Analysis shows that those Planned Parenthood videos were purposefully altered to give false impression. Gee, really?

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

The undercover Planned Parenthood videos that spurred a congressional investigation were so severely manipulated that they wouldn't hold up in court, according to an analysis by three teams of forensic experts. 

Planned Parenthood hired independent research firm Fusion GPS to investigate the validity of the first five "sting" videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group. 

Glenn Simpson, a partner at the firm and a former Wall Street Journal reporter, assembled three teams of neutral experts to comb through the tapes using special video software. He said the teams found that all of the videos analyzed -- even the supposedly "full," unedited footage the CMP released -- were missing large sections of time and misleadingly altered so that separate conversations appeared to take place in an uninterrupted take. Moreover, the forensic team found that the transcripts CMS released with the videos were frequently erroneous. 

"It appears they commit what I would call 'wishful thinking' about what was said," Simpson told reporters Thursday.

So not only were the videos used to attack Planned Parenthood altered, but even the so-called "unedited" versions, which already undermined the premise that Planned Parenthood was selling fetal tissue for a profit, were changed to push forward a false impression. 

Color me unsurprised.

And yet THIS is what is being used to once again launch an attack against women's access to legal abortion services, as well as cancer screenings and important information about contraception and STD's.

Finally found those Obamacare "death panels."

Courtesy of the Daily Kos:  

Despite the catastrophic launch of the Healthcare.gov web site last fall, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is on pace to hit and surpass the CBO's most recent forecast of 6 million private insurance subscribers by the March 31 enrollment deadline. All told, at least 13 million people will obtain insurance coverage as a result of Obamacare, including 3 million young adults under age 26 added to their parents' (a majority of them Republican) policies. As with President Bush's Medicare Part prescription drug plan 8 years ago, ACA approval is climbing. The markets, too, have spoken, with stock prices for major insurers surging as their CEOs signal their pleasure with the total number and age mix of their new customers. 

But given the unprecedented four-year Republican war to smother it in its cradle, Obamacare's recovery is all the more remarkable. A seemingly unending torrent of court challenges by state Republicans and right-wing front groups has held up ACA implementation in many states. (If they succeed in Halbig v. Sebelius, they will effectively undo the Affordable Care Act in 34 states altogether.) A misinformation campaign about make-believe deficits, mythical "death panels," a pretend "government takeover of health care" and a supposedly simultaneous insurance industry "death spiral" and "bailout" left Americans—especially the uninsured—fearful, confused and shockingly ill-informed. 

Yet as damaging as that uncertainty and chaos has been, the Republican Party's scorched-earth opposition to Obamacare is producing something far worse: a body count. That's not hyperbole, but a grim reality. Due to what might be the greatest act of political spite in modern American history, Republicans will needlessly leave millions of people uninsured, many hospitals on the edge of financial ruin and thousands of Americans dead, mostly in the states the GOP itself controls.

So do I owe Sarah Palin an apology now? 

Or is this not quite what she meant?

Here is more from the Health Affairs blog:  

Nationwide, 47,950,687 people were uninsured in 2012; the number of uninsured is expected to decrease by about 16 million after implementation of the ACA, leaving 32,202,633 uninsured. Nearly 8 million of these remaining uninsured would have gotten coverage had their state opted in. States opting in to Medicaid expansion will experience a decrease of 48.9 percent in their uninsured population versus an 18.1 percent decrease in opt-out states. 

We estimate the number of deaths attributable to the lack of Medicaid expansion in opt-out states at between 7,115 and 17,104. Medicaid expansion in opt-out states would have resulted in 712,037 fewer persons screening positive for depression and 240,700 fewer individuals suffering catastrophic medical expenditures. Medicaid expansion in these states would have resulted in 422,553 more diabetics receiving medication for their illness, 195,492 more mammograms among women age 50-64 years and 443,677 more pap smears among women age 21-64. Expansion would have resulted in an additional 658,888 women in need of mammograms gaining insurance, as well as 3.1 million women who should receive regular pap smears.

So yes Sarah Palin, there ARE death panels, and they are overseen by Republican pieces of shit who put politics before the needs of the people whom they were elected to serve.

Komen apologizes for taking funding away from Planned Parenthood, and promises that funding will resume uninterrrupted. Update.

Courtesy of The Scoop Blog:

Komen for the Cure just released the following statement from Nancy Brinker and the Susan G. Komen Board of Directors: 

We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives. 

The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not. 

Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair. 

Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities. 

It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women. We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics - anyone's politics. 

Starting this afternoon, we will have calls with our network and key supporters to refocus our attention on our mission and get back to doing our work. We ask for the public's understanding and patience as we gather our Komen affiliates from around the country to determine how to move forward in the best interests of the women and people we serve. 

We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.

I also just heard this on MSNBC so it is official.

Wow!  Way to go ladies!

I am very impressed with how aggressively people spoke out concerning this outrage. I have not seen a response this fast since the SOPA outrage last month.

I still have no idea how Komen rationalized making this controversial decision in the first place, but I think this will serve as a lesson to EVERYBODY in the future to not bend to the anti-women political agendas of the Right Wing fringe, Especially when it comes to something as important as fighting cancer and supporting women's health issues.

Update:  While I still believe that this is a victory for those who are fighting to improve women's health in this country, I also realize that the "cancer," if you will, that still exists in the form of Karen Handel within the Komen foundation, is still a lingering malignancy that should be removed.

However I think the only way THAT will happen is if keeping her as VP negatively impacts their funding.  If you click here you can see a list of their "corporate partners" who provide the majority of their donations.  Perhaps a couple thousand e-mails sent to those on this list might kick start the countdown to the end of Karen Handel, and her right wing supporters, influence on this organization.

Couldn't hurt.

Update 2: According to the Plum Line, the Komen Foundation has NO plans to change their leadership or promise to provide donations to Planned Parenthood in the future:  

I just got off the phone with a Komen board member, and he confirmed that the announcement does not mean that Planned Parenthood is guaranteed future grants — a demand he said would be “unfair” to impose on Komen. He also said the job of the group’s controversial director, Nancy Brinker, is safe, as far as the board is concerned. 

I asked Komen board member John Raffaelli to respond to those who are now saying that the announcement doesn’t necessarily constitute a reversal until Planned Parenthood actually sees more funding. 

He insisted it would be unfair to expect the group to commit to future grants. “It would be highly unfair to ask us to commit to any organization that doesn’t go through a grant process that shows that the money we raise is used to carry out our mission,” Raffaelli told me. “We’re a humaniatrian organization. We have a mission. Tell me you can help carry out our mission and we will sit down at the table.” 

Pushed on whether this means the new announcement wasn’t really a reversal, Raffaelli pushed back, arguing that Komen, in response to all the criticism, had removed politics from the grant-making process. “Is it really unclear that we’re changing the policy to address criticism?” he said.

So Nancy Brinker is safe, as I assume Karen Handel is as well, and there is no definitive promise to continue the foundation's relationship with PP.

I think it is the appropriate time to say fuck the Komen Foundation, and, as so many have already suggested, to send out money directly to Planned Parenthood.

Here is their link to donate.