McCain Voted to Protect Domestic Terrorists
Posted by Ryan Powers, Think Progress on October 7, 2008 at 8:56 AM.

Yesterday morning on CBS's Early Show, McCain-Palin campaign spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer attempted to defend Gov. Sarah Palin's (R-AK) debunked claims that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has been "palling around" with former radical William Ayers. Referencing a recent New York Times article, Pfotenhauer claimed that if McCain "hung out with somebody who had bombed abortion clinics" it would be a legitimate topic of discussion. She explained:

PFOTENHAUER: The article also concluded is that if Senator McCain had hung out with somebody who had bombed abortion clinics, no one would consider [raising the issue] illegitimate.

Watch it:

Pfotenhauer's invocation of abortion clinic bombers in defense of McCain is ironic given that McCain has repeatedly voted against protecting Americans from domestic terrorists in the anti-choice movement. On multiple occasions throughout his career, McCain sought to limit the government's ability to punish violent anti-choice fanatics by:

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About those "Rape Exceptions" in Proposed South Dakota Abortion Ban...
Posted by Cara , Feministe on October 7, 2008 at 2:21 AM.

Trigger Warning

Last Sunday morning when I was in South Dakota we received the Argus Leader newspaper, which contained this article detailing the proposed abortion ban and laying out the “pros” and “cons” of the bill based on what each side has been saying. It was way too much for my blood pressure to deal with at 9AM after two very exhausting days, but I would like to address some of those “pro” arguments now — namely, those revolving around the rape “exceptions.”

I discussed the content of those so-called rape exceptions in Measure 11 and what they entail in depth in this post. They are absolutely cruel to women, which was the primary argument I made at the time. What I didn’t necessarily see coming — and hey, sometimes I’m short-sighted — was that just as anti-choicers have tried to reframe revoking a woman’s reproductive rights as empowering to her, they would attempt to reframe revoking a woman’s choice to not report her rape as also empowering to her. Or, at least, empowering to society, and she’d certainly be second to that, now wouldn’t she?

Let’s take a look at the first argument:

Before a doctor could perform an abortion in these instances, the victim would be told that a report was required, and the doctor would be required to report the crime “by telephone or otherwise” to the state’s attorney or law enforcement.

The report would be made in the county in which the assault occurred. If that were unknown, the report would be made to law enforcement in the county in which the report was made to the doctor. The name, address and birth date of the woman, the date or dates of the rape or incest, the name and address or a description of the attacker (in rape cases) or the relationship between the pregnant woman and the perpetrator (in incest cases) also would need to be in the report.

Pro: Shifting the burden of reporting from victim to doctor eases some of the trauma, supporters say. The report can help catch the perpetrator, they add. “It’s an unfortunate situation, but if it is truly a case of rape or incest, we’re doing a disservice to society if we don’t do that,” Ridder said.

I have to give the anti-choice Satan spawns credit where credit is due: to the untrained eye, this argument looks pretty good. But the fact is that it’s flat-out wrong.

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Women Ignored in VP Debate
Posted by Ruth Rosen, AlterNet on October 3, 2008 at 1:41 PM.

Astonishing. Women are more than half the population. Yet the vice-presidential debate, which featured a woman running for the VP, and moderated by a respected female journalist, barely even mentioned any of the issues that concern female voters.

Amazingly, it was Sarah Palin who uttered the words "women's rights" as part of her robotic explanation as to why the world doesn't like the United States. Sen. Joseph Biden, who authored the Violence Against Women Act, hardly took the time to stress the significance of what he had achieved.

And though Biden briefly mentioned the Supreme Court and Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal in the U.S. in 1973, the moderator, PBS's Gwen Ifill, never asked these two candidates their views on women's rights to make their own reproductive choices.

Palin, as everyone knows, is against women's right to make those choices. Yet Ifill spared her public moment of having to tell the American people that she supports anti-abortion policies.

Of course Palin was spared much, much more. But for this very brief piece, I simply want to register my astonishment that no questions were asked about abortion, women's reproductive health care, equal pay for women, child care or family friendly policies.

Yes, there's an economic collapse. Yes, we're mired in two disastrous wars. But not every woman is a hockey mom. Most women, including mothers, however, are genuinely worried about the minimum wage, keeping their jobs, finding child care and many other issues that daily affect their lives.

