Jennifer Lawless is running for the House in Rhode Island against agressively anti-choice candidate Jim Langevin. As Matt Stoller points out, her ad is terrific, exactly the kind of unapologetic ad a pro-choice candidate should be running in a blue state where pro-choice matters. It’s emotional, hard-hitting, it has authority and she picks a fight. She comes off as sensible, no-nonsense, and standing for something. Major, major kudos to her campaign for its messaging and the ad’s creators; it really works.
On the other end of the spectrum there’s NARAL, who are launching their own campaign to elect pro-choice candidates in the fall. Which is great, we wholeheartedly approve. On their info page regarding "what you can do about it," they call to "block anti-choice justices," and "elect pro-choice Senate candidates in 2006 who can help block anti-choice Supreme Court nominees." Fabulous. But do they mean Senate candidates Lincoln Chafee and Joe Lieberman, both of whom have NARAL’s endorsement, who both voted for cloture on Samuel Alito? Does this pass anyone’s smell test?
As a side note, long-term visitors to this site will remember that our Lamont/Lieberman and Chafee coverage began during the fight against Alito when the Gang of 14 announced it would vote for confirmation. I called NARAL that day and asked if they were going to pull Chafee’s endorsement as a result of his cloture vote. Many will recall we were told that NARAL did not consider a cloture vote to be "significant," and when I raised an objection to this I was told that someone would get back to me. Nobody ever did.
Recently I learned that they have pointedly never called back, assuming that I would just go away.
Na. Ga. Na. Ha. Pa.
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Hefley!
Lucy Lawless!
GO Jenn!! There’s been enough ‘lawlessness’.
stinkin’ dial-up. ; (
Xena!
I love her! More Lawlessness!
i think choice is just not a good issue. except for the hardcore, who vote anyway, most people just find it distasteful and dated phrasology.
we need to update the playbook on that.
Sorry to be O/T, but in reference to the the GOP Bitchfest thread, here’s a link that may not have been posted:
http://www.coloradoconfidentia…..iaryId=545
Could the voters of Imam Dobson’s home town be getting fed up with the Talibangelists? Pragmatists in the Mile High City watch with interest….
OT– bush just said that he needs to keep ex-pec-ta-tions low.
he don’t watch teevee, except baseball.
exhuming mccarthy: you must be new to this saloon, eh?
Well said.
You’re honourable, honourable to me,
Loyal to the Bank of America…
Jane, as you’ve mentioned previously, the scorecards that organizations like NARAL use to rate lawmakers is grievously flawed. Joe’s vote against Alito’s confirmation was considered a “pro-choice vote”, even though the REAL vote, the one that mattered, was the vote to end debate.
Joe, of course, lined up with the rest of the jackasses and voted FOR cloture.
NARAL and Planned Parenthood chose to ignore the significance of that vote, and proudly stand by their support of RG Joe.
It really does make me believe that these organizations would like to see more threats to choice, which will keep their jobs safe and coffers filled.
We need to keep in mind that it ain’t only the right who can be corrupted.
PeteCO @ 13
great song…
Jane, as you’ve mentioned previously, the scorecards that organizations like NARAL use to rate lawmakers is grievously flawed. Joe’s vote against Alito’s confirmation was considered a “pro-choice vote”, even though the REAL vote, the one that mattered, was the vote to end debate.
The “scorecard” is just a bullshit excuse anyway. If they really gave a shit, they would say, “You know what, *fuck* the scorecard! We’re not supporting anyone who voted for Alito!”
And don’t expect me to believe that they don’t know what cloture is.
Sugar Pea– re: YouTube uploads, I am on dialup, so I don’t know if this is helpful for anyone else, but immediately the YouTube window opens, I right click and choose “quality” and reset for “low quality”. Sure helps speed things up, and usually no great loss.
exhuming mccarthy @
7
Playbook? There is no playbook on this. I’m not willing to cede control of my body to some Dick who can’t control his.
VG – Thanks for the tip. You should see this in…
.
.
.
.
chirp. chirp. chirp.
The scorecard is a system that gives these groups cover to endorse Republicans, against the interests of their donors. Being non-partisan means being committed to failure.
Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)
By: Steam
(Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer and Paul Leka)
1969
Enemy Sighted, Enemy met,
I’m addressing the Realpolitik….
What makes it great is that I had to wait twenty years from when I first heard it, AND move to the US from the UK, to really understand it. That’s some great songwriting.
Hoooray CTBob!
exhuming mccarthy @ 7
well, when roe v. wade gets overturned ater the next Supreme Ct. appointment, and abortion is only legal in blue states, maybe it will come back into style.
maybe young women giving themselves amateur abortions in people’s basements will bring the issue into America’s living rooms via cable TV.
