Thoughts on Bi-Partisanship

Here is my problem.

The American people gave the republicans and their party a chance to show us how they would run things without Democratic interference and gave their policies a chance. The republicans ran this country into the ground in the most profound way. Ever.

I do not have faith in republican philosophies. They do not work. The proof was in the pudding and in the tasting the past eight years. Why do they still feel entitled to have their policies tried again in this current stimulus bill when our president Obama had already made minor concessions to them? Republicans have not earned the right to expect more concessions. They have not earned the American people's trust.

Just look at the last 2 election cycles. America is just not that into you.

Americans have seen what republicans have done and realized you as a party and candidates are willfully incompetant. Everything republicans touched turned into such a complete cluster-fail.

On the other hand, I want to support Obama in his plan to create one America where we are not our party membership, but Americans first. I want our president to continue to be a president of all Americans even republican ones. The question is how much input from the republicans can we afford to fold in to our recovery? What qualifies republicans to say anything that the Democratic folks do is wrong? They cannot even claim that they are better protectors of the interests of taxpayers anymore as they may have been in the 1970s as they have squandered our tax dollars to ill effect.

If republicans cannot be helpful in these times, then they need to walk the political desert until they can and become a party for all Americans. Until they do, they need to suck it up, support Obama, and be thankful he stepped up to clean up their mess. For the country they claim to love's sake, they need to do everything they can to make sure he is successful.

PUMA World

In PUMA world no one exists except their own need to feed their own victim-hood. They do not care about the practical things we have to do to solve huge problems like our environment and global warming, our economy, our damaged constitution, and two horrible wars. They would rather let these problems fester and grow under a republican presidency (Mccain-Palin) than giving Obama any support whatsoever. It is already the first day and they find nothing but fault on sites like Politico and Confluence where they languish day after day. They are more critical about Obama on his first day, than they were about republicans. Go to their sites sometime and see how much negative noise and nitpicking over real discussion about real issues.

Fortunately, they are the fringe of those who say they supported Hillary Clinton and the fringe of society and a dying breed. In reality, I don't think they have any idea what Hillary or the Clinton's stand for. They just don't want to let go the victim-hood vs. this nebulous patriarchy. Even MS Magazine they see as now serving the Patriarchy. NUTS! They do not even attack women's issues in a very coherent or in a very effective way. They couldn't even get it together to win a silly blog award -- how will they get anything accomplished?

Fortunately, most of us live in a reality-based world in which we understand the tough decisions that need to be made to make progress on important issues that will effect our children. We are the ones who created the most successful political movement in modern times and they are not.

Greed and Debt Didn't Kill Our Economy...We Need More Babies...

The Pro-birth Movement Strikes Again!

I found this photo of a sourpuss who has something to say about "the pill". Apparently, I missed a June 7, 2008 (cleverly on the anniversary of the Griswald v. Connecticut decision that allowed married people the ability to get birth control from their doctors) party where they celebrate how "the pill" kills. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt!

They explain:

During any discussion of the birth control pill, it is important to keep in mind that scientists have confirmed that at the moment the sperm and the egg join (fertilization), a new human being is created who is completely different from his/her mother.

The birth control pill works in three ways:

1. It can prevent the release of an egg from the ovary (ovulation). However, while using the pill, women can and do experience breakthrough ovulation - meaning that an egg is released from the ovary and is available to be fertilized by the sperm.

2. It also causes the cervical mucus to thicken, making it difficult for the sperm to reach the egg. It is possible, though, for the sperm to break through the mucus and to fertilize the egg.

3. It also changes the lining of the uterus. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the five- to seven-day-old baby to attach to the lining, where he/she would receive the nourishment needed to grow. If the baby does not successfully attach to the lining, he/she dies and is expelled from the body during menstruation. This process is known as a chemical abortion. The fact that it can occur as a result of taking birth control pills is why the pill is referred to as an abortifacient.

I always said that eventually they will argue that menstruation is murder. Spontaneous abortions or miscarriages happen all the time, so God must be an abortionist too! (Gasp!)

This is why I have always referred to the pro-life movement as the pro-birth movement. They do not believe in birth control to prevent abortions.

