All these Occupy signboards I'm seeing got me thinking. So, I made this little sign tonight for Halloween.

 

Last July Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether hosted a special briefing for community and business leaders to fill us in on the proposed $115 million dollar Events Center which we get to vote on in a couple weeks. Unless you've been in a cave somewhere you are aware this has been a major matter of conversation and controversy in our community for a few years and so I won't rehash the particulars here. I will say I very much appreciated the briefing and got excited about the potential. Even so, I was the only one in the room of 100 or so who stood up during the Q&A to voice my concerns.

Basically I referenced Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn who hammered Obama just a day or so before. In no uncertain terms he said he's not building anything right now, nor is he hiring anyone….

“the business community in this country is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States…. I’m afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States…. And I’m saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I could prove it and I could spend the next three hours giving you examples of all of us in this marketplace that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right, a President that seems — that keeps using that word redistribution. …And until he is gone, everybody is going to be sitting on their thumbs."

You get the idea.

And so I agreed with the Mayor that so far Sioux Falls and South Dakota have been pretty sheltered from the economic shaking out there but my point was that if a guy like Wynn — who knows a lot more than we do about building Event Centers - - if a guy like Steve Wynn is sitting on his hands right now, maybe this ought to give us some serious pause.  And then I shared my firm conviction that there is big economic storm coming and it's like everyone else in the nation is boarding up their windows to get ready and here we are talking about heading out in a new gazillion dollar sailboat (I wanted to say Love Boat). I agree with Joel Rosenthal, this is not the right time. No doubt there would be jobs created to build it, but taxpayers are being asked to pay for it and the full story there is being minimized - the jobs last two years, paying for it takes twenty. No thanks, not in this economy.

After the Q&A, former District 9 Senator Tom Dempster reminded me the Events Center sits right in the heart of my legislative district - District 9! Of course I'm well aware of that and you'd think I'd be all for a big project like this right in the middle of my legislative district. However for two simple reasons I'm not. First, the cost to taxpayers is not $115 million, it's $172 million. Second, I'm not as optimistic that there is a demand for such a facility here. We've heard all the promises before of how this will pay for itself and be an incredible boost to the local economy,,, hotels, etc.  Frankly, I can picture it half full of people and I'm not hearing the public asking for it.

Here's what I do hear… I get constituent emails with questions like this: "Have any projections been put together on what the “average” homeowner will pay in additional real estate taxes to retire the bonds on the proposed Events Center?"

The most interesting email came from a Sioux Falls attorney who compared this whole thing to the Berlin Sportpalast where Josef Goebbels delivered his “Total War” speech in 1943. I thought you'd enjoy chewing on it as much as I did:

If the Sportpalast would have been built in a Nazi Germany in the present era, it would feature the “naming rights” of Krupps, I.G. Farben, Bayer, etc. No question about that. Corporatism leads to fascism (“it’s all about jobs and the economy stupid”). They have this blinding attachment to the “god-given right to make a profit” at the expense of others and externalize their costs of doing business onto the public and the poor.

Obviously he's voting no to a Sioux Falls Sportpalast. Me too.

Far better for a local company right now to sponsor special programs and staff in our underfunded schools than to drop five or six digits just to get their name on a scoreboard. That would be a real win for our community and future.

It's nothing to build these types of nice new buildings when your business is exploiting those on the econonic margins of our state by charging 500% interest. Do you suppose the fella who built these nice new buildings also drives this schnazzy car? I took the pic today because that's what it looked like to me. Perhaps I'm wrong.

Maybe it's time to Occupy the Payday and Title Loan Lenders in South Dakota. They are greedy lenders who push a defective product intentionally designed to be a debt-trap. They are vultures who circle those who struggle to get by.

It takes about 15,800 signatures to put a 36% payday/title loan interest rate cap on our 2012 ballot. The deadline is 11 days from now. A few months ago I gave serious consideration to a coalition-led ballot initiative effort on this as the legislature doesn't seem to have a will for it. (More on my recent legislative attempts at that here.) Do you think the voters in South Dakota would vote for a 36% payday/title loan interest rate cap in our state? I do. Especially now.

South Dakota's usury laws are immoral.  "Cancel the debts of the oppressed and tear apart every unjust contract." Isaiah 58:6

The slogan on my campaign literature reads "We The People." I hardly attribute my election victory to that slogan but I've been elected as a Representative of the people and plan to continue to listen to them and seek to be their representation. We saw a right-of-center popular uprising a few years ago with the Tea Party. Today we see a left of center popular uprising with the Occupy movement. One champions free market capitalism and it's perhaps too early to say for sure but the other seems bent on more Socialism or Marxism. One blames government and one blames corporations and banks. Fact of the matter is the government so far has only bailed out the banks and the big guys. The party that has the plan to bail out the little guy is the true party of the people. And by bailout I mean freedom not freebies.