You highlight an important point. Probably, most women under 40 take reproductive choice for granted. The pioneers in the choice movement became political activists because they were personally affected by illegal abortion. Some had mothers who died from them.
It’s been a long time since 1973, and Americans have short memories.
Geez, who would have thought we’d find ourselves doing Vietnam redux in 2006?
OT- FUCK GEORGE BUSH.
Wonderful ad!
I need to wait for a few days before I can give her a pittance.
exhuming mccarthy @
7
You sound like an expert. I’d love to see your links proving that this reflects the views of Rhode Island voters and not just your own personal slant on how we girls should STFU about having dominion over our own bodies and stop screwing up elections.
LindyH @ 18
I think (hope) they meant something more along the lines of re-framing the issue. There was an episode of “30 days” last week that really drove home that point for me… “choice” has been successfully painted to mean “pro-abortion”, and that’s simply not what it is. We need a better way to convey that even if you personally never would have an abortion, but understand that others may need to, that puts you firmly in our camp.
We also need to get the message out that our side abhors abortion as much as anyone, and that reducing the number of abortions in this country is held as a goal equal to ensuring the needed access to them.
LindyH @ 17
I like that.
“Being non-partisan means being committed to failure.”
Amen brother.
It seems like all I do when I watch the teevee of listen to the radio and hear the appeasing non-confrontational Dem pundit or politican roll over is scream ATTTACCKKKK! {royalty on its way to TRex}
non-partisanpussy.This is a really good ad, especially given that it’s about such a hot button issue. It starts in the best, most doubter-disarming manner possible:with rape. It’s hardest to argue forced childbirth when you’re talking about rape victims. From there the rest is reasonable. The ad is simple, clear, hard-hitting. The target is almost assuredly independent, middle of the road, pro-choice or on-the-fence voters, and I think it’ll be effective.
exhuming, put the sauce down.
Without people like Joe Lieberman and Sam Alito, people who are working at NARAL would have to get a job.
Considering their effectiveness over the last, oh, 30 years, I imagine it would not be a very high-paying, influential job.
Hence the adversarial symbiosis.
Does this pass anyone’s choice test?
Jane:
Glad you agreed with me that this was a great ad. :)
Looks like we have a DLC strangulator here, “oh, don’t take such a ‘radical’ position.” “The middle! Don’t forget the middle!” Or Poland. What wanking.
Where has being “nice” and “accommodating gotten us? It’s easy for the DLC strangulators to be so accommodating–with MY body.
And to such people, I extend the one-finger salute.
NARAL’s gotten an earful from me when they call of late. Someday, they might get the message that they’re not getting any more money until they throw out their stupid scorecards–from me, or from a lot of people who are willing to fight the good fight for this issue.
meta @ 25
Is there any other topic?
our 68-yo Congresslady had several friends in high school that died from “operations” — she is firmly pro-choice !
exhuming mccarthy @ 7
I went to a NARAL event in NYC in 2004 and most of their signage said Pro-Family/Pro-Choice. Don’t know if they’ve come up with something different since then
Gary DeCarlo, Paul Leka and Dale Frashuer wrote “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” in the early 1960’s when the three were members of a Bridgeport, Connecticut band, The Chateaus.
shoogarp, sorry, I just watched him on the news saying the most insipid, insulting, empty-headed jackass shit about Katrina. Good god, put this guy out of his pissery.
Bumpersticker on my truck since 1989.
Pro-child
Pro-family
Pro-Choice
Urban Pirate @ 41
Pro-Child? Everyone knows that after they’re born they’re no longer important.
Geez Jane, ain’t it pitful how we girls keep screwing up electshuns? I mean like, we godda get it t’gethir and stop using the F word (or evin thinkin about it). We got our cridibity ta cunsider. ~~~
Jane Hamsher @ 29
Me too. Anti-choice men also seem quite taken aback by “why should YOU have the keys to MY uterus?” When I make my position known, it’s direct; it’s unapologetic; it’s personal.
Got a good laugh a while back when I saw a good ol’ boy riding around in his beat up pick-up truck (sign of a REAL Texan) with a sticker that said:
Don’t like abortion?/Don’t have one!
This wasn’t in Austin, btw
Valley Girl @ 42
I’m being good. I thought TWICE about making this comment, and deleted it.
Eli @ 41
hah. Not in this house. After my 5 y.o. was born I became no longer important. :)
I would like to see legal-abortion movement in terms of “pro-lives” – the lives of women, children, families, communities.
nuttin’ downwind of WWWindbreaker passes the smell test.
