Treating Women & Children As Commodities

WASHINGTON STATE LEGISLATURE SEEKS TO TREAT WOMEN AND CHILDREN AS COMMODITIES

It is stunning. Bill 1267 now before the Senate, would legalize coercing poor women to prostitute their wombs for the manufacturing of children. Both the woman and child would be bought and sold. Barbaric.

This is a cynical if-you-have-enough-money, you have a right to purchase other human beings. THIS TRAVESTY MAY BE VOTED ON THIS WEEK.

Do we have to relearn that buying and selling of other human beings is a moral evil? Obviously, declaring: "Never again" is, by itself, never good enough, because human exploitation changes its disguise; the injustice appears in a different form with a new rationale.

Those legislators who pay lip-service to caring about women and children, are looking to legalize them as a commodity.

No matter your opinion on surrogacy, same-sex marriage, or abortion, you should be appalled at how poorly this legislation is written:

THE PURCHASE OF CHILDREN

HB 1267 would allow a couple to purchase a surrogate to have a child that may not be genetically related to the buyers.

Current Washington law sets forth that it is unlawful to purchase a minor child, but this bill inserts an exception into the law for a child that is the result of a paid contract.

This completely bypasses or circumvents all adoption safety procedures. These procedures are in place to protect children. This is an adoption, except in name. Gestational adoptions are adoptions. Yet, all adoption procedures are bypassed by this bill.

EXPLOITING POOR AND VULNERABLE WOMEN

Women who are low-income or unable to find work could be coerced into becoming a surrogate out of desperation.

While other state allow compensation for expenses and lost wages, there are NO LIMITS under this bill to the amount of money which could be spent to entice a women to become a surrogate.

This bill legalizes the renting of a woman's body for the first time, WITH NO REGULATIONS OR OVERSIGHT.

Under current law, paid surrogacy is prohibited and considered a misdemeanor.

This bill will, for the first time, open the doors to the renting of women in a completely unregulated service contract for over nine months.

Since the advent of paid surrogacy in other counties, a dark and disturbing trend of rich interests taking advantage of poor women has emerged. Surrogacy rings, amounting to slave labor have been occurring in Asia, and making international news.

Like pay day loan businesses, targeting poor military families, there is also evidence of surrogacy businesses targeting poor military families because of the great military healthcare. It will happen here.

It is a tragedy that some couples are unable to conceive, but an unregulated market that will take advantage of the growing number of woman dropping into poverty is wrong. Many states prohibit paid surrogacy.

CALL THE LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE 1-800-562-6000 AND LET YOUR SENATOR KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS BILL

- Human Life Washington

100 Ideas for Washington’s Future

Press Release

OLYMPIA (March 23, 2011) State Representative Mike Hope (R-Lake Stevens) officially launched a statewide initiative today to find the best ideas for Washington’s future. The nonpartisan initiative is called .

At a Capitol press conference Wednesday, Hope was joined by Democrat and Republican leaders from across the state who pledged to listen to the people of Washington to develop a long term agenda for the state’s future.

“As much as we as political leaders hope to achieve at the state Capitol, government alone is not the answer to the challenges, and opportunities, of the future. Government cannot build our economy. Government cannot inspire citizens,” Hope said.

“Instead, the energy and drive of our people will move our state forward,” Hope explained. “The four walls of the state Capitol, filled with politicians, lobbyists, special interests and political insiders, are not the sole repository of good ideas for Washington. Instead, the hardworking citizens who pay taxes and raise families are the true reservoir of great ideas for our state. And that’s why we are launching the 100 Ideas Initiative,” Hope said.

Through a series of town hall meetings and interaction with the state’s citizens, the 100 Ideas Initiative will develop a comprehensive vision for our future. The meetings are called “Idearaisers,” and they are the heart of the 100 Ideas program. Hope and other leaders will travel the state throughout 2011 to conduct the Idearaisers.

“People are familiar with politicians holding fundraisers where they solicit money,” Hope said. “At an Idearaiser, we won’t ask for your money. Instead, we ask only that you bring your good ideas for the future of our state.”