From both vantage points I hear similar sentiments of a people not truly free. Here we are in the land of the free and yet so few are truly free. On both the right and on the left, most are shackled wage slaves and I have a lot to say on how an individual can break free of the bondage there. Personal responsibility is the path to freedom. Government needs to get out of the way so people can pursue life, liberty and happiness. As Herman Cain points out, the order is important. You can pursue happiness as long as it doesn't take away my liberty.  And you can pursue liberty as long as you aren't infringing on someone else's right to life. People are frustrated to the degree they aren't truly free.

If it's true that underneath the popular protests of the left and right are similar sentiments of people not truly free, how does one represent them in the halls of power? For starters, you don't alienate them. This past weekend at our House Republican Caucus retreat, we talked about our priorities and focus these next two to five years as SD House Republicans. My contribution was to make a case for a People First agenda. I made up the term People First Republicans to underscore the importance of making sure we remain of the people; including children and the elderly, the poor and working poor, Hispanics and immigrants, natives, and the unemployed and underemployed middle class. I spoke of this nation now being in the first skirmishes of what I foresee as a Great Class War, and I do view it as manufactured.

The NY Post today dubbed Obama as "an isolated man trapped in a collapsing presidency." No rejoicing from me on his implosion due to his disastrous policies because it is not just his presidency that is collapsing, this great nation suffers the consequences. And so Obama has few remaining friends and few remaining cards to play except the race and class cards. That is what we are seeing and America is now fighting the first battles in what I foresee as a Great Class War. The people don't win that battle. In fact, if this escalates and it easily could as the left isn't as mannered as the right, Marshall Law is a possibility in our cities.

So, as we seek entitlement reform (inarguably, our present course is entirely unsustainable) we need to highlight how Republican solutions aren't heartless. As we seek immigration reform, we need to proceed in ways that don't alienate those here legally. Particular to our state, my native friends have told me for years that our native populations loyalty to the Democratic Party has left them no better off than they were before and there would be a shift to the Republican ticket if Republicans demonstrated some concern for their people, or people in general.

Sounds like I'm beating the compassionate conservatism drum again. Sort of. I foresee increasing numbers of frustrated people as a result of failed economic policies, irresponsible consumerism and Poor Dad thinking, and to the degree Republican solutions are seen as little people friendly, we will see the greatest days of our party. So far all I'm seeing in the Occupy movement is the lazy versus the greedy. I concur it is high time we renounce unbridled usury, greed and cronyism. But the solution isn't more government. The solution is we empower and incentivise the people to prosper and reward big banks and big business to the degree they get their foot off the neck of the little guy.

Considering this is Holy Week I'm inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to KSFY's Morning Show hoping they had no idea what they were doing in endorsing DakotaWomen.com on their Morning Show yesterday. They featured Mandy Hagseth of DakotaWomen.com saying of her and her blogging friends… "I think this is so great!"  ((I am glad to see DW moving out of the realm of anonymity as they are now more accountable to their slanders.)) This from KSFY (use the link above to see the video of the segment)…

Do you suppose they'll endorse VoicesCarry? Maybe those reading this should drop KSFY a note and inquire.

Hagseth says DW takes a humourous and irreverent tone intentionally to contrast the inherent toxicity in politics. I'm sorry, their blog is the textbook definition of toxicity in politics. KSFY celebrated them as a voice for women but left out what they actually have said about scads of women who disagree with them on the only issue they care about - unbridled abortion. They are only a voice for women who think dismembering living children without anesthesia is a good thing. No mention from KSFY that this is a militant pro-abortion propaganda machine. Grandma's throughout the region watching the segment likely came away thinking… aren't these nice bright young girls. Hardly. They spew hate and vitriol, Grandma, you'd be shocked at what comes out of their mouths.

Nevermind the middle school level name calling (douche bags, a__holes, etc) that the DW call male legislators like myself, Roger Hunt, Manny Steele or how they dub other activists for women like Leslee Unruh things like "whore" or worse. And nevermind how shockingly cruel and callous they are toward women who say abortion hurt them. Surely it's in ignorance that KSFY smiles at those who refer to women legislators like Sen. Phyllis Heineman as Syphillus Heineman (I won't repeat the levels of nasty they go to in talking about Sen. Shantel Krebs or Rep. Kristi Noem). Yet, KSFY says about DakotaWomen,"you guys are very well-spoken and smart." It's disappointing how they have bestowed a false sense of legitimacy to these crass talking Tonya Hardings of our state's blogosphere.