VG-I right click & get some macromedia stuf-nothing allowing me to change quality….
:(
but GREAT COMMERCIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
meta @ 39
LMAO! Yep, sounded as though he got the Texass Twang crossed with the Louisianna Lounge and the dentures were falling out. Did he have a head injury in the past?
LJ-
Don’t like abortion?/Don’t have one!
so…
Don’t like preggers? Don’t have sex!
(not that this covers all, and certainly not the worst of it…)
Valley Girl @ 42
Actually, 50% of women (plus or minus) vote every election against their own rights in this regard. I have NEVER understood this.
Of course, the wingnuts actually do want to ban unmarried sex, and contraception within marriage, and anything other than the missionary position.
OT, astralplame, I’m still chuckling from a few days ago when you wrote, “Joe Lieberman, you put the ‘I’ in team.”
meta @ 40
I’m with you. I’m kinda taking a sabbatical from teevee for while. Can’t handle it. Wouldn’t be great if Bush was talking at the podium one day and he just simply disappeared? poof!
Paging God. Please rapture bush just on a lark. We don’t neeeeed him anymore.
Valley Girl @ 16
I’m on dialup here too
I use Internet Explorer for most of my innertubing, but for youtube I have a mozilla-firefox window open
I transfer the link to the mozilla window, wait a few minutes for the download to finish, and then hit “replay” to watch the whole thing without stoping every two seconds
other than YouTube, mozilla sucks for me. IE can do everything but YouTubes over a dialup connection. you just have to wait a little longer
that’s why I got 20 windows open right now
always something loading, and always something to read
I’ll be back in 5 minutes …
When anybody starts talking about this sanctity of life crap, I refer them to my own little essay about the brutal death of Gerri Santoro for a reminder of how illegal abortion does anything but respect life.
*ilbo @
50
Maybe getting that flight suit on.
ruffian- you have to do the right-click thing AFTER you do an “ordinary” click on the YouTube link, that is, do the right-click thing after the YouTube thing starts to load. Otherwise, I get the same as you seem to experience. Alas, I can’t see any way to change the YouTube default quality. Does this help?
Valley Girl @ 52
But…that’s what they ultimately want, isn’t it? No sex, unless it’s purely for reproduction?
Never understood that mindset.
Perhaps I have a perceptual problem on the choice issue. But it seems that it’s mostly men who scream the anti-choice bit so often and so loudly. Wonder if that has to with the fact that men don’t have babies? Might it be different if it were men being forced to have children against their will.
John Casper @ 54
blushing, but that is funnier than what I said! I said he was Joseph “I put the ‘I’ in ‘I’” Lieberman.
astralplame @ 47
I’d like to see it as pro-privacy.
If I have the right to be secure in my person, house, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, then I have the right to be secure in my uterus.
Pachacutec @ 52
Exactly. They’re settling for less than that now, but only as a temporary stance. There is no “compromise” with them on the abortion issue, because they aren’t negotiating in good faith. They want to unilaterally turn back the clock, and once they get the power to make things that way, nothing will stop them short of force.
Come to think of it, that’s the way they are on EVERY issue. Time to drop the accodationist bullshit on all fronts, and just attack.
Pachacutec @ 53
I have a strong theory that the whole crux of this agrument is to increase the birthrate among the “believers”.
Apparently it’s working, I heard the other day that the birthrate among fundies is almost twice that of liberals.
An uneducated, poor, indoctrinated, rapidly reproducing majority works really well for Rev. Dobson et al.
Urban- me neither. More than that, there are many R’s who continue to vote against themselves on economic issues, e.g. It is a real mystery.
All the guys are gonna leave if we start talking about uteruses.
Obama was slammed by Kenyan politicians after he made remarks about the dangers of corruption in that country. I have to agree with the Kenyan politicians. In 2005 out of 159 countries there were 9, I repeat 9, that were considered more corrupt than Kenya. So where does Obama get off criticizing them?
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781359.html
freepatriot, good luck with UAB on Saturday.
OT, John Dean has a nice section in CWC about how all the wingnuts militanty anti-choice wingnuts are militantly pro-death penalty.
Goose meet gander.
I don’t like the choice to have rape be the way in to the abortion debate. There are plenty of “moderates” who are in favor of the right to choose in cases of rape and incest. To me, there’s nothing moderate about this position; anything short of women having dominion over their own bodies is bullsh*t. This commercial is giving up ground from the very start. I can’t call it unapologetic.
op99- the good guys will stick around. They are the xy mainstays of FDL, and they can be counted on.
op99 @ 67
Hey! We put the “us” in uterus!
