The GOP Trophy-VEEP Pick: Defending the Indefensible

A little befuddled, that GOP spokesman.

Maybe he's just seen this story from the Sydney Morning Herald about Sarah Palin's controversial church. There's a link to a video clip that's well worth a watch, too.

Oh, and you might enjoy the Sarah Palin Sexism Watch. I certainly do!

Oh, and because unplanned pregnancy leading to a shotgun wedding is just a family matter, I won't discuss it here, not even the context of the Trophy VEEP's opposition to programs for teen mothers and to non-abstinence-only sex education for teens. Oh, and I won't mention how selecting a life partner on the basis of accidental fertility leading to random parenthood especially when one of the partners doesn't actually want children, is a pretty random approach to, um, you know, marriage.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the (Vanna) White House

Well, first off, one will not be discussing the safety or effectiveness of the Abstinence-Only approach to sex non-education.

Nor will one be discussing the continuing drowning of polar bears, because there are still so many of them.

But one might enjoy this piece on Sarah Palin, from the Sydney Morning Herald.

(I loved the dead moose picture best.)

Oh, and here's Scarborough, Buchanan et al., on Sarah Palin:



And here's Pat Buchanan lying through his teeth about the Palin pick, and denying he ever said all the things that he said in the above clip. Republicans must be so irked about YouTube.

Want to Choose Your Partner in Pakistan, Ladies? No, We'd Rather Just Bury You Alive

PAKISTANI TEENS BURIED ALIVE FOR 'CHOOSING HUSBANDS'

A Pakistani politician has defended a decision to bury five women alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands.

01 Sep 2008

Israr Ullah Zehri, who represents Baluchistan province, told a stunned parliament that northwestern tribesman had done nothing wrong in first shooting the women and then dumping them in a ditch.

"These are centuries-old traditions, and I will continue to defend them," he said.

"Only those who indulge in immoral acts should be afraid."

The women, three of whom were teenagers and whose "crime" was that they wished to choose who to marry, were still breathing as mud and stones were shovelled over their bodies, according to Human Rights Watch.

The three girls, thought to be aged between 16 and 18, were kidnapped by a group of men from their Umrani tribe and murdered in Baba Kot, a remote village in Jafferabad district.

According to some reports, Baluchistan government vehicles were used to abduct the girls, and the killing was overseen by a tribal chief who is the brother of a provincial minister from the ruling Pakistan People's Party.

Some accounts said that two older relatives had tried to intervene, but they too were shot and buried alive with the teenagers.

More than six weeks after the deaths no one has been arrested and human rights groups have accused local authorities of trying to cover up the executions.

Mr Zehri told parliament that a fuss should not be made over the killings, however several politicians stood up in protest, describing the so-called honour killings as "barbaric".

Human Rights Watch described the murders as a "heinous criminal offence". . .

"Surely the government should be seeking the murderers, not protect (them) through some dark conspiracy of silence. The fact the act was 'kept quiet' means the government sympathises with such doings," an editorial said.

Choice?


Nope.

Palin Palin Palin

Silicon Valley Moms blog on Sarah Palin, You Scare Me.

Palintology

ABC News on Palin & Polar Bears.

I don't mind that she's an ex-beauty queen. I have zero problem with that.

I mind that when McCain asked her to be his running mate, she actually said yes.

On Whether One Is Playing : a) The Eye-Candy Card b) The Lightweight Card c) The Vagina Card d) All of the Above

Answer: D.

All of the above.

So I have recently received a virtual "Shut Up, Bitch!" card from a commenter who thinks I, as a female, should shut up about Sarah Palin, as she, too is a female.

And that my asking if Mrs. Palin is running for Vice-President or Vice-Prom Queen is sexist. Or something. (Though when during the primary, I frequently asked whether Barack Obama was running for Prom King I received no similar criticism, as I recall).

Somehow I should be shutting up about Palin because -- what? All of a sudden we don't want to be picking on a gurrrl? But we've been picking on gurrls 4-ever! NOW, you want we should stop? I feel sure that that is just what Karl Rove had in mind with this pick! Using reverse sexism as a Teflon-ing ploy. (He's such a clever dude, is he not?)

Anyhow, to this sub-section of gentle readers: if you think the choice of Sarah Palin as Trophy VEEP is not a hideous insult to all women (and men), then, you know, like, go for it.

w00t!