It was curious to me KSFY also left out the enormous little detail that one of the four writers of DW is the newest and youngest member of our State Senate, Angie Buhl. Obviously I've continued to blog after getting elected yet unlike them I've expunged nothing from my site. So I hope Sen. Buhl continues to write the type of things she's written these last few years at DakotaWomen.com as her immature and unprofessional alienation of the thirty of the thirty-five members of the Senate will ensure she isn't able to pass so much as gas in that chamber, or so I'm told by my colleagues in the Senate.

Early in this legislative session I was making an effort to personally reply to every email. Two weeks into the session I changed to only replying personally to emails I could tell were from my district and I sent the rest a cut and paste generic reply. Now, even that isn't possible. Why? The school district(s) used their emergency notification communication system get the masses to send email. My inbox had 400 education-related emails from Friday PM to Monday AM. (West River legislators comment that 80% of their education emails are from Sioux Falls). Several hundred of these emails contained these two sentences, verbatim:

"We are taxpayers and we expect K-12 education to be funded without a decrease."

"The childen in our state are depending on you. Please don't let them down."

Please consider this post my mass reply… Thanks for emailing me your concerns about potential education cuts. I share your concerns and want you to know all options are on the table and great effort is underway in seeking ways to minimize cuts - you'll see in the news already cuts have been reduced from 10% to 6.6% - stay tuned as this ain't over 'til it's over. 

As I'm married to a teacher, I should know better than to use the word ain't in replying to a bunch of educators. Mrs. Hickey taught for years here in both the Sioux Falls and Harrisburg districts. Just for fun I'll share I did get some emails loaded with lousy english. One that comes to mind was the simple note:

 "Dear Rep. Hickey, We can't not have any more cuts to increasing education funding again this year."  

Here's an email related to the snowmobile/coyote bill that more illustrated to me the need for better education in South Dakota- I'll quote it exactly as I it came to me: 

Deer I encurage you to vote against SB55
its in humaneto chase something to its death
will more then likly increes trustpassing
will make it harder for people who hunt them
and is unsafe to humans

Most emails were gracious and I appreciate that - a few were, to put it nicely… silly.  For example, yesterday a gentlemen wrote and accused me and every Republican of being feudal lords who apparently want the masses we control to remain uneducated.

More from the lighter side— of my three kids, two are still at home– a junior and senior in high school (public). A few weeks ago I asked what they thought about the Governor's proposed 10% cuts to education.  They responded by suggesting, in jest, specific teachers they'd like to see get a pink slip. I have no real point in sharing that except it was a moment of levity which I needed at that moment.

I appreciate emails more than I do these postcards. Each day we are getting stacks of these cards in the mail and I know it's part of the process but unless there is a handwritten note they head right into the trash.

As this post has been about modes of constituent feedback to legislators regarding education funding, I'll share an example of things not to do.  Stories like the following are filtering in from all over the state…  a certain legislator's fifth grade daughter's class was given the assignment to call "Sally's" mom and ask her why she wants to cut school funding.  That evening, little girls were calling Sally's home asking for her mom. It's a bummer that Sally's friends were turned against her mom and little Sally was upset. Thankfully the superintendent shut that assignment down.

Might I suggest a better activity for helping school children understand these things. Get some construction paper and have them cut pieces of a pie - tell them the 47% piece of the pie is for education, 37% is for taking care of people, 12% is for protecting the public and 4% is for the rest of state government. Then tell them the federal government is mandating the "taking care of people" piece of the pie increase 10%. The assignment can be they have to increase that part of the pie and do so without letting the children of South Dakota down.

Older students can discuss the pros and cons of using rainy day funds when it's only partly cloudy in South Dakota (as compared to California, Illiois, etc, etc) or discuss the pros and cons of tax increases during a recession. 

In 2014 I suggest a class assignment might be to have children call all the parents who voted for Obama and ask how they think our state government should pay for the 58,000 additional people Obamacare mandates our state adds to the medcaid rolls. It'd be a great discussion about how this creates an impossible and unsustainable situation for the states.

