August 27, 2005, Better living through chemistry
In a politics before science or health everytime move, and in a surprise to exactly no one (except seemingly Senators Clinton and Murray, who, perhaps, are running for something...) FDA overrode its own advisory board and voted to delay the "Plan B" contraceptive, a/k/a "the morning after pill" for over the counter sales.
Seven states already allow over the counter sales of the drug, which, as a practical matter, would make it available to the 16 and under crowd. While Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton (you heard it hear first!) knows that the key component of the Democratic Party consortium is single women who favor the most widely available abortions available (often beyond what is reasonable, certainly politically if not medically); by contrast, the Republican Party's leading lights, including the Republican Governors of Massachusetts and New York (Romney and Pataki), recently vetoed such bills re: the morning after pill, knowing that the Republican Party base consists of religio-fascist nuts who want to ban abortion period (and no one believes me, but they are largely winning with abortion currently unobtainable in 86% of American counties according to Planned Parenthood) and the corporate banditti set whose view is that abortion should be limited to "rape, incest, and me..."
How shall I say this? Elections have consequences. Democrats have lost the last two (by hook or by crook), but given the President's gains among unlikely voters who are, nonetheless, religiously conservative (Blacks, Latinos...), this issue was doubtless a factor. We would like to believe that most agencies concerned with things that shouldn't be political, like our public health agencies such as the FDA, shouldn't be so damned... political.
But we have learned differently. Let me make this even easier: the national agenda is, by and large, set by that most uncool body, the House of Representatives. Why? Because that is the body that can impeach the President. That is the body that can effectively veto everything the President wants by way of an agenda, simply by never introducing the bill. That is the one body that introduces spending bills. ALL spending bills. No, it's not as cool as the senate that approves judges and treaties, but (no one believes me), its more important. And it is the one unifying force in the Republican utility belt: that is the one thing the GOP has controlled for over ten years.
So. We can either take the House back... or we can get used to this sort of governmental action (or inaction)... until we do...
Comments
I'm sorry. On the first read, I missed the reference to the "corporate banditti." Is he/she related to the frito banditti?
Posted by Juan Des Etrias Dias at August 28, 2005 6:00 PM
Is it possible that the lack of a National Guard presence in New Orleans means that the National Guard are all in Iraq?
Posted by Just Wondering at August 31, 2005 4:46 PM