DOWNLOADS: (303)

PLAYS: (927)

Embed

It appears the House Republicans, this time lead by Arizona Rep. Trent Franks are about to give us a sort of a rerun of the Sandra Fluke debacle, only this time the woman they're refusing to allow to testify before a Congressional hearing is D.C.'s only elected representative, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton:

Trent Franks Blocks D.C. Representative From Testifying About Proposed D.C. Abortion Ban:

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) wants to restrict abortions in the District of Columbia, but he refuses to allow D.C.’s delegate from testifying on behalf of the city’s residents during a hearing about his proposal. Franks’ “fetal pain” bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy in D.C. even though there is no scientific proof that a fetus can feel pain at that point and a fetus is not viable.

Del. Eleanor Norton (D), D.C.’s only elected represetative, asked Franks last week if she could testify about the bill at an upcoming Thursday hearing. Franks denied her request, which Norton said breaks tradition of allowing members of Congress to testify about a bill that affects their constituents. Similarly, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) prevented women from testifying on a panel about contraception back in February.

Norton told the Huffington Post that her constituents are “up in arms” about the proposed abortion ban:

“This is the first bill in history that attempts to take the residents of the District of Columbia outside of the protection of the Constitution,” she continued. “The right to have an abortion until viability is a mandated right under Roe v. Wade. I think it takes a lot of nerve to single out the constituents of another member’s district for discriminatory treatment, and we deeply resent it.” [...]

D.C. is an easy target for anti-abortion bills, Norton said, because it doesn’t have any elected officials who can vote in Congress.

“Why wouldn’t they put this bill in for the entire country if they feel so deeply about it?”

In December, House Republicans forced a ban on funding for abortion services in D.C. to avoid a government shutdown and even prevented the city from using local taxes to pay for abortion care, reinstating a 13-year ban on abortion funding in D.C. that President Obama overturned in 2009.

Del. Norton spoke to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow about the upcoming hearing in the video clip above.

DOWNLOADS: (495)

PLAYS: (2934)

Embed

Rachel Maddow points out for us that despite Representatives Louie Gohmert and Trent Franks' fantasies about more guns equaling there being any less crime, in the states where we have more lenient gun laws, the opposite is true.

These idiots want to take us back to some version of the Wild Wild West and pretend that if everyone has the ability to shoot each other, somehow fewer people would end up being shot.

Rep. Gohmert apparently thinks that having guns on the House floor is a good idea as well.

Texas Republican Louie Gohmert Drafting Legislation To Let Guns on House Floor:

To Louie Gohmert, the answer to violence is more guns, and allowing members of congress to carry them on the House floor.“It’d be a good thing for members of Congress who want to carry a weapon in the District,” he said. “I know friends that walk home from the Capitol. There’s no security for us,” he said, adding that the measure would deter people from attacking members. “There is some protection in having protection.”He said there were times during the health care debate last year that he felt afraid, including when a stranger approached him on the street and started screaming at him.

Gohmert’s staff is preparing a bill that would allow guns. Of course, what do you expect from a man who believes women come to the United States to have “terror babies” and to whom comparing Obama to Hitler is “brilliant.”

And Rep. Trent Franks thinks if we'd just had one more shooter during that tragedy in Arizona, all would have been well.

Trent Franks: 'I Wish There Had Been One More Gun' In Tucson -- There was, and he almost shot the wrong person.

Here's more from Rachel Maddow's blog on why more guns in the hands of citizens doesn't ever equal less people being killed with guns with some stats on states and gun ownership.

DOWNLOADS: (179)

PLAYS: (568)

Embed

Countdown's Worst Persons segment for Sept. 30, 2009 with winner Lou Dobbs. Runners up Trent Franks and Glenn Beck.