Both parties know that in the end, it is women who will swing this election. Might be a good moment to start speaking to them.

When Men Murder Women: New Report Details Homicide Rates
Posted by Tana Ganeva, AlterNet on September 29, 2008 at 6:13 PM.

The Violence Policy Center has just released a horrifying report detailing the rate of female homicides perpetrated by men in 2006 (the most recent year data was available). The study, based on Supplementary Homicide Report (SHR) data submitted to the FBI, analyzes incidences of murder involving one female victim and one male perpetrator. The data is broken down by state, race and ethnicity, murder weapon, relationship between the victim and offender, and the circumstances leading up to the murder.

The report's key findings:

• For homicides in which the victim to offender relationship could be identified, 92 percent of female victims (1,572 out of 1,701) were murdered by someone they knew.
• More than 12 times as many females were murdered by a male they knew (1,572 victims) than were killed by male strangers (129 victims).
• For victims who knew their offenders, 60 percent (949) of female homicide victims were wives or intimate acquaintances of their killers.
• There were 309 women shot and killed by either their husband or intimate acquaintance during the course of an argument.
• Nationwide, more female homicides were committed with firearms (54 percent) than with any other weapon. Knives and other cutting instruments accounted for 20 percent of all female murders, bodily force 12 percent, and murder by blunt object seven percent. Of the homicides committed with firearms, 73 percent were committed with handguns.
• In 88 percent of all incidents where the circumstances could be determined, homicides were not related to the commission of any other felony, such as rape or robbery.

An analysis of the rate of homicide by race found that black women were murdered at 3 times the rate of white women. The circumstances leading up to black female homicide largely mirrored that of all female homicides:

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Palin Raises Money ... for the Left?
Posted by Josh Orton, MyDD.com on September 29, 2008 at 2:02 PM.

Ari at Oxdown catches a NYT report on some counter-intuitive good Sarah Palin is doing:  

"Make a donation to Planned Parenthood," the anonymous e-mail message urged. "Of any amount. In Sarah Palin's name."

The message, which began circulating widely on the Internet last week, had one more instruction: request that the personalized thank-you card from Planned Parenthood be sent to Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee and a vocal opponent of abortion, at the McCain-Palin campaign headquarters in Virginia.

So far, the scheme seems to be getting a strong response. As of Friday, Planned Parenthood had taken in $802,678 in donations from 31,313 people, said a spokesman for the organization, Tait Sye. More than two-thirds of the individuals are first-time donors to Planned Parenthood, Mr. Sye said, and money came in from all 50 states.

Get ready for a bunch of emails in your inbox after Thursday's debate -- this trend will certainly catch on.

CNN's Campbell Brown Rails Against McCain's Sexist Treatment of Palin
Posted by ZP Heller, Brave New Films on September 24, 2008 at 8:15 AM.

CNN anchor Campbell Brown ripped into the McCain campaign for its sexist treatment of Sarah Palin.  Brown accused the McCain camp of treating Palin like "a delicate flower" for refusing to allow Palin to hold press conferences or field questions from reporters during her UN meetings yesterday. (h/t Jezebel)

I was already impressed with Brown last month when she stuck it to McCain toady Tucker Bounds when he was unable to speak to Palin's "foreign policy credentials."  Here's hoping we see more rants like this one!  

Obama Takes on McCain's Abortion Rights Stance
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on September 18, 2008 at 9:46 AM.

For reasons that defy reason, a lot of voters are under the mistaken impression that John McCain is pro-choice, or at a minimum, moderate on abortion rights. The Obama campaign is taking steps to educate voters on the subject.

Democrat Barack Obama, who supports abortion rights, is only too happy to remind voters where McCain stands, but he tries to make his case without attracting too much attention. [...]

Obama is calling out McCain in ads that say the GOP nominee takes an ''extreme position on choice'' and ''will make abortion illegal.'' He is spreading his message through low-profile radio ads and campaign mailings, though, hoping to avoid being tagged as too liberal on a woman's right to choose to end a pregnancy. [...]

Obama's radio ad, running in Indiana, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and elsewhere, features nurse practitioner Valerie Baron telling voters: ''John McCain's out of touch with women today. McCain wants to take away our right to choose.''