Yesterday I was fortunate to be able to have a conversation here in the Capital with Sen. Larry Pressler who served three terms in the US Senate representing South Dakota and two terms in the US House. Sen. Pressler was in town to speak at a dinner honoring a legendary journalist in our state Terry Woster.  Unfortunately I don't have a more precise quote but our conversation centered around the key role state legislators and governor's are playing in filling a leadership void in America right now.  He said these are the type of things he's talking about in his lectures these days which I'm assuming are at West Point. Basically he said something to this effect…

Again, this is a paraphrase… "In different periods of our nation's history, our House of Representatives has led the nation. Other times (like just prior to the Civil War) the Senate provided the leadership our nation needed at that time.  More recently (Reagan for example) we have seen a strong President provide that needed leadership.  Now we are in a period of strong Governors and State Legislatures providing the leadership our nation is needing."

Any thoughts on that? I say let's continue to wag the DC dog.

Consider this the next installment in my series of posts sharing my commentary on legislative issues presently on the table here in Pierre. Some reps and senators are able to write a weekly article for their weeklies and newspapers in their district. I don't have that option, so I'm using this format and some little write ups on Facebook to communicate and get feedback.

We are working hard to figure out the best way to deal with a $127 million dollar structural deficit. Governor Daugaard has proposed 10% cuts and the Republican super-majority here in the legislature, including me, by and large support cuts over tax increases or use of reserve funds to cover these on-going expenses. In this post I want to comment on one of the options that is on the table– a one cent sales tax increase.

If you've heard me talk on this issue you know I don't refer to this as a "one cent sales tax increase" but rather as a $160 million dollar tax increase imposed on our state in tough economic times. I weary of hearing those who promote the one cent sales tax increase talk about it as if it was a measly nothing.  If it didn't add up substantially, it wouldn't be considered a solution to this significant structural deficit.  We are talking about it because it DOES add up… to $160 MILLION DOLLARS or $197 per capita, 70% of which is in-state, or $138 per capita.  So, for my family of five, that adds up to $690 a year.  We are hearing from the other side of the aisle that even a $2 increase a week for groceries is more than many low income South Dakotans can afford right now.

Even so, we are hearing from many in our state right now who say… please raise our taxes.  And, though they aren't making headlines, we are hearing from many others who say… don't raise our taxes.  Additionally, it is no secret there are nowhere near the two-thirds votes needed in this legislature to raise taxes. Even if there were two-thirds, the Governor would still veto it.  It takes two thirds to override his veto and again, those votes aren't here.

Because there is insufficient support here for the tax increase, we hear that those in the education community are preparing to put this sales tax increase issue on the ballot and designate the extra penny to education.  There is another conversation going on here about the legislature appropriating resources for a special election on this tax increase issue.  Some say No, we were elected to decide and we are shirking our duties if we were to push the decision off on the people. We are reminded of the differences between a Republic and a Democracy and the point there is that we are a Republic and we were elected to decide for the people.

Here's the thing… my campaign slogan was WE THE PEOPLE. Less than a year ago, I and all my patriot friends were going bananas because our elected officials in Washington were making decisions that were clearly against the will of the people. That's why I and others put WE THE PEOPLE on all our campaign literature last fall.  Yet, it feels a bit hypocritical right now when I hear patriots saying we don't want the people voting on a tax increase.  Though I will vote no on tax increases, frankly, I'd feel like an obstructionist to get in the way of a special election of the people on this issue.

Reading the tea leaves, I'll say this IS going to a vote of the people it only remains to be seen if the legislature provides the leadership in that, or if the education community leads the way and claims that one cent for themselves.  If a one cent tax increase went to a vote and passed, I'd rather see some go to education, and some go to Medicaid, and some go to a Medicaid Increase Cost Account so we are able to deal with the 58,000 new additional Medicaid recipients Obamacare is making our state take in.  Even if Obamacare is ruled unconstitutional, I'm pretty sure we can't cut our way out of what's coming - that is unless the optimists are right and we are in a recovery.  Not for a second do I believe we are in a recovery.

As long as we are talking about YOU voting on this issue, cast your vote below:

Amazingly, up near the top of the list of controversial legislation this session is SB55 which is an act to allow the shooting of coyotes from snowmobiles.  Gotta love South Dakota!

Actually, I was initially planning to vote NO and have been returning emails for three weeks saying I'm inclined to vote NO but that I'm looking forward to the debate. Second only to emails regarding budget cuts, emails regarding SB55 have been relentless.  East River South Dakota landowners say - NO - because it's nuts to even think about a couple sixteen year olds with loaded guns going 60 mph on snowmobiles.  East River South Dakota landowners make the point that what may be fine in the wide open spaces of West River South Dakota won't work in the East River landscape of fencelines and farms.

