Stace Nelson personifies red state collapse

The discussion of the sentencing of a South Dakota Penitentiary inmate to death for murdering a guard in a foiled escape attempt has taken an even uglier turn.

A South Dakota legislator, District 25 representative Stace Nelson is a conservative christian (go figure), albeit a decorated Marine, who spent a career brutalizing the people within his charge as a monolithic executor of forced compliance through intimidation.

What Rep. Nelson has done in disrespectful rants to his detractors at Madville Times and at the so-called South Dakota War College, the quasi-official mouthpiece of the South Dakota Republican Party and where this interested party has been blocked from comment, is nothing short of cyber bullying.

His anger and controlling personality are pathologies, contraindications of the power drug he uses to fog a world that doesn’t conform to his delusions. He shoves his creation superstitions down the throats of his virtual victims and crams the hose of his coerced military patriotism into any orifice that his captives leave unprotected. The glaring difference between Representative Nelson, a former military police investigator, and Eric Robert, the prison guard's murderer, is that Nelson offended legally under the auspices of the Marine Corps.

The fact that Mr. Nelson has been a CASA participant as he taints the very clients for whom he purports to advocate should frighten every social worker to the core. How a morbidly obese man, who models an unhealthy body image that often eclipses the ample shadow cast by convicted sex offender Ted Klaudt, a former GOP South Dakota legislator now serving time for his crimes, has intimate contact with rudderless young people frankly scares me beyond terror.

Nelson wasn't drafted: he solicited for and was hired to do a job and was paid for it along with associated benefits.

Unless and until the electorate stands up to Stace Nelson's brand of Republican dystopianism, We the People are doomed to endure Patriot Act after Patriot Act where freedom from tyranny dies a slow, whimpering death.

UPDATE, 11/1: Anyone who would like to copy and paste this post to the bottom of the DWC post is welcome to do so with or without any attribution to me. They don't give a shit whether you sign as anonymous.

Also: recall that interested party called Herman Cain's propensity for dalliance back in August.

Ted Turner gets Chronicled

There is an awesome piece in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle this morning about the environmentalist, philanthropist, and lover who routinely confounds the earth haters.

Here's an excerpt:

Worth $2 billion. Owns world’s largest bison herd, is No. 2 landowner in U.S., 2 million acres, Co-chairman of Nuclear Threat Initiative, working to reduce threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Chairman of Turner Foundation and United Nations Foundation, working on nuclear weapons, climate change, endangered species, international poverty.

According to a former employee interviewed by ip about four weeks ago, Mr. Turner is rarely without the company of a beautiful woman.

Recall that last week KW told us from the Rapid City Journal that Mr. Turner was a guest at the Governor's Invitational Pheasant Slaughter.

Dr. David Newquist chronicles South Dakota's path to red state collapse as TOTN interviews Laura Sullivan about her heart rending Native foster children story:

Simone still stalking Boulder Hot Springs

The view is breathtaking, the building complex is massive, the plunges are set at 109 or so (the pool maybe not so much); and, hipneck is not the only curio walking the grounds. hipneck is the skilled caretaker who trained ip on the mechanical systems at Boulder Hot Springs, part of the more than one million dollar improvements to the heating system that utilizes the 174 degree discharge from a geothermal source under Bull Mountain. He and others are rebuilding the greenhouse to grow the retreat's organic food.

The pipes to the radiators used to converge in a clawfoot bathtub in a basement straight out of The Silence of the Lambs where the homemade plenum acted as a manifold to heat the former hotel.

From the Helena Independent Record:

It’s said that a prostitute was murdered in the old office area — stabbed by a mining executive from Butte — and that she haunts the halls. Although few have seen this so-called “lady of the night,” she’s become quite well known. Simone’s Suite is located on the first floor. It has two beds, four tall windows and a big boudoir bathroom.

And, while this blogger has never seen Simone, there are places in the not yet restored parts of the west wing that give me the willyboogers just thinking about it.

By my reckoning, this IR photo was taken from the outside pool area, west wing to the left

Barack Obama and Ron Paul comment on cannabis

From my inbox (h/t Ella):

Cannabis law should look like the brew pub and wine tasting laws. US Government Patent #6630507.