Also, real quick before I leave work, are there any LA folks who want info on the meet-up tonight?
Hugh, Unleaded regular is #3.87 here in Montauk, NY.
Even though I’m an Aussie. I have written to NARAL several times and have had a back a forward debate with one of the Executives (I told her I was from CT but just keep that to yourselves, it was a little white lie other wise I feel I would have been fobbed off)
Unfortunately I’ve deleted the emails.
The First one I received was a form letter. I assume they used it to reply to everyone who questioned their support for Lieberman (I know this because I saw the same “Form letter” email posted here more than once) but after I chastised them for sending me an impersonal form letter as a reply. She at least had the decency to return my emails and reasons why (their support for Lieberman) with me.
I am still quite pissed off to be honest and can understand the frustrations of you guy’s who are in the US trying to fight the ignorance and Hypocrisy of organisations such as NARAL who definitely should not be supporting a Republican Hack like Lieberman. Because that is all he is, a shallow, pathetic Weasel! One who I have no doubt would go down on Bush if it meant keeping his seat in Parliament.
All I can say is…Hurry up with the Rapture already!!!….I can’t wait to see the look on all the Neo Cons faces when JC Say’s they are all going to HELL!!
uterii
Can I talk about my prostate?
Urban Pirate @ 66
I believe that polygamy in the Mormon religion was just the business plan for growth.
percy @ 75
are you Bob Dole?
all the xx talk is a fair trade-off for the Joe-agra of the past few threads…..
percy @ 75
I’m tempted to say no, but it’s Jane’s blog.
freepatriot @ 57
LOL!
I usually hit play on the YouTube, walk into the backroom of my gallery, put burrito in the microwave, pull out a magazine, call a friend….
percy @ 76
them’s fun !
percy @ 75
pro-state’s rights? then have one.
percy @ 77
Yes, if it is an important issue for you. Bushco. ain’t so great on men’s health issues either, tho the having a baby thing is kinda the trump card for the present discussion.
astralplame @
72
Dang, astralplame, I though it was tomorrow night! I can’t make it but please say hi to redshift for me (what’s that boy doing in CA?) and hoist a virtual few for me, too. In fact, I’ll buy a virtual round!
Next time, I hope.
Knock, knock.
Who’s there?
Babs’s uterus.
Babs’s uterus who?
I don’t know, Babs. But I do know this…
Lieberman’s an ass.
I think I’d better leave your prostate alone.
Must go. Wife and I taking our respective reproductive organs out for a walk. ‘Night all.
percy @ 76
Is the government trying to control your prostate? The nerve of them!!! Tell us all about it.
op99 @ 76
You’re right, it was. For Millennia, religions have used all sorts of “encouragement” to help build their armies “from the ground up”. Over centuries, a ramped up birthrate can be the difference between being the owner and being the slave.
Firefox crashed and I lost my bookmarks a while back. Remember the story about the Guy (a veterinarian) who Jr. placed in charge of womens health issues for a time?
Urban Pirate @ 66
This is one of the reasons why I’m going have some kids. Muddy the gene pool if you will. Raise em’ on honesty, integrity, compassion (the regular kind), charity, logic, reason, a little Jackson Browne, a whole lot of Beatles and BAM!
A little liberal. Dobson. Kiss. My. Ass.
All of you liberals out there that don’t have kids, breed tonight we need more troops. Or, use some birth control, and just practice.
; )
shoogarp- does your fiancee know about your plans? Jest kinning…
astralplame @ 73
Did you see that ad for feminine deodorant spray – “We take the P.U. out of pussy”?
Urban Pirate @ 66
I can tell y’all horror stories about the way some of these places work. Like, at John Hagee’s HorrorStone–Er, Cornerstone, if two young adults (hetero, of course) want to date, they have to fill out an application and have it approved. If it’s approved, they get to go out on a “group date” (kinky!) with five other couples, plus at least one chaperone. The guys meet at the church, load into a van, then they get all the wimmenfolk. They go out to dinner, maybe to a Xtian-approved event, a coffeeshop afterwards, maybe some Scripture study, some prayin’ together, then all the wimmenfolk are returned home by 10-11 p.m. The guys get taken back to the church.
If you want to get married, you have to apply for that, too, and have it approved. The guy I know that attends hasn’t reached that stage yet, so I don’t know what happens if somebody disobeys any of this, or if, after getting married, they must have “reproductive” approval, too. Or if they’re forbidden from using any kind of birth control. I’d imagine it’s a pretty safe bet that abortion is O-U-T.
