NARAL angers the Goddess

Riverdaughter at The Confluence remembered as I did that Jane Hamsher had talked tough about NARAL in the past. She posted the scoop on NARAL's endorsement of Obama and a bunch of links when Jane had excoriated NARAL in the past. Jane also wrote at HuffPost on Feb. 24, 2006, NARAL and Planned Parenthood Are Now the Enemies of Pro-Choice:

South Dakota has now passed legislation making it illegal for a woman to have an abortion even in the case of rape or incest. It's a law perfectly timed to test the new Supreme Court now that Samuel Alito has joined their ranks. How exactly did we get to this place?

Ask Planned Parenthood and NARAL.

They sat back, bilked their membership like an ATM then didn't show up to fight Alito's confirmation, frolicking in their mountain of hoarded cash even as they pissed and moaned. Worse yet, afterwards they told their members to thank those in the Senate -- like Joe Lieberman -- who cast their votes to let this happen.

Now women across the country are enraged and they're "irritated" by the phone calls and faxes they're getting. Their disconnect from the real world of pro-choice is both dangerous and astonishing.

Ronkseattle, also at The Confluence, provided an update on reactions from NARAL state affiliates. The executive director of NARAL Pro-choice Washington wasn't happy:

...To be clear, we at NARAL Pro-Choice Washington remain neutral in the race … We strongly disagree with NARAL Pro-Choice America’s decision to endorse at this time.

… To endorse Obama at this point in the race is an unconscionable slap in the face to Senator Hillary Clinton.

Indeed, it is, and I will take great pleasure in shredding NARAL mailings when they arrive at my home.

Guess who NARAL endorsed in 2006? Joe Lieberman. M'yeah, they endorsed wacky doodle dandy Joe Lieberman over Ned Lamont.

As I said in 2006, I don't recognize the women's movement anymore. Time to start anew.

The Supreme argument

Are Obamaroids making the rounds jamming pro-Hillary blogs with fear tactics? Doncha know the Supreme Court is at stake!?! Crikey.

When Democratic senators joined the Cons to confirm Roberts and Alito, they tilted the U.S. Supreme Court to a decidedly conservative bent (see roll call at the bottom). Tom Goldstein at SCOTUSBlog summarized in September 2007:

As one of the most conservative in recent memory, the just-completed 2006 Term has recently served as a rallying cry for progressives. The two most prominent cases (by an order of magnitude) involved hot-button social issues - race and abortion - and both resulted in significant conservative rulings. Moreover, the Ledbetter case (opinion [PDF] here), in which the Court limited Title VII’s backpay remedy, continues to receive significant attention as the Democratic Congress considers legislation to overrule it. . . Those cases (along with, for example, the Wisconsin Right to Life campaign finance decision) were all decided by the same five-Justice majority composed of the Court’s most conservative members.

Essentially, we have a 5-4 right-wing SCOTUS that favors business and wingnut interests over American citizens. Anyone paying attention rather than trying to score Obama talking points would realize the damage already done. BDBlue challenges the spiel about Roe v. Wade:

If Obama becomes the party nominee, as seems likely, those of us who are not Obama supporters will get an earful on why we have to vote for him in November. Some of these reasons will be fairly good ones. One of them, IMO, is not. That one is that of course we all have to support Obama, think of the Supreme Court. This one is often aimed at those of us who are women with the implied threat that if we don’t fall in line and be good girls, we’ll lose our rights under Roe v. Wade.

I call bullshit on this argument. I will not have my body held hostage by the Democratic - or any - political party.

High five, BDBlue, and precisely why I am voting this November for a presidential candidate who's pro-choice but the name isn't Obama. Secondly, coercive rhetoric and playing the guilt card--a hypocritical move if Mr New Kind of Politics ain't no fraud--offend my liberal conscience and I reject efforts to extort my vote. Freedom = freedom and I denounce activities, zealotry, or compromises that attempt to subvert it.

The electoral prize, IMO, is electing a liberal Democratic majority in the House and Senate. BDBlue:

McCain cannot stack the Supreme Court or any Court with wing-nut judges by himself. His nominees have to be confirmed by the Senate. A Senate that will almost certainly be controlled by Democrats, probably with an increased majority. Why should I have to worry about Roe v. Wade or any other core constitutional right? While the Democrats would inevitably have to compromise on some issues with a Republican president (just as Obama will have to compromise some to get legislation through the Senate given the unlikelihood of a filibuster-proof majority), surely a body that is controlled by the Democratic Party will fight for my right to control my body. And if they won’t, then why am I electing any of them to Congress?

Another significant consideration are state elections and referendums. The fight to roll back pro-choice has been and will continue at the state level, for example: petition drives, ballot/legislative measures to ban abortion (South Dakota), add restrictions (California), and amend state constitutions to define a "person" as a zygote (Colorado, Georgia). Supporting the right to choose and the right to privacy begins in local communities and states.

I have never stated that I will stay home in November. I will vote in the general election due to referendums and local, state, congressional, and presidential candidates vetted and deemed worthy of my vote. I erased Obama from the list long before Super Tuesday. The more I see him, hear him, and learn about his liaisons, public record, and policies--I know how to visit his website--the more satisfied I am with my decision.

Case closed.

POSTSCRIPT: Senate Democrats who voted to confirm John Roberts as Chief Justice in 2005:

Baucus (D-MT)
Byrd (D-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT) WTF?!
Dorgan (D-ND)
Feingold (D-WI) WTF?!
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Leahy (D-VT) WTF?!
Levin (D-MI) WTF?!
Lieberman (DINO-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Wyden (D-OR)

Senate Democrats who voted to confirm Samuel Alito to the SCOTUS in 2006:

Byrd (D-WV)
Conrad (D-ND)
Johnson (D-SD)
Nelson (D-NE)

Pro-choice movement angers the Goddess

I don't recognize the women's movement anymore when Planned Parenthood and NARAL endorse a wacky doodle dandy such as Joe Lieberman over Ned Lamont:

From now on, even if 74% of Catholics in your state think that publicly funded hospitals should be required to provide emergency contraception to women who have just been brutally raped, we just want you to know that it’s okay to suck up to Catholic League nutjobs like Bill Donohue and Kate O’Beirne. We are open for business and will rubber stamp your pro-choice bona fides anyway, and promise to make absolutely no mention of any of this when we endorse you. You’ll be openly bragging about what a great friend you are to women in no time.

Has everyone sold principles for money? I guess if America under the conservative regime can whore itself to the highest bidder, so can anyone.

Jane Hamsher asks (with emphasis):

Am I the only one who is horrified by the sad state of the pro-choice movement in this country? The one bright spot is NOW, who seems to actually care about the cause they ostensibly support with their bizarre insistence that candidates they endorse actually be pro-choice. NARAL and Planned Parenthood just keep giving Democrats license to abandon their issues and still retain the pro-choice stamp of approval, and people who care and donate are being deluded into thinking that people like Lincoln Chafee, Maria Cantwell and Joe Lieberman — who all voted for cloture on Alito — are doing anything positive that isn’t completely symbolic while actively participating in taking a wrecking ball to women’s rights.

The Goddess blesses NOW as She readies Herself to spew forth the lukewarm vomitus from her Mouth into the cauldron of Pyrography.