The results are not all in, but it looks as if the people of Arizona, having suffered the influx of Californians for years, have finally lost their minds. Or maybe we really have become "the dumbest state in the nation".
Increased Minimum Wage: check
Napalitano still in office: check
Terry Goddard continues as AG: check
Ban smoking most everywhere: check
and on and on
In more hopeful national news, SCOTUS will be deciding on the 2003 Partial Birth Abortion Ban today. I have never understood how anyone, even the ghouls at Planned Parenthood, could support that procedure. Unnecessary, and unbelievably gruesome.
Let's hope that in the past six years, the understanding of the procedure, the groundwork laid in Congress, and the change in the court have gotten us to a point where we, as a country, are able to say, to this barbarity at least, "no!"
A description of the procedure follows after the jump, for those of you unfamiliar with the full heinousness of it. It is graphic - you have been warned.
Preliminary procedures are performed over a period of 2–3 days, to gradually dilate the cervix using laminaria tents (sticks of seaweed which absorb fluid and swell). Sometimes drugs such as synthetic pitocin are used to induce labor. Once the cervix is sufficiently dilated, the doctor uses an ultrasound and forceps to grasp the fetus' leg. The fetus is turned to a breech position, if necessary, and the doctor pulls one or both legs out of the birth canal, causing what is referred to by some people as the 'partial birth' of the fetus. The doctor subsequently extracts the rest of the fetus, usually without the aid of forceps, leaving only the head still inside the birth canal. An incision is made at the base of the skull and a suction catheter is inserted into the cut. The brain tissue is removed, which causes the skull to collapse and allows the fetus to pass more easily through the birth canal. The placenta is removed and the uterine wall is vacuum aspirated using a suction curette.Posted by Vox at November 8, 2006 08:16 AM | politics