Media Ignores Tiger Woods' Plea for Privacy

The Florida Highway Patrol is after Tiger Woods' medical records, according to TMZ, in order to determine if his injuries are from an auto accident or from domestic violence.

For 3 days in a row, Woods has refused to talk to the police. He and his wife Elin Nordegren continue to shun all contact with the media, leading some to suggest that the golf champion definitely has something to hide.

Over the holiday weekend, Woods issued a statement on his website in which he makes a futile plea for privacy:

This is a private matter and I want to keep it that way. Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.

Obviously, Tiger is dreaming. The media is not going to respect anybody's privacy, at least not until the mystery is solved. Theories abound. My favorite is the one in which Tiger Woods rushed out of the house at 2:00 am to go pick up some baby aspirin for his sick child and was so distraught over his child's health that he immediately crashed into a tree. Not too many folks seem to buy that one. The most popular theory depicts Tiger fleeing from his shrew of a wife who finally gets revenge on her cheating husband by attacking his Cadillac Escalade with Tiger's very own golf club. All of this caused the infamous crash now known as Tiger's "shortest drive."

And then there's the more plausible theory that Tiger Woods is simply guilty of a DUI due to a heavy dose of prescription meds.

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Tiger Woods: Injuries Caused by Wife Not Car Accident

CNN is still reporting that Tiger Woods was injured from a late night car accident, but TMZ reports that the injuries were instead inflicted by Tiger Woods' wife. As the story goes, it was talk of another woman that drove Elin Nordegren to pick up a golf club and pursue her cheating golf champion of a husband:

Tiger Woods did not suffer facial lacerations from a car accident. They were inflicted by his wife, Elin Nordegren -- according to a conversation Woods had Friday after the accident.

We're told he said his wife had confronted him about reports that he was seeing another woman. The argument got heated and, according to our source, she scratched his face up. We're told it was then Woods beat a hasty retreat for his SUV -- but according to our source, Woods says his wife followed behind with a golf club. As Tiger drove away, she struck the vehicle several times with the club. We're told Woods became "distracted," thought the vehicle was stopped, and looked to see what had happened. At that point the SUV hit the fire hydrant and then hit a tree.

Politics Feminist News Gender

Alice's Restaurant, A Lefty Tradition

We observe this hippie tradition at my house. Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without listening to Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant (mp3). Regardless of how you observe it, I hope you have a happy one!

Read more on the subject at this previous post.

Alice’s Restaurant Arlo Guthrie Thanksgiving MP3 Audio Liberal TraditionsVideo

Obama/Hillary 2012?

Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Vice Presidential slot on the 2012 ticket? Making her the Democratic presidential candidate for 2016? Who's to say if this is a hot rumor or an actual leak? The naysayers once thought that Hillary as Secretary of State was a mere wild rumor.

I can think of millions of reasons why this would be good for the country. And at least 153 million of those reasons are women. It's quite likely that Obama views such a move as a strategy aimed to win back at least some of the alienated Democratic base, as well as all of those Independents who have recently moved away from the current Administration in droves.

And then there is the thought of Joe Biden as the presidential contender in 2016. Joe Biden has already run for president, and he won what? One percent of the vote?

Goddess knows the Obama Administration could use a little help in the fighting for core Democratic values department!

The hot rumor in Washington: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could replace Vice President Joe Biden on the 2012 Obama re-election ticket. It would be a reward for her work at State and ready her for a 2016 run, as some strategists think Biden would be too old then to run for president.

I came across this rumor at Jezebel where Latoya Peterson wisely castigates Newsweek's Michael Hirsh who actually writes that the world would be a better place if only Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would stop getting "sidetracked on women's issues."

My thanks to Latoya Peterson for putting Hirsh in his rightful place:

Silly ladies! Don't we know that the real work of stabilizing a country by empowering a disenfranchised segment of the population will have to wait until we've sufficiently rattled sabres and swung dicks around?

Photo via Madame Secretary

Politics Feminist News Gender 2012 Vice President Hillary Clinton

Worldwide Study: U.S. Lags Far Behind in Easing Women's Second Shift

An eight-year-long worldwide study by researchers at Harvard and McGill Universities confirms that the U.S. lags far behind the modern nations of the world, as well as a great many of the not-so-modern nations.