Via the New York Times, "Drawing Women's Attention, Maybe Not Allegiance, interviews with some pro-Palinists, and plenty of women who, like me, think this pick a shameless pandering insult.
Via The Sydney Morning Herald, Palin A Better Shot Than Cheney

Sarah Palin
Trophy VEEP
McCain/Palin

McCain's Trophy VEEP ChickPick: A Hideous Insult to All Women. Oh & To All Men, Too

So if Karl Rove thought that putting pro-government-forced maternity advocate, mother of five, Rush Limbaugh-appointed "babe," lovely cute oh so charming vagino-American Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on the John McCain ticket was going to win over the heart and mind of this die-hard Clintonista, he's got another think coming. (Oh, and this is for Paul L., "All-Out Battle For Women's Votes.)

I don't mind that they're running a female. I think that's kind of cute. Especially coming from the nappy-headed ho, dumpy-wife-dumping, cunt-calling section of the universe.

But running a national and international experience-free person who would be heartbeat away from the Presidency of the United States, leading a world super-power in an age where conflicts can erupt into wars in which whole countries are at risk?

Because of her gender? Her external appearance?

Her willingness to bear five children? Her charm and gumption? Her hardscrabble rise from PTA mom way up the Alaskan ladder of success? Her ability to moose-hunt/duck-hunt?

Hunh?

I mean, really. What were they thinking?

It's like they've chosen her as Trophy VEEP because of her feel-good teddy-bear vibes:

“[Sarah Palin] wouldn’t have articulated one coherent policy and people would just be fawning all over her,” said Andrew Halcro, a Republican turned independent, who along with Tony Knowles, a Democrat, ran against Ms. Palin for governor in 2006. “Tony and I looked at each other and it was, like, this isn’t about policy or Alaska issues, this is about people’s most basic instincts: ‘I like you, and you make me feel good.’ ”

Ee-ew.

How cynical is that? How sexist is that?

Answer: very.

Sarah's choice proves Obama's point that John McCain doesn't get it while it has also had the surprising (to me) effect of slingshotting me right into BHO's arms at last. (Hmm.)

The Republicans just don't get it.

Not that we ever thought they did, mind you.

On the upside, it does add humor to an otherwise dull day. I see in the New York Times that Mrs. Palin, while pro-death penalty, stills calls herself "pro-life." Haha.

Even though Mrs. Palin totally opposes reproductive freedom, she claims to be a "feminist." Yo. That's like claiming to be a pro-boiling-beings-in-oil buddhist, is it not?

Jeeez.

Oh, and there are those (and you know who you are) who think that this choice is NOT an insult to all women, in particular, not to conservative and independent women.

As recently as last month, Ms. Palin appeared to dismiss the importance of the vice presidency in an interview with Larry Kudlow of CNBC, who asked her about her prospects for the job.

Don't skip the clips!




McCain has picked a woman because she is a woman. A conservative woman. A young, physically-attractive Talibangelical homeschooling anti-science creationist conservative woman. What a great package for a Trophy VEEP. (Ooh! NBFH just coined it!!)


McCain has passed over more experienced, less photogenic conservative and independent women. (And men).

Now, you perhaps think that that is not insulting to all women. (Not to mention all men.)

But I strongly disagree. Looks over competence? Why is that not insulting? Shallow much? We electing a Vice-Prom Queen?



----
Faux Feminism at Washington Monthly, with more people who find Palin an insulting pick.
Sarah Palin: Sleight of Gender, at Vanity Fair.
Oh. And here's another uppity broad who thinks it's the Palin choice is an insult to women.
Deb della Piana on Who Does John McCain Think He's Fooling?
MSNBC

Blast from the past -- it's not about hillary, it's about us.
Goodbye to All That No. 2, by Robin Morgan.

Sarah Palin
Trophy VEEP
McCain/Palin

Rove, POW John Pander to POWs -- One Giant Snark-Step Onward for All Vagino-Americans!

I noticed earlier that Karl "Miss Piggy" Rove, unlike his tone-deaf Democratic party counterparts, was oddly attuned and aware of the karma-cause-&-effect thing re: POWs, as in Pissed-Off Women Democrats (a group of which I am, and continue to be, a proud example).

That's why Rove's "Why Not Hillary?" ad was so effective. And, at least to me, unexpected.

