Tag Archives: war on women

Action Needed! NH Domestic Violence Services Funding Threatened by GOP House Bill

urgent

 

 

House representative David Bickford of New Durham (R), representing Strafford, District 3 has sponsored the bill, HB 654 that aims to eliminate the sole source of funding for domestic violence services; a portion of marriage license fees.

Action needed now! A hearing on this bill is to be held on February 2nd at the Legislative Office Building in Concord, as explained below, can you make the hearing to testify against this bill? 

Can you call Mr. Bickford and the members of the committee hearing and considering this bill?  Information on David Bickford:

Strafford- District 03
Seat #:2011
Incumbent

Home Address:
183 Brackett Road
New Durham, NH  03855-2329
Phone: (603)859-7899
Email: davidabickford51@yahoo.com

Currently the bill is in the house finance committee, please see the list of committee members at the bottom of this post, please contact them all by phone or email and tell them to stop this attack on domestic violence funding.  New Hampshire always works to find inventive ways to fund programs, the use of a small amount from the marriage license fee makes complete sense, takes from no one and works as a means to preserve healthy marriages and families in New Hampshire.

As explained below in a plea for action from the public, this bill would effectively starve the only source of steady funding that any domestic violence services have in the state.  As we outlined previously in our post Domestic Violence Top Killer in New Hampshire, the lives of women and children hang in the balance when it comes to reaching them in time.  Making services such as educational outreach, court advocacy , crisis outreach via phone and then shelters saves lives.  Representative Bickford’s thinking behind this bill defy the imagination; as explained even in the text of the bill, only $38 is taken out of the marriage license fee and appropriated to the domestic violence fund.  Bickford proposes instead to put these funds directly to the state general fund.  What has to wonder, does Bickford not value the lives of women and children?  Does the general fund need that $38 more than a woman or child needs a safe way out of violence?

We’ll let the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic Violence speak further on this:

HB654 redirects a dedicated fund for domestic violence to the General Fund

For Immediate Release
January 30, 2015                                    
Contact: Amanda Grady Sexton -603-548-9377, 
Amanda@nhcadsv.org

(Concord, NH) On Monday February 2nd at 11:15 in LOB 210-211 there is a critical hearing taking place for a bill that threatens to take away the sole source of state funding for domestic violence services in New Hampshire. The Domestic Violence Prevention Program (DVPP) is mainly funded through a portion of the state marriage license fees. ($38 of each $45 license.) Sponsored by Representative David Bickford, HB654 would redirect DVPP money to the general fund. (http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2015/HB0654.pdf)

If passed this measure would be devastating for the state’s 14 crisis centers that have been struggling to provide services over the last several years due to funding reductions. In 2013 these crisis centers managed to serve over 15,000 people, and these funds could mean the difference between life and death.

Last year members of this legislature passed an unprecedented number of domestic violence bills including Joshua’s Law which is considered model legislation by the rest of the country. The Coalition is concerned that without adequate funding for victim services these laws will not be effective.

Survivors, as well as members of the Coalition, law enforcement, and other legislatures are expected to testify at the hearing. Please contact Amanda Grady Sexton at the Coalition for more information.

This bill will be considered by the house finance committee.  The finance committee is a Standing Committee, that is it is one that is essential to basic functions of the house, considers most bills and always exists.  It is an important committee and thus is also very large.  Because Republicans hold the majority in the house, it is currently majority Republican.

Also, because its large, we will simply provide a link to the page that lists all the members and information about the committee.  The members’ names are linked to their respective house information listing, with phone numbers and email addresses.  We recommend also that you make sure you contact the committee chair, Neal Kurk a longtime Republican representative.

NH House Finance Committee

We’ll leave you with this video on domestic violence, One Voice, A 15 Minute Short Film on Domestic Violence:

 

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When Does Shock Value Lose its Free Speech Rights?

Traveling the wards on election day in Manchester gleaned some interesting snapshots, such as the one with Elizabeth Edwards at Ward 4; she was a great sport with the picture taking.  But aside from the usual stock of candidate’s sign holders, Ward 6, at St. Pius Catholic Church on Candia Road, had an especially peculiar election day sign holder.

Right at the entrance to the walkway was poised a woman holding a gigantic, nearly 4′ x 5′ sign in front of her.  The picture was so huge that it was visible all the way down the driveway across the large parking lot.  A gigantic graphic photo of what appeared a D and C procedure blasted the viewing space of everyone heading into the polls.

Such images represent a sort of violent assault to one’s senses.  If you notice in the picture, the woman is given wide berth by people doing their visibility obligations.  Such a graphic image is deeply unsettling.  Aside from the fact that a D&C is not a standard elective abortion procedure but used only in medical emergencies, thus such pictures are deceptive, should zealots be allowed to assault voters with such images?  What if anti-war protesters decided to jump on the wagon too and carry graphic signage of children blasted apart by bombs?  While all progressives and even libertarians hold strong anti-war positions, do they do this on a regular basis and if not why?  Imagine such a scene if you will; the polling places would begin to look like a war zone and would possibly repel voters from even making the walk to the polling place entrance.

Click here for the full, graphic horror.

One of the two Democrats who stood holding signs said, “Yeah and whether you’re pro-life or not is such a sign necessary to prove your point; we’re all against child pornography but we don’t carry around images of the act to prove our point.”  Exactly.  The young man said that some of the people even on the Republican side occasionally walked over and tried to stand in front of the woman to at least hide her image from small children.  But the woman would have none of it and would change position accordingly.