"The birth control pill does not reduce the number of abortions. The only difference is that you are killing the baby earlier. It is estimated that over 70 million chemical abortions have taken place in the United States in the last 10 years alone." - "Pill Kills" website

They are really, really serious about you all having babies even if you don't want them since they are really, really serious about controlling your sexuality. Thus all the abstinence only stuff (that doesn't work -- details!).

Another Reason to Celebrate Bush Leaving

On December 18th, Bush's HHS department released their rules allowing health providers to deny birth control to women based on moral or religious purposes. This means the prick at your pharmacy can give you the finger instead of your prescription, because he thinks that you are preventing life. My take is if you cannot fill a prescription for birth control, you should not be a pharmacist. Another reason I voted for Obama, he is against these rules. Are you listening, PUMAs who call themselves "feminists"?

Less Bailouts, More Babies!
Silly me. I thought the current economic crisis was caused by easy lending standards brought on by loan bundlers who got greedy that drove up real estate prices. Apparently, our current downturn is caused by not having enough babies. It seems all that family planning is costing our economy like 30 trillion dollars.

“If you further take into account the number of babies lost to abortifacient contraception like the pill, IUDs, and RU-486, that number doubles,” the article says. For comparison, the 2007 Gross World Product – all goods and services produced by all of humankind – was only $65 trillion.

Silver Linings of Blogwars

War is hell.

The Blogwars of 09 will probably be overshadowed by two wars, the economy tanking and our impending lives as hobo wanderers, the Middle East crisis, the rising seas and the coming famines, and the premier of American Idol. Of course, we will all be saved by the UBER-FEMINIST Barack H. Obama, while PUMAs gently, but bitterly weep into their cat's fur. Even though these battles and the results of the 2008 Weblog Awards will quickly and unceremoniously be thrown under the bus for more important things, it is still worth waging till the polls close this Tuesday, when Obama will become the 44th President amongst much Puma wailing.

The happy thing is that through this I discovered some really great blogs along with terrible ones (I am looking at you clownloving PUMAs!)

Are you tired of cutesy websites or family and friends who send you cute animal photos. Do you wish to be delivered from being force fed cute? Tough luck. There will always be cutesy websites and emils with baby seals hugging or dogs licking cats. Hopefully, there will always be F*ck you, Penguin!. It is therapy and it is free. You are welcome.

During the battle, I learned of a blog that was not originally in a targeted category, "Pharygula" for Best Science Blog. I heart this blog because it talks about a subject close to my heart...the attack on science by the creationists, who are prodded on by energy and tobacco interests who benefit from undermining trust in science. It is always nice to trip onto one of the "Good Guys".

My friends at Wonkette asked me to vote for the Pajama Pundit for Best Hidden Gem. I may not agree with him or the blog always, but they seem to be reasonable. I am intrigued. Because of Wonkette, I found out about Blue Gal, who is my most favorite find and my nominee for the classiest of all who were nominated. Blue Gal should win Best Liberal Blog, but the PUMAs messed with the wrong people. I vote for Driftglass, because SHE told me to.

I will check out some other blogs that were nominated later. Now I will suggest some I like that were not nominated because they are either regional blogs or blogs that are hard to classify.

Marin Real Estate Bubble Blog and his Marin POS blog has been my favorites for awhile. Marinite is one of the many excellent Bubble bloggers who were sounding the alarms as early as 2005 as to the overinflation of housing prices. I watched as a lot of the local real estate guys would laugh and say that we were all doomsayers. Well, dine on your hats ladies and gents.

The Daily Bastardette, this blog is written by Marley Greiner, who was the grandmother of Bastard Nation, an activist group I worked for in the 1990s. I love her grasp of history and the politics of Bastardy and Adoptee rights, but I do not necessarily agree with her stance on baby dumps or adoption as a concept.

PUMA vs. Feminists and Reality

You certainly have to say that you have to be a rather hardcore feminist (or really "crazy") to take on feminist magazine MS. over this particular cover. There are calls for a boycott of a magazine that I am not even sure these people read.

This is craziness that we all come to expect from the PUMA. It is like a gender studies class gone horribly wrong.

Ms. Magazine has done far more for the feminist cause and raising awareness than any of the PUMAs put together. Somehow, they know better who is and who isn't feminist, huh? How do they do it? They call me a misogynist feminist, yet they have no guts to post my response to their outrageous claim. Simply put, they lack integrity, but they still feel qualified to question others' integrity.