As in, oh, what, someone's paying attention?

And that someone would be -- Karl Rove? Ouch!

I think it is a very pleasant thing that John McCain has picked his VP according to her genitalia. I mean, why not?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in various alienated sections of vagino-american blogtopia, a section of blogtopia whose spontaneous-arising I joined in, cheering.

Moi, I think it may actually piss off the people who are already actually and very reasonably pissed off, even more. (And if it doesn't, it should).

But it may surprise Miss Piggy by pissing them off in sort of a different, and perhaps 180 degree anti-pandering direction. Possibly inspiring some deep revulsion. (And don't forget Palin's being a card-carrying Feminist For Government-Forced Maternity [coughchokecough]).

I for one certainly am finding McCain's choice of Sarah Palin particularly, unconscionably, despicably, almost deliciously repellent.

Am I alone in this? I think not.

We shall see.

But from where I am, this pick is vilely sexist, and a hideous insult to all women.





Hat tip to Jesus' General, a little something about what Sarah Palin may be doing in addition to so cleverly possessing the requisite vagina.
Frogette at ragebot with McCain Picks A Chick, hat-tip to Kvatch.

Sarah Palin
Trophy VEEP
McCain/Palin

U-S-A, U-S-A Denver: Leg Shackles, Pepper Spray, Gitmoesque Frigid Air, Sleep Deprivation. Constitution? Just a Piece O' Paper

From the Denver Post, Mobile edition.
YOUNG PROTESTER DESCRIBES DETENTION

Editor's note: The following is a firsthand account from Martin, a young Colorado protester arrested Monday evening when police in riot gear surrounded a group of 100-200 protesters as they marched on 15th Street between Court and Cleveland Place.

"The first thing I really noticed was at Civic Center Park when I was in the 'Food Not Bombs' area. The police seemed to be ready for conflict. They walked through the 'Food Not Bombs' crowd, which was a peaceful group, holding their weapons out and looking at people, really intensely, trying to intimidate everyone. It made us all a little worried.

"I was planning to march with the group that night. We all had different reasons for being there. I was marching to make people aware that they should be worried about our civil rights being stripped systematically right now, and show people that habeas corpus is six feet under. I just think the time we live in has so many deep-rooted problems that I don't understand how people can NOT protest. I'd never been arrested before, and I have no criminal record or significant run-ins with the law.

"The group first gathered outside the City-County building, getting ready to march, but the police blockaded us. I didn't see the pepper spray there, but the whole group decided to retreat because we didn't want to be encircled by the police. So we went to the promenade and crossed onto 15th Street, linking arms, trying to stay as tight as we could and stay together.

"Everything happened really fast. We knew there were police behind us, and that presence was growing larger, with more police, but then suddenly there were police in front of us at the other end of the block. Shortly after that, the police encircled us. A lot of people were able to escape before they closed the circle, but the rest of us were inside, along with a journalist from Brooklyn, and a woman who started writing on her laptop about what was happening, and some photographers. There were many people who weren't protesters, just citizens, who were in the encircled group.

"We moved to the sidewalk - a few people stayed in the street - because we didn't want a confrontation, but it didn't matter.

"People started pleading: 'Let me go,' 'I want to go home.' The police started using the pepper spray. Some of the police on horses were whacking people with their batons. I was told later that the police were telling us to disperse, but I didn't hear them say that. And where would we go? The police were all around us, not letting us leave.

"We asked why we were being detained, but they wouldn't talk to us. They told us to sit down, and we sat down.

"Then they said that anyone with a photo I.D. could show it and be let out of the circle, and anyone without I.D. would be arrested. I saw a handful of people hold up their I.D., and police walked up to them, grabbed them and took them out. I don't know if they were arrested.

"They set up an arrest squad - two police per protester, and talked about who to pick - 'Get this one with the bandana' or 'Get that one in the black.' They were targeting individuals.

"The arrest process was: The two officers picked you up, searched you, took your bag and everything except your money. They put you in blue plastic handcuffs and walked you to a line where you stood in front of a camera, holding a placard with the charges against you, and then there was footage of the officer who'd arrested you. All I can remember is the officer claimed I'd done some things I had not done - said I'd thrown rocks, which I didn't do; I didn't see anyone with rocks. I asked him why he said that when I hadn't done it. His answers were vague, ambiguous.