When it comes to the basic supports for workers and families that are so common in most of the world, the U.S. stands as a lone cowboy.

As the list below illustrates, we are talking about women's work. That would be women's traditional unpaid work. Some nations ensure that women can safely leave the home for paid jobs by implementing policy that provides crucial support for the daily work of caring for children, elderly parents, and husbands. Some nations don't.

Little wonder that women are healthier, wealthier and wield more power in the countries that acknowledge and support women's traditional unpaid work as the essential social contribution that it is. If somebody doesn't do it, society falls apart.

• 163 nations around the world guarantee paid sick leave; the U.S. does not.
• 164 nations guarantee paid annual leave; the U.S. does not.
• 177 nations guarantee paid leave for new mothers; the U.S. does not.
• 74 nations guarantee paid leave for new fathers; the U.S. does not.
• 48 nations guarantee paid time off to care for children’s health; the U.S. does not.
• 157 nations guarantee workers a day of rest each week; the U.S. does not.

"The report compiled information from 190 of 192 United Nations countries and from 55,000 households on seven continents. The study was led by researchers at Harvard and McGill Universities." (Number of countries in the world info.) via Ms.

Politics Feminist News Gender

NOW's Marcia Pappas Condemns Burqua Barbie

Quote of the Day

“As feminists we believe that women must be able to make their own choices and that includes choices about the clothing they wear. But the burqa is more than a choice. Women are forced to wear the burqua or risk being murdered. Mattel should be ashamed. Making a profit by selling a doll that is clearly wearing a symbol of violence is not acceptable and there should be a public outcry to take this doll off the market.”

Marcia Pappas,

President of New York State NOW

Of course, some women prefer the burqua to the sexualized fashions of the West. Mattel's new Burqua Barbie appears to be a limited edition doll made special to raise money for charity. Can anyone doubt that underneath the burqua, Barbie continues to plague with her traditional anorexia-inspiring body? Longtime feminist author Phyllis Chesler weighs in: "The burqa violates a woman’s human rights. It poses a danger to a woman’s health, both mental and medical."

via Jezebel

Politics Feminist News Gender

SNL Spoof: Sarah Palin 2012 Movie (Video)

This is funny. SNL presents a Sarah Palin spoof which portrays Palin as so powerful that all of civilization would crumble were she to become president.


Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin

Al Gore on SNL: Environmental Activists Should Act Up (Video)

Al Gore was funny on SNL, but I take his comedic remarks as strong hints that in light of our dysfunctional do-nothing government, environmental activists should get serious about civil disobedience. Gore has urged activists to resort to civil disobedience before and he was Not being funny.



"I'm gonna start acting crazy. I think it's crazy that our politicians aren't more worried about the climate crisis. So it's time for us to out-crazy the crazies." -- Al Gore

SNL also did a spoof Obama press conference: China would like their money back.

Climate Change Politics News Global Warming Environment

Rep. John Conyers: Tired of "Saving Obama's Can" (Video)

Rep. John Conyers blasts President Obama for his less than stellar leadership on the health care bandaid bill (in the video below). The Congressman says the bill is "nothing to write home about." He's tired of "saving Obama's can." Rep. Conyers criticizes the president for "bowing down to every nutty right-wing proposal about health care" and for failing to put up a fight for the public option.


Progressive Politics Liberal News Health Care Empire

Strutting While Female

Quote of the Day

"Watching someone this delusional and this uninformed and this narcissistic strut around the world stage telling empirical untruth after untruth is a car wreck worth rubber-necking. . Does examining her make me look obsessed? Does not examining her make me look cool? Who gives a f**k? She’s a great story, a truly bizarre creature, an international woman of mystery, and completely off her rocker."

-- Andrew Sullivan

Sully is on to something. Anyone who has ever watched Andrew Sullivan perform the manly art of dominating and strutting around the stage of the Bill Maher show is painfully aware that Sully has an advanced degree in the narcissistic strut. Ah, but Sarah Palin is different. Sarah Palin is dangerous! Sarah Palin is a "truly bizarre creature" because she struts around the world stage while owning a uterus! That's not something we are accustomed to in this hyper masculine cowboy country. The danger is that it might catch on!

via Sarah Palin's Uterus: "A womb with many views. My mission in life: to drive Andrew Sullivan batsh*t insane. From what I hear, it may be a short trip."