It seems that PUMAs have a problem with Obama's including and co-opting the religious right so he can tackle problems like global warming, the economic crisis, and being in two wars. I am a woman, but I am also a human being who believes we have greater fights for the survival of this planet. I have fought against the religious right more fervently and closely, and totally understand their danger that I would never vote for the republican party that they completely co-opted (unlike some PUMAs). I understand what Obama is trying to accomplish and so does MS. They actually looked at his record for women's issues, which PUMA does not. PUMA ignores that his rating for reproductive rights is impressive and he actually worked with reproductive rights activists.

Then Confluence goes off on a riff about Women First. Did you know that Hillary won the Primary? No? Neither did I. Again they pretend that the caucus states do not matter. In their universe, they forget all about the two states that went against party rules and were told they would not be counted. Hillary went along with the rules and only when she realized that she won those states (because she had the party apparatus behind her and name recognition) that she was all of the sudden against the rules. Bah! Hillary lost and Obama won. All of us on the left and more recently on the right have lost elections. Get over it.

Confluence talks about how the patriarchy not only did not want the Hillary, but it did not want Sarah Palin. This patriarchy they speak of had a moment of clarity on the Palin question. Palin had no business being dogcatcher, much less Vice President of the United States. Many women I knew who were for Clinton or were republicans, voted for Obama because Palin was such an insulting choice. It was an insulting choice because republicans thought that women were idiotic enough to vote for any woman, regardless of how hostile that woman is to the rights of women and to our children's future. They thought that just because Palin was a woman we would overlook that she lacked common sense, education, curiosity, intellect, and background to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

I don't want to get a job because I was a woman and no woman with a sense of dignity would. Feminism is about giving us the opportunity to become anything we want, but we need to prepare ourselves to have the qualifications and be able to be ready when called. I certainly didn't think Palin was or will ever be ready.

Hillary had a lot going for her, but she and her husband made political decisions that hurt her chances. Hillary was also a victim of timing being up against a better executed campaign with a charismatic candidate. Hillary lost because she believed the hype before the primaries that she had it in the bag and relied only on the states that had the democratic machine behind her. When conditions changed she was unable to adjust her campaign. She didn't help herself when she started dissing young people, caucus states, black voters, and educated wine drinkers for voting for Obama suggesting that they were not hard workers like the elderly, lower class, catholic women who take shots of Crown Royal, live in Appalachia, own cats, and belong to a union.

Sure there was sexism, but there was also racism. I had to leave the General Clark for Pres/VP forum, because the Hillary supporters there were blatantly being racist and hostile anyone supporting Obama. That was before I decided on Obama.

Hillary lost because she was divisive and the country was tired of divisiveness. The Bushes and the Clintons represented the culture war over the sixties. While keeping religion out of our bedrooms and classrooms are important, both sides of the culture war need to chill and focus on real problems facing our country. Hillary lost because her divisive nature was ill-suited for the challenges ahead. Obama had better strategy and temperament to get things done than Hillary.

Hillary is going to be Obama's Secretary of State. I am not very excited about this, but I trust Obama that he and Hillary have worked out a way to get his foreign policy across with her skills and connections. We shall see if Hillary can step up to the plate and execute Obama's foreign policy that the American people prefer.

So Obama is a feminist and these PUMAs are just spinning their wheels while they ignore real problems and do nothing to help real women who need help in their communities and around the world. They pick this cover as what they would like to waste their energies on. ROAR!

When PUMAa Attack! Wee!

PUMAs call me out as a Misogynist Feminist!!! One person even suggested that I might be a 20 year old man! I guess it might make it easier to cling to their world view if they can write me off that way. I also got an anonymous note here saying, Shame on You. Who are they to determine who has feminist credentials? Bah. Vote for Wonkette! Vote for ~ synthesis ~.

http://sturly.com/q2t

This is what i said back. I thought I would post it here before it gets quoted out of context or moderated away.


I figured that you would questioned whether or not I was really a woman or a feminist. I have the c-section scars to prove that I am a mom of a young son and I can look in the mirror and say that I have given more than my share for feminist and progressive causes -- not just on the Internet but in real life. I have worked and written against domestic violence,

I belonged to NOW until Now's President, Molly Yard came out in public saying women should be proud of their abortions. I have always worked for woman's reproductive rights and Yard's statement totally undermined our fight and was extremely crazy. My problem with the feminist movement is that they always seem to lose the sense of proportionality. I would rather they work more on equal pay than be up in arms whether or not manhole covers or be the language police.