And, from the President's home town, Mary Schmich writes in the Chicago Tribune via Cannabis News:

But it’s time to put marijuana into perspective. Decades of prohibition haven’t reduced its use. More people than ever smoke it, some for pure pleasure, some as a cure for pain. For some, it turns into addiction. But those who grow addicted — like people addicted to cigarettes, Percocet or pinot gris — have a health problem. Treating them as criminals doesn’t solve their problem or society’s.

Fast and Furious: dregs of Bush-era tactic; Bozone to can beer

Blog for Arizona brings this story from Tim Steller of the Arizona Daily Star:

There seems to be an emerging talking point related to the Operation Fast and Furious scandal that "The Bush administration did it too, but they did it right by working with Mexico." In one 2006 investigation, Tucson-based Operation Wide Receiver, hundreds of guns went to Mexico, and that country's government apparently was not involved. This discussion began two weeks ago when Pete Yost of the Associated Press revealed to the broader world the existence of Operation Wide Receiver, an ATF investigation of people who illegally bought guns from a Tucson dealer and sold them to criminals in Mexico. I suspect we'll learn more about both Fast and Furious and these Bush-era investigations soon.

Three brutally cold winters ago, my friend Tom (we call him, 'Mister Micron') and ip crawled for a week in the soot and ash under the brew floor to replace burnt timbers with more than enough supports for the upgrade of the Bozeman Brewing Company. From the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

“People have asked for this for quite awhile,” owner Todd Scott said Thursday. “We’ve continually said, ‘In a couple years,’ but we’ve been saying that, well, for a couple of years now.” The brewery plans to have six-packs of its signature beer, Amber Select, in Bozeman area stores late November or December.

Non-South Dakota press exposing red state collapse; earth haters file appeal of Cobell settlement

A series of press stories on how South Dakota has failed its Native population is exposing Republican misdeeds. Madville Times posted a scathing indictment of South Dakota's lawyer/governor and his role in seizing children from their families.

Montana's Youth Homes places Native children with Native foster parents:

We have built diversity in services with wilderness-based therapeutic intervention and learning labs to support education. We have addressed the cultural needs of our Native children and the uniqueness of the varied backgrounds of the many children and families we meet and attempt to help.

Mary Black Bonnet writes about her experience as a Native child in a white home. Here is a performance piece she helped produce:



KW sez:

...90 business prospects were among nearly 600 guests who traveled to Pierre last weekend for the 2011 Governor's Invitational Pheasant Hunt. All together they killed 1,369 pheasants. The heavily Republican guest list included state legislators, local officials, business leaders and former South Dakota governors Frank Farrar, Harvey Wollman, Walter Dale Miller and Mike Rounds. The guest list also included Journal editor Michael LeFort.

RT@ILPCTurtleTalk this from the blog of The Legal Times:

A conservative think tank that advocates for free enterprise and limited government is challenging the $3.4 billion settlement in a Native American class action in Washington, saying the judge in the high-profile case should not have certified a class. The non-profit public interest group Competitive Enterprise Institute, represented by McGuireWoods, submitted a brief supporting opponents of the landmark settlement who are challenging the merits of the deal.“Large settlements—including large class-action settlements—are rarely isolated events; instead they signal to future litigants (or future class-action lawyers) that the rules underlying litigation have changed, and that they should continue to push the boundaries of the legal system.” The suit, filed by the late Elouise Cobell in 1996 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, demanded an historical accounting of money the government held in trust for thousands of Native Americans.

Condoms for Christ

RT @PPact

From Good Health:

Here's how it works: Pronto's packaging doubles as an applicator. Users just need to hold the package level over the penis, crack it in half, slip it on, and discard the applicator in one quick motion.

Wow, as if men need faster sex....



From my inbox:

[F]unding for public health programs, including the affordable care act’s prevention and public health fund, is in jeopardy. The climate in Washington is very difficult and nothing can be taken for granted. The federal government is operating on a continuing resolution until November 18th and congressional leaders have indicated that they would like to have FY2012 appropriations completed by that date. 

We are all very busy serving our communities but if we do not let our Congressional delegation know the importance of federal funding to the Montana public health system, there could be very few of us left in the system to serve our communities. In preparation for the call, below are some of the key provisions/eliminations in the health and human services funding bills in the both the Senate and the House. 
  

