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.

Summer Fires

About a week or so the smoke from all the fires in Northern California turned our sun blood red. It felt that we were all being slowly smoked in a smoker. In the past few days, the smoke has cleared and folks in the Monterey area are dealing with the smoke. I have been following 20 priests, students and residents staying there to save Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, an old Buddhist monastery.


My heart is there in the forest and at the center.

Flag Pins & Fear

I get back from cold/flu/cough affliction to see that the Democratic primary has gone from devolving into chaos to dancing into the abyss. WTH?

This last debate on ABC News most certainly has the corpse of Peter Jennings turning in his grave. Peter Jennings would slap George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson silly and take away their press credentials for the rest of the political season. Could you imagine Peter Jennings moderating that way? I gleaned more information from Fox News debates and that is a huge "ouch" in my opinion.

It took 45 minutes or as Jon Stewart pointed out, 15 questions, to get to actual issues. I hear some press guys try to defend them saying that after 21 debates there would be a lot of repetition if they focused on the issues. I disagree.

I don't think these debates have plenty of topics that could have been covered: China, Tibet, Darfur, Global Warming, the food crisis, the question of biofuels from food, monetary policy, Zimbabwe, globalism and consequences of free trade, water policy, disaster preparation and emergency response, security at our ports, non-proliferation of weapons grade materials, stem cell bioethics, mental health services for our vets, mercury pollution, overfishing, drug policy and our overcrowded prison system, and emerging Russia, algae for energy technology, UN conventions on land mines, and rights of children and women, education (pre-school, K-12, community college, four year universities, trade schools, home schools, etc.), CO2 Markets vs. CO2 taxation, zero waste initiatives, oil at 115 bucks, and the latest events in Afghanistan and Iraq. All you have to do is check out the BBC to get even more topics that effect people here and abroad that a presidency may very well have to handle if not weigh in on.

Even if there are topics covered in earlier debates, we had to divide the time between 8 to 3 candidates for many of them. Having just two candidates to talk about issues allows for more in depth answers and follow up questions. The idea that George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson are being paid to be professional journalists is obscene if they have no grasp on what really is important to the American people.

As Jon Stewart pointed out, George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson, saved the really stupid question for someone else to ask. When that woman asked if he liked the flag referring to his refusal to wear a flag pin, my jaw dropped. What? Whaaaa?
People wearing flag pins lied to us to get our troops in Iraq and severely mishandled the war. People wearing flag pins said to the terrorists, "Bring it on". People wearing flag pins let the disaster in New Orleans get as bad as it got, calling American citizens refugees. People wearing flag pins allow economic violence happen across our country on a daily basis via plant closures, corporate welfare, bankruptcy rules, poor monetary policy, and tax breaks for the very rich. People wearing flag pins oversee the undermining of our country's scientific prominence in the world.

Flag pins do nothing to prove a candidate will do what is right for this country and its people. We should not care about outward superficial trappings of patriotism. Doing what is right for our country and caring for its people is patriotism. Doing is the operative word here. Wearing a pin made in China, doesn't confer some halo of Americanism. What is in your heart is more important than what is on your lapel.

Then there is this appeal to fear that whoever the candidate associates him or herself with is a reflection of who that person is. I think that links are valid if you can also show that the candidates behavior is consistent with those associations. Nothing in Obama's legislative record, public speaking, writing, or policies suggest that he is at all influenced by Reverend Wright or those two former Weather Underground members, who are now University Professors. No one is suggesting that Bill Clinton pardoning two other members of the Weather Underground indicated that Clinton was aligned with radical behavior.

