After I posted about the Senate health care bill yesterday, the Democratic leadership held a press conference in which he declared that he wouldn't use the process of reconciliation to get the health care reform bill passed. But at the same time, it is unclear whether Majority Leader Harry Reid has the 60 votes he would need to bring the bill to the floor of the Senate for debate. As Greg Sargent reported at his Washington Post blog this morning, conservative Democrats are trying to use leverage their crucial vote to pressure Reid in order to get changes they want made to the bill.
Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of the anti-choice Democrats in the Senate, said plainly that "he is not happy with the current abortion language in the Senate bill. But then he turned around and said that if his opposition to the public option is satisfied, it could help mollify him on the abortion question." (Here is a helpful comparison of the House (Stupak) and Senate versions of the abortion provisions.)
MoreIf you haven't already read Kathryn Joyce's interview with the Rev. Kapya Kaoma, author of the new report, "Globalizing the Culture Wars," you should. It's vitally important stuff on how American evangelical leaders have succeeded in exporting -- and validating -- homophobia in Africa.
About Rick Warren, Kaoma notes: "In America Warren says 'I love gays.' In Africa, he says it's not a natural way of life. He's said, "I can't say this in America, but I can say it in Africa." In America, people will hold him responsible, and in Africa, nobody will.
MoreSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid released the Senate's version of a health care reform bill last night, and it appears to essentially adopt a Capps rather than a Stupak approach to the abortion funding issue. That is, according to Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post, the bill "would require at least one plan within the health insurance exchange that the bill sets up to offer a plan that covers abortion and one that doesn't. It would also authorize the Health and Human Services Secretary to audit plans to make certain that abortion isn't being paid for with federal dollars."
Grim reports that Rep. Lois Capps (D-CA), who authored the abortion compromise in the House reviled by the religious right and its ally Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), is satisfied with the language, as is Barbara Boxer (D-CA), a leading pro-choice senator.
MoreI take a lot of heat for not liking the things Jim Wallis says, but I have to say in all honesty that his piece yesterday in the Huffington Post was about the most egregious thing he's published in a long, long while. It's like a primer in all the ways Wallis' approach to religion and politics is flawed. It's so textbook, in fact, that I think I'll dispense with a conventional review and just list all the howlers for you, in no particular order:
MorePink boas and rainbow flags were the accessories of choice at the National Equality March on October 11, 2009 in Washington DC. Supporters of full civil and legal rights for same-sex loving people filled the Mall near the Capitol after a 2.3 mile prance by the White House where many shouted to President Obama to hurry up and lift “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Under a cloudless sky the rally began with prayer. The crowd, whose median age I would ballpark at 23, grew silent under the imposing dome of the Capitol.
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