The Dish

In response to this post, a reader writes:

My name is on the federal "born-alive" infants protection act; it footnotes my Tribune stories that detailed Jill Stanek’s allegations. I’m not at all convinced that this issue shows Obama is an absolutist on abortion. A few facts:

A.) There was no documentation of anything to back up the "crimes against humanity" claim. The hospital where Stanek worked did induced labor abortions, but there was no evidence that the hospital killed the pre-viable fetuses after they were outside the womb. A state investigation found no violations by the hospital.

B.) The Illinois "born alive" legislation was much different than the federal BAIPA, and would have given parents or public guardians the right to sue a hospital that performed induced labor abortions. One of the bills would have required two physicians to be present for many induced labor abortions, restricting the ability to use that common abortion method. Moreover, Illinois already had laws requiring doctors to give appropriate medical care to viable, live infants. For all of these reasons, the legislation that Obama opposed was also opposed by the Illinois Medical Society. Jim Geraghty has a reasonable run-down here.

Reasonable people can disagree, but Obama had a valid claim that there was no need for additional laws on this. At a minimum, there was no good reason to think that anyone had, as your reader claims, "killed babies" after they were born.

His pitch is pretty strong and fair, as far as I can see. And to reiterate calmly and coolly that defusing identity politics is the core of his campaign and his message is exactly the right thing to do.

You learn about candidates from this process. Obama keeps trying to rise above it; Clinton keeps trying to plunge us back in. She’s behind, of course. She needs to break through somehow, and with no substantive policy differences, and a serious delegate deficit, you can see why the Clintons are engaging in the politics of fear and division. But to my mind, it simply re-emphasizes why we need the Obama candidacy.

"I certainly do repudiate it and I regret deeply that it was said. Obviously she doesn’t speak for the campaign, she doesn’t speak for any of my positions, and she has resigned from being a member of my very large finance committee," – Senator Hillary Clinton, finally getting it (or pretending to).

A blog about a puddle. It has a nice Zen quality.

(Hat tip: kottke)

A reader writes:

Let me make it all clear for your reader.  Since the 1988 California Supreme Court decision People v. Freeman, hiring someone for work in a porn film has not been considered pandering or pimping and the participants are not prostitutes.

Hal Freeman, the defendant in the case, was a porn director/producer. He was arrested in 1983 in connection with his film, Caught from Behind, Part II, and charged with pandering.  California law defined a panderer as someone who procures “another person for the purpose of prostitution.”  The statute defines prostitution as “any lewd act between persons for money or other consideration.”   To connect the dots, the kind of lewd act that has to be accomplished consists of “the genitals, buttocks, or female breast, of either the prostitute or the customer” coming in “contact with some part of the body of the other for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification of the customer or of the prostitute.”  Freeman was convicted, and after several years of appeals the case hit the CA Supreme Court.

The defense argued that the pandering/prostitution statutes didn’t apply to porn. Who is receiving sexual gratification? Not Freeman. Nor, principally, are the performers; they are accomplishing a labor intensive, albeit revealing, acting job.  Their primary interest is in getting a paycheck, not to receive or bestow gratification.  On those grounds, The CA Supreme Court overruled the conviction.

California sought to have the U.S. Supreme Court overturn the CA Supreme Court, but Sandra Day O’Connor, writing for the Court turned down the requested stay. See: California v. Freeman, 488 U.S. 1311 (1989).

For what it’s worth, the CA Supreme Court also held that the application of the prostitution statutes to porn films was a “somewhat transparent attempt at an ‘end run’ around the First Amendment and the state obscenity laws.”

After that lengthy prelude, the answers to your reader’s questions are: 1.) he is getting sexual gratification from the hookers, and the director is paying for an acting job. 2.) Read my dissertation.

Mark Blumenthal has new data:

The survey yields evidence that many of these voters like John McCain as much or more than Hillary Clinton. At the same time the Clinton Mississippi Republicans are nearly unanimous in their disdain for Barack Obama.

The Justice Department might have to approve new elections? I guess we’re lucky Gonzales isn’t still there.

Josh and Ezra think that Obama should seat Florida delegates based upon the prior vote so that Clinton doesn’t get a momentum boost off a re-vote. I’m not sure I see the wisdom of that strategy. It seems too defensive to me. You either bar them according to the current rules, or they should get a re-vote. There is also an argument over whether Florida and Michigan super delegates should count; Dylan Loewe says they shouldn’t since it was Florida and Michigan super delegates who created this problem in the first place. At some point, this clusterfuck has to be sorted out.

I’m still using my CPAP machine every night. Almost 10,000 hours now. My only problem is that when I sleep, the mask pushes into my right cheek and has formed a small dent in my face. Oh well. Not a big price to pay. A reader writes:

Long, LONG time reader here since your early days, but I don’t e-mail you much.

I’m 28 and I’ve been dealing with ‘not being a morning person’ for my entire adult life. I’ve suspected for years I had sleep apnea (girlfriends telling me how I stop breathing at night, etc) but for whatever psychological reasons, put off going to the doctor. Even after you blogged about it — a guy I read multiple times a day – I still didn’t find a good reason to go.

A month ago, my sleeping became worse and one night in particular I woke up in tears because I just knew I was gasping for air that entire night when sleeping and I couldn’t deal with it anymore. I made an appointment with the sleep doctor the next day, slept in the lab, and finally got my results back. 67 episodes an hour. Low blood oxygen. Barely any rem sleep. I’ve literally been robbed of good sleep my entire adult life.

I’ve been wearing a CPAP machine for the last few days, and I cannot begin to tell you what a difference it makes. I can’t get used to the feeling of waking up and actually not wanting to immediately go back to bed.

"This, Senator Clinton, is your campaign, and it is your name. Grab the reins back from whoever has led you to this precipice, before it is too late. Voluntarily or inadvertently, you are still awash in this filth. Your only reaction has been to disagree, reject, and to call it regrettable. Her only reaction has been to brand herself as the victim, resign from your committee, and insist she will continue to speak. Unless you say something definitive, Senator, the former Congresswoman is speaking with your approval. You must remedy this. And you must… reject… and denounce… Geraldine Ferraro," – Keith Olbermann tonight.