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Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

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Rachel Maddow Slams ’60-something Male Pundits’

By Taylor Marsh on 08 February 2012

“I realize a lot of 60-something male pundits look at this issue & think hmmm… bad politics for Democrats on the Catholic side. There’s another way to look at it.” – Rachel Maddow

Who are those “60-something male pundits?” More importantly why do we care what they think?

Mark Shields, E.J. Dionne and Chris Matthews, as I see it, are three of them, but there are many more.

What’s the other way to look at the issue of Pres. Obama’s contraception decision, beyond what the “60-something male pundits” view?

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Americans of all faiths, including Catholics, but also those unaffiliated, agree with Pres. Obama. Then there are the all important independents, which Obama has lost over the last couple of years:

Numerous pundits have predicted that the requirement —and its narrow exemption for churches — will be a political liability for Obama. But where Shields sees “cataclysmic” fallout, the White House sees something quite different: a chance to widen the reproductive health debate beyond abortion to issues like contraceptives, winning over key demographics of independent voters in the process. – Why White House sees political opportunity in the contraception battle

It’s a catastrophe say the male pundit class!

Matthews says, it’s not about the number of Catholics who use birth control.

But but but, Mathews say, or the number of non-Catholics who attend Catholic colleges or universities or receive help from Catholic charities.

Matthews say it’s about what the church itself teaches. Mark Shields and E.J. Dionne agree. I’m sure the Catholic bishops are pleased, but all represent a contingent bent on controlling women.

I wonder if any of these men find it ironic that they’re defending dogma that American Catholics by a wide majority completely ignore. All of these men, mind you, don’t have ovaries or the job of planning their life in an environment that is economically challenging.

According to the Matthews-Shields-Dionne contingent, it’s not about the hundreds of thousands of women employees who work in Catholic institutions who would be denied affordable contraception, which is an economic issue for any modern woman, as well as a means to plan her future.

There is another way to look at this issue, but you’d have to look beyond a myopic vision that doesn’t include what’s good for all women, regardless of religion.

We’ve seen throughout our media during this debate why the story on women’s rights and our freedoms is so often left in the dark. They ignore the issue at hand and jump to the fantasy political impact, while screaming about the 20th century traditional views that don’t represent the 21st generation.

Yesterday on “Daily Rundown,” Chuck Todd had E.J. Dionne and another middle-aged man on to talk about this issue. Today he had a terrific panel of women (video below), including the formidable Neera Tanden, making a lot more sense than the 60-something male pundits yesterday. Shira Toeplitz from Roll Call said not even in Pennsylvania, which she covers a lot, will this issue impact over other issues and for the very reason I stated in the previous paragraph. It’s a new generation era. Sara Taylor Fagan, a former Bush administration official, also brought up relevant points.

I’ve done the rundown on what happened on “Morning Joe,” where guests and Scarborough stated Obama would lose the election over this issue, which David Gregory parroted today. Mika Brzezinski did a terrific job this morning herding squirrels, while Tina Brown emphasized that most Catholics agree with Obama.

In new media, Josh Marshall chose to feature a religious conservative reader expressing dissent on the subject of Obama’s free contraceptive care for women. The focus of the email was that the reader claimed to have quit reading the Washington Monthly “because their presentation of religious concerns showed a clear lack of effort to understand the point of view of people who are religious.” Falling into the usual trap of giving religious conservatives a platform to make a women’s health issue about religion is TPM’s choice. It may even be an economic one so as not to lose readers, which I certainly can understand. But when no such threat to religious freedom exists and you choose not to engage the falsehood, you’re not helping women or clarifying the issue. But TPM has never been feminist.

In this discussion we also see yet another chapter in why we still do not have a female president, but also why we still see so few women leaders in our public life. The criteria for what it takes to pass the test is steep. A newcomer first has to kiss all the local establishment men’s rings on religion and women’s right to prove you won’t be too shrill. But we all saw what Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as Rep. DeGette and other so-called members of the “pro choice caucus” were willing to do when push come to shove. The first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history caved to the men in her church to get health care passed.

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating here. No matter the religion, that women choose to be dictated spiritually through the inherent misogyny embedded in organized religion, wherever it occurs, and the politics that props up this philosophy remains a real issue for modern women and the relevancy of the church today.

Men like Matthews, Shields and Dionne are representatives of this religious hierarchy because they fuel the Catholic Church’s anti-women agenda. But modern women of all faiths and none are seeing through them, because after all, it’s the 21st century and it’s long past time for women to take back faith and spirituality.

Our traditional media, cable networks and even new media sites are replete with hostility for the basic instruments women need to maintain their financial health and plan their lives. They are led by men and network executives, producers and others who are cowardly and some even unethical, putting profits above women’s health and economic security, or pretending there’s a religious freedom issue to boost ratings and the political pie fight.

Below is a comment I want to share from “roseOred.” People are watching how this subject is being covered and many don’t like who networks are choosing to make an argument against women.

With the exception of Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes, MSNBC has been infuriating me on this topic.
They gloss over or ignore the fact that religious universities and hospitals benefit from public money.
They ignore the fact that a whole bunch of states all ready require religious universities and hospitals to cover contraception and there was no big uproar over it.
They ignore the fact that apparently some of those states require even churches to cover birth control (thank you Rachel Maddow).
They ignore the fact that for a lot of women in a lot of areas, just going to a different hospital or finding a job at another hospital/university isn’t easy, realistic, or even possible.
There’s no mention of the fact that in this economy it is particularly heinous to vilify contraception given the cost of having and raising children.
There’s nobody pointing out the irony that when working class or poor women- especially women of color- have unplanned babies and require government assistance to feed them, conservatives fall all over themselves to blame them and call them a drag on society, welfare queens, etc. (You’d think for that reason alone they’d try to help poor women control their own fertility. Of course then they’d lose that warm feeling they get from feeling superior and demonizing groups of people they know nothing about. And they’d lose the perceived electoral benefits that this kind of posturing gives them.)
And nobody (save Melissa Harris-Perry) has mentioned the one thing that would end this whole controversy forever and ever: the adoption by the US of single-payer healthcare or a public option. If we had either one of those things, nobody’s healthcare would get in anybody’s religion and nobody’s religion would get in anybody’s healthcare. Instant fix, everybody happy! Right?
You know what I love? Some middle aged white dude telling me how problematic our lady-needs are for Catholics (98% of whom use contraception) and for the President’s re-election chances (as if there is any indication at this point that the general election will be that competitive, given the profoundly flawed group of Republican candidates and upward economic trends).