"Then I was taken to another area, loaded onto a bus that took us to a warehouse in a Denver industrial park. There were Special Operations Response Team police there, who took our pictures again, printed both hands - not just the fingers, but our whole hand rolled onto the ink - and did a medical check. Then they assigned us to different chain-link cages, maybe 15 feet by 15 feet, all chain link, with a padlock. Between 10 and 20 of us were in one of those cages. Females and males were separated.

"They pumped in cold air, in these big white tubes, all night and all day the next day. It was freezing in there. I was lucky; I had a jacket, but other people were in shorts and T-shirts. We asked them to turn off the cold air, but they didn't.

"Eventually they put all of us in metal leg shackles, and re-handcuffed us in pairs, with our right hands together — right hand to right hand - so it was difficult to move. . .

"We were utterly confused. We did not understand why we were being detained. We hadn't been read our Miranda rights. We didn't know what we'd done to merit such a violent response, or why the Special Operations police were needed.

"After they shackled us, they put us in a van with no windows, and took us to the courthouse, where we were supposed to speak with a judge to hear the charges against us. We were still handcuffed, right hand to right hand. They took us in an elevator that went up to a jail cell, and we were told to watch a video of a judge telling us our rights, through the bars. It was surreal, like being in a futuristic movie, like "1984" or "A Clockwork Orange."

"Eventually, at about 2 a.m., we got to see a real judge, who explained our rights to us, and explained the charges. There was a lawyer, an angel, who explained everything in plain language. There were five charges against me: Blocking a public thoroughfare, not abiding an order to disperse, throwing rocks and missiles, loitering, and begging. At times, I had begged them for water, when we were sitting down on 15th Street before going through the arrest process.

"The attorney explained we had three choices: Plead guilty and post a $300 bond ($500 if you were from out of state), or accept a plea bargain that dropped all the charges but one that you had to pay $141 for, or plead not guilty and either post your own bail or wait in jail till your court date. But nobody had given us a court date. So I took the plea bargain, because I didn't have the money for bail.

"Then they walked us out of the courthouse, and we saw another group from the protest walking in. We were the first group to meet with a judge and a lawyer.

"Then they took us back to the warehouse. The only place to sleep was on a chair, if you got one, or on the concrete floor.

"I was really worried because I could not get any responses from the police. We kept asking how long we'd be there, when the bus was coming, and they'd keep saying, 'It's coming.' It felt inhumane, utterly terrifying. If they'd answered some of our questions, I think people would've been less terrified, less frightened, but I think the police were intentionally fatiguing us. They'd keep us for long periods of time in one cage, and then re-handcuff us and move us to another cell, as if something was about to change, but it didn't. It was all psychological.

"In the cells, we talked to each other about where we were from, the places we'd been, and if we'd been in situations before. We reassured each other of our rights, made sure everyone knew the People's Law Project hotline number, and that it was really important to get names and badge numbers. . . .

"I got out on Tuesday around noon. We learned we were the first wave of protesters to make it all the way through the process — 7 p.m. last night to noon today. . . .

Update here at Democracy Now.
More here.
Hat tip to anon for update links, top pic.

It's the Stupidity, Stupid!!

Hoist on his own petard, is our John.

Who is btw a POW.

And he's also old. A little older than Biden. I don't agree with playing the ageist card except oh dear I seem to have just played it, have I not? Guess I'm just a little sensitive on the oldness is inherently badness theme. Oh?

I prefer to make decisions based not on um you know sheer ageism gender bias shapeism racism classism blah blah, but rely more on the stupid/not stupid/adequate/smart/f*cking brilliant policy continuum.

But hey that's just me.

.

(Hat tip to Jacqueline Gens of poetrymind and Advice from Abu Shri for this fine Robert Greenwald video.

AP Reports on Hillary Clinton's DNC Speech Before She Gives It

Ah, our darling media whore media.

We love them so, do we not?



Department of Possible Light at End of Tunnel, Unity Pony Entebbe Rescue Edition? Hat-tip to anon. ; )

And also, It's Hillary's Night! Hat-tip, again, to anon. ;)

With Friends Like These, Who Needs - - oh, & then there's Rove, Who Seems To Be the Only One Feeling Some People's Pain. Isn't That Ironic?