As it is, one has to wonder how parents with small children dealt with this imagery.  Its a solid tradition in our country for parents to bring their children with them to the polling place, should voting be associated with graphic images of death, much less dead babies, which can be doubly upsetting to children?  Is this the imprint of the voting experience that we want on children’s minds?

We called the Secretary of State’s office and spoke to the Deputy Secretary of State yesterday, she said that the moderator of the polling place has a lot of leeway in deciding what is disruptive in signage or other activities.  We note that of all the polling places we visited in Manchester (barring Wards 11 and 12 which we weren’t able to get to), this was the only location that hosted this type of signage.

So the question must be asked, does this poster represent a disruption to voters that day?  At what point does “free speech” intersect with the public’s interests for not being visually assaulted? Wouldn’t a poster or sign asking voters to vote pro-life been sufficient to satisfy free speech and get the message to voters?

We offer up here a poll for our readers:

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Domestic Violence Top Killer in New Hampshire

woman alone 3

October has passed and along with it the recognized month to remember domestic violence.  Many communities throughout the country had candle-light vigils to remember victims of domestic violence or walks at night to highlight the need for a safe community at any time of the day or night.

This is a sensitive topic and for those in domestic violence situations, such information could be threatening to an abuser.

IF YOU BELIEVE SOMEONE MONITORS THE COMPUTER YOU ARE PRESENTLY USING, PLEASE CLICK HERE TO LEARN ABOUT SAFE INTERNET USE.  IF YOU THINK LINKING TO THIS ISSUE ON YOUR COMPUTER MAY COMPROMISE YOUR SAFETY PLEASE SHUT THIS PAGE DOWN AND GO TO A LIBRARY OR OTHER SAFE PLACE TO ACCESS LINKS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND GET HELP IMMEDIATELY.

The need to recognize the signs of domestic violence in one’s life or someone else’s never ends and the importance of discussing the issue within the community never ends either.

In an effort to help people hold in their minds the importance of awareness of domestic violence we’ve compiled a list of statistics on domestic violence in New Hampshire and some links for further information.  If you are or know someone who may be in a relationship or living in a family or cohabiting with an abusive person, please read the information below so that you can be a positive catalyst for change in someone’s life or find help for yourself.

Even if you know no one who is suffering from violence or abuse or aren’t suffering from domestic violence yourself, arming yourself with the facts below and going further into the links to learn more will open your eyes to the real terrorism against women: violence at home.  Armed with the proper information you can be a fighter for change!

Please read on:

First some statistics on domestic violence incidents nationally and in New Hampshire:

– According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, 3 women die everyday due to domestic violence

– According to the Domestic Violence Intervention Program a woman is beaten every 9 seconds in the US

– From the same site, “An AMA report shows that every five years as many women are killed by their intimate partners as men, and women killed in the Viet Nam War … 54,000.”

– Cases of domestic violence cross race and class lines leading to the well known conclusion that people of all races and classes throughout America are potential victims of domestic violence.

– In 85% of domestic violence cases women are the victims – National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

– According to the 9th NH Domestic Violence Fatality Review of 2012, while New Hampshire has a low homicide rate “domestic violence is a causal factor in 92% of the state’s homicides and suicides.”

– Women were victims in 67% percent of domestic violence fatalities in New Hampshire with 56% being by a partner and 31% by a family member.

– Out of the 53% of cases in which the perpetrator had a known history of domestic violence, only 6% of their victims had sought crisis center services prior to their death with only 4% having any protective order in place,

– Over half of the perpetrators of a domestic violence fatality had no known history of any substance abuse.

– In all cases nationally, the presence of a firearm in the home exponentially increases the incidence of serious injury or death of the victim.

What can I do?

If you suspect you or a close friend or relative are a victim of domestic violence or see it creeping up in a relationship, please seek help or assistance in getting help for someone.  Resources exist in New Hampshire and below are some links to assist in your search.

New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Resources

A Safe Place

YWCA

How do you know if you are in an abusive relationship?

Click here for a quiz to take on your relationship profile and an interesting graphic; the Power and Control Wheel helps in visualizing the development of violence in a relationship.

If you know someone at your workplace possibly suffering from abuse, what should you do?

This informational pamphlet has tips on how to help someone you work with who might be experiencing violence at home. Domestic Violence: A Guide for Employees

If you live outside of New Hampshire, below are national resources as well that can guide you to help locations and contacts within your state:

National Network to End Domestic Violence

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

 

 

 

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Yes its Amazing the Society for Cutting Up Men Hasn’t Come Back

Contrary to what most folks are told my radical feminist friends at Rad-Fem Central, do not huddle together in dark, moist, odoriferous corners of humanity, training the next generation of Femi-Nazis to cut men in sixteen pieces just for fun. Real feminists are engaged in the maddeningly repetitious activity of pushing the revolutionary idea that women are human.  These feminists have no problem pointing out the oddly primitive way in which women here in the United States are still held captive by their bodies by a small minority of males and their female helpers who apparently cannot get their head around the idea that women’s bodies are not property, are not vehicles for made for male entertainment or vessels for production of male heirs and possibly units of future production, but just parts of a larger person called a human known as woman.

Thank you Seven Bowie for your thoughts which are welcome at Rad-Fem Central and where we also have this silly idea that even men can be feminists because seeing women as human and deserving of total “liberty” (ask Ron Paul what he thinks about women and their rights to that precious “liberty” he and his libertarian followers like to bleat about so much) just doesn’t seem like that difficult a job to us, even for men.