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Planning mayhem, Occupy style and Conservative Political Action Conference style

By Joyce Arnold on 08 February 2012

Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.

The Conservative Political Action Conference is underway in DC, and Occupy is making its presence known, the way it has at progressive events. I’ll admit I’m giving time to Occupy CPAC because of the way that plan was heralded by The Foundry, the “conservative policy news blog” of the Heritage Foundation (a CPAC sponsor), specifically, via The Scribe.

The Scribe’s Lachlan Markay writes Exclusive: Occupy DC Plans Mayhem for Major Conservative Conference. Markay relies heavily on a “source” in reporting. The information from the “source” sounds more than a bit iffy to me, but of course, I wasn’t there.

And truth is, Occupy DC’s call to “Occupy CPAC” isn’t shy about the language they use to describe CPAC, just as they aren’t when commenting about what “progressives” are up to.

Considering Markay’s use of “mayhem,” reading what he writes, and what Occupy says made me think: there’s more than one way to “plan mayhem.” The long list of CPAC speakers itself sounds mayhem-ic to me, including Michele Bachmann, John Boehner, Andrew Breitbart, Herman Cain, Ann Coulter, Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal, Mitch McConnell, Grover Norquist, Sarah Palin, Tony Perkins, Rick Perry, Ralph Reed, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, Phyllis Schlafly, and Scott Walker. And checking out the long list of presentations only adds to my sense of turmoil.

From Occupy DC:

On February 9th through February 11th , a who’s who of dastardly politicians will be holding the Conservative Political Action Conference … . Similar to the Alfalfa Club dinner, this event is another gathering of bigots, media mouthpieces, corrupt politicians, and their 1 percent elite puppet masters. …
Spectacles will include imperialist topics such as … ‘Is the ‘Arab Spring’ Good or Bad for America?’ and frequent bloviation on ‘American exceptionalism.’ Openly racist discourses will be given on ‘The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity is weakening the American Identity’ and ‘Islamic Law in America: How the Obama Justice Department Is Selling Us Out.’

You can see the complete list here. A few more examples: “Return of Big Labor: What Can We Learn from Wisconsin & Ohio?”; “Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media’s Attack on Christianity”; “In the Name of ‘Tolerance’: Countering Sexual Identity Politics in Schools …”; “Why are U.S. taxpayers spending billions to promote abortion and homosexuality worldwide?”; and “Taking Back Wall Street: The Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street.” To me, the ideas presumably being promoted sound likely to produce mayhem in the lives of targeted populations.

Here’s a part of what Occupy DC says about their plans.

Our Mission: Occupy CPAC. Create as much non-violent resistance as possible, and make this a conference the attendees will never forget.
We will be joining in solidarity with the AFL-CIO, SEIU, National Nurses United, Metro Labor Council, OurDC, and more to make our voices heard in our increasingly top-down, money-corrupted democracy. We will have actions on Friday at noon and 5pm (for Scott Walker’s speech at the Reagan Banquet), and on Saturday we will meet at Malcolm X Park at 16th and Euclid at noon to march to the Marriott.

I could see some potential “mayhem,” disruptive moments in that, even with the stress on non-violence. But according to Markay, the planned chaos leans to the dangerous.

The ‘Occupy DC’ protest group is planning to disrupt the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference using a range of potentially illegal tactics that could even include violence against participants, Scribe has learned. …

I’ve already expressed my skepticism, but have no way to confirm or refute what follows. We aren’t given any information about this apparently first-hand listener to Occupy planning, though whoever it is certainly had a lot of scary sounding things to say. Watch for red flag, mayhem-like language.

During a Thursday meeting at McPherson Square, until Saturday the epicenter of the protests, Occupiers brainstormed tactics for shutting down or disrupting the conference, according to a source who was present at the meeting.
The protesters suggested pulling fire alarms in the hotel where the conference will take place, screaming ‘fire’ during conference activities, ‘glitter-bombing’ participants, cutting electrical power, and barricading entrances to the hotel, according to the source, who requested anonymity.
‘Speakers will be physically assaulted, not just verbally confronted,’ the source told Scribe in an email. Two Occupiers, who the source also identified as members of the New Black Panther Party, ‘said they would be disappointed if they didn’t get arrested and planned to ‘make it count.’’
The “source” quoted another protester as saying, ‘Mitt [Romney] has Secret Service now, but [Newt] Gingrich and [Andrew] Breitbart don’t,’ seemingly suggesting that the latter two would not be as heavily guarded.

Markay writes that assurances regarding security have been provided by the American Conservative Union (host of the conference) and the Marriot. And yet …

… concerns remain. Occupiers reportedly discussed a number of tactics for getting protesters into the conference, where they would be able to do more damage than a street protest could muster.

The “source” said the AFL-CIO was helping get Occupiers into hotel rooms, to get around security measures, but an AFL-CIO spokesperson told Scribe this wasn’t true. Markay then writes:

The AFL-CIO has aided Occupy DC before, most recently in storing Occupiers’ belongings at its headquarters in advance of the National Park Service’s enforcement actions.

The “source” had more: Occupiers from American and George Washington Universities are going to “infiltrate,” and provide “counterfeit credentials” to non-students. Which leads to one last disclosure from the “source,” and this is, by far, my favorite:

‘In order to avoid having to shower and dress in business attire to blend in,’ Scribe’s source said, ‘they plan to wear Ron Paul 2012 gear because they believe Paul supporters ‘generally look like hippies.’’

Of the four remaining GOP hopefuls, guess which one isn’t attending CPAC?

Meanwhile, choose your mayhem carefully.

(Shady Bunch poster via Occupy DC)

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Some of The President’s Faith Allies

By Taylor Marsh on 08 February 2012

On the Diane Rehm show today, according to my husband who sometimes listens to NPR while he’s driving from order to order, a man called in. They were discussing the Administration’s decision on contraceptive coverage. The gist of what the man asked, as I got it from Mark, is that the man said he got a vasectomy from a Catholic hospital, so why can’t women get contraception? The lawyer on with Ms. Rehm was a bit startled, then said, he shouldn’t have.