Hope also emphasized that the Initiative is “non-partisan. In fact, we are not interested in ‘Republican’ ideas or ‘Democrat’ ideas. We simply want good ideas – regardless of their source,” Hope said.

Citizens will also be encouraged to submit their ideas on the program’s website – www.100ideaswa.org.

At the end of the year, the 100 Ideas Initiative will publish a book filled with 100 of the best ideas that emerge from across the state. The book will serve as a road map for policy makers.

Ideas submitted to the program will be evaluated by Hope and a bi-partisan team of advisors.

The Tolerant Left

"Below, you’ll find a compilation of 20 days worth of the death threats, vandalism, and intimidation practiced by pro-union thugs opposed to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s budget repair bill."

Thank you John Nolte for exposing the tolerant left.

The Bottom Line Is This: There Is No Money

When Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels took office six years ago, he rescinded collective bargaining rights for state employees and implemented merit pay.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Daniels slashed the state work force and turned a $600 million deficit into a $370 million surplus in one year. Indiana currently has an $800 million surplus.

Public-sector unions can prevent such all-out assaults by helping rather than hindering the process. For example, here in Washington, legislators passed a law allowing state services to be contracted out to private companies, but the process is essentially controlled by state employee unions, so it goes nowhere.

That’s not real reform.

The bottom line is this: There is no money. Business as usual is not an option. Rather than stand at the barricades fending off change, public-sector unions should use their experience and talents to help make government more efficient, effective and affordable.

That’s a solution that works for both the private and public employees.

Excerpt from Unions must be part of the solution as money dries up by Don Brunell president of the Association of Washington Business

The President Gets His Game On

Tahman Bradley reports:

President Obama just could not wait for spring weather to arrive.

For the second week in a row, the most powerful man in the world stepped away from the White House to hit the golf course.

Even as his administration and the U.S. military help Japan recover from a devastating earthquake, and as the world worries about Fukushima's nuclear reactor, the president could not resist taking advantage of the 48-degree weather in the Washington, D.C., area.

The president left the White House Saturday afternoon for a short trip to Joint Andrews Base in Camp Springs, Md.

With cloudy skies, it's not the best weather for golf, but Obama loves to spend his Saturdays on the greens. Last fall, Obama went golfing darn near every weekend.

These are never quick "work on your swing" trips; usually the president plays 18 holes, as he did last week.

Dangers of an Article V Convention

Written by Matthew Spalding, Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation

An Article V amendments convention has been a debated proposition since the very beginning. Madison understood this when he argued at the Constitutional Convention that “difficulties might arise as to the form, the quorum etc. which in constitutional regulations ought to be as much as possible avoided.”

He recorded some of these questions in his convention notes: “How was a Convention to be formed? By what rule decide? What the force of its acts?”

Combine these with the fact that no such amending convention has ever occurred (that is, there is no precedent) and too many serious questions are left open and unanswered. This absence of guidelines or rules makes an Article V convention a risky venture, and one that legislators have historically avoided.

Legislators have threatened an Article V convention as a way of encouraging Congress to take action on a certain issue. In these instances, the threat of an Article V convention (with all of its unknowns) is considered dangerous enough that Congress proposes the desired amendment through the usual congressional method. This is not an unreasonable aspect of a constitutional strategy, but very different from claiming that we should actually have such a convention as a matter of course.

The largest question is whether an amendments convention can be limited to specific amendments or even topics.

The pro-convention argument assumes that the power to limit the convention is inherent in the power to call the convention in the first place. I’m not so sure that follows: The text says that upon application of the states Congress “shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments,” not for confirming a particular amendment already written, approved, and proposed by state legislatures (which would effectively turn the convention for proposing amendments into a ratifying convention).

Indeed, it is not at all clear as a matter of constitutional construction (and doubtful in principle) that the power of two-thirds of the states to issue applications for a convention restricts, supersedes, or overrides the power of all the states assembled in that convention to propose amendments to the Constitution.