The Senate bill: 

 * Eliminates the Preventive Health Block Grant * Eliminates Advanced Practice Centers for Preparedness  * Moves Healthy Homes at CDC to HRSA with no dedicated funding  * Cuts the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant by $50 million  * Provides new funding for Community Transformation Grants without eligibility for local/state health departments.   

The draft House bill:  * Provides $100 million for the Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant  * Rescinds all funding for the Affordable Care Act which totals more than $8.6 billion, including a rescission of $1 billion authorized for the Prevention and Public Health Fund in FY2012 * Restores the ban on federal funding for syringe access programs  * Bans federal funding for Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its affiliates and clinics  * Cuts CDC by $863 million from FY2011  * Cuts Public Health and Preventive Medicine Training Programs by $26 million from FY2011. This would deeply cut Public Health Training Centers.  * Eliminates the Title X Family Planning Program

Fire is the solution for preventing wildfire

The Forest Service has failed its mission in the Black Hills and throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Bill Gabbert at Wildfire Today keeps ip up to speed on fire as the solution to wildfire.

The Casper Trib tells readers:

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a law prohibiting roads on nearly 50 million acres of land in national forests across the United States, a ruling hailed by environmentalists as one of the most significant in decades. The U.S. Forest Service currently manages more than 190 million acres of land used for multiple purposes that must comply with strict rules on land use changes spelled out in the federal Wilderness Act and National Environmental Policy Act.

Get out there and burn now.

The Missoulian reports that two elk were assassinated at Slippery Ann.

 UPDATE, 10/24: Cory is hosting a discussion at Madville Times.

Native Americans: what would you call your own State?

The history of humanity in the United States of America is at least 14,000 years old, some researchers say it is far older. We the People are at another crossroads: we can allow China to outgrow us or we can grow.

There 2.5 million Native Americans living in the US, more living in Canada, and virtually every native Mexican is a native American as well. Four sets of laws trapped in a quagmire of treaty obligations. If each reservation in the lower contiguous states were a county in a non-contiguous state, the two senators and five representatives would wield great power in Congress. Native readers: what would you call your own State?

Mexico: please consider a referendum that would pave the way to suspend your constitution and become the 52nd State where the Tohono O'odham and Mohawk Nations that currently straddle some surreal boundary would become one county. Two senators and 30+ representatives in Congress would give Mexicans awesome power in Washington, DC and create a geopolitical superpower that will cause China to wake up and smell the Tsingtao.

One day, the Canadian provinces and First Nations will see the new States in a clearer light and vote to join US, too.

I have been listening to KBHU The Buzz while Bill Janklow's idea of public radio has been grovelling. Last night, they played this:

  stupid girl...

Putting the Occupy movement into a slogan

Putting the aims of the Occupy movement onto a bumper sticker? American Public Media's Marketplace brought up a mouthful written by Atlantic contributor, Conor Friedersdorf:

"It's wrong to create a mortgage-backed security filled with loans you know are going to fail so that you can sell it to a client who isn't aware that you sabotaged it by intentionally picking the misleadingly rated loans most likely to be defaulted upon."

It's time for the US Justice Department to start serving subpoenas on banksters for violations of RICO statutes.

Rick Perry's Texas: scorched earth edition

If plagues of well-coiffed locusts begin appearing in Greenland's glaciers, it's Rick Perry's doing.



More on the earth haters' burying their collective heads in the anthropogenic dust posted at Madville Times.

MPR's weather blod sez:

Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum extent on September 9 at 1.67 million square miles (4.33 million square km), marking the second smallest extent on record. In September 2007, the sea ice extent dipped to 1.61 million square miles (4.17 million square km). According to the University of Washington's Polar Science Center, Arctic sea ice volume, which depends on ice thickness and extent, dropped to 960 cubic miles (4,000 cubic km) on September 10, the smallest volume on record.

According to a study reported by CNN:

Rising temperatures and growing variability in rainfall are affecting the size of all species in the ecosystem from microscopic sea organisms to land-based predators, say researchers. "Our study suggests that ectotherms (cold-blooded animals like toads, turtles, and snakes that rely on environmental heat sources) are already changing a lot," said David Bickford from the National University of Singapore and co-author of the study.