AMERICAN TALIBAN: WOMEN HAVE NO RIGHT TO THEIR OWN BODIES, BUT THEY’RE RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS.

Yes you read the title correctly. For the past couple of years, women have been subjected to legislative rape, both on the federal and state level as historically high numbers of laws have been passed that thwart their rights to decisions about their reproductive lives and thus to their own self-determination – their rights to make decisions about their own bodies. Scratch just below the surface of all that, and you have what is known as reproductive slavery.

What's next? Burkas?

WHAT’S NEXT? BURKAS?

On the federal level we have Republicans refusing to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) because they don’t believe LGBT, students, Native American or Latino women deserve protection from abuse and domestic violence. And in 2012 we had a chamber full of men debating on whether women had any right to birth control whilst they refused to allow any women on their panel or allow any women to even speak during hearings on the subject.

Amidst all these efforts to keep women from having any say about their rights to make decisions about their own bodies are Taliban-like assertions that these same women, while not capable of having any jurisdiction over their own bodies, are somehow responsible for those of men.

Read more here:

American Taliban: Women Have No Right to Their Own Bodies, But They’re Responsible for His

 

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Worst Right-Wing Messaging Evah!

Worst Marketing Decision Ever: Drycleaner Puts “Pro-life” Message on Their Hangers

From Dependable Renegade that got it from RH Reality Check:

There is a branch of anti-choice activists that will use pretty much anything as a medium for their message: newspaper ads, graphic signs displayed in front of schools, bus stop benches. You would think they would know well enough to leave one place untouched, though. Wire coat hangers.

You would be wrong.

Springdale Drycleaners of Cincinnati, Ohio, has been etching “Choose Life” ads on wire coat hangers used to hang dry-cleaning.

What’s worse is that this seems to be an ongoing effort. Reports of the “choose life” coat hangers already were on the internet back in March of 2011, when Joe.My.God posted a picture of the hanger then. And before that on Regretsy in 2010. So despite over two years of attention, the business continues to think this is an excellent cross-advertising campaign. In fact, the practice was losing them customers as far back as August of 2010, but still the dry-cleaner continues to use hangers as a place to offer inappropriate propaganda.

As NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin said on Facebook, it’s a reminder of why we will never let them make us go back.

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13 Year Old Girl is Dragged by Her Hair in LA Park — Cops Say “Hope all is Well”

In an unbelievable story ran across from Yahoo.com news that was apparently culled from a local Los Angeles local news affiliate, a thirteen year old girl that was — wait for this — dragged by her hair and then having her clothes removed by the assailant has apparently been abandoned to fate.

Here’s the story as reported by an international online news source that uses ‘dragged by her hair’ so many times it makes one wonder if this phrase serves some kind of purpose for titillation all by itself.  Of course, aren’t all rape stories and any stories about women’s subjugation at the hands of men just so much fap fodder?

Its really hard to know what is more cringe worthy in this story; the fact that witnesses watched the event unfold and did absolutely nothing to stop it, or that the police chief makes the unbelievably lame comment that he hopes the two will have reconciled their differences and moved on.  Because of course, all young girls should expect to be physically punished when they engage in an argument with a man, amirite ladies?  Apparently the folks that stood by and watched thought nothing enough out of the ordinary was occurring before their eyes to take action to stop it. Just another day in the life of a woman in America.  If she lives to tell the tale of what happened to her, she can be sure she’ll have an entire audience ready to qualify whether she deserved the beating, rape or whatever general wrath and abuse may have come her way.  The offender can of course, after some head-shaking and the acceptance of the Eternal Truth of the Patriarchy– that man is helpless to his animal nature that woman brings out in him and sometimes, well some boys just go too far.

Which will of course bring out the conversation as to whether this young girl was sexually active, because as all women know; little hussy temptresses will get what they get coming to them.  No need to suddenly forget the history of wingnut woman-hating now that some of the worst were booted out the last term; they represented a constituency of mouth-breathers who love to see woman as nothing more than vessels of their power.  Those women who have the temerity to live outside the proscribed lines must be put down immediately; whether children or not — that’s not important. (as many girls find out, you were born with certain equipment that is useful, whether you know what it is about or that you are connected to it is of little import to the patriarchy).

I hope that this young woman comes out of this alive and fully intact, since like everywhere else in the patriarchy, she obviously cannot count on law enforcement, family, friends or even passive strangers witnessing her being brutally abused, to give enough of a damn to even lift a finger to help her.

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Arizona National Guard: Paintball fun and Breast Flashing All Part of the Job

National Guard, not preparing to wipe out para-military, right wing extremists.

So I guess this is how our country’s weekend warriors express their patriotism, by supporting the fine American values of objectifying women, cheating whenever you can get away with it and abusing the easiest and weakest targets you can find.

No should be surprised that this behavior has gone for a decade without a peep from anyone in the ranks.  In a culture such as Arizona’s where humanity means little more than a piece of paper and where jail and prison cells are bargained in the state house to the highest bidder (with guarantees to keep them full of profitable warm bodies– justice and habeas corpus be damned).

Depend on Jan Brewer doing precious little to stop this. Its just the kind of world she’s been working on hard on creating.

The Arizona Army National Guard is under fire after The Arizona Republic broke a story this weekend, reporting that recruiters had engaged in gross misbehavior, including sexual abuse, forgery and hunting homeless people with paintball guns.

