House Oversight Link to Contraception Mandate Hearing on Religious Liberty - updated link as the House modified it:

Full List of Invited Guests

This is the website actually listing the guidelines http://www.hrsa.gov/womensguidelines/ the text of the guideline says this about Contraception

Health Resources and Services Administration Supported Women’s Preventive Services: Required Health Plan Coverage Guidelines

Non-grandfathered plans and issuers are required to provide coverage without cost sharing consistent with these guidelines in the first plan year (in the individual market, policy year) that begins on or after August 1, 2012.

All Food and Drug Administration approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling for all women with reproductive capacity.As prescribed.

The Food  and Drug Administration states at http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/byaudience/forwomen/ucm118465.htm#emerg

Emergency Contraception

Plan B Pill

(Plan B, Plan B One-Step, Next Choice, Ella)

“The Morning After Pill”

May be used if you do not use birth control or if your regular birth control fails
It should not be used as a regular form of birth control

What is it?

* These are pills with hormones similar to other oral contraceptives.
* They stop the ovaries from releasing an egg or stops sperm from joining with the egg.

How do I use it?

* You can use these after you have unprotected sex (did not use birth control).
* You can also use these if your birth control did not work (i.e. the condom broke).
* You must swallow the pills within 72 hours of having unprotected sex.
* For the best chance for it to work, you should start taking the pills as soon as possible after
unprotected sex.

How do I get it?

* You can buy it over the counter if you are 18 years or older.
* If you are younger than 18, you need a prescription.

Now despite the characterization that this was a Contraception meeting with no female opinions to rebut the Religious Leaders, the truth is that there were 2 females that testified today

And they were requested and approved by the committee according to the rules that state witnesses must have been submitted 72 hours in advance.  The fact that there were no rebuttal witnesses who were women was entirely the Minority’s failure to properly find any women to testify on the matter of Religious Liberty and the Contraception Mandate which was the purpose of the hearing.  I listened to several arguments during the hearings and even read news reports of the Attack on Women, the Outrage of a Contraception Hearing disregarding and excluding women.  This is a completely false and untrue accusation and needlessly distracts from the Core 1st Amendment Freedom that is encroached by this Regulation.   Despite this abject failure by the Minority, they played political games by walking out of the committee and making false press releases, about their own failure, the Chairman still listed the testimony of their chosen witness at the House Oversight Website.  They declined to hear from Barry Lynn the approved counter witness who has credentials as a Leader of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The department of Health and Human Services has decided that life A.  Does not begin at Conception and any Non Profit Religious organization that does not discriminate and exclude non believers must provide and pay for “Ella” and the “Morning After” pill, these two FDA approved contraception methods directly contradict the clear teachings of many religious organizations and individual believers.  The Administration has picked a winner and the loser is the unborn child, and the millions of Religious Schools, Hospitals, Universities, Colleges, and other Organizations that hold that life does begin at Conception.  All that was necessary is for them to serve non-believers which of course many of the Universities and Hospitals provide.

This is a clear and evident violation of the “Free Exercise of Religion” from the Constitution and despite the outcry there is no compelling reason nor directive to provide free contraceptive services in either law or the Constitution.

In addition, the Administration has made an “Accommodation” that the rule will be paid for by the Health Insurers instead of by the Organizations, while this makes great headlines, it effectively doesn’t make any difference to the actual Religious Conscience objections outlined, nor was the actual regulation changed in any manner.  In the case of our University as many others we are a “Self-Funded” Health Care Plan and the University actually would now directly have to pay  for Contraceptive Services that directly violate our truly and scientifically accurate belief that life begins at conception.  Reference from Princeton University

Dr. Dub’s Testimony

looking up to the dome at Harrison County Historic Courthouse

I attended last night’s local Political Forum in the Old Renovated Harrison County Courthouse! This was my first Political Forum to attend here in Harrison County and I enjoyed hearing from candidates from 3 contested races.

District Clerk
Sherry Griffis
Mellinda Craig

County Court at Law
Jim Ammerman
Rick Hurlburt

District Attorney
Joe Black
Coke Solomon

(BTW if you wondered I listed the Incumbent first and all are Democrats the Challengers are Republicans)

Overview:
My impression of the venue, the setting and the hosts. My sincere appreciation to the League of Women Voters, while I was apprehensive from seeing the information online regarding their strong support of the Universal Health Care law and the Climate Change legislation that was pending in Congress and in general about the League, I can say with a certainty that the our Marshall/Harrison County League conducted themselves in a fine fashion in hosting a fair, balanced and productive Forum for the Candidates and the public to hear the candidates first hand and meet them in person.

The venue in the Renovated Harrison County Courthouse was wonderful and had room for about 150 guests I would estimate possibly a little more counting the second floor, I didn’t gaze up there but believe the main floor was more than 90% full during the opening of the Forum, in fact several late comers started by standing at the back, although later everyone found an available seat! I have to say the Dome and Interior have been well done, not that I’m surprised the renovations completed by Sloan construction that I have seen, including ETBU’s Marshall Hall, ETBU’s Scarborough Hall and now the County Courthouse doesn’t lead me to doubt that they do fine renovation work.

Now to the Candidates and the Forum:
The procedure was set with an Opening from each candidate as determined by numbers drawn from a hat, the lowest number went first. The First Speakers were Candidate Rick Hurlburt, Candidate Coke Solomon and District Clerk Kathy Griffis. After the opening remarks were completed, the Candidates received pre-selected questions that had already been sent to the Candidates from the League of Women Voters. After this the Candidates received several questions from note cards in the Audience.

To the Races:
County Court at Law

Incumbent Judge Jim Ammerman was polished and judicial in his speech and opening remarks, although some of the remarks from Candidate Hurlburt did cause defensiveness in the Judge.