But SB55 was amended and now the bill only allows a coyote to be taken "BY A LANDOWNER or lessee on the landowner's property by shooting from STATIONARY snowmobiles through the use of firearms if the operator of the snowmobile is at least 18 years of age."  We will vote on Monday.  The SD snowmobile association opposes this bill because… "the negative national exposure would not be good for South Dakota or organized snowmobiling."

75% of those emailing me to vote NO are fully unaware this has now been amended to only give a landowner a green light to use a snowmobile in his efforts to deal with the coyote problem we have in South Dakota.  It is a predator control bill not a hunting bill.

Here's a pic courtesy of Merrill Nelson, District Supervisor of USDA/APHIS/Wildlife Services, of three Perkin's County boys who shot over 400 coyotes from the first of November 2010 to the first week of February 2011.

Before you start feeling all sad for these cute puppies, here's a pic from Rep. Betty Olson of her neighbors dead sheep. Here we have fourteen yearling ewes killed by coyotes in ONE NIGHT. Note that they weren't eaten, just killed. They are worth $250 each and they were all pregnant with next year's lamb crop. Coyotes are vicious predactors that are decimating South Dakota livestock just for fun, not for food.

This issue has bought me into direct contact with the animal rights crowd for the first time - emails coming from all over the world. They direct us to youtube clips like the one below to show how inhumane it is to run a coyote over with a snowmobile.  (I've resisted the temptation to ask these animal rights advocates if they are equally outspoken about the callous and inhumane dismembering of living human beings in their mother's wombs) 

Running over coyotes with snowmobiles IS happening in South Dakota.  But it is already ILLEGAL and SB55 doesn't make it legal. Actually, SB55 would make it LESS tempting to use illegal and inhumane methods (such as running them over) to deal with the problem.  We are talking about vast open areas of land and landowners can now shoot from a truck or a plane but not a snowmobile. This time of year a snowmobile is the only way to get to these animals and this is the time of year TO get them.

So, I'm voting YES because the amendments eliminate concerns about creating dangerous situations, unfair chase and pursuit and unsportsman-like activity.  Another amendment will come Monday proposing to delete the pursuit language in line 10 - that amendment would make this an even better bill.  Here's another pic I thought was "vintage South Dakota." It seems pretty relevant to this debate, wouldn't you say?

In light of these issues floating around in my head, I had to chuckle driving up to the Capital this morning - I followed big red pickup with a gun in the back window and a personalized plate that said… COYOTE5.  I love this state!

The abortion bill HB-1217 passed the House yesterday 49-19. It was amazing to hear debate which actually compared an abortion to a vasectomy as if they were even remotely equal! Really? Unless it was horribly, horribly botched, a vasectomy doesn't result in the dismembering and death of a separate, living and unique human being (all without anesthesia- btw… some studies show a baby feels pain at eight weeks). In any case, the vasectomy point fell flat the moment the first guy got up to say vasectomies get scheduled after a visit with a doctor, not right now same day. That's the point of HB1217– a waiting period which is preceded and succeeded by a woman being given info from all sides of this issue.

It is well established in South Dakota (through nearly 2000 women's oral and written testimonies given a legislative task force) that there is NO doctor/patient relationship in abortion practice right now. Virtually all said their decision was ill-informed or coerced. They testified they were left to themselves before and after. Those opposing any attempts to make abortion rare make hay about HB1217 requiring women to visit a pregnancy help center and how these are places with "no medical certification or training." Aside from that not being true, what IS true is that the South Dakota Task Force on Abortion discovered those who sell abortions in our state are actually the ones operating with no expertise. Even the lone doc they fly in and out of our state to attend the five minutes of the abortion procedure repeatedly testified while being deposed for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals that she wouldn't disclose biological facts about a fetus, even if a woman asked!!

This is an outfit that fights a woman's access to ANY medical advancements which might hurt abortion sales. Those who sell abortions know 90% of abortion-bound women who see a sonogram choose LIFE and so they fight vigorously to keep women from anything but 1973-era technology.  Their clinics ARE the back alley - dangerous. (Please read at least the first paragraph of that link).  But back on point, South Dakota's sole abortion store is staffed by "patient educators", according to the legislative task force, people who have no knowledge of human embryology, human genetics or molecular biology. One of my favorite stories from the depositions now before the Eighth Circuit Court is of the former director of abortion store in Sioux Falls testifying under oath, actually guessing under oath, that humans have thirteen chromosomes. She had no idea when a human heart started beating. And so, HB1217 does what the legislative task force concluded needed to be done… put additional laws forth in South Dakota to make these supposed abortion doctors act like real doctors.