The Republic conducted a five-month investigation into the Arizona National Guard’s conduct and culture, determining that criminal and ethical misconduct not only exists, but festers due to leadership failures and lax discipline. The newspaper conducted interviews with military officers and obtained records that suggest a decade-long patchwork of “sexual abuse, enlistment improprieties, forgery, firearms violations, embezzlement, and assaults.”

One of the most shocking allegations claims National Guard recruiters frequently hunted homeless people with paintball guns:

“Bum hunts” — Thirty to 35 times in 2007-08, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Amerson, a former “Recruiter of the Year,” drove new cadets and prospective enlistees through Phoenix’s Sunnyslope community in search of homeless people.Military investigators were told that Amerson wore his National Guard uniform and drove a government vehicle marked with recruiting insignia as he and other soldiers — some still minors — shot transients with paintballs or got them to perform humiliating song-and-dance routines in return for money. During some of these so-called “bum hunts,” female recruits said, they were ordered to flash their breasts at transients. Homeless women, conversely, were offered food, money or drinks for showing their breasts.

Staff Sgt. Chad Wille, cited as a whistleblower, learned of the activity from a 17-year-old private who admitted to taking part in the homeless hunts, according to a separate report from The Republic. She and other female cadets were pressured to join Amerson and flash their breasts at the homeless people they encountered, whom they tried to convince to dance, sing and show their own breasts.

Read the rest on Huffington Post where they also include a link to updates from the Arizona Republic.

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Feminist Porn: PM Gillard Rips Good Old Boys a New One

If you haven’t seen or heard of the Australian Prime Minister’s smack-down of her opposition in Parliament, then sit back and watch and listen (video is below).  Its good.  Its good because women in leadership positions in patriarchy most often turn a blind eye to the garbage that’s thrown at them. Women in leadership positions are forced to play along with the patriarchy and pretend that either they deserved the attacks, commentary or unfounded critiques, or that they just don’t exist.

Remember the unfounded and often cloaked attacks on then Senator Hillary Clinton when she ran for President? She didn’t dress right, she was too emotional, she was a cold ball buster, she wore pants suits (OMG), she wore too long skirts, too short skirts, too low-collar shirts, too high collar shirts, it just never stopped and it all served to trivialize her and dismiss her as incapable of competing with the boyz.

But Hillary had to hold her head up and charge on, ignoring the charges lest she be punished as being too ‘radical’ a ‘feminazi’ or just plain unhinged if she called the shit for what it was; shit.  Oh and to instruct the young ones here, us older folks will never forget the Vice President Bush Senior’s remarks following his debate with Senator Geraldine Ferraro.

There’s a note-worthy write-up of the Geraldine Ferraro/Bush debate by told from the vioew of someone who worked closely with her, Ben Heineman, from his story from which we excerpt here:

The most famous line of the debate, of course, was Geraldine Ferraro’s. The vice president began an answer by saying: “Let me help you with the difference, Ms. Ferraro, between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon.” To which the first woman national candidate in American history replied: “Let me first of all say that I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy.” This was the debate clip shown the day after — and to this day. In the years after, I would see Gerry Ferraro at this occasion or that. [snip]

After  the debate was over, Vice President Bush remarked into a still open mic that he had “kicked a little ass.” Given the expectations before the debate, I felt, along with so many others, that it was actually the other way round.

Despite Mr. Heineman’s honest account of the debates, he fails to mention that the press ran with the “kicked a little ass” story over and over again until one began to believe that indeed Bush did kick some ass.  As Heineman tells us, Bush didn’t and at first polls showed no one a direct winner.  But our public was not ready to see a woman get out in charge and assert herself in front of male power.

Denying that misogyny exists, just like denying that rape doesn’t exist or racism doesn’t exist empowers the power structure and allows the press to not bother to vet knee-jerk sexism or other forms of conformity with social injustice in their reporting or writing.  Denial allows the system to perpetuate the injustice and those who benefit from it to go freely along without responsibility.

So, its good when the rare instance comes along for a woman leader to call shit for what it is; mysogynist shit meant to keep women down and punish those who dare to raise their heads up and demand to be counted.  Here Julia Gillard let’s it rip right into her opposition who had staged numerous mysognist attacks on her that you will see her refer to.

But, after you watch the video, you must come back down to earth and realize that women still have a long ways to go.  We still aren’t on an equal footing, even if we can have the freedom to speak out more and call a spade a spade.  We still have to bargain with the devil all too often in order to get that power that still lies in the iron grip of our oppressors. Many of us feminists  expect not only entertaining verbiage, but some back-up in the form of follow-through by supporting policies that lift women out of their subservient economic and social status.

On the other hand, we’ll take juicy bits like this when we can as it feeds us.  You know sugar can be intoxicating in large doses, but it does provide energy when you need it.

Tracy Egan Morrisey on Jezebel:

 Australia’s prime minister Julia Gillard is one badass motherfucker. In an impassioned 15-minute smackdown in front of the house of Representatives, the country’s first female leader gave a scathing speech calling out opposition leader Tony Abbott’s extremely misogynistic comments, actions, views on abortion and single women, all while pointing in his face. She basically ripped him a new asshole.