I’ll stack my religious faith and spirituality up against anyone on the right, because that’s what this comes down to, right? That’s the battle on which the religious conservatives want to fight. It’s unseemly, because it thrives on division and distracts from the actual purpose of Pres. Obama’s policy decision. Dividing secular public policy meant to aid women, particularly those in the challenged means category, and helping them to be more autonomous and capable of planning their lives, which begins with pregnancy.

As with anything connected to women’s freedoms, religious conservatives, no matter the political party, have chose to attach a political cost to helping women maintain more freedom. Already, David Axelrod has telegraphed the White House will compromise. This is where Democrats and Republicans become one large political party, both willing to use women’s autonomy as a chess piece on their political play board. It’s why my vote is up for grabs in the upcoming 2012 elections.

The connection to something greater, however it’s defined, has guided me throughout my life. This is part of what I talk about in my book, which appears in the chapter “Is Freedom Just for Men?” That my book has never been more timely when it comes to that chapter and the current discussion is enriching.

Below is the text of an email sent out by Catholics for Choice. It lays out some of the President’s faith allies, of which I am one.

Major Mainstream Religious Leaders Support White House on Contraceptive Coverage In Health Care Reform

February 8, 2012, Washington, DC – Today, twenty major mainstream religious leaders released a statement supporting the January 20, 2012 announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services that contraceptive services must be covered by most insurance policies without deductibles or co-pays, and that only purely sectarian organizations are exemptfrom this requirement.

Catholics for Choice; the Central Conference of American Rabbis; Concerned Clergy for Choice; Disciples Justice Action Network; Episcopal Divinity School; Episcopal Women’s Caucus; Hadassah; the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation; Jewish Women International;
Methodist Federation for Social Action; Muslims for Progressive Values; the National Council of Jewish Women; Planned Parenthood Clergy Advisory Board; the Rabbinical Assembly; the Religious Coalition to Reproductive Choice; the Religious Institute; Society for Humanistic Judaism; The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; Union Theological Seminary; Unitarian Universalist Association; and United Church of Christ represent millions of religious leaders
and people of faith across the country.

Together, the leaders of these Christian, Jewish and Muslim national organizations affirmed:

“We stand with President Obama and Secretary Sebelius in their decision to reaffirm the importance of contraceptive services as essential preventive care for women under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and to assure access under the law to American women, regardless of religious affiliation. We respect individuals’ moral agency to make decisions about their sexuality and reproductive health without governmental interference or legal restrictions.

We do not believe that specific religious doctrine belongs in health care reform – as we value our nation’s commitment to church-state separation. We believe that women and men have the right to decide whether or not to apply the principles of their faith to family planning decisions, and to do so they must have access to services. The Administration was correct in requiring institutions that do not have purely sectarian goals to offer comprehensive preventive health care. Our leaders have the responsibility to safeguard individual religious liberty and to help improve the health of women, their children, and families. Hospitals and universities across the religious spectrum have an obligation to assure that individuals’ conscience and decisions are respected and that their students and employees have access to this basic health care service. We invite other religious leaders to speak out with us for universal coverage of contraception.”

Catholics for Choice, Jon O’Brien, President
Central Conference of American Rabbis, Rabbi Jonathan Stein, President
Concerned Clergy for Choice, Rabbi Dennis Ross, Director
Disciples Justice Action Network, Rev. Dr. Ken Brooker Langston, Director
Episcopal Divinity School, The Very Reverend Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, President
Episcopal Women’s Caucus, Rev. Dr Elizabeth Kaeton, Convener
Hadassah, Marcie Natan, National President
Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, Robert Barkin, Interim Executive Vice President
Jewish Women International, Lori Weinstein, Executive Director
Methodist Federation for Social Action, Jill Warren, Executive Director
Muslims for Progressive Values, Ani Zonniveld, President
National Council of Jewish Women, Nancy Kaufman, CEO
Planned Parenthood Clergy Advisory Board, Rev. Jane Emma Newall, Chair
Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, Executive Vice President
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Rev. Steve Clapp, Chair
Religious Institute, Rev. Dr. Debra W. Haffner, Executive Director
Society for Humanistic Judaism, M. Bonnie Cousens, Executive Director
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO
Union Theological Seminary, Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, President
Unitarian Universalist Association, Rev. Peter Morales, President
United Church of Christ, Rev. Geoffrey Black, General Minister and President

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Women Want Their Birth Control

By Taylor Marsh on 07 February 2012

“The Peggy Noonan piece left some things out. … But I have to say, the article appears to be very misleading.” – Mika Brzezinski, “Morning Joe” (7 Feburary)

This started yesterday on “Morning Joe,” with Brzezinski reading part of an over the top declarative Peggy Noonan op-ed and getting very exercised about it before she had the facts.

Something very obvious and important is getting lost in the current contraceptive controversy.

If religious conservatives like Noonan really wanted to stop abortions and unplanned pregnancies they’d hail the opportunity for more women to have access to birth control without charge. That they aren’t says all you need to know.

David Axelrod on “Morning Joe” teased a compromise today, which is not a surprise to anyone, I’m sure. But does the Obama team actually believe religious conservatives are going to compromise? I mean, seriously, because that theory has worked so well with congressional Republicans? It’s the epitome of Obama logic and a catastrophic suggestion, especially when a majority of Catholics (and other religious Americans, including myself) agree with the Administration.

This whole argument has certainly revealed the priorities of religious conservatives, putting them at odds with women. Birth control is an economic issue for modern women, regardless of faith, as is planning pregnancy itself. However, the religious institution and whipping up a crisis around religious freedom that doesn’t exist is paramount in the minds of Republicans, because they want it for a political issue, which was proven quickly because that’s the first place they went. Democrats are more concerned with getting important reproductive health care to low and middle income women, while bending over backward to keep from setting off a religious war with the right who won’t be deterred.

Rarely has an issue set up the political sides so starkly.

Again, if stopping unplanned pregnancies was the goal it’s clear who’d come out on top morally and it’s not religious conservatives or Republicans.

From a new poll by PublicReligion.org:

Majority Support Requirement that Employer Health Care Plans Include Contraception Coverage

A majority (55%) of Americans agree that “employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception and birth control at no cost.” Four-in-ten (40%) disagree with this requirement.
There are major religious, generational and political divisions:

Roughly 6-in-10 Catholics (58%) believe that employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception.
Among Catholic voters, support for this requirement is slightly lower at 52%.
Only half (50%) of white Catholics support this requirement, compared to 47% who oppose it.

