All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Palestinian President Abbas withdraws from Oslo peace agreement with Israel

President Mahmud Abbas has said the Palestinian territories cannot abide by the Oslo agreement because of Israel’s reluctance to commit to the deal. Israeli PM Netanyahu has condemned Abbas’ speech as “deceitful.”

Kevin McCarthy, House Speaker Favorite, Under Fire for Benghazi Comment – The New York Times

“This stunning concession from Representative McCarthy reveals the truth that Republicans never dared admit in public,” said Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the lead Democrat on the committee. “The core Republican goal in establishing the Benghazi Committee was always to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and never to conduct an evenhanded search for the facts.”

Source: Kevin McCarthy, House Speaker Favorite, Under Fire for Benghazi Comment – The New York Times

You’ve Seen This Before: Planned Parenthood Hearings and the Hyde Amendment

At yesterday’s House Oversight Committee hearing, some members of the committee spent their allotted time for questions asserting that there are plenty of places that can do the same tests and exams that Planned Parenthood does for 2.7 million women every year and that federal funds should just go elsewhere.

cecil-richards-screenshot-via-youtube-36What these members of the House were really saying, though, is that if you are young, low-income, or disabled and you get Medicaid, they should control your choice of the health care provider you see. Whether you feel comfortable with the person who feels your breasts for lumps is irrelevant. Whether you feel comfortable with the person who inserts a speculum into your vagina to be able to get a sample of cells from your cervix is irrelevant. Who you trust to examine your body and advise you on your health doesn’t matter. They should control that choice.

This isn’t new. Taking control of women’s bodies, particularly the bodies of low-income women and women of color, is a tactic that has been used in this country and even before it was a country. And today we mark the 39th anniversary of the Hyde Amendment, the cruel federal restriction on abortion coverage and yet another way some members of Congress seek to control women’s bodies and health care options.

Yesterday’s display in the House Oversight Committee is proof positive that some members of Congress aren’t just perfectly comfortable continuing this terrible part of our history, but want to expand their control over women’s health, bodies, and lives. 

NYC becomes one more city criminalizing Muslim youth and communities

It is incredibly silly. Linda Sarsour, resident badass activist and head of the Arab American Association of New York, pointed to the “criteria” the NYPD uses to identity terror threats. The behaviors that raise suspicion — at least when Muslim youth do them — include: “giving up cigarettes, drinking, gambling and urban hip-hop gangster clothes; wearing traditional Islamic clothing, growing a beard; becoming involved in social activism and community issues.” I don’t know how to describe this as anything but silly.

Source: NYC becomes one more city criminalizing Muslim youth and communities