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McCain and Palin

August 29th 2008 21:03
Sara Palin
As most people already know McCain picked an unknown from Alaska to be his VP choice, Governor Sarah Palin. It's pretty clear that this is quite the calculated choice. It is the first time that the Republicans have put a woman on the ticket, and a nice tie in to McCains ad attacking Obama for not picking Clinton. His message is pretty clear. "See, I love women! I picked one for my VP. Just ignore my policies, ideals, and practices. One vagina is as good as another, isn't it?"


Yes John, we're all clearly such silly women that we'll vote for the vagina without looking at the politics. And if you really think that you're a bigger sexist jerk than I previous thought.

Politically I do not support Palin. She's anti-choice, pro-drilling, supports teaching creationism in public schools and opposes same-sex marriage. Those are just not politics I can get behind. And yet, her very presence is still worth celebrating. Palin herself identifies as a feminist and her place on the ticket as a mother of a young child is important. Normally she would be drug through the mud for choosing not to stay home with her children full time. As one blogger Hugo says:

From a feminist standpoint, I’m thrilled that a candidate who is the mother of a very young child has been nominated. One of the standard tropes of social conservatism is that mothers of young children should not work outside the home. If Sarah Palin is the vice-president, one heartbeat (a septuagenarian heartbeat at that) from the presidency and also the mother of a special-needs toddler, that sends a powerful message about the compatibility of motherhood with career. However right-wing Palin’s politics are, the narrative of her life today reflects a deep feminism. She embodies, literally, the notion that women ought not be forced to choose between family and public duty. That’s a deeply progressive message, even if it’s sent by an ostensibly conservative woman.


I'm curious how this plays out with the deeply religious who feel a woman's place is in the home as well as with those who instinctively bare their teeth at the mention of the word "feminist". We will have to see how McCain's choice goes for him. Will he be able to win enough voters who want a woman no matter what to counter the loss of voters who want nothing to do with a woman/mother/feminist in the office?

Lastly I want to direct everyone over to Shakesville where the point is made clearly. You can attack her politics, attack her issues, attack her opinions. But her gender is not on the table. Sexism is still sexism, even if you don't like the woman it's being aimed at.
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Clintons 4 McCain? Not Likely.

August 27th 2008 11:28
Via Womanist Musings:

Clintons For Mccain
This video is of a group of women claiming to be Clinton supporters who have gone over to McCain. personally, my opinion is that if any of these women were actually Clinton supporters then I've got some ocean front property in Kansas to sell you. The amount of racism and hatred expressed here is absurd and I cannot see how anyone who agrees with Clinton's policies and what she stood for could A) vote for McCain of all people, and B) spread so much blind hatred against another person based on where he went to school. Frankly, the fact that she refused to provide any proof says more than enough to me about the honesty of the group.



My pet theory: This falls along the same line as when Limbaugh told McCain voters in certain states to go ahead and vote for Clinton. The plan was they knew McCain was already going to get the majority of his party's vote, so tossing a few more towards Clinton would help her win the primaries. Not because they liked her better, but because the idea was that they could beat her more easily. With McCain's latest ad trying to woo Clinton supporters this seems like just the kind of stunt they would plan to stir up trouble. Clinton's spokesperson already replied to McCain's ad, and it's words that I think should be taken to all of McCain's attempts.

"Responding to the ad, Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said the New York senator's "support of Barack Obama is clear. She has said repeatedly that Barack Obama and she share a commitment to changing the direction of the country, getting us out of Iraq, and expanding access to health care. John McCain doesn't. It's interesting how those remarks didn't make it into his ad."

*Update* My Left Wing has more on the woman speaking out in the video above and behind the fake Clinton supporters turned McCain groups. The facts are rather interesting.

According to a Wired article the domain name ClintonsForMcCain.com was registered by the Republican National Committee on May 15. As far as I can tell the site was never activated. On June 4 someone registered the domain name Clintons4McCain listing Washington, D.C. as its address. The registrar was a company called Wild West Domains out of Scottsdale, Arizona. Wild West is a spinoff of GoDaddy. Wild West CFO Michael Zimmerman gave money to John McCain as recently as last year according to opensecrets.org and the Center for Responsive Politics.

Clintons4McCain is not registered with the Federal Election Commission. According to the blog site, Clintons4McCain was founded by Peter Boykin, Cristi Adkins and Anne Franklin. Although the founders claim to be Hillary Clinton supporters, only Franklin has contributed to her campaign. Adkins claims a vague involvement with the Clinton West Virginia campaign, but that is all.
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Does Obama Eat Fetuses?

August 26th 2008 16:29
Obama
The current attack that anti-choicers like to make against Obama is insisting that he created some bill forcing doctors to kill newborn infants if the mother says to. Of course the wording of the attack changes depending on who says it like a political game of phone tag. Some say he created the law, some say he only voted for it, and some say he collects newborn babies for his dinner. Media Matters has been taking on this rumor and writing about the reality of what happened for those who care. Not that I expect the anti-choicers to care about little things such as facts, but it's still nice for the rest of us.

Unfortunately the anti-choicers have enough voices in the media spreading misinformation that they can pull off saying whatever they want. A recent episode of The War Room With Quinn & Rose had a guest host Mike Pintek claiming that Obama "believes so firmly in abortion, he is so radical in his support for abortion and infanticide that he believes that if a woman chooses abortion, she's entitled to a dead body no matter what." Media Matters responded:

As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, Obama opposed certain bills amending the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975 while he was in the Illinois state Senate because he and other opponents of the bills said they would pose a threat to abortion rights and said they were unnecessary because Illinois law already prohibited the conduct supposedly addressed by the bills.