Among other religious Americans, 61% of religiously unaffiliated Americans believe that employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception, compared to only half (50%) of white mainline Protestants and less than 4-in-10 (38%) white evangelical Protestants.

As an aside, Massachusetts Mitt Romney issued a similar ruling as Pres. Obama did on contraceptives, but presidential candidate Mitt Romney is railing against it today. Chalk it up as just another point of hypocrisy from Mr. Romney.

To Ms. Brzezinski’s credit, she changed her tune today after getting the facts from the White House, which Joe Scarborough labeled as talking to a “mouthpiece.” It’s unfortunate Brzezinski wasn’t armed with the facts before she read Noonan’s piece on the air, because this is important policy for women that needs everyone’s attention, no matter your politics or religion. But this type of thing happens far too often on cable, taking a traditional journalist’s op-ed as gospel when peers revere the writer.

There is no injury to freedom of religion by what the Obama administration has done. It’s patently false to say otherwise, which is what Noonan’s column implied, Joe Scarborough has insinuated, and Mark Halperin posits will alter the 2012 election, with Scarborough agreeing, of which there is absolutely no proof. What applies is if any institution provides health care to its employees they must provide women with the same contraceptive coverage as any other woman in the country. No discrimination because she’s working for a Catholic school or hospital. That in no way precludes what Catholics can choose for themselves.

The hypocrisy of religious conservatives is fully unmasked through this discussion. They evidently think immaculate intervention will stop pregnancy. If the Catholic Church and other religious political operatives really cared about stopping abortion they’d understand that’s what’s at stake here. Preventing unplanned pregnancy and putting the control of women’s lives in their own hands, which cannot happen without access to reproductive health care, starting with birth control.

Contraceptive coverage must be offered, whether you’re in a Catholic hospital or at Fordham.

Bridgette Dunlap, a Fordham University law student, knew that the school’s health plan had to pay for birth control pills, in keeping with New York state law. What she did not find out until she was in an examining room, “in the paper dress,” was that the student health service — in keeping with Roman Catholic tenets — would simply refuse to prescribe them.
Bridgette Dunlap organized an off-campus clinic staffed by volunteer doctors to provide prescriptions for birth control because Fordham University’s student health service does not do so.
As a result, students have had to go to Planned Parenthood or private doctors to get prescriptions . Some, unable to afford the doctor visits, gave up birth control pills entirely.

Title has been changed.

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When the media is a part of the news …

By Joyce Arnold on 07 February 2012

Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.

When it comes to mainstream media and the Occupy movement, there is, of course, some actual reporting. But then there’s what at least appears to be two things happening, sometimes overlapping: a negative spin of some sort, when the media seems to be doing exactly what they’re fairly often accused of doing – the bidding of the “1%.” But regularly, at least some members of the media have found themselves sharing, with Occupiers, the unhappy attention of riot geared police.

For an Occupy take on MSM reporting, check out this post. I mentioned it yesterday, but it’s worth another look. An excerpt:

… the corporate media increasingly dismiss Occupy Wall Street as a dying movement.
The corporate-funded political status quo, including corporate-funded news coverage, benefits the 1% at the expense of the 99%.

The OWS’ post then “debunks” four media “myths” – “OWS’s numbers are dwindling”; “was weakened by the eviction of our camps”; “has lost its purpose and focus”; and that “The 2012 U.S. elections are eroding OWS’s relevance” – by

… examining a few of the major Occupy stories and actions of the past month that the corporate media would rather dismiss than cover …

When media coverage is perceived to be biased, it should be called out. So, of course, should unlawful restrictions on the media. From Press TV:

‘The attitude towards people covering the Occupy movement was filled with contempt in the same way that the attitude towards occupiers was driven by contempt, Danny Schechter, editor of Mediachannel.org, told Press TV’s U.S. Desk … .
The crackdown ‘has become a national story because the same pattern seems to have taken place in many places.’

It isn’t as if the media hasn’t let their concerns be known. For example, via Capital New York:

The New York Times fired off another letter to the Police Department … on behalf of 13 New York-based news organizations about police treatment of the press over the last several months.
The first letter, sent back in November during the height of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, resulted in a meeting with NYPD brass and ‘stepped up’ efforts on the part of the department’s public information office to train officers in working with the media.
But in today’s letter … the news organizations, which also include the New York Post, Daily News, Associated Press, Reuters, Dow Jones, Bloomberg News, the National Press Photographers Association, several local TV affiliates and others, say problems have persisted.
‘There have been other reports of police officers using a variety of tactics ranging from inappropriate orders directed at some journalists to physical interference with others, who were covering newsworthy sites and events,’ the letter reads.

I’ve written earlier about the latest Press Freedom Index, but obviously it’s related here. From Common Dreams:

While the United States certainly hasn’t descended into the ranks of the most oppressive regimes, the watchdog group Reporters without Borders observes that in 2011 the political barriers and outright attacks facing reporters had led to a steep drop in the rankings-27 places down, to number 47:
In the space of two months in the United States, more than 25 [journalists] were subjected to arrests and beatings at the hands of police who were quick to issue indictments for inappropriate behaviour, public nuisance or even lack of accreditation.
The most high-profile violations of press freedom took place during the Occupy protests, as reporters were abused by police and otherwise stonewalled by authorities.

Restrictions, intimidation and more aren’t only related to Occupy coverage, however, as the Common Dreams piece continues.

… while the Occupy-related arrests were a major factor in the lower ranking, the organization also noted failures to address other longstanding press freedom concerns.
Reporters Without Borders’ (RWB) D.C. Director Delphine Halgand told In These Times, ‘this big decline [in ranking] is also due to old concerns we have and which weren’t addressed by the Obama administration.’ These include excessive limits on access to government information (despite the guarantees of the Freedom of Information Act), the lack of a legal protections for confidential journalistic sources; and threats to Internet freedom posed by the proposed SOPA and PIPA legislation.

And from Intrepid Report:

… As WMR has reported in past articles, the National Security Agency (NSA) has maintained a series of ‘mug shots’ of journalists it suspects have sources inside the NSA. Often, NSA personnel throught (sic) to have been speaking to journalists are called into NSA’s ‘Q’ security group and questioned on whether they have spoken to various journalists. Along with the names of the journalists, are photographs, described by NSA insiders, as ‘mug shots,’ likely culled from the Internet.

