So now you know. It really does matter who's President and which party controls Congress. A Democratic-controlled Congress would never have passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Act, which banned intact dilation and extraction abortions and, in flagrant violation of Roe v. Wade, lacked an exception to preserve the health of the woman. A Democratic President would never have signed such a bill...
Katha Pollitt dishes out her customary fare right after the inevitable bad news. Plus the obligatory backhanded swipe at those pursuing 3rd Party access. A few weak jokes. Scolding NARAL for supporting a Republican or two, No point in further excerpts. You know the drill if you've ever read La Nation. Nowhere to be found are the following names: Harry Reid, Bob Casey, Democrats For Life. Also MIA is the DP's high-priced 2006 sandbagging of pro-choice Green Carl Romanelli in PA. Likewise any reminder of the DP's failure to attempt a filibuster of Alito or to stop any of his buddies for twenty years running. No reminders that Henry Hyde and Jimmy Carter began the tradition of slapping restrictions on the rights of poor women when the ink was scarcely dry on Roe. Nothing of John Kerry's promise to consider pro-life SC judges if elected, even as he pocketed pro-choice money.
Dem-Fems have overcome the generation gap. Over to Amanda Marcotte as she boldly defends/parrots/expands Pollitt's inane talking points before a blessedly skeptical NZ feminist, Maia at Alas A Blog After blithely referring to the Hyde Amendment as "ahistorical," she adds:
...If you care about poor women, then it doesn't begin and end with the Hyde Amendment, either. One area of great contention is family planning programs overseas. Democrats reject the global gag rule and Republicans uphold it. The difference in these two stances is immense. Republican defunding of UNFPA alone has caused from 4,700 to 27,000 extra maternal deaths and 77,000 to 374,000 extra infant deaths a year that would not be happening if there were Democrats in control. We can't afford to play around and tell feminists to assist Republican victories when the death toll is so great.
I need a clothespin the size of a car bumper so I can clamp it to my nose. Maybe the local garage can rig one for the right price.*
Rah rah to showing those uppity foreign women with their tacky skepticism ! Hooray for the same tired diversions and drivel ! Let a thousand more Blue-clad pro-lifers bloom in high office ! Hail to our Sugar Daddies (and the occasional Sugar Mama) no matter how broke, humiliated and nauseous the effort leaves us ! Hold your nose with both hands as you vote (literally) with your feet, Sisters ! The downtrodden count on you !
Later, Amanda heads home to dodge and weave some more, going on for an hour about a missed period she had once. Errr... Amanda ? Messed-up menstrual cycles are not like setting a record in the thousand meter dash. They are also not some singular event indicative of your innate nobility or political acumen. Why were you happily burbling not long ago for Senate Bill 95-10, which the charming Democrats For Life brought down the plank ? How do you reconcile this endorsement with your proud pro-choice stance in numerous threads on your blog ? Are you on the take ? How about you, Katha ? What's in it for you, year after year as you whine nonstop about how important it is to elect Democrats, any and all Democrats ? Thanks, Big Sis and Little Sis, for once again reminding our masters how easily they can stampede, buy off and hoodwink frightened women, however privileged those women may still be. They need not defend us in any meaningful way. In fact, the more of our rights they throw on the auction block for their own profit the more you declare that we must love only them.
In fact, to everyone who tap-dances in either the personal or global guilt show under the DP banner: Your Sugar Daddy (Sugar Donkey ?) is an integral part of maintaining a colonial status quo. He helps the GOP pour our tax dollars into this sort of hateful and manic behavior every day. Who the fuck died and left either of them judge, jury and executioner to the rest of the world, anyway ? Enough hand-wringing. Enough dodging. Ponder the absurdity of exporting endless bombs and bullets worldwide. Not to mention sadistic sanctions and regressive economic practices, in order to suck up the lion's share of the world's resources for a privileged few. A comparative ladle's worth of childcare pamphlets and some birth control pills doesn't change that. Ponder the tragedy of letting the well-heeled abusers in this country repeatedly break American women's bones because maybe if we don't scream in pain and run like hell, they'll give our counterparts in a small, remote nation another pair of free secondhand crutches. Out of the goodness of their hearts. Besides, the two-party system will not let you give even that ladle's worth of goodness forever. Not with the bipartisan war machine increasing the waste of money and human lives in the service of GWOT. Your so-called leaders are dismantling choices of all sorts. I'm thinking that any rare humanitarian interventions not directly involving explosives, the World Bank and oil refineries will be ripe for excision, too. Probably sooner than you think, given what GWOT is costing all of us.
