Women, Aspirin and Contraception

Foster Friess has done Liberals a favor.  He has everyone talking about the reactionary rhetoric of the Rick Santorum campaign and its Right Wing boosters (like his own badass self).   His remarks yesterday have energized the dialogue about Women's Rights, what the 2012 GOP platform is really striving for and what lies in wait should they somehow be re-elected.   

The timing couldn't have been better.  His crass "joke", as he called it, coincided with the all male panel convened by Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to discuss denying access to birth control.  Afterwards, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent an email urging people to sign this petition:  

 "We almost couldn’t believe it. Today, at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, House Republicans convened a panel on denying access to birth control converge with five men and no women. As my colleague Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney asked, where are the women?" Pelosi says in the email. "Join me in our call to Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor, Chairman Issa and all House Republicans to demand that women be brought to the table when discussing women’s health issues. Help us gather 50,000 signatures before Congress heads home tomorrow." 

Several Democratic lawmakers had walked out of the meeting to protest Rep. Darryl Issa's (R:Calif) "refusal to allow a progressive woman to testify in favor of the Obama administration's contraception rule."

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) defended his decision to not allow a women to testify at his hearing on the Obama administration’s new birth control rule yesterday, telling Fox News host Greta Van Susteren last night that the woman’s story wasn’t at all relevant to the hearing.  thinkprogress.org 

Back to Friess; it was all over the news he'd apologized as of this morning.  Had to visit his blog to find it.  Rather than reprint, you may link to his arguable apology.

My reaction to the Reactionary?

That's a disingenuous response at best.  You may be old but you aren't dead.  Your ideas, however, should be buried in the past along with segregation, women not having the vote, men being the only legal landholders.  

I think you knew perfect well what you were saying.

On the other hand, there is nothing like re-visiting a sacred cow like Women's Rights to stir up opposition to Right Wing who would love to go back to the "good old days" whatever they may be.

24 Hour later update:  Friess' blog & web site are back up but my comment is "still awaiting moderation".
  

We're Gonna Frickin' Lose this Thing

I took this headline off The Huffington Post today. It links to the article, written by Adam McKay, about Obama's vulnerability in the face of Republican tactics. The post title caught my eye because my husband has been saying the exact same thing since the RNC. I respond to him the same way McKay's wife does, "Stop saying that!" But in my heart of hearts, I am really scared.

I thought the country was smart enough not to fall for "four more years" of any Republican candidate. Now, I'm not so sure. As if the war, now five years and counting, isn't enough of a deterrent, the economy is in the toilet, the middle class is disappearing, inflation is escalating, unemployment is at a five year high and the dollar at a low.

The U.S. is the laughingstock of the world and we're gonna elect John McCain???? I can't take it. Neither can this country. Four more years of people like this, people who support war and invading other countries; people who give tax breaks to big oil, big pharmaceuticals & the top 1% of income earners; people who want to spy on their own countrymen through illegal wiretapping; people who believe in waterboarding and torture despite the Geneva convention; people who want to destroy the environment when no reliable scientific study supports further drilling; people who don't believe in global warming despite all evidence to the contrary; people who believe in no abortion at any cost, including rape and incest...these are the people the country is leaning towards?

Instead of "God bless America", we'd better start saying "God help America."

I Wish Tina Fey Was the Vice Presidential Pick

Tina Fey & John McCain
cover of Life Magazine September 2004
uploaded from thinkprogress

thinkprogress.org/2008/09/04/mccain-fey-life/

Contraception Illegal?

WOW! If the above items don't scare you, I guess you're a devout right-to-lifer or someone who does not believe in the freedom of choice.

As a woman who came of age in the seventies, I wholeheartedly believe in Roe vs Wade and the freedom of a woman to choose. When I was a teenager in the late sixties, abortion was illegal and contraceptives could only be secured with a parent's consent. As a consequence, most of my friends had illegal abortions. I was one of the lucky ones. I never became pregnant. When I did become pregnant with my third child, many years later, I was on a high risk drug and afraid to have the baby. I had to make the wrenching decision to abort the child and it was not easy to find a doctor who would perform the operation. This was the early nineties and many ob/gyns were already running scared from the right to life groups, the bombings of abortion clinics, what have you. Luckily, I miscarried and never had to make the emotional decision. I had carefully practiced birth control all my life and this was a total surprise; but it didn't make it any easier.

It's funny. When your beliefs are tested, you find out what you'll really do. I did not want to risk having a mentally disabled child. I just knew I wasn't cut out for that as a Mom. I still prayed to God to help me through the decision, however, and I truly admire(d) the courage it takes for women to reject something as fundamental as a pregnancy.

A recent article in the LA Times about Pope Paul's contribution to the schism in the Catholic Church referred to the rigidity of his beliefs against contraception. This article pointed out that many Catholics wanted the church's blessing to practice more than the old "rhythm method" and, when he didn't give it, the divisions began, resulting in people openly rejecting the teachings of the church; priests engaging in sexual molestation/misconduct and the falling away from the church as the center of the Catholic world. I don't know if this is true but I do believe if we, as a nation, sit silently by while more of our rights are decided by the state and federal government, we are one step closer to dictatorship and the loss of everything we hold dear, as Americans.

For more on these issues:

Letter to Secretary Mike Leavitt from Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and 26 other senators, July 23, 2008

Redefining abortion; Federal officials considering a rule allowing health care workers to refuse to provide contraceptives," Houston Chronicle, August 10, 2008

If you oppose this draft regulation, go to: http://pol.moveon.org/contraception/ and sign the petition.