Glossy fliers with the same messages fill the mailboxes of women in Florida, Virginia and other states.

The radio ad is pretty hard hitting:

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Many Minority Women Don't Vote, Here's How to Help
Posted by Liza Sabater, Culture Kitchen on September 16, 2008 at 3:15 AM.

69% of Latinas do not vote. Even though we have the highest pregnancy rates and the fastest growing incidences of AIDS in the United States. 70% African American and Asian American registered voting women also abstain from voting.

Pass on this video clip to every single, Black, Latian, Asian, Native US American woman you know and ask them to pass it on to their family friends.

Faced with the prospect of a McCain presidency that would squash any hope of Universal Health Care and would put on the bench Supreme Court Justices that would bring back reproductive slavery, it is absolutely necessary that each and every minority woman and man go out and vote.

From the EngageHer blog :

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Zombie Republican "Feminists" Must be Stopped
Posted by Don Hazen, AlterNet on September 11, 2008 at 9:16 AM.

There is a remarkable guerrilla war going on, where everything that feminism stands for is being turned on its head, as the McCain campaign goes for the jugular with massive doses of Orwellian double speak -- framing Obama as a sexist wolf -- and the corporate media reports it as news.

Here is the beginning of today's Washington Post main story by Jonathan Weisman and Peter Slevin for one sickening example:

McCain Camp Hits Obama On More Than One Front

Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign launched a broadside against Sen. Barack Obama yesterday, accusing him of a sexist smear, comparing his campaign to a pack of wolves on the prowl against the GOP vice presidential pick, charging that the Democratic nominee favored sex education for kindergartners, and resurrecting the comments of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

Rebecca Traister on Salon gamely tries to stop the flood gates of Palinania, while explaining why she is gobsmacked at the notion of Sarah Palin as fake feminist in chief in the White House:

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Under Palin, Wasilla Charged Rape Victims for Sexual Assault Exams
Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville on September 9, 2008 at 11:34 AM.

While Sarah Palin was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the police department was charging rape victims for their own rape kits:

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.

Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

"In the past weve charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer," Fannon said.

Implicit in Fannon's comment is either a belief that most women who report rape are liars, or a genuine apathy that women are raped—because the taxpayers who suffer the "burden" of paying for rape kits have a vested interest in ensuring their community is free of rapists. Only someone who thinks rapes don't really happen, or doesn't care, would ignore the value to every taxpayer of an investment in convicting rapists.

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Who Make Better Bosses -- Women or Men?
Posted by Heather Gehlert, AlterNet on September 8, 2008 at 4:03 AM.

The Pew Research Center's latest survey on gender and leadership reveals that the public thinks women have more desirable leadership traits than men. The survey asked its respondents -- 2,250 adults -- to rate women and men on eight characteristics considered important in leadership. Women smashed men in five of the categories -- honesty, intelligence, compassion, outgoing personality, creativity -- and tied men in two: hard work and ambition. The only category in which men showed an edge was decisiveness.

Respondents also ranked women higher in job performance skills including working out compromises, keeping government honest, representing constituents' interests and standing up for their beliefs. The public also said women are better at dealing with social issues but not as good at dealing with crime/public safety or national security/defense.

Interestingly, the survey showed that even though respondents clearly favored women over men on the majority of leadership traits, when asked who make better leaders, 69 percent called it a draw. Twenty-one percent said men make better leaders; only 6 percent said women do.

Why the paradox in public perception? How can three categories -- "decisive" and good on crime and defense -- overshadow the long list of traits that women lead in, often by overwhelming margins.

"[W]omen emerge from this survey a bit like a sports team that racks up better statistics but still loses the game," write the report's authors.

To be sure, the fact that such a large majority of respondents (69 percent) say that women and men make equally good political leaders is itself a measure of the profound changes in women's role in society that have taken place over the past several decades.

Women make up 57 percent of all college students, about half of all law and medical school students, and more than four-in-ten students who earn masters degrees in business. They make up 46 percent of the total private sector workforce and 38 percent of all managers.