Here’s some history: Abbott demanded that Peter Slipper, the Speaker of the House, step down for allegedly sexually harassing an openly gay male staff member in a series of text messages, one of which apparently compared female genitalia to mussels. I know. Juicy already. Abbott then implied that if Gillard defended Slipper, she would be just as sexist as a gay man who talks shit on vaginas. Abbott said, “And every day the prime minister stands in this parliament to defend this Speaker will be another day of shame for this parliament, another day of shame for a government which should already have died of shame.”

(Inside baseball: The line about “dying of shame” was a dig at Gillard’s recently deceased father, whom a shock jock said “died of shame” over his daughter’s policies.)

So Gillard let him have it. Here are some choice quotes:

I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man, I will not. Not now, not ever. What i won’t stand for, what I will never stand for is the leader of the opposition peddling a double standard, a standard he has not set for members of his own front bench.

If he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia he doesn’t need a motion in the house of Representatives, he needs a mirror.

I was very offended personally the Leader of the Opposition said abortion is the easy way out.

I was offended by the sexism, by the misogyny of the Leader of the Opposition cat calling across this table at me as I sit here as prime minister [saying], ‘If the prime minister wants to make an honest woman of herself…’ something that would never have been said to any man sitting in this chair.

I was offended when he stood next to a sign that described me as a ‘man’s bitch.’

He has said, ‘If it’s true that men have more power, generally speaking, than women, is that a bad thing?’ [and] ‘What if men, by physiology or temperament, are more adapted to exercise authority or to issue command?’

He can apologise for standing next to signs [about me] saying, ‘Ditch the Witch.’

Now he is looking at his watch [which Abbott was] because apparently a woman’s spoken too long.

But, bear in mind as well, that some victories only come in pieces and that the back-story or deeper picture may not follow the trajectory that you or I as supporters of the oppressed might wish.  When we look closer, as another blogger did, what we’ll find all too often is a compromise on the deeper issues of social justice hidden underneath the heated rhetoric and the amazing speeches.

An excellent analysis by Stephanie Convery for Overland

La fille mal gardée

On that parliamentary smackdown

By now, you’ve probably seen the video of Prime Minister Julia Gillard spending the better part of 15 minutes calling the Leader of the Opposition a misogynist in parliament yesterday. But as satisfying as it was to see Tony Abbott get the verbal smackdown long due him (and I don’t deny there’s a lot of satisfaction to be had) it should be put in context.

Abbott’s ‘problem with women’ has been in the headlines for a while now, and it’s hardly out of character for him to attempt to turn a personal attack onto the PM herself. His fall guy was Peter Slipper, whose vile sexist text messages have been put on the public record, and whose career as Speaker was quite obviously on a time limit. Gillard’s speech was a response to that challenge. It is in no way irrelevant that despite it being a smart – and unprecedented – move to speak to the currently running narrative about sexism so bluntly, and to attack Abbott so openly on his quite obvious misogyny, she was doing so in defence of Slipper.

If winning or losing in politics was merely a matter of who had the best one-liners to throw along with their stones, then Gillard won yesterday hands down. But politics is notsimply about whip-smart wisecracks and cutting speeches. It’s about policies and practices, legislation and social organisation.

Yesterday, the Gillard government also passed welfare reforms through the Senate that will cut single parent payments between $56 and $140 a week. This is a measure that will disproportionately affect women, and particularly those in the sectors of society that the Labor Party is traditionally supposed to represent. And yet, when the heavily debated reforms finally came to a vote in the Senate, only the Greens and Independents Madigan and Xenophon voted against it.

It’s been said before but it bears repeating: standing up for women’s rights is not just about calling sexism for what it is. It’s about agitating for specific change. It’s about making concrete demands of society and of the government. So if this is feminism that Gillard is representing in parliament, then I want to know, whose feminism is it? I don’t care how many sharp speeches she makes: her government is making life for some of the most vulnerable women in Australia even harder than it already is, and I want no part in it.

So here’s a call to arms. If we want to stand up for women, let’s start by standing up for these women. Let’s stand in the street and tell the federal government that this is not okay. That we want them to reverse the welfare cuts. That we want them to raise single parent pensions by $140 a week. That single parents undertaking study should be given more support, not less. Because this would make a qualitative difference to the lives of many women in Australia. This would be a win.

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Wanton Feminist Sex at the Colleges Killed My Privilege: Cry of a White Man

“Oh wouldn’t you like to come
Back underneath my thumb
In a Patriarchy’s Garden
In serfdom?

You would know your place,
Below the human race
In a Patriarchy’s Garden
Without mace.”

That and more at Sadly No! where writer Cerberus cuts into David Brooks and commits beautiful slaughter.  Slaughter on Brooks’ pulling out every tired stereotype of women to make a siren call to the men that the wymenz are taking over and they’d better, um, do something.  Like maybe wake up to the fact that the OMG! the roles of women they are a changing and this is nowhere better reflected than in the poor economy.  Well ok, he didn’t say all women are ruining the economy, just the loose ones that go college; the ones who put getting a degree and an education as a top priority.  Brooks laments the good old days where women knew their place and went to college to find a doctor to marry.  Oh the bloody horror! Now with contraception and all, they are having wanton sex, learning things and get this! Getting jobs! Not good paying jobs, that’s not important and not all women, that’s not important either.