Eric Alterman, on The Hillary Diehards

A bawling, mewling, puking David Sirota on "Does it Always Have to Be About the Clintons?"

The "Get Over It!" Scratching Post.

CDS Sports

The Disturbing Rise of the Hillary Harridans: The Madwoman in the Blogosphere

Clinton Dead-Enders

Here's a HuffPo dude who first calls Clintonists "virulent" and THEN asks for their votes, for the sake of Party Unity!

This is not how to win my vote.

No, Actually.

Oh, and this.

And don't forget, boys and girls! The Clintons are racist and pro-assassinationist!

No, really! They are! They are!

Send Arthur Silber Money Or I'll Rip The Spangles Off Of Unity Pony and Paste Them On Cindy McCain

Why?

Because -- he's waaay leftier than thou.

Because he writes stuff like PSSST--WHILE YOU WERE GIBBERING, THE RULING CLASS RIGGED THE GAME AND WON EVERYTHING:

And this: DEATH MATCH; IF THE WORDS DON'T KILL YOU, THE BOMBS WILL


And: HOW DEEPLY STUPID CAN PROGRESSIVES MAKE THEMSELVES

And this: OH ARTHUR YOU'RE JUST CRAZY

Just for starters.

And -- because he needs it. And because we needs to support one of our own.

Lost in Translation (or, You Do Not Have to be Hit to be Abused, Sweetie?)

Hello, boys and girls. Let's have some fun with language!

I'm choosing adjectives and nouns from two sources today: Dahlia' Lithwick's piece in Slate, "The Madwoman in the Blogosphere" (nb. that would be me, btw) and Michele Goldberg's "Three A.M. for Feminism," all about "Clinton dead-enders and the crisis in the women's movement."

Keep in mind that this language is coming from two supposedly liberal progressive Democratic women.

Ready to mix and match?

PICK ONE FROM COLUMN A AND ONE FROM COLUMN B

A.------------------------------------------------------------- B.

disgruntled ------------------------------------------------bitch
bitter -----------------------------------------------------madwoman
irrational ----------------------------------------------pyromaniac
hurt ---------------------------------------------------martyr
angry ---------------------------------------------------victim
rejected -------------------------------------------------harridan
unstable -------------------------------------------------hysteric
petulant ----------------------------------------------she-devil
lunatic ---------------------------------------------------dead-ender
wicked
emotional
self-referential (not THAT!)
mad
old
irrationally destructive
toxic
middle-aged


(Forgive my inability to get the columns lined up right.)

O-kay.


How many combinations were you able to make, boyz and girlz?

"Toxic bitch"? "Middle-aged she-devil"? "Self-referential pyromaniac"?

This is a contest, faithful readers!

The grand prize is -- a bushel basketful of that singularly bitter high-priced vegetable, arugula!

And the question is: WHAT IS THE POINT OF MY POSTING THESE LISTS?

.

[An important piece from Avedon Carol at Side-show, "this is not an instruction in how to vote" (hat tip to Corrente)]
{Campaign updates at Corrente.}

The Audacity Of Rove

Well, as a big-time hillary harridan I had intended to just STFU like a good little girl & get totally over it (over what?), and keep on privately snivelling in my beer whilst simultaneously whistling and pretending that lalalala nothing is wrong, it's all good, it doesn't matter, out of my hands, nothing to do with me, it is what is is, que sera sera, la-di-da, la-di-da, la-di-da, and utterly totally completely stuffing my feeeeeeelings (oh, would that be stuffing one's feelings as in "numbing & avoidance" one of the three main symptom categories that define PTSD? why yes it would!) and never write another word on the subject ever ever ever ever ever ever ever.

That was my plan.

And then I saw this:

New McCain Ad Hits Obama For Not Picking Hillary As Veep

And I thought to myself, "Ouch."

Then I thought "Wow."

Then I thought, "This must be Rove."

Then I thought, "Wow."

Then I thought, "Ouch," again.


Sez TPM (and do note TPM's swipe at "embittered" Clintonistas, they just can't stop slamming us can they? because it's all our fault/hillary's fault tum-ti-tum-tum so there) here.

John McCain is up with his second spot in two days hitting Obama over his veep choice, this one whacking him for not picking Hilllary:

The spot makes a kind of double-barreled bid for embittered Hillary voters: It fuses criticism of the fact that he "passed over" her with an airing of her attacks on him during the primary, arguing that he didn't choose her because of that criticism."

