That thing way out there called politics?

Say whaaaa???  Yeah, I had almost forgotten about politics, until of course I realized it was 2012 and election year (and I still can't vote!) and there are all these republicans running for that job called Mr. President and I'm not impressed with them.  I've grown up believing that all republicans are good and all democrats are bad (except for my Great Uncle/Grandpa), buuut, I'm starting to think otherwise.  How many politicians can lie to everyone's faces before our country falls apart?  So, I'm thinking I might be not republican and not democrat, but what I think they call independent.  Because, I don't trust almost anyone anymore!

Anyways, so the other day at Life Services (update coming soon!) my supervisor, Janine, asked me to do some research on a bill that was being voted for over in Olympia, WA (so just a state bill for my the state of Washington).  The bill, if passed, is going to force all insurance companies in the state of Washington to cover abortion costs with no limit whatsoever except for the general policies, (i.e. the amount of money that is provided per year).  Janine was having trouble finding it, and it took me probably 15 or 20 minutes just to get the bill number.  In the past, when I have searched a bill that I didn't know the number of, I usually was able to find it quickly.  This time it was different.  No article that I found included the bill number, and only one included a link to the .gov site where it was posted.  Plus, even though a public hearing was scheduled on Friday, the 19th, there were no recent reports on the outcome, the only articles I found were written before Friday.  We even called a prolife, conservative representative's legislative office, and when the legislative assistant searched the bill for us, he found that the vote count was not posted.  He stated that that was very strange. 

The next week, I sent an email to the legislators who would be voting on the bill that day.  That night, I watched the hearing.  The chair (who was the most supportive of the bill) ignored one of the committee members who asked to postpone the vote so as to not risk losing federal dollars since he wasn't sure if the bill was quite legal.  She promptly said, "Well, sorry, I'll look at that, but will pass it anyway."  It was passed, went to the Senate, and was passed there.  Unfortunately, they picked the perfect time to bring up this bill since a gay marriage bill was just signed into law by the governor (THAT'S a whole different story itself, ugh).  So, that is overtaking the news, and I have heard nothing in the news about the insurance bill.  I just visited the site, and the last thing it has on the schedule is that it was relieved from the Rules Committee and placed on second reading.  I'll keep you all posted on what happens.  (And if you live in WA, please consider emailing your legislators about it!  For a sample email, email me at, well, you should know the email address by now, lol.)

If you would like to read the bill, click here.

**[As of 2/23/12, the bill is waiting to be passed by the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and if passed, will go to the Senate floor for a vote.  I'll keep you posted!]

Thanks so much you guys!

Aubry