Strut, 1. To swell; to bulge out. 2. To walk with a lofty, proud gait, and erect head; to walk with affected dignity. Does he not hold up his head, . . . and strut in his gait? --Shak. [1913 Webster] Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

"The pain of destroying male rule won't be worse than the pain of living with it." -- Andrea Dworkin

Sexist Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media Misogyny

UC Berkeley Students End Occupation (Video)

Social unrest. Who could have predicted it?


BERKELEY, CALIF. -- The occupation of the two-story building on the Berkeley campus ended Friday night as Alameda County sheriffs deputies escorted the protesters, all but two of whom where students, out of the building and past more than 2,000 chanting supporters. . . The third and most tumultuous day of protests reflected the anger being displayed on many UC campuses Friday, a day after the regents voted to increase undergraduate tuition and graduate-level fees to help make up a $535 million budget gap brought on by reduced state funding and inflation.

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Sully's Magnificent Obsession

There really is no hope for Andrew Sullivan. After feverishly devouring Sarah Palin's book, Sully tried to write another chapter on Palin's "incredible fifth pregnancy," but alas, the man needs more material. Sarah's world is "so imaginary and magical," and she is such an "unbalanced, delusional, ambitious fanatic," that it is simply going to take Sully gawd knows how many more years to figure it all out.

He promises to pour over all available transcripts at Nexis and everywhere else and has put out a special request -- if you know anything at all about Sarah Palin's incredible magical pregnancy, please send him some mail (and your condolences):

Move on and forget about her? If only. Not just because she is a vital figure in this country's politics right now and one of the most dangerous demagogues this country has seen in a long time, but because I just want to know. I want to know what really lies under that facade.

I'm going to keep poring over transcripts, Nexis and anything else I can find to monitor this phenomenon - and its many tributaries and nuances and narratives. If you have any verifiable facts or objective evidence relating to "Going Rogue", you have my email address.

As Sarah Palin says she said to herself after her water broke in Dallas and contractions had started and she had given a speech while experiencing more contractions and skipped the reception before getting on a transcontinental air flight all the way from Dallas to Seattle, then Anchorage and then Wasilla,

"I still have plenty of time."

Sexist Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media Misogyny

Martha Coakley In A Panel Discussion of Why the U.S. Women's Movement Is Stalled

The discussion covers the misogyny of last year's election, including the sexist media's irrational hatred of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the double standard applied to Sarah Palin, and the failure of young people to support feminism. The clip ends with an insightful interview of Eleanor Holmes Norton in which she notes that women and children in Europe have it much better. Sigh.


Professor of Law Constance Rudnick moderates this episode of The Massachusetts School of Law's Educational Forum: Women In Government. Featuring Assistant Professor at Occidental College Dr. Caroline Heldmman, Attorney General of Massachusetts Martha Coakley, State Representative Katherine Clark, and Mayor of Salem Kimberly Driscoll.

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Oprah Is Calling it Quits After 25 Seasons

Oprah's final show will air on Sept 9, 2011. TV will not be the same without her. I'm not the only one who's sad to hear it:

Winfrey's Harpo employees were called into a meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday, where they watched a video montage of finales -- the last "M*A*S*H" episode, the last "Mary Tyler Moore" episode, and so on. Once it was clear that the final "Oprah Winfrey Show" was on the horizon, staffers started crying.

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Sully Suspends Blogging In Order to Better Read Sarah Palin's Womb, Er, I Mean Book

Speaking of unhinged grips on reality, Andrew Sullivan has suspended blogging because it is vital that the womb envious man devote all of his time to reading Sarah Palin's book, especially the "fantastic story of her fifth pregnancy." Because the project of exposing the "huge scandal" in Sarah Palin's womb is "so complicated we simply cannot focus on anything else."

Gawd.

This is only the second time in its nearly ten-year history that the Dish has gone silent. The reason now is the same as the reason then. When dealing with a delusional fantasist like Sarah Palin, it takes time to absorb and make sense of the various competing narratives that she tells about her life. .

Since the Dish has tried to be rigorous and careful in analyzing Palin's unhinged grip on reality from the very beginning - specifically her fantastic story of her fifth pregnancy - we feel it's vital that we grapple with this new data as fairly and as rigorously as possible. That takes time to get right. And it is so complicated we simply cannot focus on anything else. . .

