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Mississippi’s slippery anti-abortion slope.

                 On March 14,  2009, 31 weeks into her pregnancy, Nina Buckhalter gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. She named her Hayley Jade. 2 months later, a Grand Jury in Lamar County, Mississippi indicted Buckhalter for manslaughter. The D.A. argued that tge methamphetamine in Buckhalter’s system caused Hayley Jade’s death. The State Supreme Court heard arguements on April 2 and is expected to rule soon on whether the prosecution can move forward.

If prosecutors prevail in this case, the state sets a dangerous precedent. That unintentional pregnancy loss can be treated as a form of homocide. Mississippi’s manslaughter laws were not set up to apply to stillbirths or miscarriages. Four times between 1998-2002, Mississippi lawmakers rejected proposals that would set specific penalties for damaging a fetus by using illegal drugs.

Mississippi’s prosecutors claim that 2 other state laws allow them to charge Buckhalter. One defines manslaughter as the killing of a human being, by the act, procurement or culpable negligence of another. The other states that an unborn child at every stage of gestation, from conception to live birth is included in the state’s definition of human beings. Obviously the second reasob violates Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision that is U.S. Constitional law. In the U.S. Federal Law is the law of the land, therefore it supersedes state laws.

The cause of any stillbirth or miscarriage is difficult to determine. Many experts believe there is no conclusive evidence that exposure to drugs in utero can cause a miscarriage or stillbirth. But this opens the door to charge women for drinking herbal tea, eating unpasteurized cheese and lunch meats, all of which Doctors recomend against. If a women had a miscarriage after drinking herbal tea, could she be charged with manslaughter?

Critics are also saying that Buckhalter is collateral damage in Mississippi’s abortion wars. In 2011 there was a State Ballot Initiative to grant full rights to fertilized eggs, which would make all abortions illegal all of the time. The measure failed, but Pro-Life supporters vow to try again in 2015 and lawmakers are attempting to close the State’s last abortion clinic. The unintended cause of this case could be more women seeking abortions, for fear of being prosecuted.

Republicans believe they can force religious beliefs on the American public. If the Constitution diesnt say what they want, it can be avoided by nullification, which is CONSTITUTIONALY ILLEGAL. Democrars work within the confines if the Constitution, as does President Obama, who many Republicans refer to as a dictator. Simply put, the Supreme Court said abortion was legal until the viability of the fetus, which us about 23-25 weeks. It is FEDERAL LAW, which I cannot say enough, supersedes state laws. We are not a loose coalition of countries, we are the United States if America.

That being said I think anyone the does drugs, drinks or smokes cigarettes while pregnant are selfish and irresponsible. Charging them for manslaughter when it cannot be conclusively proven is an abuse if the law. Try charging them with negligence and move on from there. I am not an expert, but on this my opinion of drug use certainly effects my opinions. But that being said, can you charge a wonen for not breast feeding, that is supposed to be the healthiest way to feed a child. There are studies that suggest that not breast feeding causes health problems later in life. So are you going to charge a woman for using formula. It is a slippery slope.

Governor Corbett blames high unemployment numbers in Pa. on jobless using drugs.

                    Governor Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania explains away poor job numbers, saying that most unemployed are on drugs. He is battling an uphill battle trying to keep his post as governor. He has a negative job approval rating and the states slow economic recovery are both working against him. The states unemployment rate dropped to 7.9%, but the number of people working in Pa. tumbled about 14,000 employees in March, following a drop of 6,000 in February. Private job creations has remained flat for over a year, growing by 1,000 jobs and leaving the state ranked 49th in the country in job creations.

              In trying to explain away Pennsylvania’s less than stellar jobs performance, he argued that the state gained 111,000 private sector jobs, since he took office. He insists Pennsylvania is doing better than other states on his watch. He grew defensive when interviewed and complained that a lot of bussineses are having trouble filling job openings because many Pennsylvanians use illegal drugs.

               A Quinnipac University Polling Institute Poll released recently found Corbett trailing potential Democratic opponents by at least 9 percentage points. His approval rating has been in steady decline. He has been linked directly to several scandals and many of his ideas have been met with cynicism because of his overly friendly relationship with the Natural Gas Drilling Industry. His aattempts to alter the state pension funds have been called unconstitutional and have been held up. His cuts to education have been well documented, as well as the fact he has received over $1 million from Natural Gas Drillers since becoming governor.

       Earlier this year a Pennsylvania state senator introduced a bill requiring drug testing of all recipients and applicants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in Pa. The state is currently conducting a pilot program. 19 counties across the Commonwealth have started testing only those who have been convicted of felony drug offenses.

               This isn’t the first time Governor Corbett has attacked the jobless. During the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, he said many jobless are just going to sit there and not seek work until their unemployment benefits run out. It also worth noting that since Corbett took over as governor, Pennsylvania’s record on jobs has deteriorated. In 2011 the year Corbett took office, just 1.8% of workers in Federally regulated industries failed drug tests. Typical of a Republican to bland the people for his failings.

