The Stupak Amendment:

Here’s the Roll Call on the vote. Sixty four Democrats voted for it. The obama Democratic party has now proven itself to be so profoundly anti-woman that I’m beginning to think the jackass wasn’t just talking about Hillary when he used 99 Problems But a Bitch Aint One as his campaign song.

In terms of the bill itself, as someone whose opinion I respect greatly put it, “Big fat government is here to stay and from here on in they will make your most intimate decisions-to the tune of 20% of your pretax income!” 

Dakinkat wants a new Woman’s Party. Coming at it from a slightly different angle, Uppity says: “Prepare to support a whole lot of unwanted babies with your tax dollars!” I’m not sure how realistic that is since not many abortions were being paid for by insurance anyway. Public insurance (Medicare, Medicaid) has NEVER covered abortions, so the women poor enough to NEED help paying for abortion services weren’t getting it to begin with. Anyway, the point isn’t really about counting how many more or fewer abortions there may be under this or that regulation. The point is

WHY THE HELL DO AMERICAN WOMEN NOT HAVE A CRITICAL MASS OF POWER IN WASHINGTON D.C. TO PROTECT EVEN BASIC FREEDOMS???

How freaking pathetic are we as a voting bloc for christ’s sake?

For a much needed laugh, check THIS out at TGW:

SF Puma, who helped organize today’s Richmond Peace Rally, will be HERE with other Bay Area Pumas starting at 10:30am Pacific time. She will be handing out the above flyer (made by dances) to encourage people to join us in our fight against gender violence (I think there may be forms of violence OTHER than gendered violence but I can’t think of any right now.) When Dances has a chance she will upload this flyer, along with another one she made, to the ACTION CENTER. You can download it from here for now, and from there later. How about a Saturday Flyer Day? It’s a beautiful day for it.

iPuma will be on hand with her iPhone, sending in pictures from the event as often as possible. I love this pic from over at SF Puma’s place. Aren’t these young women glorious?

Scroll around over at Puma Eyes — there are MANY resources and links to information about the Richmond Gang Rape.

UPDATE: Here are some photos from today’s rally, sent in by iPuma. Hopefully SF Puma will have a chance to check in and tell us her first-hand account. If not, check out her excellent blog regularly.

Listen to Swannie’s Goddess Radio right now, until 1pm eastern time, to soothe your heart and minds:

GODDESS RADIO 10 AM – 1 PM Saturday Morning Music Sanctuary from the WOMEN of INDEPENDENT MUSIC

tune in and keep right on posting while you listen 

http://audio.cygnusradio.com:8000/cyg1_hi.m3u

If the scumbag was so “mortified by the prospect of war,” and “knew so well the realities of war,” why in the HELL did he arm himself to the gills and start shooting unarmed innocent people?? Wouldn’t someone experiencing a crisis of conscience about the horror of war be more likely to, oh I don’t know, start handing out flowers, protesting the war peacefully, or reading up on the teachings of Gandh, or  something?

Phyllis Chesler examines the absurdity of the media coverage. She calls it “Sudden Jihad Syndrome” and reminds us of other recent victims of the terrible affliction. She describes the syndrome affecting the misunderstood heroes thusly:

“The attackers are really self-defenders. The jihadist is always the victim. Ask any of the Muslim fathers who have honor murdered their daughters in America in cold blood. They’ll tell you the same thing. She attacked my honor. I had to defend myself. It was an act of pure self-defense. This is precisely what Zein Isa, another Palestinian, and a member of the Abu Nidal terrorist gang, said about killing his 16 year old daughter, Palestina (“Tina”) Isa in 1989 in St Louis, Missouri.

Male Muslim jihadic rage? That is equivalent to 4000 pounds—the weight of the car that Faleh AlMaleki drove over his daughter Noor who died of her profound injuries in Arizona. Ironically, AlMaleki has just been placed on a suicide watch in Arizona—and his compatriot in crime, Muzammil Hassan in Buffalo, is trying to plead temporary insanity (“extreme emotional disturbance”) to explain why he finally beheaded his wife Aasiya, whom he had continually battered.

So: The 4000 pound father in Arizona is really the victim, as is the Buffalo beheader.

Sudden Jihad Syndrome, Personal Jihad Syndrome, call it what you will—these terrible acts should not be psychiatrically diagnosed and excused.”

Oops. Don’t call them the enemy. Don’t blame Islam.

Sorry, but i DO blame Islam. Islam sucks. It sucks big fat kosher hot dogs. I hate Islam not because I’m a Christian (I’m not), and not because I’m a Jew (I’m not), but because I AM A WOMAN. Like the woman at the top of this thread. Like THESE WOMEN. I am a woman like all other women and I blame Islam.