Sexist Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media Misogyny

9/11 Mom Confronts Holder (Video)

"Four minutes of .. emotional but civil exchange between Attorney General Eric Holder and Alice Hoagland, whose son died in the crash of United Flight 93. Hoagland presses Holder on why he gave "short shrift" to military tribunals for the alleged 9/11 conspirators." via Daily Beast

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Hillary in Vogue

Hillary Rodham Clinton is featured in the current (December) issue of Vogue, and it's a big article:

She walks into the adjoining ballroom, where she has been keeping Katie Couric waiting, and sits down to do a lengthy and tough interview on the war in Afghanistan and President Obama's agonizing decision-making process. Not surprisingly, her mastery of the issues is dazzling. Even Couric is blown away. In fact, Clinton is so clearheaded on the subject, so eloquent, that it raises the question: Why hasn't Hillary Clinton been more out in front on the most troubling foreign-policy issues of the day?

The gorgeous cover of Vogue, pictured above, featuring First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is from December 1998. She was brilliant then too. I'm not going to have time to read the Vogue piece for a bit, but an article at Huffington Post offers these tidbits:

Writer Jonathan van Meter reports that Clinton enjoys "Mad Men" (telling him "That's how it was!...That's why the women's-liberation movement was so shocking. It was like news from outer space"), is "a champion sleeper" ("[s]he naps on command; she is impervious to jet lag"), and does her own makeup ("holding a compact, Clinton puts on mascara, lipstick, blush, and a little powder").

That's exactly why I watch Mad Men.

Politics Feminist News Gender Media Hillary Clinton

Michael Moore Tells Canadians the Truth About the U.S. (Video)

Obama says he has restored America's standing in the world. Yeah, well, I think Michael Moore has a better grasp of where America stands.


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Sleazy Sexist Newsweek Features "Sarah Palin As Slutty School Girl Doll"

And I thought the cover of the latest Newsweek signaled a new low in what passes for American journalism. Hah. Inside the once reputable news magazine, readers are treated to the Sarah Palin-As-A-Slutty-Schoolgirl Doll! (p. 33, illustrating Christopher Hitchens’s article.) [via Media Matters]

Welcome to America. The miserable state of our media is surely just one more chapter in America's downward spiral.

There's more. The hormonal boys at Sleazy Newsweek also offer their unfortunate readers a photo of the former Governor's legs. That must be Newsweek editor Jon Meacham's drooling sons staring up Palin's skirt. No doubt this photo was shot by some clever Pulitzer Prize winning photographer. American journalism at its finest.

Heckuva job, Newsweek!

And it was only yesterday that Newsweek Joker Jon Meacham said with an apparent straight face that Newsweek chooses its photos according to "a gender neutral standard!"

Newsweek is a joke.

Yesterday I wrote an outraged letter to this pathetic sleazy "news" magazine. If I can find a phone number, today I'm going to call them.

The entire staff needs to resign and apply for jobs at the National Enquirer.

Write to the sleazy "journalists" at Newsweek: Letters@newsweek.com

See: Shakesville: Sarah Palin Sexism Watch, Part 28 / Atrios: Slutty Schoolgirl? Really?
Philly.com: "Weekly newsmagazines are flopping around like a dying mackerel, and this week's Newsweek is Exhibit A."

Sexist Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media Misogyny

Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham: Women's Legs Interest Us. We Are Gender Neutral.

Absurd Quote of the Day

"We chose the most interesting image available to us to illustrate the theme of the cover, which is what we always try to do. We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard."

-- Newsweek Editor, Jon Meacham

Tell sexist Newsweek they are part of the problem: Letters@newsweek.com

Sexist Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media Misogyny

The Men that Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton Have in Common (Video)

What do Sarah Palin and Hillary Rodham Clinton have in common? For starters, how about the fanatical misogynistic disdain and contempt of the likes of Eugene Robinson, Chris Matthews, Andrew Sullivan and Newsweek's Jon Meacham? All of whom remind me relentlessly that I am beyond sick and tired of the male monopoly on power which the very loud and deafening male media voices are so fanatical about protecting with every demeaning and degrading sexist trick in the old patriarchal book.

