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.

Not a feminist, not a progressive

Yes, Anglachel is so right. Melissa McEwan did nail it:

Feminism is an integral part of progressivism.
If you're not a feminist, you're not a progressive.
No matter how much you hate Bush.
No matter how much you hate the Iraq war.
No matter how much you hate our current torture policy.
No matter how much you want to restore habeas corpus.
No matter how much you're totally going to vote for the Democrat in November.
If you're not a feminist, you're not a progressive.
You're a fauxgressive.
End of story.

Anglachel then articulated at length the inherent sexism in the Obamasphere, "the anti-feminist behavior of self-identified liberal men," their racial guilt, and the turf battle: white guys protecting their self-interests, the decaying class infrastructure that once privileged them, and how women threaten their hegemony in competing for "economic success." The Obamasphere smear, WWTSBQ, epitomizes the resentment online and offline.

Go read both Anglachel and Melissa for the goods.

I'm still too nauseous from having read Obama's wimpy interview with The Advocate from this morning. I can't add anything meaningful. Besides, what Anglachel and Melissa wrote is perfection as is.

But I will expand on Melissa's righteous prose, if I may be so bold...

If you're afraid to stand up for LGBT equality, you're not a progressive.

More about that statement after I recuperate from the mealy-mouthed piffle that Obama imagined was his "commitment" to LGBTs gays and lesbians.

First, I need to go sharpen my labrys.

UPDATE: The Advocate interview with Obama

The late, late edition

Maybe Rembrandt didn't have this in mind



Oh, my Goddess! Townhall hosted an loony professor's anti-feminist rant about what appears to be his deep-seeded fear of castration. His obsession? Feminists' objections to the word, "mankind." My personal opinion: How dumb is he to write a derisive column when he's been "named as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging first amendment retaliation"? This guy is a professor?! Wow.

At Hoyden About Town, tigtog wrote about women keeping their maiden names when they marry. She cited a thesis by Lisa Cuprio, who, seemingly confused by discombobulated brain synapses, failed to see the feminism link in the trend. Crikey.

Oxymorons -- The principled, honest House Republicans and their machinations on the FISA bill by Glenn Greenwald.

Debate hate -- Clinton and Obama agreed to debate in PA and NC. But the groaning and loathing over yet more debates perked up at one of the Boy Blogz. As Lambert noted, "Mistah Kurtz, he whine." After scanning the comments at Greg Sargent's "no-rest-for-the-weary-of-debates department," two words for TPM whiners: Don't watch.

Merchant of death -- That's how Paul Krugman described the core competency of the Carlyle Group. However, since the corp plunged into investment banking as Carlyle Capital, "...the bond fund affiliated with private equity firm The Carlyle Group, is on the verge of collapse after failing to agree a new financing deal with lenders... The fund said late Wednesday that it expects lenders will soon take possession of 'substantially all' its remaining assets after it was unable to meet surging margin calls on its portfolio of residential-mortgage-backed securities." Details.

The cobra hand motion: You're fired! John Gibson's Faux News show gets the boot. Logan Murphy can escort you through Gibson's "memory lane of shame."

GOP media mogul impact -- "Republican billionaires set about buying up our entire mass media. They succeeded. The result has been catastrophic for America, creating people like these, who bask self-righteously in their own gross ignorance and narrow-minded bigotry," said Howie Klein. Now we have to contend with McCain myth-making and revisionist history. Go read Howie and then roll up your sleeves, bloggers. Lots of work ahead.

Liberal media's reading habits from Atrios: What's the No. 1 blog they read? Sully's Daily Dish. Ugh, no wonder. View the whole list and media definitions at the No. 7 blog, Eschaton (No. 10 for media elites).

The Daily Howler -- Bob Somerby weighs in on Tweety (the "cosmic fraud"), the Geraldine Ferraro kerfuffle, Barack Obama, and Keith Olbermann with his incomparable fair-minded and eye-opening style. From my POV: Yes, Obama is a "brilliant person" and I personally don't think he is a "bad" candidate. He's just not my preferred candidate nor was he my second or third choice when the campaign kicked off. I nod in agreement with Somerby's assessment: "[O]n balance, we don’t think it’s a great idea to nominate someone so new." And finally, speaking of the Clinton-Obama race, Somerby articulated the Democratic nomination dilemma, "It’s a shame that one has to lose."

Rev. Jeremiah Wright can espouse whatever beliefs and opinions he wishes according to his First Amendment rights. Our dubious press corps, however, associated Obama with Wright's controversial 9/11 statements by using selective, sleight-of-hand reporting, neglecting to mention Obama's disavowal. Those rascals! But wait a minute... There's just one teensy-weensy problem: "Wright is a member of Obama's African American Religious Leadership Committee." Uh-oh. Any news on Wright's resignation from the Obama campaign? CNN has been running and re-running the video of Rev. Wright's tirade. Can't you see it used in a McCain October attack ad? Advice to Obama: Jump on this ASAP.

Now for a non-political, personal message -- Wishing you the best, Twisty.

UPDATE: At this time, Clinton has yet to agree to the CBS debate April 19 in NC.

UPDATE II: Rev. Wright's controversial video.

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.