Ellsworth's HCR abortion restriction was boon to Catholic hospitals

[RainDog]

...who would have been denied funds for health care b/c they choose to deny women's reproductive rights. looks like the bishops had better representation from Ellsworth than the women of Indiana and the rest of this nation did.

Rh Reality Check

The Bishops' Huge Stake in Healthcare Reform

The justifiable anger at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for lobbying on the Stupak-Pitts amendment (why are they tax exempt?) overshadows what is possibly the bigger motive for the Vatican: the billions of dollars at stake for the church's hospitals.

The scale of the church's involvement in the rapidly growing $2.5 trillion dollar American health care industry is staggering.

What the Stupak-Pitts amendment does for the Catholic health care system is omit a competitive advantage secular and other religiously-affiliated hospitals without doctrinal restrictions can use to simultaneously market their services to both the expected influx of newly insured patients and the outpatient medical professionals who will treat them.

By restricting insurance coverage of women's reproductive health care, the competitive barriers faced by Catholic institutions will be eliminated... Which is why pro-choice advocates should expect nothing short of a full-frontal attack by the Vatican on conservative Senators.

...but you know, what I don't understand with all this is why the bishops can lobby the govt on legislation, lobby for restrictions on women's health care for their own profit, and then claim tax exempt status.

interesting, isn't it, how money seems to make those bishops so moral. where were they when priests were abusing children? probably trying to make sure women had no access to safe reproductive health care.

[LiberalFighter]

1. Talk to your Democratic County Chair and Vice-Chair

And also your District Chair and Vice-Chair. The District Chair and Vice-Chair will be voting possibly at the convention. Attend the convention and rally for your candidate. My preference is Joe Hogsett. Maybe Birch Bayh could be the candidate. He's better than his son and probably could get some things done.


State Central Committee

District Chairs and Vice-Chairs are listed here. Only contact those that are in your district.

Deputy Chairs represent the North, Central or South. Contact the one that is in your area. Can't help you in determining that. Maybe your District Chair knows.

Make sure the State Party Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer know your views.

Do the same for the DNC members. If you belong to a labor union make sure to let Mo Davision know.

African Americans should also contact the IDAAC President.

Latinos/Hispanics should let the Caucus Representative know.

Gender issued should contact Indiana Stonewall Democrats.

And younger Democrats should contact their IYD group.

[RainDog]

2. I'll talk to my local dems.

I know a few of them very well.

but honestly, at the state level - what I see in Indiana doesn't really give much incentive for anyone to waste time if they oppose the DLC/Rahm demo. My town is so much more liberal than Indiana as a whole, I suppose, that, even tho I have lived here for years, raised my children here... I cannot identify with this state because its politics bear so little resemblance to my views. In my view, I live in Bloomington, not Indiana. Indiana does not represent me. Bloomington does.

I've never voted FOR the dem. candidate in Indiana - I've always voted against the republican. but now the dem is as bad as the republican, so what do you do? to me, I see this as a time when I cannot, in good conscience, vote for the democrat. I cannot vote for a theocrat. this is how I see Ellsworth, based upon his actions.

I'm not gay, hispanic, af-am or young. is there a special interest group for white middle-aged hetero moms who are sick of conservadems?

since you are clued in to state pols, I have a couple of questions.

- is Ellsworth part of the C-street "Fellowship?"

I can email Jeff Sharlet, who has done most of the investigative reporting on this to find out, but curious if this is something discussed at the state level. If he is, you can be sure that this will be an attack point against him from the liberal side and it will have A LOT of resonance here, among women and men, but especially women.

What % of women make up the democratic vote in Indiana, I wonder? What a smack in the face for the democrats to put up a anti-woman candidate.

Do the democrats have a clue about voters in this state? do the democrats really think Ellsworth can win the votes of liberal democrats, who have long been pro-choice, pro-safety net, pro restrictions on corps to make them more accountable, pro science (as opposed to religious beliefs as a substitute for the same.)

Ellsworth is apparently more conservative than republicans like Olympia Snow. Is Indiana declaring its allegiance to southern stupidity? I wish Indiana would decide to be part of the smart midwest rather than the idiotic south (and, just to note, I'm from the south, so these are people I know intimately - and why I refused to ever live there when my children were young... do I now have to consider moving out of Indiana because the theocrats are putting up a stealth candidate?)

I start conversations with people every day in the course of my work, some of them are people I know, some are people I don't know. We talk about politics and issues.

Those who i.d. as liberals or democrats or however you want to put it will be repelled by Ellsworth's positions - based upon his willingness to let religion intrude in govt.

I am really dismayed. Bayh "lost" in the infighting in demo party, it seems to me, when Indiana endorsed Obama. the state "rejected" Bayh when the democrats here voted for Obama. (and I was soooooo happy Bayh was not the vp choice. he would have hurt the party at the national level, in the same way that people reject Lieberman.)

so now the party does not have a primary so they can select the candidate rather than fight it out and the candidate they pick is further to the right than Bayh, after the 2008 election, which, it seemed clear to me, was a democratic voter rejection of this same conservatism.

...which is another slap in the face to state democratic voters, in my view.

[LiberalFighter]

3. I'm not that in. But if you really want something to happen you need to organize groups.

Women in particular I would assume.

As to the makeup, party rules require that chair and vice chair must be of opposite gender. That is for county, district and state level committees.

There is talk that the decision won't be made until the convention in June. And delegates may have an impact in the decision. Again, if you organize and campaign for a candidate or even against a candidate it could impact the result. It would best if it were all decided before the convention regardless. All the more to get Ellsworth and Hill out of the running before the convention and someone like Hogsett as the nominee. Maybe Birch Bayh could be convinced to run as I'm sure he is a better Democrat than Evan has ever been.