The plain truth is that America has a full spectrum of extremism and moderation in this country from left to right. This has been true since the days of John Brown. We have the extreme right who bomb clinics and gay bars, kill clinic doctors, blow up government buildings, rob banks for their right wing Christian identity beliefs, burn african-american churches, and intimidate poor women whether they go to a family planning clinic or choose to keep her baby with assistance. On the left we had the Cinque and the SLA, Weather Underground, Black Panthers, and in recent times -- the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF). I used to live two blocks away from what was the Hibernia Bank where the SLA and Patty Hearst robbed the bank and killed a bank security guard and I do remember the reports when I was young about the Weather Underground. Patty Hearst is no longer Tanya, but a suburban housewife and perhaps a grandmother by now. Time has turned Weather Underground to suburban life in Academia. I have met someone who is a white middle-class father of three and he ran guns for the Black Panthers. I would be many Americans have rubbed elbows with extremists from both ends of the political spectrum, would we want to be judged by who we have had contact with throughout our lives? Are there second chances in America?

Links between this couple and Obama have been found to be tenuous at best. They were professors and his constituents who held a fund raiser for him. Obama was 8 years old when they were in the organization. The

There are these lies being spread to brand Obama as dangerous to America. It was his middle name, a deliberate mix up between him and an actual Muslim-American office holder, and rumors that he attended a radical madrassa were all designed to appeal to fear and keep people seeing him as a faithful Christian like themselves. The appeal suggests that if he became president the terrorists win. This is ridiculous because he has worked hard for our troops and vets who have come back from "the war against terror" and he has passed legislation that would secure weapons grade materials from terrorists.

One of the things that our country needs is a departure from the appeals to fear and patriotism that got us into the war in Iraq. Politicians like Clinton were too concerned about being thought un-patriotic and weak in the face of appeals to fear that they voted for this needless war. We need leaders who are patriotic enough to stand up and speak out when our country is going in the wrong direction as Obama did and 21 of Hillary's fellow senators did in regards to the Iraq War.

Take that, Hillary.

Of course, Keith is right, but he talks like Clinton and her supporters are actually listening. Who could hear over the plugging of the ears and frantically singing some lame Celine Dion song?
I'm just saying.

Are You Experienced or Have We Experienced Enough?

Obama: Attacking the Muslim Myth

I think it is important that we settle once and for all that Barack Obama is a Christian and a loyal American. Isn't it awful that we have to go out of our way to do this in this country?

Hillary Clinton Endorses Mccain

Is Hillary Clinton so desperate and vindictive that she would back a republican over a possible democratic nominee? Why would any superdelegate support a candidate that would say this and poison the well? Who is she to call herself experienced?

Maybe this is a sign of desperation. Juan Navarro from Political Schmalitical found a Reuters article that cites a Zogby poll favorable to Obama. Zogby says that Obama has a slight lead in both Ohio and Texas although the leads are just under the margin of error of 4 percentage points. Obama leads 47 to 44 in Texas, and leads 47 to 45 in Ohio. Lets be real here, Zogby has been wrong before, so temper yourself. Rasmussen has Obama at 48% and Clinton at 47% in Texas. Rasmussen has Clinton at 50% and Obama at 44% in Ohio.

The Vermont Polls have Obama ahead of Clinton. Polls figure that Obama can win with anywhere 53% to 60% of the vote. Polls in Rhode Island has Hillary winning, but the undecideds are high from 7-36%. The latest Brown University poll has Clinton at 42% and Obama at 37%, but the undecideds are at 22%.


In The Pink Texas compares both Clinton's and Obama's rallies. It brings up something that I have brought up before that you can get an idea of what kind of President a candidate is by how he or she runs their campaign. Hillary's rally was terribly planned, whereas Obama's rally was very organized.

He’s right — and they usually do run their administrations like they run their campaigns. Obama’s organized. This event went off without a hitch. His campaign anticipated how many people would be attending. They got an appropriate room. They controlled demand by use of stand-by tickets. They used technology to help them anticipate logistics. He has the money to do something like this, because he has broad buy-in from donors. They thought of the practical needs of the attendees — expensive bad pizza and bottled water — and they let people take care of themselves. Hillary’s campaign did none of this. At her rally, there were no tickets, no clear lines, no water for folks who needed it, but hadn’t yet passed out. It was a mess, only kept in control at one point by the threat of blunt force by HPD. Hillary wasn’t ready. Obama was.