And I am sick and tired of having to defend a woman whose policy positions are the polar opposite of mine. But no woman deserves the onslaught of sexism that is unleashed upon every last woman who tries to take "a man's job." Anyone who thinks this male dominated country is a democracy is delusional. If ever there was a time to organize the women's party that the National Organization for Women once talked about, this is it!

In today's Washington Post, Nobel Prize winning Eugene Robinson devotes every precious word of his prized column space to ridiculing Sarah Palin as "Evita." Because unlike Sarah Palin, Eugene Robinson is an esteemed intellectual.

Eugene Robinson: No force on Earth can stop Sarah Palin from becoming our very own "lite" version of Eva Perón -- a glamorous and tragic legend, minus the tragedy. Eventually, some clever composer will write a blockbuster musical about her life and times. Stage directions will include: "SARAH fires gun. MOOSE dies."

Flashback to 2008 when Hillary Rodham Clinton was also perceived as a threat to the status quo of male domination:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: I always thought the problem with Hillary was, her notion of government was, "I am Evita, I am the one who gives gifts to the little people and then they come and bring me flowers and they worship at me because I am the great Evita."

"And I give things to people. I give them universal health care; I give them an energy program. I give gifts to the little people. The little people come to me and I give them gifts, like universal pre-K. I am the gift-giver to the little people. Oh, I am the grand, grand woman, the grand Evita. And I give gifts to the little people and they're going to come to me in multitudes and worship at me!"


"Yes, I know it's inappropriate to compare a talented and accomplished woman such as Hillary Clinton with a homicidal cyborg from the future. But it's hard to come up with a better image for the woman's sheer relentlessness."

-- Eugene Robinson

Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham's defense of the sexist cover: um, women's legs interest us -- "We chose the most interesting image available to us to illustrate the theme of the cover, which is what we always try to do. We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying? That is a gender-neutral standard." Tell Newsweek what you think.

Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media Hillary Clinton

Palin On Letterman & McCain Aides (Video)

Palin's Nov. 20 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters was previewed earlier today on Good Morning America:


Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media

Don't Let Congress Ban Abortion Coverage (Video)

This abortion rights ad from the Center for Reproductive Rights will air on cable TV channels in the Washington, D.C. area:


"A majority of private health insurance plans now provide coverage for abortion services. . With Stupak-Pitts, it would be much harder—and perhaps impossible—for private insurance companies to offer abortion coverage for plans under health reform."

Politics Feminist News Gender Abortion Reproductive Rights Health Care

Gwen Ifill on Palin: Don't Underestimate the Gender Factor

Yesterday, on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, the male pundits prayed that Sarah Palin will go away. The men wondered aloud: Why are we talking about Sarah Palin? There are so many important issues to talk about.

The testy pundits insisted that they were talking about a joke, someone of no consequence, someone who will never ever be a serious contender for the nation's top job. But the men kept talking about her. Only the token woman Gwen Ifill had a different viewpoint:


David Books: Yeah, she's a joke. I mean, I just can't take her seriously. We've got serious problems in the country. . . The idea that this potential talk show host is considered seriously for the Republican nomination, believe me, it will never happen. Republican primary voters just are not going to elect a talk show host.

Bob Woodward: I agree with David on this. You talk to Republicans and they say they voted for Obama because Sarah Palin was John McCain's pick.

Gwen Ifill: As the girl at the table, I feel like I can say you cannot underestimate the degree to which women will be drawn to her story. And that's who she's speaking to. These are people who are ignored, who nobody counts into their thinking, it's why she's appealing to Hillary Clinton. It's why -- when she made her own announcement, she used the term glass ceiling back in the summer. Don't underestimate that factor.

Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton On Sarah Palin (Video)

On this morning's Meet The Press, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she'd like to sit down and visit with Sarah Palin. . .

Commenting on the misogyny, Megan McCain writes about Hillary and Sarah at the Daily Beast: As Sarah Palin braces for a fresh round of attacks linked to her book release—and Hillary Clinton returns from a bruising trip to Pakistan—Meghan McCain says the media’s constant bullying of women leaders is scaring young women away from politics.

One day there will be a woman president, we are all told as little girls. You too can be a congresswoman or senator. But the reality of today is that to do so, you have to give up so much, in a way that is never asked of a man, and I believe running for office has become less and less appealing for women. In fact, it’s gotten so ugly out there that two of the most prominent women in politics—Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin—have become verbs: Candidates now regularly get “Hillary Clintoned” or “Sarah Palined” in the media. Misogyny works on both sides of the aisle.

Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media Hillary Clinton

Sexist Moments at MSNBC: Photo-Shopped Half Nude Images of Palin (Video)

Broadcasting phony half nude images of women politicos is what passes for great moments of journalism over at sexist MSNBC. In the clip below, good old boy Dylan Ratigan treats his viewers to photo-shopped images of Sarah Palin -- in a bikini and in a tight mini skirt. The phony images are all over the internet, as are undressed photo-shopped images of every female politician who has ever walked the planet. Do we really need to see these on our morning cable news shows? Is it okay with MSNBC if Fox News does the same to Democratic women?

After offending women across the nation with the most misogynistic election coverage imaginable in 2008, you might think MSNBC had learned a thing or two. The station has recently added women journalists to the previously nearly all male daily line-up (so far the women journalists are fully clothed!), but clearly MSNBC continues to burst at the seams with misogyny. Scroll down to see how MSNBC actually flaunts the sexism on the msnbc.com homepage. (Nominate Ratigan and MSNBC for NOW's Media Hall of Shame!)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin Media

Poor Jim Cooper (D-TN) Is Mistreated by Nancy Pelosi

Quote of the Day

"It's really not like (Nancy Pelosi's) ever done anything for me. If I've gotten anything, it's the back of her hand."

-- Rep. Jim Cooper (DINO-TN)

That's my Congressman, a real team player, still hard at work on the project of getting a primary opponent. If Nancy Pelosi has mistreated the conservadem, how come he is still shooting his mouth off?

Cooper opines to the Tennessean editorial board that health care reform will likely be defeated in the senate. The conservadem defends his shameful vote for the anti choice Stupak Amendment. Cooper is one of many who subscribes to the sexist belief that abortion is not health care.

If I have to have a Congressperson who continually kicks the Democratic Party, why can't I have one who kicks from the left like Dennis Kucinich?

Also see: Cooper Uncovered

Politics Feminist News Gender Abortion Reproductive Rights Health Care

NOW President O'Neill Discusses Abortion Rights on MSNBC (Video)

MSNBC's Nancy Snyderman and NOW President Terry O'Neill discuss anti-choice lawmakers and the Stupak Coat-hanger Amendment, in the video clip below. The women agree that the IRS should investigate the undue influence of Catholic bishops on Congress.

Meanwhile, Stupak is huffing and puffing that there will be "hell to pay" if his amendment does not survive. Stupak will have his own hell to pay if Democratic women are forced to bring down the health care bill. The president of the National Organization for Women met with Rahm Emanuel and Nancy-Ann DeParle yesterday.

"This is going to be a Pollyannaish statement. The Catholic bishops appearing and having a political voice seems to be a most fundamental violation of church and state." -- Nancy Snyderman

"The Stupak/Pitts amendment, in fact, I believe, essentially overrules Roe v. Wade. That's the intention of the Catholic bishops who pushed it. It's not acceptable to change health care for America while sending women off into the back alleys to die." -- Terry O’Neill

"Stupak and Henry Hyde, the two amendments that restrict a woman's right to choose, are both white men telling women about reproduction." -- Nancy Snyderman

Save Abortion Rights: Strip Stupak: Join NOW activists in D.C Monday November 16 and November 23 outside of the Senate to protest!

CALL NOW - WOMEN'S RIGHTS AND LIVES ARE ON THE LINE

Politics Feminist News Gender Abortion Reproductive Rights Health Care

Oprah to Palin: Is Levi Johnston Coming to Thanksgiving Dinner? (Video)

Levi Johnston took his clothes off for the Playgirl photo shoot yesterday, according to folks who caught up with Johnston at the "Fleshbot awards." As speculated earlier, the timing certainly suggests that Levi is indeed planning for his Playgirl photo spread to be published on the same day that Sarah Palin appears on Oprah to promote her book. Speaking of hilarious childish antics, Levi says he is writing his own book: "[I've] got my book coming out, and you better believe [she's] gonna be in it." But here's Sarah Palin in one of 2 released previews of her appearance on Oprah:



Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin

Democratic Women Promise to Rise Up and Defeat Turncoat Democrats

Kate Michelman (former president of NARAL) and Frances Kissling (former president of Catholics for Choice) take the Democratic Party and President Obama to task for their betrayal of women:

The Democratic majority has abandoned its platform and subordinated women’s health to short-term political success. In doing so, these so-called friends of women’s rights have arguably done more to undermine reproductive rights than some of abortion’s staunchest foes. That Senate Democrats are poised to allow similar anti-abortion language in their bill simply underscores the degree of the damage that has been done.