PICTURE OF HILLARY

FEMALE VOICEOVER: She won millions of votes.

But isn't on his ticket.

Why?



Ouch.

Round one to you, Karl.

.

Plus Milosz re: It's Not the End of the World Hillary Harridan Bitchez So Get Over It & btw STFU

Wasn't I talking about the O.J. Simpson verdict just the other day?

Hmm.

Well, anyway.

Must be time for more Milosz.

A SONG ON THE END OF THE WORLD

On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy porpoises jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And the snake is gold-skinned as it should always be.


On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.


And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels' trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.


Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy,
Repeats while he binds his tomatoes:
There will be no other end of the world,
There will be no other end of the world.


---Czeslaw Milosz, Warsaw, 1944

Your Tax Dollars at Work: Torture At Gitmo

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- An Algerian prisoner at Guantanamo Bay has accused his guards of using [water torture] on him, his lawyer said Friday, marking the first allegation that the harsh interrogation technique was used at the U.S. military base.

A human rights commission of the Organization of American States, after being informed of the alleged abuse, said Friday that it has asked the U.S. State Department to ensure that Djamel Ameziane is not mistreated and receives medical care.

Officials at Guantanamo and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but they have said repeatedly that all Guantanamo detainees are treated humanely.

Ameziane, who has been imprisoned at Guantanamo since February 2002 without being charged with crimes, told his lawyer Wells Dixon that guards at the base placed a water hose between his nose and mouth and ran it for several minutes. Ameziane said they repeated the procedure several times, nearly suffocating him.

"I had the impression that my head was sinking in water," Ameziane, 41, wrote his lawyer. "I still have psychological injuries, up to this day. Simply thinking of it gives me the chills."

According to Ameziane's account, during the same incident the guards applied pepper spray all over his body, hosed him down, and left him shackled and shivering in wet clothes in front of an air conditioner in an interrogation room.

Confessed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and at least two other "high-value" detainees imprisoned at the base in southeast Cuba were waterboarded -- an interrogation tactic that produces the sensation of drowning -- but they were waterboarded at CIA secret prisons before they were transferred to Guantanamo.

Dixon said in a telephone interview the alleged abuse happened early during Ameziane's confinement at Guantanamo.

"He was held down and someone essentially shoved a hose in his face, forcing a stream of water down his nose, mouth and into his lungs I guess," Dixon said.

Lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a law group that represents scores of Guantanamo detainees, on Aug. 6 filed a petition on behalf of Ameziane with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, asking that it intercede with the U.S. to protect the detainee.

The group said the commission, which is an autonomous organ of the OAS, agreed and issued "urgent precautionary measures" with the U.S. on Wednesday.

An official with the OAS-affiliated group confirmed it has asked the State Department to ensure he is treated humanely, given medical treatment and not transferred to a country where he could be tortured.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is empowered to request that a member state adopt specific "precautionary measures" to prevent human rights abuses, but can also urge the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to order that measures be taken, and can submit cases to the court. The United States is a member of the OAS.

Via Raw Story, link here.

Moving Right Along: Dirty Bush Backs Anti-Choice Rule

New Bush rule: Doctors can refuse to give women abortions

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Thursday proposed stronger job protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions because of religious or moral objections. . . .

"Freedom of conscience is not to be surrendered upon issuance of a medical degree," said Leavitt. "This nation was built on a foundation of free speech. The first principle of free speech is protected conscience."

The proposed rule, which applies to institutions receiving government money, would require as many as 584,000 employers ranging from major hospitals to doctors' offices and nursing homes to certify in writing that they are complying with several federal laws that protect the conscience rights of health care workers. Violations could lead to a loss of government funding and legal action to recoup federal money already paid.

Abortion foes called it a victory for the First Amendment, but abortion rights supporters said they feared the rule could stretch the definition of abortion to include birth control, and served notice that they intend to challenge the administration.

"Women's ability to manage their own health care is at risk of being compromised by politics and ideology," Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.

Abortion rights groups had complained that earlier drafts contained vague language that might block access to birth control, and they said the latest version has not addressed all of their concerns."

Yes, such a problem these days in America, doctors and nurses being forced at gunpoint to perform abortions against their will. All-pervasive. Unlike child abuse in America. Just ask James Dobson.