Frankly, I'm dropping the label of Feminist if this is all it offers. Take it away, and your paid shills with it. So determined to treat women like me as if I had no memory going back further than fifteen minutes ago. As if we had no right to think of any future beyond busing tables at Daddy's next campaign dinner for tips. Well, the lucky ones get that. The rest get scraps dug from the trash and a one-way trip to jail. Or worse. All are expected to be grateful. Oh so grateful to our Big Blue Daddy.
(*P.S.-- Thanks to bayprairie for the link regarding the Hyde Amendment. Also, Moiv at the blog Talk To Action sent me several great choice-related links via post #86 in this thread at Marisacat's blog. My sincere thanks to her. For space and time considerations I used only one in the above rant, but I highly recommend them all.)
Comments (15)
There's a progression in Democratic shilling that eventually morphs people into standard issue wingnuts; same dishonest style, same appeals to "emotional logic", same obeisances to authority. Once the mask comes off, they have an increasingly hard time putting it back on.
Posted by Scruggs | May 6, 2007 12:22 AM
Posted on May 6, 2007 00:22
20 thousand poison chickens couldn't make me change my mind.
Brava ms_xeno!
Can't believe that we have to burn knee-pads 30-some years later.
Enough!
Posted by Miss Devore | May 6, 2007 12:40 AM
Posted on May 6, 2007 00:40
Were it left up to them, do-nothing invertibrate "feminists" like Politt & Marcotte would still be waiting for Democrats to do the right thing and vote for sufferage.
Posted by AlanSmithee | May 6, 2007 12:54 AM
Posted on May 6, 2007 00:54
A rant for the ages, ms-x.
Much of the writing that makes you (and me) livid is simple sloppiness. Much easier to slap up a quick post without looking beyond the pre-packaged talking points, the commercials. All it takes is one or two party-generated posts at party line sites, and the ad blitz is on -- lots of linky goodness with little accuracy and less accountability.
This year the fix is in for "Prevention First" -- which is often conflated with Lincoln Davis' retread of 95-10 (AKA the Pregnant Women Support Act) by people who are trusted to know better. That's the deal, and the orgs are going along to get along with Reid and the rest of the faux-moralists packing our self-defined Congress of Conscience.
Posted by moiv![[TypeKey Profile Page]](../../nav-commenters.gif)
|
May 6, 2007 1:13 AM
Posted on May 6, 2007 01:13
Death, death, and hypocrisy leading to even more death. I'm sick of it! There are better ways to spend money than on idiotic wars. Yes, funding abortions for women in desperate need IS a better way to spend our money! How can anyone deny a woman the dignity of deciding how best to live HER life? Better the life and livelihood of a whole woman than an undeveloped prehuman. And the majority of U.S. citizens agree with what I just said!
Honestly, when will the outrage finally win out?
Kevin
Posted by Kevin Lynch | May 6, 2007 2:23 AM
Posted on May 6, 2007 02:23
i don't think this
particular Fem-Nation cow bell
gets many moos
let alone voting booth
stampedes underway any more
the Donkery Do
will need a new fear game
to herd all those indy merit class
lady minds jerk the Dembo lever
sometimes hypo apathy
in the proper alter class circles
is quite enough
to prime a massive reversal
of popular fortunes
-------------------
btw
i think moral altruism sucks
as a label it fits pretty well too
these nanny ninny types
since its all "on behalf of "
some one else's fait
under the pending shit slide
and i mean on both sides
of this
ruckus
among-us
A TARTUFFE IS ONLY
A MORAL ALTRUIST
THAT SENSES
A PERSONAL OPPORTUNITY
(AMONG ALL THE CONTRADICTIONS)
IN THE HOLIER THEN THOU BRIAR PATCH
Posted by op | May 6, 2007 8:53 AM
Posted on May 6, 2007 08:53
yup, it's about the coin of the donklesphere realm: access to sandwiches in Harlem and chocolate fountains and conference calls with "leading" Dempublicans. Those things, and the hope for some money.