Many women — ourselves included — warned the Democratic Party in 2004 that it was a mistake to build a Congressional majority by recruiting and electing candidates opposed to the party’s commitment to legal abortion and to public financing for the procedure. Instead, the lust for power yielded to misguided, self-serving poll analysis by operatives with no experience in the fight for these principles. . .

President Obama was right on message when he declared in his health care speech to Congress in September that “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” — as if this happened to be a good and moral thing. (The tone of his statement made the point even more sharply than his words.) . . . But the party will eventually reap what it has sown. If Democrats do not commit themselves to defeating the amendment, then they will face an uncompromising effort by Democratic women to defeat them, regardless of the cost to the party’s precious majority.

Politics Feminist News Gender Abortion Reproductive Rights Health Care

Oprah Talks About Sarah Palin Interview (Video)

Oprah talks about her encounter with and interview of Sarah Palin in the video clip below. Palin wrote on Facebook:

We taped the show for Monday, November 16th, and enjoyed it so much that we went way over on time. The rest will air on Oprah.com. Oprah was very hospitable and gracious, and her audience was full of warm, energized and (no doubt) curious viewers.

Sarah Palin's new book -- "Going Rogue: An American Life" -- goes on sale Tuesday, and she will be promoting it by touring the country in a bus painted over with the graphic from her book cover. McCain aides are said to be thinking of leaving the country, as Sarah Palin is expected to name names and settle scores in Going Rogue. Oh, and the book has no index. In other words, people have to actually read the book to find out if the woman is talking about them.


"It was really an interesting interview," Oprah said. She acknowledged that lots of people didn't want Palin to come on the show. . Palin will dish on her marriage, what it felt like when she was first asked to be vice president, Bristol, the pregnancy, Trig, and of course, Levi Johnston. "We talked about everything," Oprah repeated. "There's nothing that we didn't talk about."

Politics Feminist News Gender Sarah Palin

A Moral Objection to Taxpayer Funded Viagra

Digby speaks for a flaming chorus of women who have had it with a male-dominated culture that bends over assbackwards to accommodate every real and imagined need of men while balking at the most basic of services for women:

I have a moral objection to paying for any kind of erectile dysfunction medicine in the new health reform bill and I think men who want to use it should just pay for it out of pocket. After all, I won't ever need such a pill. And anyway, it's no biggie. Just because most of them can get it under their insurance today doesn't mean they shouldn't have it stripped from their coverage in the future because of my moral objections.

And who knew that a 100-count bottle of Viagra goes for $1,457.61?

Politics Feminist News Abortion Health Care Gender

I'm a Democrat. I'm a Republican. (Video)

The system is rigged. This video is a lot more lighthearted about that fact than I feel.


Progressive Politics Liberal News

Jon Stewart Catches Faux News Hannity Manipulating the Videos (Video)

Uh-0h. Sean Hannity has been caught in the act of making up some more faux news. No surprise. Fox News holds the record for manipulating the news. In the video clip below, the world's favorite media critic Jon Stewart presents the evidence and demonstrates conclusively that Hannity is getting pretty sloppy over at the faux news factory. Fox News says Hannity will respond, no doubt with lame excuses, sometime tonight. See more examples of Fox News making it up here.


Jon Stewart, the host of “The Daily Show,” presented excerpts from a segment of Mr. Hannity’s show in which he discussed the so-called tea party protests in Congress last Thursday with Representative Michele Bachmann, a Republican from Minnesota who had urged supporters to turn up at the Capitol to protest the health care bill.

Beyond questioning the crowd estimates cited by Mr. Hannity, Mr. Stewart demonstrated that the Fox News program had included several scenes of the crowd, one of which he conclusively proved had not been shot the day of the health care protest but at the much larger tea party protest in Washington last summer. Fox News would not comment on the use of the video Wednesday beyond having a spokeswoman say: “Sean will address this on his show tonight.”

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