One question that can asked about all of this, as it impacts both Occupiers and media: who benefits from the restriction and spinning and use of excessive police force?

(Freedom of Speech poster via Occupy Design)

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Susan G. Komen Fiasco Delivers Karen Handel Resignation

By Taylor Marsh on 07 February 2012

**UPDATED**

Source: Susan G. Komen 2009-2010 Annual Report
via Mother Jones

From the AP: Karen Handel, Susan G. Komen official, resigns after Planned Parenthood dispute

Karen Handel, the charity’s vice president for public policy, told Komen officials that she supported the move to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood. She said the discussion started before she arrived at the organization and was approved at the highest levels of the charity.
“I am deeply disappointed by the gross mischaracterizations of the strategy, its rationale, and my involvement in it,” Handel said in her letter. “I openly acknowledge my role in the matter and continue to believe our decision was the best one for Komen’s future and the women we serve.”

Translation: I am deeply disappointed that I and Ari Fleischer got caught helping Susan G. Komen implement our religious conservative strategy at the expense of women. I openly acknowledge that I believe women do not deserve the same freedoms as men, starting with controlling our own bodies.

Don’t let the door hit in you on the way out.

The fight for full women’s freedom continues, but one villain has been slain.

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Al Sharpton Schools Morning Joe

By Taylor Marsh on 07 February 2012

The Catholic League, according to CBS, is “poised to go to war with Obama over mandatory birth control payments.” A better stenographer the Catholic League could not have than CBS, with the threat meant to put a political scare into Obama. But this isn’t 1980 and the Catholic League is facing a new generation in a new century where the vast majority of women rely on birth control, regardless of faith, with the economy of birth control very real. If you can’t afford $600/month, you play Russian roulette with your life and your future.

From Marjorie Clifton of GoVote over at Huffington Post:

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 79.5% of people aged 18 to 24 have had sexual intercourse, and, of those, 2.2% become pregnant. While Catholic authorities would say that unmarried young adults should not be sexually active to begin with, this position ignores reality and serves only to isolate young people — dismissing the issue as someone else’s problem.
But Catholic students are no different from the broader population. In 2009, the Boston College Undergraduate Government held a vote on whether the university should offer more sexual health services, including STI testing, condoms, and prescription birth control. The vote saw a record turnout, and an overwhelming 89% of students supported making these services available. The truth is in these numbers.

Al Sharpton won the round yesterday morning in a walk, which also revealed the tired arguments of the elite media, though they represent, as CBS did parroting exactly what the Catholic League wanted, conventional wisdom of a certain set. But the culture war today is about how modern women, who aren’t marrying like generations before, control their lives, their fate and plan their future. It cannot be done without birth control.

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Al Sharpton’s smackdown of the out of touch hosts begins at around 2:30 in the video above, but what’s particularly revealing is the reading of a Peggy Noonan op-ed by Ms. Brzezinski.

“It’s a fight the President can’t win. President Obama just might have lost the election,” opines Peggy Noonan, complete with tired “sleeping giant” awakening cries.

That is religious conservatism on parade, not to be confused with political conservatism, as I wrote about yesterday, by none other than Ronald Reagan’s speechwriter. Noonan represents that moment in time where religious intrusion into the modern political fabric began its crescendo after the era of individual freedom broke out in the 1960s.

The bookend to Noonan is E.J. Dionne representing religious conservatism on the Democratic Party side of things. Part of that group is also Sen. Casey, someone willing to continue the tradition of making a woman’s body subject to government intervention, whether state or federal.

What’s been the problem with women’s autonomy and economic issues like birth control, is Democratic Party leaders have continually ceded ground to religious conservatives and fundamentalist Republicans, because they were afraid to fight on the terms that impact women. Birth control is an economic issue, as can be abortion. But make no mistake about it, when religious conservatives in both parties talk about birth control, they see abortion.

Women, especially poor women, have been made to take a rumble seat on the side car of our national discussion on individual freedoms, because the discussion is forever wound up in abortion rights. Any woman in the throes of such a personal crisis, which I talk about personally in my book through the chapter “Is Freedom Just for Men?”, is thinking about one life she’s trying to save and that’s her own.

Sebelius in USA Today:

Of the 28 states that currently require contraception to be covered by insurance, eight have no religious exemption at all. [...] It’s important to note that our rule has no effect on the longstanding conscience clause protections for providers, which allow a Catholic doctor, for example, to refuse to write a prescription for contraception. Nor does it affect an individual woman’s freedom to decide not to use birth control. And the president and this administration continue to support existing conscience protections. – Secy. Kathleen Sebelius

It’s the most important conversation on women’s health to be launched in recent memory and if the American people are made to engage in it in a substantive way, which remains to be seen, something fundamentally will have been done by Pres. Obama’s decision on contraceptive coverage.

Joe Scarborough and others have said or suggested Pres. Obama’s will backtrack on his decision.

It will be catastrophic for American women and send a dangerous message on privacy if he proves them right. Because this isn’t just about contraception to religious conservatives. It’s about Griswold and the idea that women should enjoy the same privacy and freedoms as men, which no state or federal law or agency, religious institution or employer should have the right to abridge.

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Did Clint Eastwood Know He Was Making a Case for Pres. Obama?

By Taylor Marsh on 06 February 2012

**UPDATED**

[update]“I just want to say that the spin stops with you guys, and there is no spin in that ad. On this I am certain. I am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about just about job growth and the spirit of America. I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK. I am not supporting any politician at this time. Chrysler to their credit didn’t even have cars in the ad. Anything they gave me for it went for charity. If any Obama or any other politician wants to run with the spirit of that ad, go for it.” – Clint Eastwood to Bill O’Reilly’s producer

The Super Bowl ad above has caused quite a ruckus. As you’ll see in the update at the top [update]. Rove responded earlier.

“I was, frankly, offended by it,” said Karl Rove on Fox News Monday. “I’m a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.” – Karl Rove quoted in the Washington Post

Mr. Eastwood is in direct conflict with what he said last year.

“We shouldn’t be bailing out the banks and car companies. If a CEO can’t figure out how to make his company profitable, then he shouldn’t be the CEO.” – Clint Eastwood

Bailing out the U.S. car industry is one of the most exceptionally American things Pres. Obama has done.

