Wait...Alaska?

McCain's veep pick is utterly brilliant, really. A woman to pander to the mom vote, but a woman with absolutely no faith in other women. In fact, one of the pro-lifest pro-lifers around. Nevermind an utter lack of experience. It's demographic pandering to a demographic that before now had no reason not to vote for Obama.

Meet http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifJoe Biden

So Feministing has an interesting post about our new potential future Veep.
Personally, Biden is obviously a far cry from my ideal candidate. When it comes to reproductive and human rights issues, Biden has proven too erratic for me to trust him. He's not in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade, but he's not a vocal advocate of choice. He opposes expanding abortion access to low-income women, but he's voted against parental consent and notification laws. He voted to ban D&E abortions, but then slammed the Supreme Court for upholding the law. That said, I agree with what everyone else seems to be saying: it could have been much worse.

Saturday List: Biggest Legislative Threats to Abortion

I often harp on this fact: one of the most dangerous things we as pro-choice advocates can do, in my opinion, is to lapse into a false sense of complacency. Yes, we have Roe v. Wade. No, that does not mean we are okay. Our human rights are in jeopardy, and recognizing this fact is the first and most necessary step to defending them. So, I bring you this Saturday List of the Greatest National Legislative Threats to Abortion Rights of the Past Year Or So. (And remember, dear reader: this is national only;the shit you find in state congress is way more fucked up!)

1. The "Unborn Child" Regulation, 8/2/07
AKA Allard's (R-CO) amendment to H.R.976. Would have put into law a Bush administration idea that we should make an "unborn child"-- or an embryo or fetus-- eligible for health-care coverage, but not necessarily the pregnant woman carrying said embryo or fetus.
Why it's so scary
If this hadn't been rejected (a slim 49-50), it would have been one more step in the direction of recognizing embryos and fetuses as separate entities from their mothers and separate beneficiaries. How convenient that so few of the Republican Senators who voted in favor of this amendment are not particularly fierce advocates of government programs...especially not universalized health care.

2. UN Population Fund (UNFPA), 9/6/07
AKA Brownback's (R-KS) amendment to H.R.2764. Removed language from the bill that prohibited the US from canceling their annual contribution to the UNFPA.
Why it's so scary
Every year for the past 6 years, Bush has flaked on the contribution to this program that helps prevent HIV and promote repro health.

3. Global Gag Rule, 9/6/07
AKA Brownback's amendment to H.R. 2764 to remove a provision allowing overseas health centers that are ineligible for US aid because of the global gag rule to get U.S. donated safer sex supplies.
Why it's so scary Duh, why the hell would we want to take the tools for reproductive health away from the people who need them the most? BTW,

"The global gag rule denies U.S. assistance to any over-seas clinic that uses its own private funds to provide or counsel about abortion care, or take a pro-choice position." -NARAL

4. Federal Health Grants, 10/18/07

AKA Vitter's (R-LA) amendment to H.R. 3043. Wanted to deny federal health grants to any health center that provides abortion services of any kind.
Why it's so scary
Would have stripped family-planning clinics across the country of their funding (funding that would go to contraception, STI testing, education, etc) solely because they offer abortion services...it's like a Local Gag Rule!

5. Family Planning Services, 7/19/07
AKA Pence's (R-IN) amendment to H.R. 3043. Would have disqualified Planned Parenthood nationwide from being able to participate in the Title X family planning program.
Why it's so scary
Planned Parenthood is one of the nation's biggest and most-turned-to family planning clinic for an enormous range of services. And in many parts of the country, Planned Parenthood is the ONLY such clinic available. To deny Planned Parenthood participation in this program that provides funding for public family planning initiatives, we could have denied low-income citizens

new blogggg

It is a generally accepted piece of wisdom that you should typically not live with your best friend. But a select few are fortunate enough to become best friends with the person they are randomly assigned to live with! Our lives may not be exceptionally interesting, but Kendra and I are blogging our college wisdom at ohcollege.tumblr.com

Lucky White Girl has some words of encouragement for clinic escorts.

I've never really thought twice about working in what is essentially a modern social battlefield. Last year I certainly saw anti-choice activism outside of the Planned Parenthood office where I worked, but it was generally mild, low-key, and totally ignorable-- no more bothersome than any other person on the street in Manhattan trying to tell you or give you something.

Truth be told, I don't think I've ever actually been in the kind of environment that forms outside of some Planned Parenthood clinics. I have argued over meals and drinks and in long pieces of writing, and I have met individuals whose beliefs are as deeply held as but dramatically different than my own. But when I think of whether or not I could be a clinic escort, I have to recognize that I have no experience doing anything like that. In high school, my boyfriend told me his family used to go to the March for Life every year, and I remember thinking, "wow, that must be so weird." I grew up in a liberal house in a liberal state, and I moved to a liberal school in a liberal city, and while I haven't tried to live in a bubble, I suppose I have a little bit. Maybe that's why I was so fascinated when, in June, Chris and I had to pull into the Crisis Pregnancy Center when we got a flat in North Carolina. It was an ideology that I knew was out there the same way I know Mexico exists despite never having been there. Or something, maybe that analogy is horrible.