More here.

Hope & Fear & Unity Pony DeathWatch

I remember waiting for the O.J. Simpson verdict to be announced.

I remember how I felt after it was announced, too.

Waiting for Obama's VP announcement is triggering traumatic memories of that period of on-tenterhooks waiting.

I'm really worried for my party, and for my country, hoping for the best and fearing the worst.

And I'm not the only one.

I'm not.

Nope.

Wow! Women Writers CAN Be Total Utter Sexist Pigs! Who Knew?

It's late. I shouldn't be writing this.

But really, one just CAN'T MISS this here article in Slate by Dahlia Lithwick:


THE DISTURBING RISE OF THE HILLARY HARRIDANS

To which this here blogger, who is clinging to PUMA Obamism by the very very very very slenderest of threads, a thread made only way way more slender-er by reading articles like this, replies with this historic trifecta:

BLUDGEON ME NOT WITH ROE V. WADE.YOU DON'T OWN ME

And the ever-popular: IT'S MY PARTY AND YOU'LL CRY IF I WANT 2 . . .

Why?

Because I've said it all before, and (sigh) I guess I'm saying it all again.



("Yo, Dahlia Lithwick. Harridan here. You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well, I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?")


Don't forget the divine Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy on Obamawin's Law.

Interlude

Blue sky here, not as blue as the deep azure skies of Tibet, but blue enough, nearly cloudless. Walked dog and self to the bayside beach through Crowe's Pasture, got waved at by many oyster-farmers driving through an otherwise quiet meadow. It reminded me of this poem by Czeslaw Milosz.

GIFT

A day so happy.

Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden.

Hummingbirds were stopping over honeysuckle flowers.

There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.

I knew no one worth my envying him.

Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.

To think that I was once the same man did not embarrass me.

In my body I felt no pain.

When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.

Berkeley, 1971

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Chosen One: "Feisty" Sweetie Wrong On FISA, Centrism, Compromise

"You're feisty. And I like that."

So the Chosen One likes a gurrl to be feisty, does he?

Hmm.

Moi, I like not to be patted on the head.





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Here's Anglachel, Above Reproach.

Bad Mood Post

So watch out, gentle readers, one finds oneself in a baaad mood today.

Started out with that front-page Sunday NY Times article on presumptive nominee Barack Obama, "Seeing Tougher Race, Allies Ask Obama to Make 'Hope' Specific."

Well, maybe it started before that. Never mind.

Follow the linky goodness straight to Lambert at Corrente, The Age of the Anti-Cassandra.

Yep. What he said.

And what VastLeft said.

And here's Obama throwing My Hero Wesley Clark under the bus.

And the divine Anglachel on public policy vs. self-interest:

I know, I sound like a broken record, but this all gets back to the argument I've been making all year about having a philosophy of government and political power that sees a need to use the power of the state to secure and improve the lives of ordinary citizens. If you simply don't believe that it is so, that public policy should be nothing more than artful structuring of choices (and not mandating that X shall be available for all, regardless), then policy as such loses its punch. One is as good as another, and all are mere bargaining chips in the hunt for bipartisan unity.

Obama could be as old as Methuselah, or even John McCain, and all that experience would not do him a bit of good as long as his campaign is . . . not about what he intends to do for the country.

I'll just sit here and stew, thx.

First, Do No Harm

PSYCHOLOGISTS CLASH ON AIDING INTERROGATIONS
From the New York Times:

"They have closely studied suspects, looking for mental quirks. They have suggested lines of questioning. They have helped decide when a confrontation is too intense, or when to push harder. More than those in the other healing professions, psychologists have played a central role in the military and C.I.A. interrogation of people suspected of being enemy combatants.

But now the profession, long divided over this role, is considering whether to make any involvement in military interrogations a violation of its code of ethics.

At the American Psychological Association’s annual meeting this week in Boston, prominent members are denouncing such work as unethical by definition, while other key figures — civilian and military — insist that restricting psychologists’ roles would only make interrogations more likely to harm detainees.

Like other professional organizations, the association has little direct authority to restrict members’ ability to practice. But state licensing boards can suspend or revoke a psychologist’s license, and experts note that these boards often take violations of the association’s ethics code into consideration.