What I want to know is: How is this different from the Moonies? Hell, I was raised in the Baptist church–Deep-fried Southern Baptist, and I never heard of anything like this!
Urban Pirate #73,
Out here where I am in the Midwest, gas has fallen $.54 a gallon in the last two weeks.
op99- Napoleon would not have approved!
If it’s approved, they get to go out on a “group date” (kinky!) with five other couples, plus at least one chaperone. The guys meet at the church, load into a van, then they get all the wimmenfolk. They go out to dinner, maybe to a Xtian-approved event, a coffeeshop afterwards, maybe some Scripture study, some prayin’ together, then all the wimmenfolk are returned home by 10-11 p.m. The guys get taken back to the church.
That is sooo fuckin’ hot, I’m getting turned on just reading about it.
Eli:
Honey, I couldn’t believe this when I heard it. It sounded like the perfect recipe for some serious kink to me, too.
You and I have such dirty minds… ;)
OK Mommybrain – you were asked after in particular in the rounds of emails. I will say hi to redshift for you, and have a chocolate shake on your behalf. Maybe two!
My email is my screen name at gmail dot com if you would be interested in another FDL meet-up sometime.
op99 – sweet! brand marketing is definitely more fun now that we are all decadent and stuff.
Eli @ 98
if this van’s swayin’
it’s cuz we’re prayin’
Eli @ 99
I think that’s code, Eli.
It IS the Moonies. They own the Washington Times, and they bankroll the GOP. Does anyone really think they aren’t getting some proverbial “bang for their buck”?!
punaise @ 100
You’re a treasure, poo-nums.
op99 @ 67
hey, I love uteruses, I used to be in one
Quick! Somebody tell the Pentagon. We have found out where the Taliban are hiding.
Hey, we used to have the expression down here that the family that bathed together stayed together. Or, when we were in polite company, the family that prays together stays together. But my brother got it mixed up once and said that the family that prays together bathes together. I got a lotta weird stares when I started laughing maniacally at his mix-up.
astralplame, I like coffee shakes better’n chocolate. I’ll email soon.
op99 @ 78
Most histories that I’ve read pin it on a lack of men on what was a remote frontier. They also were trying to boost their population figures for statehood.
poo-nums? hmmmm…. :~)
holy rollers…..
Oklahoma kiddo @
61
Hey, kiddo, I think it was Gloria Steinem who said, “If men had babies, abortion would be a sacrament.” LOL
if this van’s rockin’
it’s cuz we’re flockin’
op99,
This reminds me of one of my favorite poems.
To Daffodils
by Robert Herrick
Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attain’d his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song;
And, having pray’d together, we
Will go with you along.
We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die
As your hours do, and dry
Away,
Like to the summer’s rain;
Or as the pearls of morning’s dew,
Ne’er to be found again.
EPU’d 336 prev threat
I’m trying to imagine the pick-up lines some of these Horrorstone guys use:
Used to, the smooth intellectuals asked a woman to come back to his place to look at his “manuscript.”
Maybe with these fundies, it’s “Hey, wanna come into the van to see my family…bible?”
“Why don’t you show me how good you can quote my Scripture?”
Is it me, or is it getting hot in here…?
shooogarp @ 108
In other words, it’s beneficial, for many reasons, to keep EVERY woman making as many babies as possible.
Ronzoni Rigatoni @ 112
If men had babies, there wouldn’t be any people.
As long as they are on your “side”, of course.
I’m so glad to see a forceful message from a Democrats about this.
What is more private then a person’s body?
The last place I want Uncle Sam invading is my body, as I’m sure most sane folks are.
LJ/Aquaria @ 116
Oh, LJ…
LJ/Aquaria @ 116
damn, all those years I thought it was “etchings”…
punaise is a treasure, innt he?
As for pussies, this is absolutely one of my fave photos, from Punaise:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albu…../cesar.jpg
(Sorry Punaise to bring back the tears. I remember his December demise… so very sad…)
punaise @ 122
It doesn’t work with photographs, apparently.
meta @ 24
Must disagree [learn to disagree without being disagreeable—-Rev. Peter James, Vienna VA]
This is never off topic.
LJ/Aquaria @ 117
You wanna’ see God?
Hugh @ 115
That’s beautiful, thanks for sharing.
OT and oh my. My sis just sent me this on George Allen, (R- Racist):
http://www.thenation.com/docpr…..orge_allen
ahh, VG, thanks…sniffle, sniffle….
Eli @
124
Snapshots are more effective …
Hey Jane, it’s Jim Langavin.