Even right-wing talking heads such as Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have claimed that Obama wants to kill babies that have survived abortions. Their claims that Obama is "pro-infantcide" and wants to kill babies has been taken down by reality.

Indeed, as Media Matters noted, when tasked by the Illinois attorney general's office with investigating allegations that fetuses born alive at an Illinois hospital were abandoned without treatment, the Illinois Department of Public Health reportedly said that it was unable to substantiate the allegations but said that if the allegations had proved true, the conduct alleged would have been a violation of then-existing Illinois law. Obama himself has cited specific provisions of the Illinois Compiled Statutes in stating that the "born alive principle was already the law in Illinois."

You can read the full text of the the bill which would have amended the 1975 abortion law.
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Bush Works To Limit Women's Health

August 25th 2008 12:12
health care
In a last effort to hurt women and pull more Republicans to the polls this November Bush has proposed a dangerous and damning bill to limit women's access to abortion and contraceptives. From the AP article:

The regulation is written to apply to a broad swath of the health care work force, not doctors alone. Accordingly, an employee whose task it is to clean the instruments used in a particular procedure would be covered. Also covered would be volunteers and trainees.

[ Click here to read more ]
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McCain: The Anti-Choice Zealot

August 13th 2008 14:33
McCain
The New Republic has a great article up regarding McCain and his anti-choice views. His reputation as a moderate slowly slips away as more and more people learn about his real views. Such as his opposition to Roe v. Wade and his desire to fill the Supreme Court with ultra-conservatives. Out of his 130 votes on reproductive heath, McCain voted anti-choice on 125 of them, which includes the global gag rule that prevented funds to international family-planning clinics.

The opening of the article shows a glimpse of the real McCain


[ Click here to read more ]
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Hillary McCain
It seems the old "Hillary supporters are turning to McCain" story is still alive and well. It's one that, frankly, I cannot understand.

An article on Winning Women over at BlogHer discussed how some women are not happy with Obama and many of the sexist tactics that the media played during the campaign. And so the story goes that feeling snubbed and upset these women are turning to Mccain for presidential comfort. Which is a pretty classic example of cutting off your nose to spite your face


[ Click here to read more ]
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Sellin' The Wife For Votes

August 5th 2008 19:50
Cindy McCain Sturgis
I'm not a biker but even I know about Sturgis and the sort of things that can go on there. If you're not familiar Sturgis is a huge biker rally that happens once a year where bikers from all over the country get together, show off their bikes, socialize, and do a few things that bikers have a bad reputation for doing. Such as the Buffalo Chip "beauty" contest. A contest McCain joked about encouraging his wife to enter.

Because flashing her tits and bouncing around on stage is what the First lady should have on her resume


[ Click here to read more ]
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Sex, Sluts, and Cosmopolitan

July 21st 2008 17:01
As a mom of sons there are such some things that I hope to make my sons understand in their lifetime. Certain issues that I hope to have ingrained in them. Things such as "No means no" and "Ask before touching", little nuggets of wisdom that both help them now when fighting over shared toys and will certainly help them later as grown men. Another helpful lesson is not to call women sluts based on something as frivolous as what they choose to read. Mona Charen, syndicated columnists and author, disagrees with my parenting ideals. In an interesting tidbit of daily life Charen let us in on how the right-wing talking heads prefer to raise their sons.

Funny you should mention that. I was in the supermarket yesterday with my 14-year-old son who asked "What's up with Cosmopolitan? What is that?" I replied, "It's a magazine for sluts."

[ Click here to read more ]
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McCain Tries Wooing Women Voters

July 12th 2008 12:58
McCain
Not to be out done by Obama, McCain held a townhall meeting on Friday to talk to women and discuss women's issues. It was pretty typical for the "Straight Talk Express", in that straight talk was rare and issues were twisted to better suit McCain's view of reality. But there was one big comment that made me spit my drink out when I read it.

"I'm for equal pay for equal work,'' said McCain to cheers. "I'm for equal opportunity in every aspect of our society.''

[ Click here to read more ]
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McCain Loves Women, Or Not

June 27th 2008 12:33
angry McCain
McCain's love of women has been interesting political fodder. His divorce from his first wife and hasty marriage to the younger and richer Cindy has been brought up time and time again as an example of how you can be expected to be treated by McCain. Even Cindy has had to suffer his contempt with terms such as "cunt" and "trollop" tossed at her.

Of course his temper is well known and not just limited to the women in his life. McCain has a reputation of having a nasty temper that leads him to explode at others. Explosions that too often includes cursing and insulting those he disagrees with. Now we can include making spousal abuse jokes to the already impressive resume of this hot head


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Obama Attempts To Make Up For

June 23rd 2008 19:47
Obama New Mexico


Obama tried to repair some damage today in New Mexico. Where he had been previously criticized for his lack of respect for Clinton supporters, escalating with his infamous comment to "Get over it" he now worked to repair bridges and show that women's issues are still important to him


[ Click here to read more ]
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McCain On Roe V. Wade

June 23rd 2008 16:57
Everyone is linking to this video today and I thought it was worth repeating.

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