When Madison later pointed to an Article V convention as a way to solve the Nullification Crisis (as did Lincoln during the Civil War), an amendments convention was understood to be free to propose whatever amendments thought necessary to address the problems at issue.

Serious scholars will undoubtedly continue to debate the historical record and speculate about the possibility of an amendments convention under Article V. But the argument that, as a matter of course, we should spend considerable time, money and effort right now to design, plan, and implement a convention—despite the unknowns and risks involved—is both imprudent and potentially dangerous. It is a distraction that inevitably gets bogged down in a debate over technical details, taking valuable attention and focus away from the substance of the constitutional reforms themselves.

Claims of the ease and efficacy of an Article V convention are also misleading to the many committed and well-meaning reformers and activists who are serious about constitutional change in the United States.

The Allusion of Assisted Suicide in WA State

In its recent Assisted Suicide report, the Department of Health reported that 87 people received lethal doses of medications under the Act and 71 individuals died. 51 people reportedly died after ingesting the lethal dose and 15 died from other causes.

The Department of Health does not know if the remaining 6 people died of assisted suicide or not. The Department of Health also has no idea about the status for the 15 remaining people who requested lethal medications-whether they are alive or dead, whether they died from natural causes or from assisted suicide.

There seems to be at least some problem with the accuracy of the reporting (and the timeliness of required documentation) if 15 people out of 87 cannot be accounted for. Of even greater concern is what the numbers don't, and can't, reveal.

True Compassion Advocates' President Eileen Geller noted, "The published data from the 2010 report is so limited and unreliable that even some who agree with the policy have qualms regarding the DOH's inability to determine whether the law operates with the full safety and voluntariness its proponents promised."

Geller continued, "Washington voters thought they were getting a law to assure choice-what they've received is something entirely different, a law which has in some instances has become a recipe for elder abuse and a vehicle for financial coercion."

The report, which doesn't even address whether the administration of the lethal dose was voluntary, has significant gaps. Instead, Washington's 2010 report on doctor prescribed death focuses on the "ingestion" of the lethal dose. "Ingestion" as described in the report does not require a patient's consent, competency, or even awareness.

"What the numbers in the report don't show is what really needs reporting," said Geller. "Assisted suicide in Washington is neither safe nor voluntary for those who feel coerced, can't afford proper health care, or are victims of unreported elder abuse."

True Compassion Advocates - True Compassion Advocates (TCA) offers education, resources, and support during aging, illness, and disability. We foster awareness about, and prevention of, suicide, doctor prescribed death, and elder abuse. We support safe and effective care, positive health care choices, and compassionate communities.

Powers

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite." --James Madison, Federalist No. 45

Let There Be (Incandescent) Light!

By Pete Kasperowicz

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) this week introduced legislation that would eliminate federal light bulb standards passed in 2007 that are expected to have the effect of phasing out some incandescent bulbs in the next few years.

Bachmann said her "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act" is needed because "government has no business telling an individual what kind of light bulb to buy."

"In 2007, Congress overstepped its bounds by mandating that only 'energy efficient' light bulbs may be sold after January 1, 2012," she said. "This mandate has sweeping effects on American families and businesses and needs serious consideration before taking effect."

Bachmann's bill, H.R. 849, would terminate two sections of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that set energy-efficiency standards for incandescent and fluorescent bulbs and labeling standards. The bill does, however, allow these standards to remain in place if the comptroller general were to find that they will lead to consumer savings, reduced carbon-dioxide emissions and pose no health risks to consumers (such as risks posed by the presence of mercury in more energy-efficient bulbs).

Obama vs Walker...and it wasn't even close!

Obama: “I don’t think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon.”

Walker: "I’m sure the president knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay.

And I’m sure the president knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin. At least I would hope he knows these facts.

"Furthermore, I’m sure the president knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin.

"I’m sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn’t acting like union bosses in saying one thing and doing another."

Call Governor Walker and let him know you appreciate the bold stand he is taking and his hard work for fiscal responsibility. (608) 266-1212.