When you need to force attitudes that force ridiculous, prejudicial policies that protect a narrow group from another larger group, best to make that group really, really big and scary. Women shouldn’t have reproductive freedom, look, they are all turning into educated sluts! And then taking our jobs!  Wasn’t that the frat boy’s job? The privileged snot getting in on daddy’s dime with his white-boy, super polished shine, who studied and had wild sextapades with willing coed sluts?  Brings to mind a little diddy someone told me long ago, that’s one of those custom made stories that dad’s tell their young stud sons about to embark into the world of teh wymenz:

A little dog sat next to the railroad tracks all forlorn, contemplating his future.  He let his tail fall over the rail.  A train came by and as he felt the pinch on his tail he turned his head and whack!

So unfortunately, the puppy’s gone but hopefully you’ll remember to not lose your head over a little tail.

Those femi-nazi mothers must be telling their daughters that story, which of course is bringing in the collapse of all civilization partriarchy.

But I need add no more, let Cerberus take it away!

Bitches Be Responsible for Everything Bad

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The American Stinker Lays Another Pooper

Hard at work for the corporate agenda.

Stephen McCann a classic plutocrat and contributor to the site American Stinker and the site linked to the magazine, American Spectator, sits on the Stinker pot and performs the rectal birth of a tract so full of lies even the lowest of parasites might have to bring out the lie detector.  Compensated at a rate of a mere 4.5m a year, Mr. McCann gets passive into that very narrow canal of American mogul-lovin’.  Sitting firmly within the top 1%, possibly the top .01% of wealth holders globally, the Australian McCann we’re sure gets a big BFF ranking from the plutocrat class here in the states.

So onto his scribbles from the war room water closet and why we should really give a damn what he says anyway. First off, its worth pointing out that although McCann sits in his house on the near bottom of the globe where our winter is his summer, he seems awfully disturbed by certain sectors of the American population known commonly as the “left”.

Yeah you all you pro-choice, tree hugging, union thug, anti-racist, anti-war leftists, this fine gentleman is fed up with your anti-austerity politics you hear? He’s had it with your desires for justice and equality and wants you to grow up and practice some good old austerity.  Concerned as he is with the deficit in the United States  … er… his portfolio.   He’s sick and tired of “The Childishness of the American Left” and he’s going to tell you why.

The American left is the most self-indulgent, arrogant, and spoiled group of people on the face of the earth.  They live in a nation facing national bankruptcy and societal upheaval — a country presently subsisting on the residue of past economic achievements.  Yet the only things that matter to them are their lifestyles and imposing their self-determined superiority on rest of the American people.

Social upheaval?  Could it be the social upheaval of a population sick and tired of the 1% wealthiest “imposing their self-determined superiority on the rest of the American people”?  Seems to many of us here in the US that once an economic system existed wherein at least there was some hope that a rising tide would raise all boats.  That with the work of the left through government regulation and correction,  social inequities would soon begin to disappear and anyone, a person of color, a woman, a disabled person, could as the old saying goes, capture the American Dream by working on a finally leveled playing field.

But as we all know now, the job of straightening out 300 years of socialized inequality takes some sacrifice from everyone and we’ve had our share of resistance.  Us lefties always do after a while tend to get all misty-eyed and go on about hard to quantify issues such as racial justice, gender equality and LGBT rights, worker’s rights and a clean and healthy planet.   We on the left have known for quite some time that the existing system favors a certain group of people and we have tirelessly pointed this fact out.  Basically many of us figured out after about 5th grade that the Land of the Free we learned about ain’t exactly free for a large portion of the population.

Unlike the minority who upon their birth are cloistered among nannies, private schools, Ivy League colleges and a nice inheritance, the majority of people in this country live quite modest lives.  We on the left selfishly have worked tirelessly for little money (because where do you think money comes from?), to champion causes not particularly popular with the ownership class.

We have repeatedly marched down streets, sat in halls, picketed and boycotted businesses to protest the sending of our young people to die for the myriad wars that benefit only the 1%, protested and worked toward changing injustices from gay rights to women’s rights, from working against racism, to saving the planet from industrial destruction, all in the name of that selfish idea; justice.

Do we have a superiority complex? Possibly, if one equates having a sense of fervent duty to the social contract of humanity; yes possibly if one takes seriously the precept of the prophet of our Christian based culture; “Do Unto Others As You Would Have Done Unto You” All this while swarmed by a capitalist campaign of mass consumption, exploitation and greed.  We on the left have worked tirelessly to draw attention to how global capitalism exploitation kills humans and the planet.

But let’s take our lesson from Mr. McCann and hear about his concerns about the debt and the GDP; essentially his global balance sheet shall we?  First McCann draws our attention to an NPR interview:

The true indebtedness of the United States now exceeds $222 trillion.  Appearing on National Public Radio in August of 2011 Professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff of Boston University said:

If you add up all the promises that have been made for spending obligations, and subtract all the taxes we expect to collect, the difference is $211 Trillion.  This is the fiscal gap.  That is our true indebtedness.

Since that interview, the indebtedness has increased by another $11 trillion.

Well it seems the kind professor was making an effort to point out that with falling revenues from tax cuts, funding wars will drain the treasury.  Tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans became all the fashion when Ronald Reagan proved just how easy it is to fleece the American people as long as you lie to them enough.  So easy that H.W. Bush and Bush the Younger have pushed the envelope further not only cutting taxes for their buddies but also borrowing to finance some major military adventures.  So again the professor points out that when the boss cuts your pay, going to Disneyland may not be such a good idea.

But let’s take the boss analogy a step further.  When your boss learns that you’ll  work just as hard on $7.25/hour as you would on $15/hour, especially if he promises you get a ticket to Disneyland, do you think he’ll go back to $15?.  Nope, you’ve just got suckered.  Boss got just as much work out of you for less and what’s more he didn’t bother to tell you he borrowed from your pension fund to pay for those tickets to Disney, what a deal!

