Morning Roundup: Teens Abroad and At Home, the President Loses Control

The Washington Post has a don’t miss special report on Teens and Sex comparing attitudes in the U.S. with those of teens abroad, where healthy attitudes mean fewer unintended pregnancies, abortions, and STDs than in the U.S. They will also feature a live online chat Q & A session with Dr. Robert Wm. Blum from Johns Hopkins Department of Population and Family Health Sciences, or if you can’t be online then, ask a question here now and read the transcript later. The Post doesn’t quite expose the whole story though …

The Washington Post has a don’t miss special report on Teens and Sex comparing attitudes in the U.S. with those of teens abroad, where healthy attitudes mean fewer unintended pregnancies, abortions, and STDs than in the U.S. They will also feature a live online chat Q & A session with Dr. Robert Wm. Blum from Johns Hopkins Department of Population and Family Health Sciences, or if you can’t be online then, ask a question here now and read the transcript later. The Post doesn’t quite expose the whole story though …

Sarah Goldstein at Salon’s Broadsheet writes about a Virginia judge’s decision last week to dismiss a charge against a 22 year old woman who was charged with shooting herself in the abdomen to induce abortion. She points out Virginia is one of the most restrictive states in the country to get an abortion and that overall, even though abortion remains legal, illegal abortions are on the rise – indicative of the climate created in this era of extremism. Evidence of that is the rally cry coming from Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life claiming that “momentum is in our direction." Pavone did get one thing right talking about people “feeling trapped, desperate and afraid” – unfortunately his remedy is less choice, less freedom – and that is the momentum he celebrates. Check out a disturbing look into the youth culture of the far right at Daily Kos where blogger WorldCantWait writes about a Christian teen festival “Battlecry” here is a short excerpt indicating that the profiteers of intolerance are on the move:

[img_assist|nid=155|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=66|height=100] But BattleCry Philadelphia was more than just a vulgar carnival designed to suck donations into the coffers of Ron Luce's corporation "Teen Mania". Indeed, it had a point, to recruit the future elite "warriors" in the coming battle against the separation of church and state. It turned dark and frightening on Saturday afternoon. After Franklin "Islam is a Wicked Religion" Graham came out to thunder against the evils of homosexuality and the Iraqi people (whom he considers to be exactly the same people as the ancient Babylonians[img_assist|nid=156|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=67|height=100] who enslaved the tribes of Israel and deserving, one would assume, the exact same fate) we heard an explosion. Flames shot out on stage and a team of Navy Seals was shown on the big TV monitors in full camouflage creeping forward down the hallway from the locker room with their M16s. They were hunting us, the future Christian leaders of America.

Susnsara Taylor also has a good piece on "Battlecry" at Truthdig.com

The NYT reports this morning, “Karl Rove, Mr. Bush's veteran political adviser, recognized that there was potential in the Hispanic vote and that Republicans could appeal to them on abortion, religion and family values. Karl has always been a strong believer that Hispanics were a natural Republican constituency."

But as reported last week, Latin Americans, especially women, are seeking and winning freedom in Colombia and elsewhere, and as we have seen recently in this country, to Mr. Rove’s surprise, many Hispanic voters came to this country to escape the very oppression he and his base want to impose here.

Simon Rosenberg, founder of the centrist New Democrat Network said in the NYT, "In many ways, he [Bush] lost control of this [immigration] debate late last year, when Republicans [in the House] passed a bill that was really one of the more extreme bills passed in American history. He's never regained control of the debate."

A perfect statement of where the Bush Administration is on all issues right now – they have lost control of the debate – and the right wing base who elected them.