Lawless is getting my vote come primary day. Unfortuantely, I don’t think she has a chance. But that won’t stop me.
Langavin is the most useless congressman we’ve ever had. Hell, he makes “Patches” Kennedy, RI’s other congressman, look good, almost…Well, on second though, no, they’re both equally useless.
Urban Pirate @ 118
For them at the time, yep. Need field hands. Child mortality was very high at the time. Typically you had five kids to get three, etc. I’m not defending it, I’m just trying to illustrate a historical analogy to help us understand the thinking going on now.
As Colbert says: they’re playin’ for keeps out there….
punaise- ahh, but I love that photo, and the personalities responsible. It really is a great cat photo. I guess you’ve figured out that I am a “cat person”….
Punaise, I adopted two older cats today from a friend of a friend. One is 19.9 lbs (!) and the other is an orange tabby, looks just like that picture VG put up. When he comes out from under the bed I’ll try to take a picture. Luke has renamed the fat one Gimli. No new name for Sonny yet.
My cat caught a huge roadrunner today.
Luke has renamed the fat one Gimli.
Heh. I named this one random kitty I met “Gollum” for some reason…
Valley Girl @ 132
Cesar (”L’il Buddy”) does have a certain regal air in that picture – literally, in a gutter – not bad for a shelter cat!
Here’s another bit from the article on George Allen– this is amazing.
http://www.thenation.com/docpr…..orge_allen
punaise- and you captured the regal air perfectly…
These people are not pro-life. They are pro BIRTH. Never mind if someone can’t take care of a baby after it’s born. Then they want to complain about “welfare moms”. Unintegrated values.
punaise @
122
Oh, I got the “etchings,” too. And the “demo tapes.” The most interesting “collection” was classic cars. I blame the last guy for the fascination I’ve had with the Shelby Cobra (he had a ‘63 or ‘64 289) ever since.
Tryin’ to anticipate the October surprise:
http://mcegregious.blogspot.co…..ality.html
If there aren’t enough real threats, or easily Faux propagandized pedophile
“communist”“terrorist” gay stemcell scary brown people shoebombersnakesWOMEN WITH MASCARA ON PLANES immigrant threats, they might decide to do it for real.Watch for the late October “OOH SHINY” terrorist attack.
In fact, in my opinion, it’s all a CONTROL issue.
punaise @
113
Class, Mass or Tinkling Brass…Everybody Rides With He
;>)
god-damn, republicans are WRONG about EVRYTHING. Why can’t democrats just stand up and say it in straight forward, simple terms like this – quit all the damn triangulating already and finesse politics – straight talk, it goes to the heart of the matter.
.
Valley Girl @ 139
well, successor kitten Louis has got a bit of catching up to do in the “regal” dept. (to be fair, the photo is a bit dated – he’s matured since).
Rising Tide, Sinking Boats
darkblack @
144
LOL
Frankly I think Democrats should launch a “have a big family” campaign. Imagine the size of the bricks the goopers would be shitting hehe. They might hate us for being pro-choice, but do they really want a country full of copiously breeding liberals? :)
oh Punaise…. that is another wonderful kitty photo… have you thought about doing a kitty photo picture book? REally, that is a fab photo. So, you get cats that coordinate with your furniture?
Here’s a kitty – and I call Godwin’s Law on myself.
op99 @
151
MEOW!
Cute, twolf1 (2lf1?)
*ilson,VG – weird, half the posts on current modcomm page have old buttons, half only new view. U 2?
op99 @
153
t-wolf-1 :)
This is way down in EPU-land, but have to add my 2 cents – or maybe even my 22 cents.
From the time I was old enough to understand the workings of my body, I believed that not only was my body my responsibility, but that my body belonged to me. That decisions I would make about my body should be mine to make. Mine to wrestle with. Mine to consult my physician about. Mine to decide whether to have sex. Mine to protect with birth control. Mine to decide not to have sex. Mine.
I married, and two years into our marriage, my husband and I decided it was time to start having a family. I was 29, he was 34. We were lucky – I got pregnant almost immediately, and it was a healthy and happy time for me and for us.
Creating a human being is a wonder. Carrying a living being in your belly is an amazing experience, but it is weeks before you feel that life inside you. Truly, until then, it is an idea, that does not feel completely real. I was lucky to be in a loving marriage, with a home and a nice income, and to have chosen to get pregnant.
Having experienced a pregnancy from the stick turning blue to being handed a 7lb 15 oz beautiful baby girl, I was forever changed.
