the organization is at issue.
I hope I am wrong.
Watching interview of (R) on MSNBC just now as he twisted out the answer that indeed PP uses Fed’l funding to perform abortions because when they pay rent, using tax dollars, they are putting a roof over the procedures thus the tax dollars do fund abortions.
Given time I’m sure they’ll connect the highways & infrastructure tax dollars to abortion as they point towards the use of the infrastructure to arrive at the PP destination.
Meanwhile, a hearing into Exxon’s culpability on Climate Change would be refreshing.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/jason-chaffetz-planned-parenthood-chart
I’m going to deny this slide that you just showed me that no one has ever provided us before,” she said. “We’ve provided you all the information about everything — all the services that Planned Parenthood provides. And it doesn’t feel like we’re trying to get to the truth here. You just showed me this.”
“I pulled those numbers directly out of your corporate reports,” Chaffetz said.
“Excuse me,” Richards said. “My lawyers have informed me that the source of this is Americans United for Life which is an anti-abortion group so I would check your source.”
Chaffetz, paused, stuttered a bit and said, “Then we will get to the bottom of the truth of that.”
He moved on to introduce the ranking Democrat on the committee
I just watched MSNBC and footage from the House hearing today. It was either very clever editing, or the GOP ended up looking rather foolish and ineffective. I’m leaning towards the latter. I hope independents were watching too.
USA!
Reports from those that watched it live suggested that there was no way to edit the footage that wouldn’t make it incomprehensible or Republicans not looking like fools and/or ignorant bullies. So, you’re leaning in the correct direction.