I’ve read Lawrence Summers 57-page economic memo and any person or politician positing that the Obama administration isn’t partially responsible for the trajectory of our economy, which is headed in positive direction, simply cannot be trusted.

What I find inexcusable is what might have happened if Pres. Obama had opened up Medicare as his first stop in solving health care, especially at a moment in time where he had the people ready to back him. A stimulus of the size Robert Reich suggested is another failing. However, at least Pres. Obama didn’t check the austerity box with Bowles-Simpson.

In the Super Bowl ad above, Clint Eastwood, when faced with a script that hails the saving of a quintessentially American industry and manufacturing base, does what any American with common sense would feel compelled to do. Praise the efforts and say we need more of it.

It used to be something on which we could all agree. Objective facts of success leading to someone to seeing a template for paving the way ahead.

Writers like Charles Kupchin are starting to weigh in that China’s GDP will pass the U.S. in around ten years. The World Bank has predicted that the dollar, the renminbi, China’s currency, and the euro will become part of a new “multi-currency” in less than 3 decades.

So far, Mitt Romney nor Newt Gingrich or any other Republican have come close to explaining their plans for stopping what many see as inevitable, given our current trajectory We’re left with platitudes and fearmongering from Republicans who are asking Americans to vote for them to lead us.

It will be frightening if people actually start believing the current crop of Republicans has one clue what to do, besides inflict austerity on a fragile recovering that is going in the right direction. When you look at Mitt Romney’s answers to our economic woes there is absolutely no sense he understands how austerity will impact the poor, many of whom are women and children.

If Republicans are going to take the government out of the building future of the United States, I would suggest that what Kupchin and others are saying will happen in ten or twenty years will be on our doorstep a lot earlier.

I say this as someone who no longer trusts Pres. Obama or believes he has the ideological compass or passion to do what’s required. However, that doesn’t mean Republicans do. That our politics is dumbed down to this either or choice is partially why writers are giving the U.S. such dire future prospects, because Republicans and Democrats clearly aren’t up to the challenges.

That Clint Eastwood didn’t even get what he was saying or representing in the Super Bowl ad above should give people pause.

Karl Rove clearly got the message and it freaked him out.

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Occupied Thoughts from Howard Zinn, Boots Riley, and Bill Maher

By Joyce Arnold on 06 February 2012

Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.

In addition to Zinn, Riley and Maher, I’m including some thoughts from a “where we are now” post at OWS.

First, the late historian Howard Zinn obviously didn’t have the Occupy movement specifically in mind when he was included in The Nation’s February 1, 2010 article, Obama at One, which asked for thoughts about Obama’s first WH year. Zinn’s response concluded:

I think people are dazzled by Obama’s rhetoric, and that people ought to begin to understand that Obama is going to be a mediocre president … unless there is some national movement to push him in a better direction.

On another occasion, Zinn said:

What matters most is not who is sitting in the White House, but ‘who is sitting in’ – and who is marching outside the White House, pushing for change.’

And this:

If those in charge of our society – politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television – can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.

It’s a matter of opinion what kind of role the Occupy / 99% movement is playing in challenging “those in charge.” Bill Maher recently got some attention for his comments. Via Yahoo News, “Maher to leftover Occupy movement ‘douchebags’: ‘Get a job.’”

‘Let me ask about another occupation … – the Occupy Wall Street,’ Maher said. ‘Because similar to Afghanistan, when you occupy anything too long, people do get pissed off. And as I watch them on the news now, I find myself almost agreeing with Newt Gingrich … — get a job.’ …
‘… the people who originally started, I think they went home, and now, I think it’s these anarchist stragglers,’ he continued. ‘And this is the problem when your movement involves sleeping over in the park. You wind up attracting the people who were sleeping over in the park anyway. And I think that’s where we are now with the Occupy movement. They did a great job of bringing the issue of income inequality to the fore. But now it’s just a bunch of douchebags who think throwing a chair through the Starbucks window is going to bring on the revolution.’

Maher, obviously, has every right to express his opinion. But, activism should continue only as long as you aren’t “pissing off” people? Further, reducing all Occupiers to “anarchist stragglers” and “douchebags” who are only “people who were sleeping in the park” before the Occupation, and how seriously are you going to take that kind of person – that makes for very easy “analysis.”

As I’ve said all along, like every movement, Occupy makes mistakes; they’re evolving, and sometimes quite messily. But they are working at it, “pushing for change.” If you disagree because you think no change is needed, or that they’re going about it the wrong way, fine. Maher’s critique, though, is at best lazy and simplistic.

From the OWS post I mentioned, “In Spite of Elections and ‘Camping Bans,’ Revolutionary Wave Grows”. It includes information about some of the many Occupy and related actions which have taken place this year.

Earlier this month, we celebrated 2011 and declared 2012 would be even bigger. One month in, we’re keeping our word, but the corporate media increasingly dismiss Occupy Wall Street as a dying movement. …
The only lull has been in the media coverage of our continuing struggle to create a more just world for all. While the corporate media have shifted focus to the U.S. Republican primaries and Presidential election, government agents of the 1% continue their assault on Occupy camps … .

The post includes discussion of several points of MSM “misinformation”: that OWS’s “numbers are dwindling”; “was weakened by the eviction of our camps”; “has lost its purpose and focus’; and that ‘The 2012 U.S. elections are eroding OWS’s relevance.’

Politics-as-usual won’t fix our problems. … We support communities trying to improve their present living conditions and fight back against corporate control and economic injustice … . But we do not endorse any politician(s) because no candidate will bring change.

One other perspective, which probably pushes at the margins even for some Occupiers, from a Rolling Stone:

‘Doing What’s Right, Not What’s Legal’: Boots Riley on Occupy Oakland …
One of the most dynamic spokespeople for Occupy Oakland has turned out to be Boots Riley, who grew up in Oakland and might be familiar to music fans as m.c. of the radical hip-hop group the Coup. …
‘All the changes that we’ve had in the last century that people can call progressive change, none of them have happened because people elected the right person into office,’ Riley told me. … ‘We got the eight-hour day because people shut shit down. We got the weekend because people shut shit down. New Deal happened because there were a million card-carrying Communists and people were in the streets and FDR thought there was going to be a revolution.’ …
By directly targeting labor and production through actions like the port shutdowns, Occupy Oakland has been different from other Occupy cities, Riley notes. He’s hoping the movement will grow to include elements of the working class who don’t normally organize, such as fast food workers. …
‘We want to organize where people … are not able to unionize because they’ll get fired. We can eliminate that risk because if they fire the folks who are unionizing, we can shut them down. Unions can’t legally organize in that way.’ Riley smiles. ‘But we can do stuff based on what’s right. Not what’s legal.’