When we decided to have child #2, again, I got pregnant almost at the moment we made the decision. I was three years older, and my doctor offered amnio. We decided against it, as knowing your child has perfect DNA is still no guarantee of a perfect life, so we took our chances and again, had a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Those babies are now 23 and almost 20, and they could not be loved more.
Just thinking about what it would be like to be faced with the idea of terminating a pregnancy, I realized that I would probably not have been able to do it. But, even knowing that it might not be the decision I would make, I still could never presume to tell another woman what her decision should be. I could never vote for anything that would close a door for someone whose pregnancy did not occur under the same circumstances mine did.
That’s what it means to be pro-choice – for me.
I understand all the arguments about having sex, and not having sex, and using birth control and being responsible. I also understand that it takes two to make a baby, that some women are raped. That some are not even women, but girls, with little education, no role models and even fewer choices. I know that men lie, that men leave, that men say they will be fathers and then run. I know that men cannot and never will have to carry a living being inside them, never suffer the risks and demands of pregnancy and never do the equivalent of pulling a pot roast through one nostril.
But, regardless of the who, the what, the why and no matter the buts and the ifs, our bodies are our own, and we – whether we are women or men – have to have the right to make decisions about ourselves, on our own. We live with our own conscience, we get the help we need, but in the end, it is up to us.
I really liked the ad. I like that it is women delivering the narrative, as I am tired – oh, so tired – of seeing men making pronouncements about something they will never, ever experience.
Thanks for the chance to get this out.
Hugh @
96
Must be getting close to ELECTION.
Thanks Anne. We can’t ever have equal rights without the basic right to own our bodies.
beautifully said, Anne ;)
The last argument I got into with a ‘winger was about abortion. This person has been a friend, although I think I can’t really call him that any longer, the gap in our values is now too wide to bridge. The volume of misperceptions and biases that came out during that argument were incredible; he had no idea that SD had made abortion illegal, MS virtually so by the difficulty of getting one. He thought that women have so many other choices, never mind that they might be poor, in ill health, have been raped…he had to give it up, having run out of answers when I asked him at point blank whether my twelve-year old daughter should be forced at risk of her own life to bear a child because of rape.
The sputtering response was the last straw for me.
I think in his case it’s a weird mixture of sublimation and projection; he got married in a hurry after his ex-wife got pregnant within days of meeting him. They struggled through a handful of years of marriage, having a second child but eventually divorcing messily. I’ve never asked but wondered if he thought his life would have been a lot different if he’d not “done the right thing” all those years ago, instead of putting himself and his kids (and now his current wife, or the friends who stood by him through it all) through years of misery. And I wonder why he would ever wish this on anyone else who made a mistake or had an accident…tempting to ask him, but I’m sure he’d pointedly tell me that it was none of my damned business
Which makes me think of a powerful essay that captures the hypocrisy of the anti-choice arguments: The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion. It’s always STFU, it’s none of your business — and all about them.
seems like “giving women the right to vote” kinda left out some of the *nuances* about voting rights, eh?
Anne — very nice comment.
Rats! I had a snarky comment planned, but it looks like “Steve Langavin” has been corrected to “Jim Langavin.” Good.
Now can you spell Langevin correctly, too? Thanks.
seth @
163
picky, picky, picky! but thanks, it’s now corrected…
Anne — yes, that’s exactly how I feel. I am so blessed to have two beautiful, healthy, smart children, had to go through that moment of uncertainty when a test came back that was not quite right, but okay on the second test.
But I also have a niece who is Down’s, who spent months and months in the hospital because of heart defects, who will likely have more surgery throughout an abbreviated life. I have had a niece with multiple births, two of which died after many surgeries that attempted to correot numerous birth defects. The pain and the sorrow was immense, made greater for what I perceive as a lack of moral strength to be merciful and bring surcease of suffering.
I don’t know how I could ever tell another woman who has to face the sure knowledge of a child’s immense suffering that she cannot excercise the ultimate in maternal mercy. To me that is immoral.
well said, Anne at 156
Mommybrain @
134
missed this earlier. woo hoo!
20 lbs. … sure that’s a cat?!
Urban Pirate – what *ilbo said. Just dawned on me that I paid 2.63/gal this Sunday evening.
Want to bet that pricing of gas mirrors the lean/solid map for candidates?
Wonder if somebody in our ranks can whip up a Google mashup mapping price by candidates’ districts…???
Thanks, all –
I just find myself getting so impatient and irritated with those who feel that their own beliefs on subjects that are entirely personal to each individual should take precedence over the beliefs of others, and look to the law to impose those beliefs on everyone.