All women, and anyone who believes women are created equal, must blame Islam. Every day. Without hesitation. Without guilt. Without second guessing. Every time a husband chops off his wife’s head because Allah Akbar. Every time a father runs down his daughter in a truck because Allah Akbar. Every time a man throws acid in the face of a little girl on her way to school because Allah Akbar. Every time. Without exception.

Breaking my train  to inject this bit of news, sent via Persephone. Remember, don’t blame Islam!

“Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth.

Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka. An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby.”

Are they going to prop the newborn up in a basket and pelt him or her to death with leetle itty bitty stones until the tiny little baby slowly bleeds to death in excruciating pain and terror?

Islam sucks. Big fat Italian sausages.

I blame Islam because I’m a woman and Islam would enslave or kill me if it could. I don’t want it anywhere near me. If a family of KKK members lived near me I’d feel the same way.  The nurse at our public high school is a fundamentalist Christian. My daughters are under strict orders to stay the hell away from her. Once she tried to start a Christian Club at school, and to my everlasting delight, a very funny, very jewish, senior boy joined the club straight off and nominated himself president. Just to undermine her and her agenda. Marvelous. I’m trying to convince my girls and all their friends to organize a campaign against her misogynistic agenda by going to the nurse’s office every day complaining of side effects from pregnancy and asking her for the phone number for the nearest abortion clinic. Or to inundate her with requests for birth control or information about oral sex. Just to undermine her.

So I know that fundamentalist Christianity is a dangerous platform. It is based on BAAAD thoughts and beliefs. I get it. I don’t subscribe to that newsletter nor do I want that newsletter in my home. But give me an everlasting break. To equate the sexist, throwback mindset of Nurse Premaritalsexequalsdoomanddamnation!! with THIS or THIS or THIS is so mind-numbingly illogical and preposterously STUPID that I can only assume that those who DO equate them are either fucking morons who should be happily ignored or dangerous misogynists who should be considered part of the problem and therefore themselves enemies of women.

Like obama.

Ahem. Yes — I AM angry this morning.

Angry because the unemployment rate is 10.2% and that may not be all obama’s fault but george w. bush on a ham sandwich, we needed a LEADER this time around. Someone who could unite, inspire, encourage, and comfort us. We even freaking VOTED FOR HER! (Clinton won 272,809 MORE VOTES than obama. Please don’t EVER forget that Pumas.)

Angry because one of the basic definitions of feminism is that it is “the radical notion that women are people,” but yet SO MANY freaking people can’t seem to understand that this means ISLAM SUCKS if you are a feminist.

Angry because I am sick to death of being told what Puma is and what it isn’t; that we are dead, stupid, racist, fractured, ugly, whatever the hell. The post by Violet is excellent. The comments, with a few obvious and brilliant exceptions, are pretty ridiculous. 

Less navel gazing and more action and original thought. How many times must we define and redefine feminism? And when we’re done with that now we must define and redefine Puma??

How about joining the rally and march against the Gang Rapists in Richmond? How about helping the survivor of the gang rape?

How about thinking about the content of Violet Sox’s post; about how utterly betrayed and marginalized women have been by obama and his Democrats on this health care fiasco. How about CONTACTING YOUR REP AND TELLING HIM TO VOTE NO!

Rather than sniping and complaining and criticizing other women, how about getting to god damned work?

The dead shooter at Fort Hood is Major Malik Nadal Hasan. You do the friggin’ math.

Seems like just yesterday obama was telling the world that “Islam has done so much over the centuries to shape the world for the better including in my own country.”

Meanwhile, our own SF Puma is helping organize a rally/march in support of the Richmond High School rape victim. She has detailed information about the attack, the legal case, and the march at her blog.

Yep, many “news” outlets and pundits continue to spin the increasingly preposterous “fact” that obama is a popular president.

Looks like the Center is reasserting itself. (Well, excepting Maine, where they appear to be clinging like Neanderthals to their radical primitivism. And yes, not supporting equal rights for gays and lesbians IS a radical position in this day and age. For crying out loud, the Catholic country of Spain, where a rightwing fascist dictator ruled for 60 years has nationally legalized gay marriage.) Join the 21st Century Maninacs.

But, remember, that while obama and what he stands for got smacked around last night in Virginia and New Jersey (ouch!), Sarah Palin and what she stands for also got smacked around in upstate New York. Message to Party Leaders: Back Away From the Extremism. Real, admirable, and arguably needed Republican values, like fiscal restraint and aggressive foreign policy, may be very welcome with voters right now, Radical Primitivism is not. Real, admirable, and arguably needed Democratic Party values ALSO continue to be popular with voters, but more in theory than in practice these days as voters lose hope that obama and his administration will actually deliver any of the great things they promised.