Not rocket science, nor a big secret.

Then further down, McCann rails about the GDP versus expenditures.  The fact is, just looking at the GDP fails to consider so many other factors that have caused the largest economic slump since the Depression.  As is detailed on a page here a bit back, McCann doesn’t bother to tell his dear readers that while the GDP has failed miserably, corporate earnings  have multiplied upward for the last three generations, while earnings growth for those who work for a wage has stagnated since about 1979.  Also McCann fails to mention that those who possess high wealth have enjoyed as much as a 200% or more increase in their portfolio value at the same time.

So in summary, tax cuts sent the money into the hands of the plutocrats, cuts in services such as housing, poverty programs, cuts in agency funding, cuts in education funding also sent more money to the plutocrats which for some reason never came back home.  All the while corporations learned that lay-offs reward richly (and thus rewarded their CEO’s thusly), temp labor is a pip and people will work for dogs on mere promises. Add to that the people’s gullibility for tall tales about scary hordes that must be brought down by fancy artillery and young Americans’ lives and you’ve got one heck of a mess.

Now Mr. McCann, being only human can’t help but look a gift horse in the mouth.  As if fleecing the American and global population hasn’t made him rich enough, he’s now concerned about the possible collision of the health of his portfolio with the health of our nation.

Yet these estimates do not include the full impact of ObamaCare, which could add another $17+ trillion.

Now taking away the fact that McCann seems to think that Americans don’t need affordable healthcare like Australians enjoy, let’s just focus on his concern about our fiscal health shall we?  Wait what’s this? All over the internet sites figures keep quoting the CBO and its research that purport that in fact, the ACA will reduce the deficit by $210 billion, not increase it.  So in other words, McCann is either very poorly informed or just telling lies because he doesn’t think we should have public healthcare like his homeland does.  We’d suggest that McCann follow the old rule; those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.  Oh, Australia doesn’t fund healthcare for rich guys, oh well.

On the other side of the ledger: the annual Gross Domestic Product (the value of all economic activity in the U.S.) is $15.6 trillion.  The indebtedness to GDP ratio is a staggering 14.2 to 1 and guaranteed to further accelerate if Barack Obama is re-elected.

See Disneyland borrowed on your pension fund. We explained that already.  Mr. McCann hopes to impress and bamboozle his readers with statistics and figures that really say the same damn thing no matter how you turn them around; the rich guys spent all our money and borrowed to the hilt for whatever our paychecks couldn’t cover.  Pretty simple; you spend more than you making, you going to end up bankrupt.

The United States is not facing bankruptcy, it is bankrupt.  The primary factor that has kept the nation afloat over the past four years is that the dollar, albeit temporarily, remains the world’s reserve currency, thus allowing the Federal Reserve to print enormous sums of money to cover the Obama budget deficits and flood the global market with near worthless cash.  Today it requires $100.00 to purchase the same goods $10.00 purchased in 1950.

Firstly, the Federal Reserve does not print money! Contrary to popular belief, the Fed is not some super-secret club full of special presses stamping out benjis to add to the “money supply” as they please.  So we can dispense with this quickly and move on, please see the following comic made up by the Fed in an attempt to dispel ignorance.

Comparing the value of the dollar today to its value in 1950 is much like picking up

Oh do we need to go back what was good in 1950 compared to today? Like the fact that nearly 50% of American workers were union members? That save for the social inequities that still existed, many people enjoyed a prosperity most young Americans cannot even imagine today.  Taxation was progressive and effective with the top tiers paying as much as 90% of their income, so revenues were high, wages were healthy and what’dya get? A healthy economy!  Infrastructure expenditures were up, employment rose and the standard of living in the US rose for a large majority of Americans above nearly the entire world.

Increased indebtedness due to wars funded on borrowing, money policy that shifted wealth from the commoners to the elites and the resulting bust in GDP growth among the population that depressed revenues and consumption seems an indication of selfishness, but of the leftie kind.

As a further comparison, the total annual GDP of all the countries on earth is $70 trillion.  The American indebtedness alone exceeds that amount by a factor of 3 — which contributes mightily to a world drowning in debt and facing an inevitable debt crisis and financial collapse, which will trigger a massive global depression.

Thanks again in large part of levering of the American economy by the elites on the backs of the working people who have seen their share of the pie steadily decrease even though their production has rivaled other first world countries for decades.

Currently, just 58.4% of the civilian population is employed, as compared to 64.3% twelve years ago.  Factoring in the growth of the population during that period, this drop represents over 22 million Americans unable to find work.  Since January 2009, 74% of all new jobs created in the U.S. were in the lowest-paying sectors of the economy, thereby stifling any chance of upward mobility and growth in median income which has fallen by 9% since January 2009, and average household wealth that has declined by nearly 40% over this same period.  This failure is a byproduct of a tsunami of government regulations, mandates, and taxes which has nearly destroyed the innovation and business and job-creation that made the American economy so vibrant over the latter part of the 20th century.  That innovation has now moved overseas, along with over 7.5 million high-paying goods-producing jobs since 2000.

