Health Care / Mike Huckabee

Huckabee: For contraception mandate before he opposed it

Interesting LA Times story:

Mike "We Are All Catholics Today" Huckabee, when he was Arkansas governor, apparently signed a health insurance mandate law in 2005 that included contraception in preventive care. He was among many Republicans in many states who did the same.

Oops. In Arkansas, that law had two Republican co-sponsors. More checking will be required. But I hope Sen. Missy Irvin and the ALEC squad is on the lookout for these apostates.

The background, as I've mentioned here before, is that the federal EEOC said in 2000 that all employers with more than 15 workers must cover contraceptives for women if they offer health plans that cover preventive services and prescription drugs. Many states, including Arkansas, passed mandates into law. Republicans supported the legislation, in states such as Iowa, Arizona and, in 2001, New York, where George Pataki signed the legislation.

Four years later, the Arkansas law easily cleared that state's Legislature, with help from Republican lawmakers, including two GOP cosponsors. Huckabee signed it in April 2005.

He defended the law in a statement. "Religious employers are not required to comply with this policy," he said. "My position is, and always has been, that religious entities shouldn't be forced to pay for contraception."

But like the original federal regulation proposed by Obama, the Arkansas law did not exempt church-affiliated hospitals and universities. It exempts only "religious employers" that are nonprofit organizations whose primary mission is "the inculcation of religious values," and primarily employ people who share the same religion, a standard few Catholic hospitals meet.

The new Obama regulation makes no requirements of even religious affiliates. It requires health insurance companies to pay for preventive care.

PS — We inquired of a St. Vincent Infirmary spokesman recently whether their health coverage provided for contraception. She said it did not. Sounds like we need to re-check.

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Posted By Max Brantley | Permalink | Comments (1)

The line is open

Day kind of petered out. Maybe you can fire it up. A closing thought:

* SNAKE OIL FOR SALE/RAPERT'S FOLLY: As pressure build for an idiotic campaign to let 26 state legislatures control the federal budget (meaning crackpot assemblies in Dixie, Alaska and such), I think it's worth mentioning again Ernest Dumas' column explaining what a bad idea this is.

* SOUTH CAROLINA — WORST STATE IN THE U.S.: With time on their hands, South Carolina legislators are working to pass a law to ban use of foreign laws in South Carolina courts. Nobody has yet even suggested such a thing, the sponsors readily admit, but you can't be too careful. (Where's Jason Rapert when we need him; maybe after he's done with Rapert's Folly to let him and Nate Bell run the federal budget.) I bring it up only because I was interested to learn South Carolina still has some liberals willing to be identified publicly and that they have a sense of humor:

Liberal groups, including the S.C. Progressive Network, say the proposal is a waste of legislative time.

"I'm much more concerned with laws being imposed by aliens from the Planet Oz," said Brett Bursey, the group's director. "A stealth-alien invasion of the minds of our legislators is the most plausible explanation for their obsession with fixing things that aren't broken."

* UPDATE: REPUBLICAN BUDGET CUTS: Republicans (Rep. Burris/Sen. Lamoureux) say they want $21 million in cuts in a $4.7 billion state budget, spread among 11 agencies, but not education or Medicaid. Small potatoes, but a big change in the order of things for a legislative minority to seek to usurp executive budgetary recommendations. I'd like to see the full, specific list and what Republicans have scheduled for the chopping block. They can't pass this without Beebe administration/Democratic backing; unless they threaten to shut down the session to get their way. Rep. Burris has said that is not his intent. We'll see.

* HUCK'S STINGER IS OUT: Mike Huckabee campaigned for Beth Anne Rankin, his former staffer, in the 4th District today. He had a ready comment on the Club for Growth's opponent of Republican opponent Tom Cotton. He said the endorsement would probably help Rankin, because the group had little by way of local connections. He called then "Washington insiders and big money people" interested in protecting "their world," not the world 4th District voters live in. Backatcha, Steve.

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Posted By Max Brantley | Permalink | Comments (29)

Environment

A reverse 'climategate' stings Heartland Institute

Rich stuff. The Heartland Institute is another of those Koch/oil/assorted billionaire-funded "think tanks" that have popped up like mushrooms in a cow patty to push the corporate agenda. It has been stung.

Leaked documents suggest Heartland has been paying for disinformation to counter climate change findings by reputable scientists.

Heartland has gone bonkers. It says it's a victim of theft! Misinformation! Inconvenient unplanned release of facts! It is talking prosecution! Civil lawsuits! Defamation!

While claiming a document on its purported climate change-denial strategy is a fraud, Heartland concedes the general accuracy of others. It does complain they were stolen and might have been "altered."

Heartland has planted some of its propaganda in local publications. You can imagine how hard they'd be working to stifle circulation of similar documents if they'd come from the global warming side of the debate. Not.

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Posted By Max Brantley | Permalink | Comments (15)

Wednesday To-Do: Hill Harper

HILL HARPER
7 p.m. UALR Donaghey Student Center. Free.

Hill Harper wears many hats: actor, author, scholar (Brown University, Harvard University and Harvard Law School), activist, speaker, entrepreneur, mentor. The Iowa native is probably best known for his portrayal of Dr. Sheldon Hawkes on the CBS procedural crime drama "CSI: NY," though his books — including "The Conversation: How Men and Women Can Build Loving, Trusting Relationships" and his latest, "The Wealth Cure: Putting Money in Its Place" — have earned Harper acclaim as well. He's currently on a speaking tour, "The HBCU Empower Me Tour" representing the Manifest Your Destiny Foundation, the nonprofit he founded to help young people succeed.

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Posted By Robert Bell | Permalink | Comments (0)

Film

Billy Bob's next film: a drive with Angelina?

Billy Bob Thornton, whose new film "Jayne Mansfield's Car" with Robert Duvall, Kevin Bacon and John Hurt, is now on the festival circuit, has another promising project in the works: a road movie called "And Then We Drove."

Variety reports the film will be penned by Thornton and writing partner Tom Epperson, with filming in L.A., the American South and the desert southwest on a budget of under $20 million. It's a road movie about a man who picks up a female hitchhiker and their subsequent adventures. Producer Alexander Rodnyansky said that the film will be based at least in part on Thornton's relationship with Angelina Jolie.

Thornton is also currently seeking a distribution deal for his 2011 bio-documentary on Willie Nelson, "The King of Luck."

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Posted By David Koon | Permalink | Comments (0)

Coming soon / Heavy Metal

NPR streaming Pallbearer's 'Sorrow and Extinction'

• Pallbearer's album "Sorrow and Extinction" is out Feb. 21 on Profound Lore.

Hell yes! NPR is streaming Pallbearer's forthcoming "Sorrow and Extinction" right over here. The metal world is buzzing super hard right now about this album, and it's easy to hear why: timeless, crushing riffs, a killer rhythm section, complex and beautifully dark melodies and the best doom metal vocals this side of Ozzy.

The Little Rock band plays Juanita's Feb. 24 with Loss and Black Orchid.

After you've listened to "Sorrow and Extinction" 50 times or so, be sure to check out the band's demo.

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Posted By Robert Bell | Permalink | Comments (1)