A few thoughts from a few people for your consideration.

(Media Report sign via OWS News)

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And Republicans Wonder Why Turnout is Down

By Taylor Marsh on 06 February 2012

This cannot end well for him, particularly doing this claiming to be a Christian. And it might not end well for the rest of us either. Barack Obama has gone to war with Christians’ consciences and he is perverting God’s word in the process to get his way on public policy. – The Perversion of the Words of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the Sinner Barack H. Obama, by Erick Erickson

Erick Erickson reveals one of the fundamental problems with Republicanism today. It’s not conservative at all anymore.

In a rambling, self-importantly arrogant post, Erickson pontificates on what he thinks he knows about being a Christian through a literal analysis of the Bible. Then he stands in judgment over Pres. Obama.

The self-righteous never see irony coming.

There is nothing Christian in Erickson’s harangue against Pres. Obama. There is also nothing conservative about it.

Conservatism has a measure of grounding when you listen to analysis of it from people who don’t wrap their religion through their conservative ideology.

A religious conservative can be against abortion. But an ideological conservative, while being against abortion and not wanting to fund it, cannot simultaneously take a person’s liberty away by forcing pregnancy on a woman when natural law protects her right to personal autonomy.

The very notion of conservatism is rooted in personal liberty. Whether religious conservatives like it or not, to be true to conservatism, they must honor that liberty. Today, they do not.

Any conservative with intellectual or political integrity would understand that conservatism of any depth must be rooted in the fundamental idea that interrupting the freedoms of any person through the intrusion of government, whether federal or state, is abridging a person’s autonomy in a manner that is the anti-thesis of conservatism.

Religious conservatism or fundamentalist-based Republicanism is actually a self-righteous marketing attempt to make people like Erickson and his ilk think they are on higher ground and have the ultimate interpretation of right and wrong. You hear it through Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and the rest of the self-righteous radio crowd.

It’s the blatant hypocrisy to claim to be a conservative, but think religious dogma should hold more sway than an individual who’s privacy and personal freedoms are innate to being a person in the first place.

Conservatism without religion can make sense.

Add religion, however, and conservatism becomes authoritarian in nature, relegating women to non-persons, second class citizens and slaves, because the state or federal government, through religious dictates, is now in charge.

Conservatism’s very nature is about doing less, leaving the individual alone to prosper and live without interference, which certainly should include women.

However, since Ronald Reagan invited the “Moral Majority,” which was neither moral or a majority then or now as it exists in other forms, conservatism was bastardized into something that now includes a campaign to take over the domain of a woman’s very body through means of the state or federal government.

Erick Erickson sees no problem with this, because he’s a religious conservative, not a conservative.

You can be religious and you can be a conservative, but once you put the two together in an ideological philosophy you lose the moorings of anything that has integral grounding in what conservatism actually means.

Not even Ron Paul passes this test as a Libertarian. He’s said before that he’s against abortion, because it’s violent, which is perfectly acceptable, but that he’d allow the states to decide the law governing abortions. This fails the basic autonomy test and the very notion of liberty that’s in Libertarianism, which he proved in an interview with Piers Morgan.

The biggest impediment to curtailing abortions is the refusal of religious conservatives and fundamentalist Republicans to accept the primary component to being a person, which is the body that houses the soul, assuming it exists, is something over which no other, certainly no politician, clergy or the state, has control.

This is about personal autonomy and living freely without any dependencies, the first component of personhood. It’s not abortion, but includes it, because religious fundamentalists are using political means to wage a war against the very notion of women’s individual freedom.

If people believing in true liberty don’t start taking religious conservatives on, whatever party they are in, over their fundamentalism, women’s autonomy won’t be sacrosanct one day.

This includes taking on people like Pres. Obama when he decides that a safe pharmaceutical like Plan B can be used as a stick to the contraceptive carrot that came afterward, because women’s individual freedoms remain a bargaining chip for politicians and their supporters.

The ultimate example of this was seen through the Susan G. Komen fiasco this past week, when Komen decided to make ideology more important than the health of women, especially poor women, who have been a political football since the Hyde Amendment. Yes, Pres. Obama used poor women as a football too, and he did it through the religious conservative playbook that created Hyde in the first place.

This column has been updated.

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Cinematherapy in Feminist Perspective: Daisy Bates

By Wonk the Vote on 04 February 2012

Hello news junkies… Wonk the Vote here with a new feature at TM.com that I hope you enjoy!

Tonight, my recommendation for you is the PBS Independent Lens documentary that aired this week — Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock.

The Louisville Film Society also screened the film at the Dreamland Film Center earlier last month. From what appears to be the press release of that screening:

“As a black woman who was a feminist before the term was invented, Daisy Bates refused to accept her assigned place in society. ‘Daisy Bates: First Lady of Little Rock’ tells the story of her life and public support of nine black students who registered to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, which culminated in a constitutional crisis — pitting a president against a governor and a community against itself. Unconventional, revolutionary, and egotistical, Daisy Bates reaped the rewards of instant fame, but paid dearly for it.”

Can I just say that I am so glad PBS chose to kick black history month off by spotlighting a *feminist* leader of the civil rights movement? (The late Dorothy Height would have been an excellent choice too!)

Funny how women always pay “dearly” for ego in anything political, but today’s Newts and Romneys and–yes, Obamas, too–all self-inflate with reckless abandon and don’t seem to suffer for it all that much–or have their names disappeared from the history books.

Contra Costa Times, via Kansas City Star:

If you were to compile a quick, off-the-top-of-your-head list of civil rights-era heroes (no Googling allowed), Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and a few others might immediately spring to mind.
But Daisy Bates? Probably not – despite the fact that she played a key role in the Little Rock integration crisis of 1957 and that she, like King, spoke at the landmark March on Washington.

Eurweb.com has a great quote from producer-director Sharon La Cruise:

“I just couldn’t understand, because I studied history and I thought I knew it extensively, especially African American history. I didn’t know why I didn’t know anything about her,” said La Cruise. “So I read her autobiography. I wrote her a letter. I said basically what I’ve just said, to her, that I didn’t understand why I didn’t know about her, and I want to know more about her, and I thought her life would make this incredible film.”