In a statement from the Center for Biological Diversity:

The polar bear was the first species added to the endangered species list solely because of threats to the species from global warming. “Now that the Department of the Interior must weigh in for the first time with full environmental analysis, the Obama administration is going to own this issue,” said Andrew Wetzler, director of the Lands and Wildlife program for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It affords the president an opportunity to show he is serious about dealing with climate change and protecting wildlife. The court’s ruling means the Obama administration won’t be able to hide behind Bush-era policies on an issue the public clearly cares about.”

Although he received $125,000 for speaking, a former Communist told an audience that:

If he could, Mikhail Gorbachev would be out on the streets of New York protesting Wall Street and economic inequality, the former Soviet Union president said in a speech Friday at the University of Wyoming.

Cobell passes; SD governor misleading BH property owners

Elouise Cobell, the Montana Blackfeet activist turned lead plaintiff, passed Sunday at a Great Falls Hospital. Kristen Cates of the Great Falls Tribune tells us:

Cobell's name will go down in history as the woman who won recognition and respect for her people, who had been cheated out of money by the federal government since the late 1800s. The measure was funded and approved by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, and signed into law by President Barack Obama on Dec. 8, 2010. She also helped found the Blackfeet National Bank, now the Native American Bank, in 1987, the first tribally owned bank in the United States.

In 2010, Ms. Cobell told the Missoula Independent:

When I leave Washington, I feel like I'm drained, like everyone's taken all the blood out of me. But as soon as you drive into your driveway and you see those mountains, you're puffed up again...you're back to normal and you're human again.

When will tribes in South Dakota be compensated for the theft of the Black Hills?

According to the Rapid City Journal, South Dakota's Dennis Daugaard (earth hater, Dell Rapids) has finally adopted some of ip's advice to private landowners in the Black Hills:

The South Dakota governor unveiled an initiative to fight pine beetles in August, and the state Agriculture Department is now helping landowners with identification and eradication efforts.

Good luck with that, dipshits; without prescribed fire you assholes are screwed.

President Obama: with an executive order, you could move the lands that now make up the Black Hills National Forest and the Custer National Forest into the protection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Rewild the West.

After gigs in Bozeman, the Back Porch in Spearditch, and on his way to Sioux City, the keyboard player for Seattle-based Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs is treating Pump House Coffee patrons as i type this:

La Niña means 2012 Missouri River flooding redux

Snowflakes are falling in Deadwood, the upper Missouri River Basin is filling with snow again and the earth haters in Congress are preparing to politicize the Army Corps of Engineers Master Manual. The recent trip to Fort Peck revealed that every waterway, pond, and slough was still saturated with moisture from Spring runoff.

From Amanda Ricker at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle:

“Snow amounts similar to last year are possible,” said Jim Brusda, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Great Falls. La Niña has re-emerged in the tropical Pacific Ocean and is forecast to gradually strengthen and continue into winter. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has upgraded last month’s La Niña Watch to a La Niña Advisory. “The mountains are starting to get their snow, and the valleys are cooling down,” Brusda said. “It’s definitely cooler and definitely fall-like. We’re slowly transitioning into winter.”

According to Minnesota Public Radio's 'blod' of weather:

The theory goes like this. More snow in Siberia deepens atmospheric waves that cause the Polar Vortex to warm and the jet stream to plunge down over the eastern USA...bringing cold and snow.

President Obama: rewild the West by dismantling the main stem dams in favor of small hydropower and geothermal energy.

More Montana images

Elk viewing at Slippery Ann in CM Russell Nat. Wildlife Refuge

The name has been bastardized from Cyprian to Siparyann to Slippery Ann Creek. It has become a safe refuge where elk gather as they leave summer grazing in the upper Missouri River Basin and migrate downstream to escape the winter. Managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the area is at the extreme west beginning of the Fort Peck Reservoir.

Once, we counted a hundred wapiti in the meadow while another hundred browsed and bugled concealed by the cottonwood and willow stands on the riverbanks. The waxing gibbous moon extended our viewing time well beyond twilight and long after the line of humans in cars and trucks on the road below us had dispersed. Then, coyotes harmonized in a chorus that continued until dawn. Spring flooding sustained stands of grass that still hid calves and cows while they lazed about. Unfortunately, no camera images of the herd were clear enough to post.