So many so willing to sell out for so little.
Posted by Madman in the Marketplace | May 6, 2007 10:24 AM
Posted on May 6, 2007 10:24
my earlier comment has now disappeared.
So another test.
Posted by Marisacat | May 6, 2007 2:55 PM
Posted on May 6, 2007 14:55
Mcat, I saw the other comment but got only an "Error" message when I tried to approve it for publication.
At least this one is showing up even though I just saw the same damn "Error" message. Feh.
Smith, can you figure out what's up ? Mcat is just another malevolent heretic, like the rest of us, and should not be sentenced to limbo like this.
Posted by ms_xeno | May 6, 2007 3:12 PM
Posted on May 6, 2007 15:12
mcat ???
"a malevolent
heretic "
'cointinly '
miss d ???
a cloud with sable lining
mz x ?????
the very decoupage of trouble
Posted by op | May 6, 2007 6:40 PM
Posted on May 6, 2007 18:40
So op?
you'd rather drop bombs? it does keep the average citizen entertained. U-S-A! U-S-A! and all that bullshit. you can take that attitude and flush it down the memory hole, as far as I'm concerned
Kevin
Posted by Kevin Lynch | May 6, 2007 6:56 PM
Posted on May 6, 2007 18:56
Worth the trip?
Hell, trippin' isn't the word for the crap spewing from Pollitt and her acolyte, there.
Can someone who lives closer to the Nation offices than I please go over there, grab Pollitt by her lapels, and firmly inform her that The Struggle in this country today isn't just about her goddamn' uterus anymore?
And you, Ms. X -- you are the Warrior Queen!
Best. Post. Here. EVER.
Posted by Mike Flugennock | May 6, 2007 7:23 PM
Posted on May 6, 2007 19:23
Kevin, you've misread Owen. He's calling out the self-styled moral altruists on their tartufferie.
Posted by Scruggs | May 6, 2007 7:44 PM
Posted on May 6, 2007 19:44
Heh. Mike F, I'm all in favor of uterus-driven politics. But unlike Pollitt, I still have enough self-respect to openly discern somebody that wants me to manage my own from somebody who wants to sell it for a quick buck. The latter come in both Red and Blue, which Katha will simply not admit.
The mentality of women like her is, and has been for years, the panicked would-be leader of a stampede. We cannot attempt real progress lest we lose what little we have. Pollitt and her ilk can never acknowledge that staying where we are is exactly what is losing us what little we have anyway. And it's not coming back under the current system.
I can't really believe that the failure of acknowledgment on her part is stupidity. Same with Marcotte. No, they're getting some kind of material compensation for helping alternately pen and stampede the Sisterhood. Stampede mode being used to exhaust and distract before the scheduled return to the pen come election time.
This type of spokesperson and the rancid smell about them are not just part of the Dem-Fem brigade, of course. They can be found in all the so-called "special interest" groups nowadays.
Posted by ms_xeno | May 6, 2007 9:02 PM
Posted on May 6, 2007 21:02
Yeah, Kevin. Scruggs is right. The problem is not real altruism. If such a thing really exists in the average human. The problem is profiteering and penny-ante social climbing that masquerades as altruism. It's important to take a hard look at the people pitching it before deciding if A) They're sincere and B) If their sincerity really is any more helpful than an alternate message of saying, I have a right to this, this and this as a citizen but I'm not going to get it rushing the barricades all by my lonesome. So I need the rest of you to rush them with me. Because you've got the right to them, too.
The other issue is the myopia of the folks in the altruist guilt show. They trot out the comparative fraction of the people/dollars involved in U.S. philanthropy abroad as if this excused the far greater amounts of corpses/dollars our imperial wars have produced/spent.
And it doesn't take a shelf full of Marx and Chomsky to see which policy is employed more often these days. If indeed earlier centuries were any better.
Posted by ms_xeno | May 6, 2007 9:10 PM
Posted on May 6, 2007 21:10