These pitched battles are really not about the politicians anyway (HP is right: they ARE all bums, or at least so many of them are year after year in race after race that we may as well paint with a broad brush and call them ALL bums.) It’s laughable to believe obama is a communist-socialist-radical. He’s just as much a corporate lackey as he is a union-lackey. He’s a POLITICIAN, playing to a certain mix of voter bases and being bankrolled, like they ALL are bankrolled, by big business. obama is not socialist or radical or evil or muslim or even particularly racist. But many of his supporters are.

What these battles are really about is the VOTERS. Which sorts of voters are asserting themselves? Which group is holding sway? Toward whom is the pendulum swinging?  Last year it was the obamabots who had the power. This year they see it slipping quickly out of their hands.

One thing is clear: radicalism, race-baiting, and racism are out. Reasonable, responsible, and regular are in. And religion is where it should be, mostly neither here nor there in the minds of voters. Voters want to know that who they are voting for has “normal” religious views. Just don’t be wacky about it. That turns people off.

But don’t get me started about where women stand in all of this. I swear, we will have a Half-Asian-Half-Hispanic-Mormon-Gay-Married-Parapalegic-Man President before we have a woman president in this country . . .

Vote FOR women.

UPDATE: Uppity must have woke up on the same side of the bed as me in different beds in different states. She is fucking pissed. And I don’t use the word “pissed” lightly.

obama’s approval rating has been in the negative double digits for 17 of the last 19 days. He’s been at -13 since Sunday. Also, most Americans would NOT vote to reelect him if the election were held today. Also, 77% of Americans believe Hillary Clinton would have been as good or better president than obama.

So, have a damn cupcake.

And pass the popcorn:

“As voters across the country head to the polls Tuesday, one thing appears certain: Many of them are angry.And that anger could shape the results of three of the most high-profile elections this year — gubernatorial battles in New Jersey and Virginia and the fight for an open seat in New York’s 23rd Congressional District.

National polls indicate that many voters are in a foul mood. The big question is whether that mood will continue into 2010, when the entire House of Representatives, more than a third of the Senate and more than a third of the governorships are up for grabs.”

Turnout is WAAY high around the country, always a bad sign for incumbents. What is it that HP always says? Throw the bums out? Or is it Flush the bums down the toilet??

Either way.

But Noor Almaleki is.

“A young Iraqi woman whose father allegedly hit her with his car because she had become too Westernized died from her injuries Monday after laying in a coma for nearly two weeks.

Noor Faleh Almaleki, 20, underwent spinal surgery and had been in a hospital since Oct. 20, when police say her father ran down her and her boyfriend’s mother with his Jeep as the women were walking across a parking lot in the west Phoenix suburb of Peoria.”

Adding this, in its (almost entirety) from Zee:

“This morning I remembered something else and wanted to post this before I’m off for the day. It’s from Hillary is 44, reminding of us of just how firmly Coakley stood by Hillary, to the very end. I’m convinced that she’s pissed to this day about last election and that it plays into why she’s so determined to win. And she is so completely straightforward about which issues she’s for and against that it’s strange when she is veiled and sly, and yet every time, some veiled remark about women and government. I think a good part of her motivation, public service, power, and issues all aside, is not giving the media a foothold to gender-bash her, yet speaking in code to others who very much remember the 2008 election. Anyway, here is hillary is 44’s take.

In Massachusetts, Martha Coakley supported Hillary Clinton even though Ted Kennedy drove the Democratic Party there over the bridge. All the big, Kennedy/Kerry/Patrick strutting did not stop Hillary, with the help of Coakley, from a double digit win in the primaries. It’s time to support Coakley.

An email from a Coakley supporter quotes Coakley when she endorsed Hillary: “What poetic justice it would be to have a woman win Ted Kennedy’s seat since, were it not for his early support of Obama, HIllary Clinton would be President today.” [snip] …For those of you who don’t know, Martha Coakley is a strong Hillary Clinton supporter. Coakley was a Clinton delegate to the Convention in Denver and refused to surrender her vote to Dr. Utopia, even when Deval Patrick and the Kennedy spiders pressured her to do so. Coakley stood by Clinton, and Clinton Democrats need to stand by Coakley now.

To everyone out there, those of you who remained loyal to Hillary Clinton have our friendship, love, and loyalty in return forever. Those who sided with Dr. Utopia, like Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Howard Dean, John Edwards, Tom Daschle, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Claire McCaskill — well, you deserve what you get.

Martha Coakley deserves to have that Senate seat.

Please help make Martha Coakley the first female Senator from Massachusetts. Team Hillary rides again!”