And please, enough already with the bloviating about how "we South Dakotans have twice voted to leave the abortion issue alone, but that the Legislature doesn’t get the message." Those who persistently defend the indefensible can be often heard misinterpreting the results of our two recent state-wide attempts to ban abortion. Remarkably the debate in both those attempts focused solely on the exceptions (rape, incest, incompatible with life fetal anomalies) and can in no way be interpreted to mean South Dakotans are just fine with the present practice of using abortion as back-up birth control. My goodness, 46% of our state voted for a TOTAL ban on ALL abortions (except for life/health of mom) in 2006. In 2008, our initiated measure failed because those who sell abortions were successful at diverting all attention off abortion being used as birth control to a several month debate on how, if at all, the 2008 ban would, or would not, have affected one single pregnant mom in South Dakota, a mom with a rare twin-to-twin pregnancy. In other words, the 2008 ban became about ONE abortion in South Dakota, not all abortions in South Dakota.  My point, the votes of 2006 and 2008 can not be construed to show a desire among South Dakotans to "leave the abortion issue alone."

It has been established in South Dakota by legislative finding that the process that takes place in an abortion procedure in South Dakota creates a coercive environment; women pressured to make a decision quickly, many testified they wanted to change their decision and were not permitted to, we have depositions of women saying they were told to "shut up and stop crying" and they sign consents and pay before seeing a doctor. Under oath, even Planned Parenthood admits 25% of women are "crying and bawling" during "pre-abortion counseling." You'd think if these were indeed legitimate "health care" shops someone would suggest a mom take some time to let the emotions settle so she doesn't do something under emotional duress that she might regret later.  But no, as any good salesman would do, they nail down the sale before a moment of clarity comes to the buyer. Abortion remains the absolute lowest form of anything that can even remotely be called healthcare.  HB1217 changes all that because women deserve better.

The respectability facade Planned Parenthood has enjoyed for several decades is finally shattering. The US House of Representatives voted just a few days ago to defund Planned Parenthood (they get $317+ million taxpayer dollars a year). Congress is voting to defund this house of horrors because repeatedly they are caught covering up sex crimes against minors allowing the perp to stay in business and hurt more women. They were recently caught providing a safe haven for sex traffickers. I may write elsewhere the horrors I read in a 250 grand jury report (huge file pdf alert) from Pennsylvania which concludes that a system-wide failure of government to protect women seeking abortion and that this failure is in part due to timidity as a result of political correctness and false assumptions that someone is making sure there is oversight. The former governor of Pennsylvania writes how he was "flabbergasted by lax abortion scrutiny… to learn that the Department of Health did not think their authority to protect public health extended to clinics offering abortion services."

Mark my words, the day is coming when class action lawsuits start popping up all over America by women in their twenties and thirties who start coming forward saying - I was raped and repeatedly molested when I was 15 by a 29 year old and Planned Parenthood knew it and my life today is a wreck because that started the downward spiral which is so common with women who've had abortion. Imagine that, class action suits against Planned Parenthood for their daily practice of covering up sex crimes against minors. You thought the Catholic priest pedophilia lawsuits that hammered the dioceses in the US were financially substantial ($2.6 BILLION in abuse related costs/settlements from 1950-2009). Just wait for this to come forth.

Those of you who are regular readers here know I'm able to go on and on and on with this issue. For now, read this article in Slate about "What Happened to the Women - A Grand Jury says Kermit Gosnell Mistreated and Killed Abortion Patients. Why did nobody stop him?" It's actually part one of something called "The Back Alley: How the Politics of Abortion Protects Bad Clinics."

A closing thought on why HB1217's seventy-two hour waiting period is reasonable for a major life and death medical decision… some studies show 30% of women regret their abortion and say it hurt them. Yet, even if it was only one in ten not three in ten—- talk about a deadly game of russian roulette!!!  Can you even fathom any official tolerance or FDA approval for any other, even minor procedure where three out of ten report negative fallout as a result?? A seventy-two hour waiting period is the least we can do. Ignore those who sell abortion when they tell you otherwise.

HB1217 now goes to the Senate and I expect it to pass there as well, especially after I print this article for my colleagues in the Senate to consider.