The election for the association’s president is widely seen as a referendum on the issue. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, plan a protest on Saturday afternoon.

And last week, for the first time, lawyers for a detainee at the United States Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, singled out a psychologist as a critical player in documents alleging abusive treatment.

“It’s really a fight for the soul of the profession,” said Brad Olson, a psychologist at Northwestern University, who has circulated a petition among members to place a moratorium on such consulting.

Others strongly disagree. “The vast majority of military psychologists know the ethics code and know exactly what they can and cannot do,” said William J. Strickland, who represents the Society for Military Psychology before the association’s council. “This is a fight about individual psychologists’ behavior, and we should keep it there.”

At the center of the debate are the military’s behavioral science consultation teams, informally known as biscuits, made up of psychologists and others who assist in interrogations. Little is known about these units, including the number of psychologists who take part. Neither the military nor the team members have disclosed many details.

Defenders of that role insist that the teams are crucial in keeping interrogations safe, effective and legal. Critics say their primary purpose is to help break detainees, using methods that might violate international law.

In court documents filed Thursday, lawyers for the Guantánamo detainee Mohammed Jawad asserted that a psychologist’s report helped land Mr. Jawad, a teenager at the time, in a segregation cell, where he became increasingly desperate.

According to the documents, the psychologist, whose name has not been released, completed an assessment of Mr. Jawad after he was seen talking to a poster on his cell wall. [Someone noticed Jawad was having psychotic symptoms] Shortly thereafter, in September 2003, he was isolated from other detainees [a really wrong thing to do with someone you have noticed is having psychotic symptoms] and many of his requests to see an interrogator were ignored. He later attempted suicide [what a surprise] , according to the filing, which asks that the case be dismissed on the ground of abusive treatment.

The Guantánamo court is reviewing the case. Military lawyers have denied that Mr. Jawad suffered any mental health problems from his interrogation [tell it to the Marines]. On Thursday, the psychologist in the case invoked Article 31 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military’s equivalent of the Fifth Amendment.

“This is what it’s come to,” said Steven Reisner, an assistant clinical professor at the New York University School of Medicine and a leading candidate for the presidency of the psychological association. “We have psychologists taking the Fifth.”

Dr. Reisner has based his candidacy on “a principled stance against our nation’s policy of using psychologists to oversee abusive and coercive interrogations” at Guantánamo and the so-called black sites operated by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The psychological association’s most recent ethics amendments strongly condemn coercive techniques adopted in the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism campaign. But its current guidelines covering practice conclude that “it is consistent with the A.P.A. ethics code for psychologists to serve in consultative roles to interrogation and information-gathering processes for national-security-related purposes,” as long as they do not participate in any of 19 coercive procedures, including waterboarding, the use of hoods and any physical assault."

Yes, yes. Of course.

It's sort of like having a medical doctor present during "interrogations" to revive a torturee so they become awake enough to torture all over again, is it not?





Full story here.

Pro-Genocide Racist Reds Fake "Ethnic Minority" Kidz

And they must have thought that nobody would ever notice!

Because, um, why would they?

But the children were all from the Han Chinese majority, which makes up more than 90 per cent of the population and is culturally and politically dominant, according to an official with the cultural troupe from which they were selected.

"I assume they think the kids were very natural looking and nice," Yuan Zhifeng, deputy director of the Galaxy Children's Art Troupe said.

Why, of course!

No VP For You, Hilly -- AND It's All Your Fault!!

Oh, lookee, boys and girls!

Here's a great -- and so WELL-TIMED -- hit-piece on Hillary!

Wow!

It's like Golden Oldies Night, replaying the top ten Obamist anti-Hillary smears!

I have like SUCH nostalgia happening!

Gimme some spin.

You want Hillary for VP? No way!

She's -- RACIST.

She's -- INCOMPETENT.

She's -- TOXIC.

She's -- TOTALLY OUTTA CONTROL.

Just in case you were wondering why presumptive nominee Barack Obama, who is not man enough to run with Hillary, is still not man enough to run with Hillary.

; )



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Plus: "If the witch is dead, why is The Atlantic trying to drown her?"

And a reprise: Fucked In The Head
Watch

Kudos to Vast LeftWing Conspiracy.

Update: So maybe they'll "let" Hillary be nominated after all? Isn't that the rulez? Or are they just flogging a Dead Unity Pony?