From my observations I saw Judge Ammerman clearly present his desire to continue serving Harrison County for the good he has done in the Juvenile Courts. He mentioned several achievements including re-starting a Juvenile Boot Camp, Teen Mentoring, Partnerships with the local Police and Schools to encourage Juvenile offenders to not repeat their past mistakes and get help. In addition to this he portrayed his strong support of involving all Custodians and Parents of Juvenile defenders to attend and complete mandatory Parenting classes and improvement steps as set by his Court. He pointed out that Juvenile Crime has dropped 56 percent since he took office. The points that he mentioned about his opponent seemed to center on Candidate’s Rick Hurlburt’s career as a Criminal Defense Attorney, especially in defending criminals accused of drug offenses. I didn’t find this remark particularly helpful or pertinent to his case to Re-Elect him. I particularly believe that the Defense Attorney has the obligation and requirement of providing the best possible defense in all cases no matter how heinous, the facts I believe will come out and if Attorney Hurlburt did not argue the accused criminal’s past suffered abuses then he would have been negligent in his duties. In addition to this the most defensive Judge Ammerman seemed was about the “Case Backlog” that Candidate Hurlburt mentioned of 1200 or so cases. Judge Ammerman did a fair job in assessing the cases and explaining the fact that 87 defendants had not been apprehended and therefore the cases were inactive and impossible to move. There were an additional 800 cases that were “inactive” however, Judge Ammerman didn’t explain how he came to that conclusion on those files outside of the “State has changed reporting requirements” From the reduction in Juvenile crime and the implementation or re-activation of several Youth oriented programs it would seem Judge Ammerman has not only been an Advocate for Justice but for an improved Juvenile system overall.

Candidate Rick Hurlburt
Candidate Hurlburt came across with 3 central points to his message. The first overall theme was that he had the experience and desire to serve Harrison County. He had been a Court Judge in Longview until recently when the City Charter was reviewed and it was discovered that He as a Resident of Harrison County was in-eligible to serve as Judge in that Court.

In addition to his experience on the bench Attorney Hurlburt has many years as a practicing Criminal Defense Attorney, a Prosecutor and 4 years experience in Law Enforcement as a Kilgore Police officer. Candidate Hurlburt made his main premise the Part time manner in which the County Court at Law Judge currently services Harrison County is inadequate and has lead to backlogs. Candidate Hurlburt indicated that the ability to have a continuing law practice by a sitting judge is an only exception for Harrison County that Judge Ammerman uses to continue his personnel practice here in Marshall. To accentuate this point he then brought up the backlog of cases before Judge Ammerman’s court and mentioned the Clerk had reported to him about 1200 cases currently in back log. As I mentioned above you can see Judge Ammerman’s responses to that charge. The third leg of Candidate’s premise for his Candidacy for County Court at Law was the Zero Tolerance Issue at MISD. Attorney Hurlburt believes a True Zero tolerance policy is a travesty for the young people in Marshall and places the blame upon the victim in an altercation. Judge Ammerman says that MISD doesn’t have a Zero Tolerance policy. I plan on asking Marshall High School’s Principal Sunday as long as he’s there at my Sunday School class. I’m sure I’ll be informed correctly then and I’ll let you know what I find out.

The final premises for Rick Hurlburt’s candidacy focused on the detention of Juvenile offenders without a ruling, I didn’t follow all of the legal areas that Attorney Hurlburt was making but it seemed to be summed up that Judge Ammerman had not been fully ruling according to Texas Statues in regards to Juvenile detention which allowed them to be detained for up to 2 weeks until a determination regarding the case could be made and a ruling as to a finding of fault. Candidate Hurlburt also mentioned that there several hundred cases that Judge Ammerman had issued “Abatement” orders upon which disposes of them when they are inactive without a finding or completion from the Court.

Well for the first Forum candidates I though Candidate Hurlburt came off a little ahead of Judge Ammerman, but I really think he would have carried the forum by continuing to focus on the 56% reduction in Juvenile crime and the strong Community and Young Offender mentoring and re-education support he has given Harrison County over the past 12 or so years. In all it was a great exchange and I plan on finishing the other races in the next couple of days.

Thanks for reading! Oh for more information you may goto

Judge Ammerman’s Re-Election Website at http://www.jimammerman.com/

Candidate Attorney Rick Hurlburt at http://voterick2010.com/

Marshall News Messenger’s Story of the debate: marshallnewsmessenger.com

This guy sums it up perfectly and I removed both the toolbar and the spammy link redirector mentioned and it fixed up my random 404 redirects right away. . .

I hate it when good stuff goes bad. . .

KLTV Tigers Detained in London!
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?s=10506701

Coach’s Blog
http://www.tigersinlondon.blogspot.com

Apparently the IRS messed up that $800 bucks you get to keep or $13 a pay period might bite you next year. . .

From the article . . .
– A single college student with a part-time job making $10,000 would get a $400 boost in pay. However, if that student is claimed as a dependent on a parent’s tax return,

she doesn’t qualify for the credit and would have to repay it when she files next year.

OUCH . . .
Be Careful and get that Deduction right. . . Uncle Sam may get you in the end!
Tax Rebate in 09 could bite you in 2010 look out

Tax Rebate in 09 could bite you in 2010 look out

I accidentally Syndicated some blogs I follow partially on my blog using WP’s Syndication feature, the nice little TwitMe plugin faithfully Tweeted all 136 posts! Yikes

Alladin Sheepish

Thanks to :

http://disneyfan.50megs.com/aladdin/sheepish.wav

On the road at 34 months

Spiderman Kites are great fun especially if you are almost 3