However, it's still lonely for women at the very highest rungs of the corporate and political ladder. Women are just 2 percent of the CEOs of the nation's Fortune 500 companies. In the political realm, they make up just 17 percent of all members of the U.S. House of Representatives; 16 percent of all U.S. senators; 16 percent of all governors; and 24 percent of all state legislators. Internationally, the U.S.ranks in the middle range -- 85th in the world -- in its share of women in the lower house of its national legislative body.

Read the survey's full results here.

Will Sarah Palin Have An Effect on the Women's Vote?
Posted by Heather Gehlert, AlterNet on September 7, 2008 at 10:28 AM.

John McCain is clearly trying to court the women's vote with his selection of Sarah Palin for the Republican party's VP. But a survey conducted after Palin gave her acceptance speech at the GOP convention suggests that McCain might not be getting the boost he'd hoped for.

The survey, conducted by Women's Voices. Women Vote Action Fund (WVWVAF) between Sept. 2 and Sept. 3, gauged the reactions of 1356 women -- 1295 of whom are likely to vote in the November election. Many of the women supported Hillary Clinton during the primaries but now say they are undecided. The survey found that while both married and unmarried women were impressed by the delivery of Palin's speech, they were left with questions about its substance. Women voters walked away without a clear idea of how Palin would handle some of the United States' most serious problems, like the economy. And while some women moved toward the Republican party, an equal number back away from it.

Is Palin a Step Backwards for Women in Power?
Posted by Suzanne Braun Levine, SuzanneBraunLevine.com on September 5, 2008 at 4:56 PM.

Bella Abzug -- the shrewd, hard-hitting, passionate and idealistic legislative genius who led the women’s movement and represented New York in Congress -- once remarked that we would only have true gender equality when an incompetent woman could go as far as an incompetent man. That milestone appears to have been achieved with the nomination of Sarah Palin for Vice President. Which is not to say that Palin couldn’t become competent, but Bella, who understood and believed in government so profoundly, would be horrified at how little expertise Palin brings to the table right now. Even the reportedly clear glasses she wears to play down her beauty-queen credential and enhance her gravitas can’t make up for experience. This is not an anti-woman statement; it is a pro-national leadership statement. Running the country is not a learn-as-you-go job.

It has been argued by her defenders that Palin -- the Hockey Mom -- can do it all and that any suggestions that she can’t are sexist. We, who know what sexism is because we helped define it before we began working to defeat it, can tell you that Having It All has been one of the crucibles of the struggle for equality. When the term began to circulate in the 1970s many women felt oppressed by the supposed message that in order to be "new women" they had to have high power careers, raise multiple children -- and, as Jane O’Reilly once wrote, be “multi-orgasmic til dawn.” As the conversation went on, women modified that message and began to reassure each other that "you can have it all -- just not all at once." Until we have more reliable and universal child care and special needs options and until we can offer all teenagers advice besides the "abstinence only" approach Palin subscribes to, a mother in her circumstances would have a hard enough time getting to work every day, let alone being a heartbeat away from leading a family of nations she has never even traveled through.

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McCain Campaign Spins Sarah Palin's Teen Daughter's Pregnancy
Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly on September 1, 2008 at 10:22 AM.

Adding a coda to some speculation about Sarah Palin's family life, this seems to be getting a fair amount of attention today.

The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.

Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.

Now, there are different schools of thought on this, but I'm very much inclined to think a politician's kids are entirely off-limits for public scrutiny. Bristol Palin's pregnancy has no political relevance whatsoever.

I can't help but notice, though, that the McCain campaign emphasized the fact that she "made the decision on her own to keep the baby."

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Raids on Protesters at RNC: Amy Goodman Jumps Fence to Question Police (Video)
Posted by The Uptake and Democracy Now on August 31, 2008 at 10:53 AM.

This video is from The Uptake.

Saint Paul, MN Police Department raids a home at 591 Iglehart Avenue at gunpoint. The journalists include a contributing photojournalist with "Democracy Now", whose host Amy Goodman appears in this clip jumping a fence to question police officers.

This is part of a series of police actions on the eve of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

After several hours, all those detained were released. No arrests. No property was seized as result of the search warrant. The clip ends with an interview with homeowner Mike Whalen. At the start of the clip, a neighbor shouts to the media and onlookers that we could all come into her backyard to see the detained people held in the adjacent backyard.