The Strangerhood · History: “”

(Via .)

some humor in this world.

And So It Begins: ”

Culture of life, my ass.

“

(Via Red Bird Rising.)

I agree. a culture of life begins by respecting those who are living full lives, republicans aren’t doing this. they promote a culture of death and the management of other people’s body under the rubric of ‘culture of life’, a culture of life does not imprison the life of the woman within the life of a fetus, it respects the life of the fetus as dependent on the life of the mother, there is no right outside of the life of the woman that the unborn has.

The Path to The Handmaid’s Tale: “

While Planned Parenthood is sounding the alarm about an imminent frontal assault on Roe v. Wade from the Bush Administration, today we see instead how it’s going to play out — the end of choice via small and sly nibbles. Flexing post-election muscle, the Senate Republican leadership has just inserted into a must-pass $388 billion omnibus spending bill, an anti-abortion provision that could have broad reach…allowing hospitals and other healthcare providers to duck a responsibility to provide abortion services across the country. This won’t stop people with money from getting abortions; this will only affect those women least able to expand their families.

If you think abortion rights are someone else’s concern; think again. Do you have sexual relations? Do you believe the decision on whether or not to procreate rests with you and your partner? Do you think that the U.S. Attorney General should have final control of your body, your fertility? This is how it is about to be. These are small steps that lead straight down the path to The Handmaid’s Tale.

You have grown up in a society where women’s physical autonomy has been a given. I did not. I am only a couple decades older than you. I remember the terror of a missed period. The shame of a girlfriend who was banished from high school. A college couple’s frantic gathering of money for a drive into the night. You don’t want to have to live like that. Believe me.

Eight female Senators objected to the provision, including Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine and Democrat Barbara Boxer of California who has vowed to stand in the way of the bill. Support California Senator Barbara Boxer and maintain vigilance for the other indirect tactics that will surely follow.

-RH

addendum:

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi had this to say today on the floor:

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Weldon amendment, an extraordinary sneak attack on women’s rights and a disgraceful display of ideology over health.“
“This language is a radical change in policy that the House has not debated on the floor, and the Senate has never considered, debated, or voted on. Republicans simply slipped it into the appropriations bill when they thought no one was looking.
“If a hospital, health insurance company, or doctor opposes Roe v. Wade, they could simply ignore it. Ignore it. This is the law of the land. A Constitutional right could simply be ignored.”

“

(Via Girl In the Locker Room!.)

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i think this is one of the most cogent points made on this topic of late. just how long will it be until the ability to bear children is so heavily legislated that we end up in the handsmaid tale?

I am pleased to announce that the first issue of Fast Capitalism is now available at www.fastcapitalism.com.  We are already planning for FC 1.2, for which the (flexible) deadline is May 1st, 2005.  The focus of the second issue will be the future of the American left, although we will certainly welcome articles on other topics.  Please let people know about this new publishing opportunity and have them direct their work to aggerfastcap@uta.edu.

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I worked for a while on this, but there apparently was some miscommunication, and here it is. it looks good.

Dead Of Night: “

Freedom is on the march.

Last night, behind everyone’s back, the Republicans tried to slip a paragraph into the middle of a rushed, 3000-page spending bill. The paragraph would have allowed the (Republican) leadership and anyone they deputized — but no one else — to read anyone’s tax return for any purpose whatsoever. Extortion, political embarrassment, selective prosecution — anything the Republicans liked.

For example, the Republicans could check the tax returns of people applying for government jobs (or seeking tenure at a state university) to see if they gave money to the ACLU or didn’t support a Christian church.

Fortunately, someone noticed. My initial impression is that the United States just came within a few hours of becoming a one-party dictatorship.

“

(Via Mark Bernstein.)

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i think that i agree. this is just getting a bit stupid. people need to start thinking recall.

Secret Laws: “

Almost 2000 years BC, Hammurabi put Babylon’s laws in writing for the first time ever “so that all men might read and know what was required of them.” 4000 years later, the U.S. government is making public laws passé, according to an excellent article by Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists. When former Representative Helen Chenoweth-Hage (R-Idaho) faced a security guard pat-down before flying, she demanded to see the regulation authorizing the search. One government official responded “That is called ’sensitive security information.’ She’s not allowed to see it, nor is anyone else.”

“

(Via The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog.)

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there can’t be secret laws in a free society. there cannot.

Presidential Yacht . Um, Democrats?…: “

Presidential Yacht. Um, Democrats? Families are taking donations to send body armor to their kids and Bush gets himself a presidential yacht? If you can’t figure out how to play this one…

The Senate voted 65-30 for the legislation late on Saturday that sets aside funds for a range of priorities including a presidential yacht, foreign aid and energy. It is one of the final pieces of work for the 108th Congress and they may return to finish a spy agency overhaul before the end of the year.

…

…I’m serious. If the DNC isn’t on the ground tomorrow running ads saying Bush took your kid’s Pell grant away so he could spend the money on a yacht they’re fools… [Eschaton]“QB

Yep. $2 million budgeted to get the presedential yacht. Nice that some have their priorities right. Cut funding to NIH but get Bush his yacht.“

(Via A Man with a Ph.D. – Richard Gayle’s Weblog.)

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i know what i would choose…. do you?

Moyers: Democracy in the Balance: “Bill Moyers has an excellent essay Democracy in the Balance

How do we nurture the healing side of religion over the killing side? How do we protect the soul of democracy against bad theology in service of an imperial state?
by Bill Moyers”

(Via Greater Democracy.)

THAT’S THE SHAME of politics today. The consequences: “When powerful interests shower Washington with millions in campaign contributions, they often get what they want. But it is ordinary citizens and firms that pay the price, and most of them never see it coming,” according to Time magazine. Time concludes that America now has “government for the few at the expense of the many.”

What has been happening to the middle and working classes is not the result of Adam Smith’s invisible hand but the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual collusion, the rise of a religious orthodoxy that has made an idol of wealth and power, and a host of political decisions favoring the powerful monied interests who were determined to get back the privileges they had lost with the Depression and the New Deal. They set out to trash the social contract; to cut workforces and their wages; to scour the globe in search of cheap labor; and to shred the social safety net that was supposed to protect people from hardships beyond their control. Business Week put it bluntly: “Some people will obviously have to do with less….It will be a bitter pill for many Americans to swallow the idea of doing with less so that big business can have more.”

Our times cry out for a new politics of justice. This is no partisan issue. It doesn’t matter if you’re a liberal or a conservative, Jesus is both and neither. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican, Jesus is both and neither. We need a faith that takes on the corruption of both parties. We need a faith that challenges complacency of all power. If you’re a Democrat, shake them up. If you’re a Republican, shame them. Jesus drove the money changers from the temple. We must drive them from the temples of democracy. Let’s get Jesus back.

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yep…. there is no saving it….

Eric Hellweg, “Is ‘Fair Use’ in Peril?”: “”

(Via Interactivist Info Exchange.)

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yes, but is as imperil by people that wrongly claim it, and thus cause backlash, as from those that want to stop it.

Buy Nothing Day – Adbusters Culturejammers: “”

(Via .)

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it’s that time of the year.