            Pennsylvania has been torn under Governor Corbett. Republicans and Democrats are in constant state of disagreement. Of the 100 people I have asked, I know alot of people who hate President Obama, 83 of them said they are unhappy with Corbett and will vote for someone else. It is not the most sophisticated poll, but it does show a small concensus about his performance. I guess he is not called One Term Tommy because he will be reelected.

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Can gun violence really be blamed on movies and video games?

             The NRA and Republicans continuing trying to blame movies and video games for mass killings and gun violence. I know when I play a violent video game no one geyser killed but the fake people on the screen. Just like watching a violent movie doesn’t cause any deaths, other than the fake on screen ones.

               Our society has changed drastically over my lifetime. Morals have changed, that alone causes people to think differently. We live in a society where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Where the poor are demonized as leeches who suck the life out of government and the rich made all their money by themselves. All of these things contribute to a desperation in the poorer communities that causes a lot of crimes.

                Mental illness also seems more prevelant. Remember Reagan throwing people out of hospitals that helpers with mental issues. Many people do not have health insurance because they cannot afford it. This leaves people in a bad spot, unable to get help or medicine to assist them with their mental issues. Thus also leads to violent crimes.

               Drugs are also very common in the poorer neighborhoods. Selling drugs seems to some to be their way out of struggles. The upward mobility in this country is almost non-existent. Corporations are making millions, but still not hiring, and if they do it is part time with no benefits. This leaves people scrambling just as bad.

            The 2 common denominators here are poor people and guns. But mass killings aren’t being done by poor people. That removes one denominator and only leaves GUNS. If we take steps to make it more difficult to get a gun, just like Republicans are doing with abortion, maybe we can prevent deaths. Background checks can weed out criminals and others with mental problems. Assault Weapons Bans keeps those weapons in police and soldiers hands. High Capacity Magazine Bans save lives by making them change clips.

             Democrats cannot let the NRA win on this. We must bring it up fir vote again very soon and show them the people are important. 90% of us want it and we will get it. We are Democracy, corporations are not.

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Is the use of antibiotics on livestock causing antibiotic resistant bacteria.

            For decades the meat industry has denied ant problem with its reliance on routine, everyday antibiotic use for the nations chickens, cows and pigs. Antibiotic use on livestock farms has surged in recent years- from 20 million pounds annually in 2003 to 30 million pounds in 2011. Over the same period, the entire human population has consumed 8 million pounds per year. Which means that livestock farms now suck in 80% of the antibiotics consumed in the U.S. Meanwhile the industry routinely churns out meat containing an array of antibiotic resistant pathogens.

                The meat industry does not seem to take any of this seriously. The websites of the major industry trade groups, the American Meat Institute, the National Chicken Council, the National Pork Producers Council, all insist current antibiotic practices are safe. The main reason they can claim this with a straight face is that while scientists have long suspected that drug resistant pathogens can jump from antibiotic treated animals to humans, its been notoriously difficult to prove. The obstacle is ethics, you wouldn’t want to extract, antibiotic resistant salmonella from a turkey and inject it into a person just to see what happens. The risk of what the Center for Disease Control and Prevention politely calls treat and failure, death, would be to great. But this reason is fraying quickly. The latest gene sequence study from Denmark that documents 2 cases of MRSA, a deadly antibiotic resistant staph infection, jumping from farm animals to people.

          After analyzing the mutations of the MRSA strains in the women and animals, the researchers concluded that it had been circulating among the livestock before jumping to the people. This study comes on the heels of a 2012 paper by a consortium of U.S. and European researchers. It used gene sequencing to show that another common strainer of MTSA originated in humans as a common staph infection, jumped to livestock, where it evolved resistance to the common antibiotics tetracycline and methicillin and then jumped back to humans. If course you can also contract antibiotic resistant pathogens through contanct with raw meat. For example, more than 109 people did when the agribusiness giant Cargill sent out 10s of millions of pounds of ground turkey tainted with antibiotic resistant salmonella in 2011.

         The studies shine a hard light on another key industry claim. The public needn’t worry about antibiotic use on farms because the FDA has extensive guidelines about how antibiotics must be used to ensure the safety for both humans and animals. It is true the FDA has limited the use of a few specific antibiotics on farms. But the GDA was restricting antibiotics that weren’t used anymore.

              In fact the FDA offers only voluntary guidelines on judicious use. In fact antibiotic use on feedlots is a free for all. The FDA operates with very little information about the gusher of antibiotics entering factory farms is being used. Both the animal pharmaceutical industry and the livestock industry treat most data on antibiotic use as a tightly held secret. How much of the 30 million pounds of antibiotics now used on factory farms goes to sick animals and how much goes to making them grow faster? None of this is public information.

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