Another patent lie, since the 1980’s government sectors on all levels have suffered massive cuts and laws that regulated finance, commerce and trade have been modified to favor corporate growth over national growth.  Couple that also with the outsourcing of the white color and blue collar sectors then mix in outflows of investment dollars to those offshore operations and you have decreased consumption within the US market as workers’ buying power decreases,  increased outflows of revenue from the what production remains (as it flows upward and not into worker’s pockets)  into the coffers of tax-free havens, off-shore trusts, third world sweat-shop factories and overall global manipulation of labor, finance and government regulation. Whew and McCann calls us selfish for bitching about it?

The reaction of the self-described progressives to this dire scenario?  Sweep the facts under the rug or ignore them completely, as it appears that the most important things in their lives are the legalization of gay marriage, free contraceptives and abortifacients, worshiping at the altar of extreme and discredited environmentalism, mocking and undermining all organized religion (except Islam), and telling the American people what they can eat, where they can live, what may be taught in their schools, how they must operate their businesses, and what health care they can access.

Au contraire Mr. McCann, while the left has beat the drum of reigning in the cowboy plutocrats, ending the wars, regulating off-shoring, stopping the trade treaties that favor global corporatism and bringing back a truly progressive taxation strategy, the right wing has gone on an endless campaign of distraction by fighting gay marriage and rolling back women’s rights to bodily sovereignty.  We didn’t choose to put these issues front and center, the Republicans did and we have been forced 24-7 to fight these battles on basic human rights, while the economy suffers global moguls continue to rake in the money.

Yes, Mr. McCann we bleat on and on about the importance of an educated and healthy population.  We voice and express concerns about how exploitative capitalism, on which your portfolio and business model relies, has caused irreparable harm the planet we call home.  But we know, worrying about an endangered planet and humanity causes your portfolio to wilt like you probably do when you’ve run out of Viagra in the middle of the deep blue on your shiny yacht after your escort has finished dictating for you.

To the true believers on the left, re-electing Barack Obama is not a matter of what is or is not good for the country; rather, for the majority on the left, the primary motivation is geared solely toward defeating their sworn enemy: conservatives and Republicans, whom many falsely believe are a right-wing horde determined to create a theocracy and impose old-fashioned morality.  But what they fear most from the right is a determination to reinstitute unfettered individual freedom and concomitant economic growth, which would relegate the American left to the back bench of American society.

Yeah we got it.  Apparently McCann seems to have a misunderstanding of American history? We’re not going to the back of the bus as much as the GOP, Tea Partiers and others wish.  In fact, its pretty clear the country is changing and electing a black president only constituted the beginning.

Thus, to them, what the policies of Barack Obama and his radical minions are doing to the long-term fate of nation is immaterial as long as Obama regurgitates his support for the various causes that are near and dear to the coalition that makes up the left.  There are two common threads to the belief system of American progressives: 1) an omnipotent central government controlled by them, and 2) an assumption that there is a bottomless pit of money to be siphoned from an equally bottomless pit of wealth.  But this is not the same nation that experienced unprecedented prosperity from 1946 to 2007.  It is not the same nation in which these narcissists on the left grew up, never knowing national adversity or trauma.

1. Yes, we do in fact represent every single portion of humanity not represented by the guests on your yacht Mr. McCann, yes we do in fact believe that the government’s role is to put selfish pricks like you where you belong — in the palm of our sweaty, hard working hands.

2. We do indeed see a bottomless pit of money — our money that we worked damn hard for that you stole from us through your wrangling and perverting our government to allow you to extract every penny from our efforts and give as little back to us as possible.

And we also know that the national prosperity has been in decline for us ever since your patron saint, Ronnie Reagan took office here and began to strip every single protection from greedy, self centered, hypocritical plutocrats like yourself.   We’ve suffered enough trauma under the reign of the greedy and we’ve had it.

The manner in which these progressives, and their titular leader Barack Obama, are conducting themselves in the current campaign season is indicative of their arrogant and immature mindset.  To the vast majority on the left, this campaign is merely a game played out on the playground of American politics, wherein they childishly engage in name-calling and temper tantrums reminiscent of spoiled brats determined to get their way, regardless of the consequences.

Well, to the vast majority of Americans this playground is ours and its our damn business how we play it out and we’d like it if global moguls like yourself keep your filthy paws out of our political and electoral business.  We are indeed determined to get our way but it seems last we knew, the bamboozled foot soldiers of the plutocracy were the ones throwing the biggest temper tantrums about having a Kenyan born Islamic black man chosen as the president of their whites-only fiefdom.  But like most spoiled brats, you people just refuse to take your marbles and go home to cry to mama, nope, instead you have to put millions into SuperPACS and keep trying to play petty games with our political system to feed your own selfish desires.

It is time to grow up and understand that the America that could absorb all the excessive spending, promises, and left-wing fun and games is no more.  This nation cannot survive on its present course, and if that course is not dramatically reversed, those on the left will suffer as much as if not more than the bulk of the American people they are trying to rule.  History has shown repeatedly that when an overwhelming political and social catastrophe strikes a nation, the people turn against the ruling class, often with a vengeance.  In the United States, that ruling class is presently dominated by the American left.

You’re absolutely right Mr. McCann, the country can no longer continue on this course.  Scientists say if we don’t make radical life style and consumption changes we may not have a planet worth living on in another twenty or thirty years.  History has indeed shown repeatedly that when aristocrats and their inbred offspring are allowed to run things, they tend to make a big damn mess of the house and leave the adults to come and clean it up.  The clean up time has begun and we’re ready to evict you and your lying friends.  Thanks for playing Mr. McCann, there’s a spot in the back of the bus for you.

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