Abortion is not an event that any woman – that I know of – celebrates and revels in as a good thing. Abortion represents a failure, and not just of the birth control that can and does fail. It represents the failure of plans – the relationship or marriage that didn’t work out, leaving a woman alone and facing a pregnancy she cannot afford. It represents a failure of trust, when a woman gets raped and gets pregnant. It represents a failure of genetics, when the cells that for so many others results in near perfection, goes horribly awry and produces anomalies and defects that are incompatible with life. Or an array of problems that a mother does not wish to inflict on her child.
Abortion is never a success. For most women, it is not as unemotional as having a tooth pulled or getting a hsircut.
Abortion is failure. And because it is failure, we should do whatever it takes to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. That means education, even for younger girls. It means education for boys, as well. That means making birth control available, even to girls and boys under 18. It means developing newer and better technology to identify genetic problems as early as possible, and encouraging pre-pregnancy genetic counseling. It means funding the science that can correct defects in the womb.
Reducing abortion means being realistic about the effectivness of abstinence programs. It means teaching children an appreciation for life and the consequences of failing to be responsible.
It means not closing our eyes and our ears to our children, making ourselves available for honest and frank talk about sex and love and babies.
It means allowing womwn to have full autonomy over their own lives and their own bodies, and teaching them that having that autonomy means having children when one is emotionally and financially ready.
Nothing bad ever got better because people kept it in the dark.
The issue is one of control. Do you believe you should control your body or do you believe the State should? If you believe that Jerry Falwell should choose what happens to your body, vote Republican. If you believe you should choose, vote pro-choice. A true “conservative” a la Goldwater, believes the State should leave people alone.
The right today is not conservative, it is the intrusive party. The right wants to control what you read, what you watch, who you sleep with, how you have sex, who you talk to, and what kind of health care is available to you. They believe that they know what is best for you and that you are incapable of determining for yourself what is best for you.
The problem is that young women, especially young single mothers are the group least likely to vote. Certainly they don’t have a lot of time to keep abreast of all the nuances of politics, so it is incumbent on all of us to reach out to those women who say they aren’t interested in politics or don’t have time for politics. They can understand in just a few minutes that they do have time to vote about who is going to control their bodies, Dick Cheney, or themselves.
Another important reason that Joe Lieberman should not be endorsed is his comment about Plan B. He said that a rape victim who found herself at a Catholic hospital which will not give her Plan B pill could easily find another hospital nearby-Unbelieveable- he is a religious fundamentalist-he “morally” thinks abortion is wrong-we are on a slippery slope here-he will vote where his bread is buttered-
I have also called both NARAL (my husband was on a state board) and Planned Parenthood -both national since DC determines who to endorse- They need to get more calls-Withdraw your money and support until they stop buying into status quo-We do have to take a stand- think the local branches of both agencies are upset -Call them as well-It matters and it makes a difference-if they think they are losing lots of support they may reconsider-(have heard very negative things about NARAL national political person) Take Action!
SaltinWound @ 70
I don’t think that is what this commercial is saying.
What it says to me is: forcing a woman to have sex against her will is wrong. Forcing a woman to have children against her will is also wrong. It is making explicit the connection between rape and the policy of forced childbirth, in that one is nothing more than the logical extension of the other.
Forced childbirthers want to keep the debate focussed on “unborn babies,” where they have a chance to seize the higher ground. We shouldn’t let them, we should keep the debate on our terms — forced childbirth.
The question is (or should be) this: “Under what circumstances is it justifiable to force a woman to go through childbirth unwillingly?”
For us the answer is easy, it is never justifiable. For the forced-childbirthers it’s a lot trickier. They believe it is always justifiable, or at the minimum, justifiable when the woman is a “sinner,” i.e. she consented to sex in the first place. This is what they call “incest and rape” exceptions.
But rape and incest exceptions are not a matter of compassion or generosity, as they like to claim. Far from it. What they are really saying is “if a woman or girl is raped the first time, we won’t rape her again. But if she wasn’t raped the first time, then we will rape her.”
This is what Xena here has done, she has pulled the debate onto our territory, where we can win.
Sorry,
Should have responded earlier.
My point was that as a means of communicating to voters, choice is a tired term that doesn’t have much meaning.
I am prochoice, but we need better phrasing, because the term has so much baggage and is so dated. I expect to see Phil Donahue and Gloria Steinem at a rally somewhere with the way we talk.
We need to engage with a compelling overall philosphy of personal freedom, which includes choice and marraige rights, but package it in a way that makes sense and is compelling to people in 2006, not in a way that makes people remember the 1970s.