President Obama: protect this resource then expand it into the entire upper Missouri Basin by connecting public, private, and tribal lands. Then dismantle the main stem dams in favor of geothermal energy.

Rewild the West.

The Black Hills Pioneer catches up to the slag glacier. Nice story, btw.

my appearance at the site of the slag pile collapse chased these turkeys from pecking at “pretty much a pile of glass" that has fallen onto the roadway as well as into the waterway

Talk about a shovel-ready job: fish not only species impacted by slag pile collapse

window rock in whitewood canyon

turkeys within a hundred yards of slag pile collapse

Barrick bought off GFP to look the other way in Whitewood Creek

Bill Harlan reported the swindle:

Homestake and its parent company, Barrick Gold Corp. of Toronto, have agreed to those terms, but GF&P Secretary John Cooper warned that if the state doesn't act, some of the most spectacular scenery in the Black Hills could end up in private hands. "Without public acquisition of these lands, it appears inevitable, that Barrick will sell these lands to developers that seek to build trophy homes," Cooper wrote in a letter accompanying his proposal. He argued that even Roughlock Falls could become privately owned, "thus locking out a public treasure." Money for the $3.3 million deal would not come from taxpayers, Cooper said. In fact, most of it would come from Homestake. Cooper hopes to use about $3.1 million that the state already has been awarded as compensation for cyanide and other hazardous substances Homestake dumped into Whitewood Creek for decades. The creek was named a Superfund site in 1981, but Homestake completed restoration in 1994, and the creek was taken off the Superfund list in 1996. In 1997, however, South Dakota and Indian tribes sued Homestake. The settlement established the Whitewood Creek Restoration Fund. The state's share of the complicated settlement was about $2.7 million, which has grown with interest to about $3.1 million. Cooper hopes to use that money to buy the Homestake land.

The entire northern portion of this slag heap is in an hydrologically active draw and moving toward it is a slide from an event above it. It's a slag glacier preparing to calf again.

Deadwood mayor Francis A. Toscana told ip in a phone interview that his concern is for the flood potential posed by slide activity.

Where the removed slag might go remains a mystery.

UPDATE: Kevin Woster's story at the Rapid City Journal.

Deadwood slag pile collapses into Whitewood Creek

A portion of a highly toxic slag pile in repose below Deadwood has collapsed into Whitewood Creek. The force of the cave-in caused ejecta to partially block the adjacent roadway and has dammed the creek for approximately thirty feet.

South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks has been alerted.

How this thing has gone ignored for at least nine Republican administrations remains a mystery.

UPDATE, Monday, 2:40PM:

Recall that a major casino was once proposed for the uppermost portion of this pile and that Kevin Costner has been a player in its history.

It appears to me that activity by a landowner above may have contributed to the slide. An iron fence, barely visible in above photo, had fallen over the side and has since been removed.

Stan Michals from GFP called me and said he had only just heard of the incident from my voicemail to him. He said DENR has dispatched an inspector and GFP will act on its recommendations.

DENR's words to Michals were that the metals in the slag are "not very mobile" and "they don't immediately impact the fishery."

It is unknown which agency is at the lead. Michals does not know who will act to remove the slag from the creek.

Update, the Black Hills Pioneer has a story linked here.

Planned Parenthood discriminated against in rural health initiative

Yesterday, Cara Hetland interviewed Avera Health Services representatives on Bill Janklow's idea of public radio in a discussion of access to rural health care. Women's reproductive health did not come up although a listener submitted this question:

"Does rural health include open access to full reproductive services to women?"

Red states insist that private enterprise provides the best health care yet Planned Parenthood is discriminated against in favor of mega-hospitals like Avera.

From my inbox:

Dear Friends and Family – 

As many of you know, it has been a challenging year for those of us at Planned Parenthood who work every day to protect access to basic health care and preserve essential privacy rights when making medical decision. I want to take a moment and forward a letter from my CEO, Stacy James, regarding an issue developing at the federal level that represents yet another political attack on us as a provider. I hope you will take the time to read it and understand that the work that we do and patients that we see are our #1 priority and continued politically-based attacks do nothing to solve the issues before us as a country. 

If you have any questions for me or want to give me a quick, please feel free. I am happy to chat with any and all of you! 

