While I’ve been persuaded by the likes of Chris Hedges that there are organizations more deserving of my financial support that MoveOn, every so often the organization does something that I think warrants attention. Today, I happened across a little video that they just released, featuring women reading some of the more reprehensible Republican quotes on women’s reproductive rights that have been said over the course of this past month. Maybe it was just the idea of having a seemingly mild-mannered older woman reading Santorum’s quote about how women should look at the pregnancies resulting from rape as a “gift from God,” but I found that the whole thing worked for me. Anyway, I thought that some you might enjoy it as well.
The Republicans are terrified of this “War on Women” narrative, by the way. I listened to Laura Ingraham’s radio show the other day, and she was trying, as best as she could, to make the case that the war against women in America, while real, wasn’t being waged not by Republicans, but by Progressives. In a nutshell, she was arguing that taxes and regulations were keeping women from being successful in business. And, somehow, in her mind, it would seem, that’s worse that being told by an old white man that you should have to suck it up, and happily parent rape babies. Judging from the lack of calls from women that followed Ingraham’s convoluted scream-of-consciousness rant, I don’t think that anyone was buying it. I’ll give her credit for trying to flip it around, but she really didn’t have a chance. When you have people on one side of the aisle saying that women should be happy about carrying the babies of their rapists, it’s hard to suggest that Obama and the Democrats hate women more because, through their attempts to insure American workers, they’ve made it difficult on female CEOs… That dog, as they say down south, don’t hunt.
At any rate, I’ll be interested to see how this plays out, with the White House, though it’s various channels, flogging the “war on women” narrative, as the Republicans desperately attempt to hold on to the remaining women in their party, by any means necessary. The Republicans may have traction on the issue of gas prices, but I don’t see how they can hope to win in November without the female vote.
[Speaking of disgusting, misogynistic Republicans, tonight’s post was brought to you by Andrew Breitbart’s old protege, James “rape barn” O’Keefe.]
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I’m excited that “that dog don’t hunt” is moving north.
I’ve seen that stuff on Fox about the progressive war on women, and it never engages whatever creepy group that they have. One person will carry it for a bit, the others will nod, but it hasn’t gotten too much momentum even there. Did you see Rick Santorum’s wife swearing up and down that he was pro-woman? I bet her mother called her later and told her to knock it off.
Come on Maynard, the right doesn’t want a war on women, they just love women! What do you think keeps the pornography industry making more money then all major sporting franchises combined? The right’s love of women. Who do you think runs stripclubs? These brave small business owners always ready and willing to keep giving women jobs, even in wintery economic climate. Why, the love of women on the right is so palpable it’ll bring a tear to your eye. Why anyone would suggest the right doesn’t like women clearly hasn’t been to a football game in a while, they just love when the cheerleaders come out, keep their faces taught with forced plastic smiles, and jiggle their dirty parts, which is what the good LORD Jesus put them on the earth for.
Following links, jumping off from the “rape barn” story linked to above, I got to some interesting behind-the-scenes information about the O’Keefe/Breitbart operation. The following is from their former associate Nadia Naffe.
http://nadianaffe.com/
From the Associated Press at the end of February:
It’s looking like President Barack Obama may be back in the good graces of women.
His support dropped among this critical constituency just before the new year began and the presidential campaign got under way in earnest. But his standing with female voters is strengthening, polls show, as the economy improves and social issues, including birth control, become a bigger part of the nation’s political discourse.
“Republicans are making a big mistake with this contraception talk, and I’m pretty sure that they are giving (the election) to Obama,” says Patricia Speyerer, 87, of McComb, Miss., a GOP-leaning independent. “It’s a stupid thing.”
The recent furor over whether religious employers should be forced to pay for their workers’ contraception is certainly a factor but hardly the only reason for women warming up to Obama again after turning away from him late last year.
An Associated Press-GfK poll suggests women also are giving the president more credit than men are for the country’s economic turnaround.
Among women, his approval ratings on handling the economy and unemployment have jumped by 10 percentage points since December. Back then, a wide swath of Americans expressed anxiety over the nation’s slow climb out of recession and anger at a government that couldn’t agree on steps to speed things up.
Since then, the unemployment rate has kept declining, and Obama hasn’t been shy about trumpeting it, and analysts say that drop may have resonated particularly with women.
For Obama, there is no more crucial constituency than women. They make up a majority of voters in presidential elections, and a bit more of them identify with his party. He would not be president today without topping Republican John McCain in that group in 2008. And Republicans would need to win a sizable share — more than about 40 percent — of female voters to beat him.
Though the economy remains the top concern among both women and men, an array of social issues — gay marriage, access to birth control and whether cancer research should be kept separate from the issue of abortion— have returned to the nation’s political conversation since December. And both parties have snapped up those issues to awaken their staunchest supporters.
Republicans from Capitol Hill to the presidential campaign trail focused particularly on a requirement in Obama’s health care law for some religious employers to pay for birth control. Obama then adjusted that policy by instead directing insurance companies to pay for birth control — and Democrats are running with a message that Republicans want to upend long-established rights for women.
“Women are used to making decisions and running their lives,” said Linda Young, president of the National Women’s Political Caucus, which favors abortion rights. “To hear their right to contraception questioned in 2012 is shocking, and it’s gotten a lot of people’s attention.”
Republicans say the economy will again overtake that discussion and it will be clear the GOP offers families more once Republicans choose a nominee, turn their fire from each other to Obama and make their case on issues such as gas prices and the deficit.
“The economic indicators, we have to admit, are very slowly improving, and that is something that has always affected the female vote,” said Rae Lynne Chornenky, president of the National Federation of Republican Women. “Until we get a candidate I don’t think the full story can be told.”
“People in both political parties are keeping this (cultural narrative) alive because they’re trying to excite their bases,” said Republican Brian Flaherty, who served as a Connecticut legislator for 15 years. “You can afford to have this attention in February on” reproductive issues.
An AP-GfK poll conducted Feb. 16-20 showed that on overall approval Obama has gained 10 percentage points among women since December, from 43 percent to 53 percent, even though his administration seemed to stumble over whether religious employers should be forced to pay for contraception.
Women also are the reason behind Obama’s lead over Republican hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum: In one-on-one matchups, Obama beats Romney 54 percent to 41 percent and tops Santorum 56 percent to 40 percent among women, but virtually ties each Republican among men. Women are Obama’s to lose: They are more apt to identify with Democrats and give that party higher favorability than are men.
Read more:
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-gains-women-jobs-social-issues-help-204133448.html
MoveOn sucks. I’m glad you think so, too.
I’ve known they’ve sucked since 2004, when I was part of VG Kids disastrous John Kerry DVD and sticker printing job. They knowingly low balled the cost of the job, and didn’t offer to pony up money to make up for the massive loss incurred after it became obvious.
Awful business practices.
MoveOn sucks ass.
If women planned ahead for rape, the way us men plan for getting flat tires, it wouldn’t be an issue.
http://motherjones.com/mixed-media/2011/05/venn-diagram-rape-vs-flat-tire
Rape Barn was my family’s second favorite restaurant, after Ponderosa, when I was growing up.