Anyway, my point being, confrontation-junkie though I may be, I don't know if I could make a good clinic escort. And to all those who staff the Planned Parenthood clinics in parts of this country that are not as welcoming of Planned Parenthood as Manhattan, I have such incredible respect for you.

I still love Sarah Haskins.

"...you can go back to doing the woman things you love, like run, wear big earrings, hug your friends, and have a cool non-specific media job."

Required Reading of the Day

7 MTV Defining Stars Who Wouldn' be Allowed on MTV Anymore

Daria was my late nineties after-school heroine, before I was really old enough to even be watching MTV (oh the beauty of a childhood with working parents!). I miss her.

Rush Limbaugh Not Worth It

There are some people that just everyone hates. Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are the two names that spring immediately to mind. And so these people mill about, saying infuriating racist, sexist, homophobic things all day, in part probably because they whole-heartedly believe them, and in part because nothing garners attention like indignation. This latest quote from Limbaugh is a double whammy of disgusting, managing to simultaneously incorporate racial bigotry and sexism, and minimize violence against women. If pissing people off were an Olympic sport, Limbaugh would have the Star Spangled Banner echoing through the one-time-use überstadium.

"It's -- you know, it's just -- it's just we can't hit the girl. I don't care how far feminism's saying, you can't hit the girl, and you can't -- you can't criticize the little black man-child. You just can't do it, 'cause it's just not right, It's not fair. He's such a victim."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200808200009?f=h_popular

I'm just really sick of the whole liberal/feminist blogosphere snapping its communal neck every time we get another blood-boiling quote from a radical asshole. Because the truth is, it's not a whole lot more socially developed than grade school; if we give them attention, they will continue being obnoxious, only more so. I'm not suggesting that the way to fight bigotry is by always ignoring it, but maybe ignoring it is the best response in the case of lunatic talking heads.

That said, I'm sure I will still post on here when someone makes me really mad.

Senile Man Confused, Can't Remember Home

McCain not sure how many houses he and his wife own

"I think — I'll have my staff get to you," McCain responded to a question posed by Politico, according to a story Thursday on the publication's Web site. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

Rep. Tubbs Jones in critical condition

Ohio Democratic Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones has been left with limited brain function after a hemorrhage. She's a big Clinton supporter, a superdelegate to-be, a co-chairwoman of the DNC, a vocal opponent of privatizing social security, a free-trade advocate, and one of only 23 women of color in Congress. She is not expected to recover.

This made me lol.

I'm going back to school in seven long, boring, teenage-wasteland days. Home smacks of upper-middle class entitlement. I long to return to a life of college student pseudo-poverty in massively subsidized eminent-domain-acquired Manhattan real estate!

so you know how sometimes in trying to mock someone else, you just end up sounding like the very type of person you're trying to mock trying to mock themselves?

I'm hyped, because I'm bored, and all excited about the prospect of not being a freshman anymore, and all a-brim with that back-to-school fervor for academia, and looking forward to helping chuck and brenda ellison, my all time favorite north carolina duo, move their son into coral towers. that sounds like a mermaid palace. I am living in carlyle court which sounds pretentiously alliterative but is actually going to be a fabulous swanky bachelorette pad for me and k$.

also, I found this picture of (some of) the CTY residential staff. It's cute.

Shitty Sexist Advertising of the Week

WTF is up with these new Wrangler ads?





Sexism (even allusions to violence against women) in advertising is hardly unheard of, but it's legitimately shocking to see an instance of it in which it's damn near impossible to imagine any person, misogynistic or otherwise, wanting to buy the product it's pushing. To sexualize violence against women, even in something as seemingly docile as a print ad for jeans, is to contribute to the perpetuation of a vicious cycle of violence, and the tolerance of violence, and incredibly fucked up social norms surrounding sexual violence. This makes me want to throw up.

weird.

I'm watching late night comedy central, which is inevitably a breeding ground of sleazy commercials, and I hear this line on a girls gone wild ad: "I'm finally eighteen!" at the exact same moment I looked at the clock and noticed it was officially my birthday.

I'm not turning eighteen, and when I did I didn't jump on the opportunity to show my boobs, but still, a funny coincidence.

Dems drop "safe, legal, and rare" wording

According to Pushback, the Democratic Party dropped the phrase "safe, legal, and rare" from its official platform on abortion. Since it was originally coined by Clinton, this has been an incredibly powerful and uniting piece of vernacular, the dismissal of which I am at a loss to explain. I mean, the opening paragraph of the Democrat's stance on choice is

The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose any and all efforts to weaken or undermine that right.

I always thought that if anything, "safe, legal, and rare" had persuasive power. It's not divisive; it's boiling an incredibly complicated issue down to something both sides can get behind: the fewer abortions, the better. So I'm assuming this was more about rhetoric than platform-- maybe because that phrase has such Clintonian connotations?

Here are a few important things I missed out on the opportunity to get techno-smug about!
- John Edwards is a douche
- we're finally seeing the MTA take action re: vile subway harassment. (it seems like every woman I know has a story)
- The UK did something rational; the US did not follow suit
-And, for whatever reason, I found this really funny:

"What do you call someone from Connecticut?"