Sigh. Nobody could have predicted...

"Obama announces ‘accommodation’ for religious institutions on contraception"

Well, that didn't take long. Hello, establishment of religion.

And no, it won't be enough for the wingnuts. They won't be happy until lady parts are declared illegal, immoral, and off limits to anyone who wants to use them for anything other than procreation.

Seriously, Who's really playing eleventy-dimensional chess here? Certainly not the White House. They're falling for every move the Catholic Church/wingnuts make.

--WT, utterly disgusted

Comments

[Mr. Flibble]

Good God, Obama folds so fast he could win a speed origami competition.

Mr. Flibble is, indeed, very cross.

[jane_al]

As soon as I heard this, all I could yell while making my morning coffee was "Capitulation!!!" My dogs were surprised as they don't know anything about the voices in my head.

[Geeno]

Actually he's just telling them they can offer insurance without birth control in addition to insurance with, and let the employee's conscience decide.
He's actually boxed them in on the issue. They have to drop the whole religious freedom BS now. Not that they will, because it was never about religious freedom in the first place.

[punaise]

well I'm not endowed with lady-parts, so perhaps I'm not qualified to weigh in.

Big Orange (Kos, not Boehner) is touting this as a major coup for Obama:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/10/1063562/-Unicorn-sighting-a-political-compromise-that-makes-both-sides-happy?via=blog_1

[Steve-O]

I think you're off the mark. Here's good explanation as to why this isn't a cave at all (and I completely agree):

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/02/10/this-is-how-it-feels-to-win/

C'mon, people. Would you rather President Santorum/Romney/Gingrich be making these decisions?

[Alan]

My GF has decided she's going to stop stamping her feet after reading this:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/02/10/obama_riled_up_republicans_on_contraception_and_then_delivers_a_knock_out_punch_.html

[psychobroad]

I think it's brilliant--women get COMPLETE health care coverage,no matter what, and the Bishops lose a talking point. BRILLIANT! We know it was never about religious freedom, and when the pedophi--er, bishops keep complaining everyone else will know it too.

[Cilantro]

I just received this email forwarded by a Catholic friend. I am absolutely stunned at how quickly they figured out a way to make the compromise evil. Are they suggesting that the government legislate Catholic morality?
http://email.vervemail.com/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=5717256019&ch=1986DBF02E60B35477F46BC57B2D4255&h=97f31bea13fad41bd1516068a917aa65&ei=JPy_GfQNn

[Alan]

@Cilantro: Interesting. Its also on their website: "Catholics Not Fooled"!

http://www.catholicvote.org/discuss/index.php?p=26511

[watertiger]

Says Cardinal Dolan: "This is a step in the right direction." In other words, this was a win for the Church. They got what they wanted: to make "religious liberty" a viable argument in the political discourse, so long as it benefits them.

Look, you do NOT negotiate with terrorists, religious or otherwise. There is no end to it. Yes, it's great that women can sidestep their idiot employers and go directly to insurance companies to get their health care, but the Administration should not be ceding ground and establishing the "religious liberty" talking point. As Lindsay Beyerstein put it,

"Already Catholic special interests are objecting to funding contraception out of overall premiums because that means they're funding contraception indirectly. This kind of intransigence illustrates how foolish it was to try to compromise with this constituency in the first place. They are professionally unreasonable."

The Church and their minions won't stop until the Administration backs down completely. And the Administration has shown that it is willing to back down, when the red hats push hard enough.

[Alan]

They have votes and the ability to influence other voters, just like everyone else. It's not negotiating with terrorists, it's negotiating with voters.

[Auntie Meme]

Preach it, WT!

[queek]

Why have hospitals run by a religious institution at all?
"Nurse, I insist on a Catholic catheter!"

[Grung_e_Gene]

This is a well done move by President Obama. It lays bare the right-wing lies that Republicans and Teabaggers care about jobs or the debt or (having other Americans) fight the GWoT and shows the Right only cares about controlling women and punishing those dirty brazen strumpets who dare to have sex.

[Sir Winston Thriller]

Well, you could see it as a capitulation....but maybe as more and more and more things get moved to "required" from the insurer, the whole rotten system will collapse and we'll end up with...single payer national health....Medicare for all.

[zombie rotten mcdonald]

I don't think it's Obama's intent at all, but it does point out that funding healthcare through employers is idiotic; nearly as idiotic as a for-profit health care industry.

I think he was just trying to get contraceptive coverage on a more universal footing. And since the accomodation is being decried by Big Religio, they are outing themselves as the bigoted crybabies they are.

The solution, obviously, is single payer, universal health care with contraception for all who want it.

You know, since they are tax exempt but take advantage of public infrastructure, my taxes are funding churches and THAT OFFENDS ME MORALLY!

[Kate]

Queek: Its good to have a nun running around to make sure that when a woman comes into the emergency room suffering a dangerous pregnancy, that an abortion will not happen to save the mother, because you know that's a sin.