Tammy Baldwin: "Focus on jobs, not restricting women's rights!"
The Republicans are playing a dangerous game with the American people. Despite all their talk about jobs & deficit spending, they’re pushing for extreme new laws that would give government & insurance companies power over our most personal life decisions & health care decisions.
House Republicans have decided that their biggest priority this week is to pass legislation that would cut off millions of women from the private health care they have today & limit the ability of a woman to get the care she need, even if the result could be a serious permanent health condition or could shorten her life.
These bills, H.R. 3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” & H.R. 358, the “Protect Life Act” would allow public hospitals to refuse to take the steps necessary to save a woman’s life & allow states to deny Medicaid coverage for care to prevent life-long disabilities. This intrusive legislation would also allow public hospitals to refuse to take the steps necessary to save a woman's life & allow states to deny Medicaid coverage to prevent life long disabilities. It would give insurance companies more power over what women can & cannot do with their own health care dollars.
But, Representative Tammy Baldwin is calling the Republicans out. Baldwin: "Despite promises from the new majority that this Congress would focus on creating jobs & bolstering the economy, this bill that we are considering today fails to deliver this promise. In fact, this bill could further exacerbate the problem by causing millions of vulnerable Americans & small businesses to face a tax increases. If there's one message I've heard loud & clear from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, it's that tax hikes result in jobs lost."
Don’t messy with this Baldwin. She was just 9 years old when her mother married a black man in 1971. Baldwin was forced to face the injustice of suspicious white adults stopping her stepfather to ask what he was doing with a blond, blue-eyed little girl. She was the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to Congress, & the first woman elected to Congress from Wisconsin. Despite anti-gay smear campaigns by her Republican opponents, she has won her last 4 elections by 2-to-1 margins. Baldwin voted against the Iraq invasion in 2003, & she co-sponsored a resolution to impeach Cheney & Gonzales.
Today is Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin's 49th Birthday. You Go, Girl!
I returned home from work on Saturday afternoon, greeted the dogs, opened up the computer & turned on the TV which happened to be tuned to CNN. I saw & heard the first announcement, interrupting the regular news, of what had just happened in Tucson. I sensed that this was one of those events that was going to change the country somehow. I have not been able to shake the news & continue to watch as the story continues.
This is my favorite song about HEROES. Today is the birthday of Crash Test Dummies' lead singer/ songwriter Brad Roberts. What a voice.
Daniel Hernandez says he's no hero, but that Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is.
Hernandez's quick thinking is credited with helping to stop Giffords' bleeding after she was shot in the head during an outdoor rally in Tucson on Saturday. Hernandez, who is openly gay & had been Giffords' intern for just 5 days when the shooting occurred. Chaos erupted with people running & screaming. Daniel Hernández heard gunshots. Most people ran away from the crowd, but he ran towards them. His courageous decision probably saved Gabrielle Giffords life. Hernandez, who is just 20 years old, had only been an intern for the congresswoman for 5 days when a man opened fire outside the "Congress on Your Corner" event. He moved from person to person checking pulses,& then he saw Giffords on the sidewalk. She was bleeding.Finding congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot, he immediately applied pressure to the entry wound on her forehead while he waited for EMT's to arrive. He pulled her into his lap, holding her upright against him so she wouldn't choke on her own blood. She was conscious, but quiet. He never let go of his boss.
Hours later Hernández met with Giffords friends & family. His own family arrived & he told them about the people he knew who had died.
I was up very early this morning, & turned on the TV to hear this on CNN. Hernandez:“I was about 40 feet away from the congresswoman & the place she was meeting with constituents & I was kind of behind a corner so I couldn't see directly where the congresswoman was from my position. I heard the gunshots & I knew that people had been injured most likely. So I ran towards where the congresswoman was. When I got there I saw that there were people who had been injured. I then tried to see who had a pulse still, see if people were still breathing. I was only able to check two or three people before I noticed that Congresswoman Giffords had been injured severely. So then she became my first priority.Not just because of her position but also because of the severity of her wounds.”“I tried to make sure that I picked her up so that she wasn't in a position where she could asphyxiate on her own blood because of the position she originally was in. I then started applying pressure to her wound to try & stem the blood loss. I don't think that I did save her, I think it was emergency services. People have been referring to me as a hero. I don't think that that's something I am. I think the people that are heroes are people like Gabby, who are public servants & who have dedicated their lives to public service.”
Gabrielle Giffords is a strong supporter of gay rights. Hernandez is a hero to me.
