While it would strengthen provider conscience rights, the proposed regulation would in no way restrict health care providers from performing any legal service or procedure. If a procedure is legal, a patient will still have the ability to access that service from a medical professional or institution that does not assert a conflict of conscience. For example, the proposed regulation does not affect the ability of private clinics to provide abortion services in accordance with the law.

This is of course, a steaming pile of crap. Having read the actual rule change, if you (meaning hospitals, doctors offices, clinic, whatever) receive funding from the government, be it research grants, medicare/medicaid payments, VA payments, or whatever, and ANY of your employees challenges on moral/religious grounds, you have to either cease whatever it is they object to, or lose funding.

And I mean ANYTHING. They took out the abortion parts people complained about making it now apply to EVERYTHING.

And I mean ANYONE. They make a point to mention even janitors as someone included.

This "administrative change" amounts to the complete elimination of federal funding for any and all health care.

And if you don't believe that, ask this; What happens when there is a Christian Scientist, who you can't discriminate against hiring because that's religion, working as a hospital janitor or secretary, who objects because they believe medicine is working against God? This isn't about abortion anymore, this is about medicine.

Regulation Proposed to Help Protect Health Care Providers from Discrimination

The February 23 letter stated, "The department is not aware of Karl Rove playing any role in the decision to appoint Mr. Griffin," and that the Justice Department was "not aware of anyone lobbying, either inside or outside of the administration, for Mr. Griffin's appointment."

Federal investigators have obtained documents showing that Kyle Sampson, then-chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and Chris Oprison, then an associate White House counsel, drafted and approved the letter even though they had first-hand knowledge that the assertions were not true. The Justice Department later had to repudiate the Sampson-Oprison letter and sent a new one informing Congress that it could no longer stand by the earlier assertions.

That would either be perjury or lying to Congress.

And hiring Murray Waas is a coup for Huffpo. He's about as well connected and informed as anyone in DC, he's heading for Sy Hersh/Woodstein levels.

U.S. Attorney Scandal Probe Enters White House Circle

I'm providing the link directly to the source, not coverage of this one.

The White House wants to redefine abortion as anything that could prevent a fertilized egg from implanting and surviving (starts around page 16). Under these rules, the list of things that would become abortion start with birth control pills, IUDs, Plan B, hell, spermicidal jelly since that's not exactly good for the eggs either.

So, a couple of questions. First, why are they doing this, and why now? The only answer I can see is they are trying to shore up McCain with the base, because this going through would be rejected immediately by an incoming Democratic president, while McCain could leave it in place. Were this a "real" priority, they could have done this 7 years ago. They did not.

So what would still be allowed? Plain condoms, no spermicide. I would have added diaphragms and (thank you Seinfeld) the sponge, but most diaphragms use a spermicidal sealant, and the sponge is soaked in the stuff.

This is a response to the rules passed in Illinois last year that required pharmacies to distribute things like Plan B, even over pharmacist objection. Refusal to fill prescriptions on "moral grounds" was considered harmful to the populace, as there was no end to where it could have gone (painkillers are "evil drugs" etc.). Those sorts of issues are mentioned on pages 8 and 9.

This is not just pandering, this is fundamentally offensive. This is the White House telling me how to live my life, under rules that do nothing to address any ill, merely to impose someone else's religious views on me and every other person in this country.

The bottom line effects? Every insurance company in the country can chop all of this from anything they have to cover, passing the cost to us. Pharmacies can refuse service, eliminating pregnancy prevention as an option. Provision of birth control to minors, becomes in many states, prosecutable because it is no longer preventing pregnancy, it becomes performing an abortion.

Madame Speaker? Impeach this President.

New "Abortion" Rules for HHS

Wow. John McCain? Fail.

YouTube - "The One"- McCain hits Obama with new ad

This information does not tell us everything we need to know. Thomas shows the strongest partisan bias, but is he also an activist? Does he vote to strike down agency decisions at a high rate? To test for judicial activism and judicial restraint, we examined all the data to find which justices are most likely to strike down agency decisions.

It turns out that Breyer wins the award for Judicial Restraint. Surprisingly, the award for Judicial Activism goes to . . . Justice Scalia.

Not all that much depth, but you get a very strong sense of how things are operating in the judicial system, and it's not good.

Judicial Partisanship Awards - The Washington Independent - U.S. news and politics - washingtonindependent.com

Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales broke the law by using politics to guide their hiring decisions for a wide range of important department positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility and independence, an internal report concluded Monday.

Go to jail. Go directly to jail. To not pass the bar. Do not collect legal fees.

Justice Dept. Report on Hiring Finds Violations - NYTimes.com

In his email to Mukasey today, Arnebeck writes: "We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that if he does not agree to 'take the fall' for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed lobby law violations."

"This appears to be in response to our designation of Rove as the principal perpetrator in the Ohio Corrupt Practices Act/RICO claim with respect to which we issued document hold notices last Thursday to you and to the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform,"

Ahhhh... RICO....

The BRAD BLOG : Rove Threatened GOP IT Guru If He Does Not 'Take the Fall' for Election Fraud in Ohio, Says Attorney

Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who has long led the conservative forces of his state, has been denied his customary position as a voting delegate to the Republican National Convention -- and it's being done by an even more conservative bunch.

Just wow...

Conservative Senator Denied Delegate Slot For Not Being Right-Wing Enough

Republican Senator Dole introduced an amendment to name an HIV/AIDS relief bill after the recently deceased Jesse Helms. Helms, of course, was a strident foe of HIV/AIDS prevention, research and treatment.

Why don't we rename the Holocaust Museum after Adolf Eichmann while we're at it Liddy?

Elizabeth Dole Tries To Name AIDS Bill After Jesse Helms

This may come as a shock, but a prominent anti-homosexual Republican attorney general has apparently been caught having homosexual sex intercourse with his homosexual gay male assistant. Bonus: The dude’s wife caught him, in their bed. This is the rumor that the AG’s office has officially denied, so now of course everybody is spilling the sordid details.

I can't wait to see how this one finishes. (or to put this another way, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

Wonkette: The D.C. Gossip » Anti-Gay Alabama A.G. Caught Being Gay