Stacey J. Anderson, Director of Public Affairs 

Planned Parenthood of Montana 

Parenthood Advocates of Montana

 Dear Friend,

Last week, Congressman Cliff Stearns (R-FL) launched a politically motivated Congressional investigation of Planned Parenthood. You’d think after all that we’ve seen this year and experienced as a country that our opponents would be ready to put politics aside and focus on lifesaving, preventative health care. But no --- the attacks against Planned Parenthood keep coming. As a friend of mine, I want to be clear that we are taking this new attack very seriously and recognizing it for what it is, another divisive attack leading into a tough political year. At a time when the American people need jobs, it boggles my mind that some members of Congress keep abusing their positions to go after the nation’s most trusted provider of reproductive health care. Despite the actions by some members of Congress, I am certain about a few things… 

1. That the majority of Montanans and Americans see Planned Parenthood as a trusted nonprofit health care provider that offers quality health care, including birth control, lifesaving cancer screenings, annual exams, and STD testing and treatment, 

2. That Planned Parenthood of Montana provides care to almost 17,000 Montanans every year and our sister affiliates provide care to three million women and men across the country, 

3. That Planned Parenthood of Montana routinely works with government regulators, nonprofit foundation donors, and independent auditors to ensure compliance with all rules and regulations regarding the funding we receive, whether it is a private contribution, a foundation grant, or federal or state funding, such as Medicaid reimbursements, and 

4. That our allies in Congress are speaking up, including Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), Congresswoman Jan Shakowski (D-IL), and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT). Our friends are standing strong and blasting the instigators of this political attack. You can read the Rep. Waxman and Rep. DeGette letter here. 

As you know, it takes a lot of energy to keep standing up to these attacks. In an effort to help people understand the situation from a trusted source, I am sharing this information with you. Please feel free to forward this email or consider writing your own personal message to your friends and family – we need everyone to know that these continued attacks against Planned Parenthood are unacceptable. Furthermore, we must let our elected representatives know that some members of Congress need to adjust their priorities to match those of most Americans --- we’re talking about jobs, the economy, and access to affordable health care. 

Do what you can –we know times are tough and most of us are fed up with the current political climate. But, despite our frustration, we can’t give up now and I can assure you, Planned Parenthood of Montana will never quit – we are dedicated to our patients, our mission, and our shared future.

Background on the Stearns “investigation” of Planned Parenthood
- On September 20th, PPFA received a letter from Representative Cliff Stearns (R, FL-6), announcing a politically motivated investigation of Planned Parenthood and demanding years of records from PPFA and Planned Parenthood affiliates. Stearns is the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. 

PPFA believes this Congressional investigation is motivated in part on a “report” issued by Americans United for Life in the summer 2011. The document, titled The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood, used discredited, recycled, and misleading claims in an effort to prompt congressional hearings against Planned Parenthood. 

§ Americans United for Life is an anti-choice organization founded in 1971. It has close ties to the Family Research Council and opposes common forms of birth control and expanded access to birth control. In addition to its investigation of reproductive healthcare providers around the country, AUL has been criticized by The Huffington Post, Mother Jones, and RHRealityCheck for drafting and farming to state legislatures “model” anti-choice legislation including fetal pain legislation and fetal homicide legislation. 

§ While the document uses false and/or discredited information to support its claims, it does list specific states where it believes Planned Parenthood has operated inappropriately. Montana was not mentioned in the report. The states named in the report are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin. 

- On September 27th, allies of Planned Parenthood began issuing statements. Rep. Henry Waxman (D- CA-30), the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO-1), ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, released a letter questioning the “basis for the investigation.” The letter includes quotes like, “We are aware of no predicate that would justify this sweeping and invasive request to Planned Parenthood,” and “It would be an abuse of the oversight process if you are now using the Committee’s investigative powers to harass Planned Parenthood again. Your fervent ideological opposition to Planned Parenthood does not justify launching this intrusive investigation.”  

Following the release of the Waxman letter, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have both issued statements in support of Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood expects similar statements from allies in Congress in the near future. 

On September 27th, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America President, Cecile Richards, conducted a reporter conference call with select reporters regarding this letter and the investigation. She was joined by a Planned Parenthood patient from Rep. Stearns district. Media began to pick up the story on September 27th, and we anticipate that national and local media interest will develop in the coming days.