My other problem with the older feminists is that they stood by and offered no aid to women forced to relinquish their children in the sealed adoption system. Their response to these women, according to Rickie Solingers book, "Beggars and Choosers" that they should be glad not to be saddled with motherhood, ignoring that these women wanted to parent their children in a society who viewed them as reckless breeders and rule-breakers who ought to be punished .

During the primaries I thought it absolutely crazy hearing that I was somehow a gender traitor for supporting Obama. I struggled over my decision, but I found it disappointing that the Clinton campaign had to lie about Obama's record about reproductive rights and the more I did research ob Obama the more I uncovered the lies and misrepresentations. I wasn't the only one troubled by her vote on the war when 20 other senators did the research and voted no. Even when other dems who voted for the war admitted they messed up -- she refused to. That reminded me of Bush. I don't agree with Obama on everything, but I trust his judgment and temperament more than any other candidate.

The problem is you are spending or wasting your time on Obama hating and caring about some artificial webblog award. I worked against Prop 8, did you? I actually get out there and work to support causes.

Regardless of what you say, I find it hard to believe that the middle of the PUMA demographic is 42. At best it is at lower range of your demographic. We got polls and election results to back up that fact. My demographic and younger went overwhelmingly for Obama. This last election was more a generational shift than anything about gender. Those of us on the fringe of boomer-hood and younger saw that the boomer gen and older had shown all that they had to offer. We were tired of wasting time on wedge issues that always got in the way of doing anything about global warming, the economy, and foreign policy. Obama also got votes from Hillary supporters and Republicans because of the outrageous choice of Palin.

The fact that PUMA would let republicans get back into power undermines everything the PUMA movement has to say about working for domestic violence, reproductive rights, woman's rights, or any of the progressive issues that you say that you are interested in. It puts into question your concern about the future of this country and your ability to make reality based decisions in this election.

Wonkette

One of my favorite quotes is from Eleanor Roosevelt, "No one can disrespect you without your permission." Another favorite quote came from the school yard, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." I am far more moved by actions against women: real rape, unequal pay, the lack of respect for motherhood, the war against drugs, the foster care system, the sealed records system, lack of childcare, attack on the poor, the attack on reproductive rights, the lack of available birth control, the attack on comprehensive sex education and science education, the movement against gay marriage, the lack of research in woman's health, and the list goes on. People can drop the c*nt word all day, if we can solve real problems.

I am not the only woman who visits and participates on Wonkette on a regular basis. I have never once felt disrespected and I have always felt equal on the forum as long as I had something funny, interesting, smart, or somewhat provocative to say. As I am unable to say profanity for some reason, Wonkette is my obscenity porn and they make me laugh. It is not for everyone, but there are a lot of people who enjoy Wonkette. Confluence is not losing because they are victims of the patriarchy, they are losing because people looked at Confluence and thought that Wonkette or any other site in the category needs to win instead.

Before any of you can judge the language of Wonkettes, you should mind your own language in regards to how you speak of our next president or how you speak about men. Suggesting that calling a woman a C*nt is not a rape by any measure. Rape is rape and as someone who knows actual victims of rape, it is outrageous. Why don't you explain why one PUMA is advertising an elderly woman's social security # to "investigate" a tin foil hat theory about Obama. Exposing someone to identity theft and harassing a woman, isn't progress and is far more damaging than provocative speech found on Wonkette. No one on Wonkette would do that. That is what I mean about their relative humanity.

You may think you are not racist, but PUMAa come off as racist -- especially when PUMAs support Palin for high office, who is way out of her league in education, experience, or intellect. By supporting Palin, it is no longer because Obama lacks experience, but because his color and ethnic background is too "exotic".

I am truly a woman and I presented my opinions not behind some anonymity. My post is my honest reaction to what I found on the site and the PUMA movement in general, but also in defense of the people on Wonkette who I have grown attached to.

If it is true that the PUMA movement is the natural evolution of feminism and liberalism then woman's rights and the progressive cause is doomed to be truly written off since you turn off people who would under other circumstances agree with you on issues.