More from La Cruise via her op-ed at Womens E-News:

I became fascinated by the thought of that 8-year-old child who in one day learned she was an orphan and realized that being black meant you lived in a world where your life was insignificant. I wrote Bates and told her how much I admired her and thought her life story should be turned into a documentary film. She responded through her attorney that she would love to explore the idea further.
I was beyond thrilled to hear back, but then realized I had no idea how to produce a full-length documentary. I’d studied at New York University’s School of Journalism but didn’t have a lot of filmmaking experience. So I wasted two years dreaming of producing a documentary, not realizing how ill Bates was. On Nov. 4, 1999, I woke up to hear NPR reading Bates’ obituary. I was devastated.
Five years later though, in 2004, I decided to make the documentary after all. I’d gained experience by then and thought I was ready. But it took me seven long years to complete the film, as I worked on other projects and scraped by on funding. I was the director, producer and bottle-washer in one. I managed to hire some researchers, but did most of it myself. Kind friends helped me out on the script.

Dorothy Height’s memoir is on my current reading list and so her story is fresh on my mind–as is Shirley Sherrod’s encounter with the current Administration. I’m struck by the similarities of all these women’s stories–Daisy Bates’, Shirley Sherrod’s, Dorothy Height’s. They were all spurred to action by simply facing the inequality and injustice that they had faced since childhood, head-on in their adulthood. Their refusal to settle for less than their “inalienable” rights is the quintessential story of the ordinary American hero(ine).

They are each of them Rosa Parks on that bus, just having had enough of being treated inferiorly–but each with a unique story of her own to tell, stories that deserve to be heard.

From the Gray Lady’s review of the doc:

Ms. La Cruise injects first-person musings into the film that sit awkwardly, but she also finds side stories that elevate her movie above mere hagiography. Ms. Bates’s aggressiveness on integration was divisive for the state’s black leaders, and that she was a woman meant she was pushing against more than just racial barriers.

I am reminded here of what Dorothy Heights so eloquently termed the

“triple bind of racism, sexism and poverty.”

SF Weekly echoes the Gray Lady’s take on La Cruise and her Daisy Bates doc:

In the process, Cruise also uncovers a personality as complex as the era — a charismatic, self-taught firebrand whose need of drink led to three early strokes and whose need of attention often led to alienation, even from those she would help. In some ways this is a tragedy that culminates in a state holiday, but we are left with an authentic heroine who has not been whitewashed.

This is where the political girl-junkie in me says, “Squee!”

PBS has a trailer and a few clips up here, and if you’d like to watch the entire documentary, it will be up for free for your viewing, for the next two weeks.

Also, the Zinn Education Project has a great related lesson plan–Warriors Don’t Cry: Connecting History, Literature, and Our Lives–that you might want to check out, especially you educators amongst the TM.com readership.

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Queer Talk: HRC Honors Goldman Sachs, Queer Occupiers cry “Help”

By Joyce Arnold on 04 February 2012

Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.

UPDATED AT END

It’s the time of the year when the annual Human Rights Campaign “galas” kick-off, taking place in cities across the nation from now until November.

Fully acknowledging snark mode, we see HRC doing its Mitt Romney impression and providing more evidence for the Insider disconnect with the “99%.” While the language is a bit different, the criticism of HRC’s out-of-touchness is nothing new. This year’s Greater New York Gala, scheduled for this evening, honors Goldman Sachs with the “Corporate Equality Award.” In this Occupied time, that’s particularly, well, interesting. But it also raises the always present question: what to do when someone with big money is good on your issue, but bad in other ways? It’s certainly not a new conundrum, and it’s just as certain that different people will arrive at different answers.

From HRC:

The Greater New York HRC Steering Committee and Dinner Co-Chairs Eric Blomquist , Jo Doyle & John Rivers cordially invite you to:
‘Celebrate our victories and honor the work ahead for full LGBT Equality and Civil Rights’ at the 11th Annual Greater New York Human Rights Campaign Gala.

Joe Solmonese, soon to be stepping down HRC head, is “Featured Speaker.” The “Ally For Equality Award” will go to Anna Wintour, Vogue Editor-in-Chief, and the “Corporate Equality Award” to Goldman Sachs.

At NYTimeOut:

Last year was not a good one for many workers at Goldman Sachs, but the company’s LGBT contingent had cause to celebrate. The firm’s Ally Strategy program went beyond standard policies of workplace diversity and inclusiveness, and actively sought to educate and engage straight employees to create a more welcoming and open environment for LGBT ones.

Obviously that’s good for queer equality. But especially if you’re already skeptical, at best, about HRC’s Insider status, and even more, if you’re involved with the Occupy movement, honoring Goldman Sachs is akin to getting in bed with 1%.

Queer Occupy Wall Street, a caucus of NYC OWS, announced that it will protest at the Waldorf Astoria, site of the Gala, and in contrast to the VIP $650 a plate meal, host a “Guerrilla Potluck.”

1. The Queer Caucus condemns HRC’s decision to honor Goldman Sachs in a time of financial collapse caused by their unethical business practices and greed, and deplores the use of our cause and suffering for corporate public relations. …
2. The Queer Caucus calls upon HRC to embrace the grassroots demand for Full Federal Equality by 2014 – the 50th Anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. …
3. The Queer Caucus also demands that HRC open the process to transparency and grassroots inclusion. …
With this structure in place, queer occupiers know that only a handful of privileged voices are setting the national queer agenda and strategy, defining what ‘LGBT equality’ means and who our friends are.
For example, HRC’s key sponsors includes a long list of big businesses that contributed to recent economic and environmental distress, including Citi Bank, Bank of America, Chevron, BP, Shell, Morgan Stanley, MetLife, Deloitte, Lexus, Prudential, and Ernst & Young.

In a related press release:

Dubbed the ‘Guerrilla Potluck for Full Equality,’ activists from the Radical Faeries will also bring high-design to the sidewalk demonstration with the message of ‘HELP’. HELP end LGBT abuse. HELP end LGBT suicides. HELP end LGBT discrimination. HELP get Full Equality by 2014.

With an absolutely classic blowing you off political response, via the NYTimeOut piece:

Asked about the planned protest via e-mail, HRC spokesman Paul Guequierre wrote, ‘We are fortunate to live in a democracy where everyone’s opinion counts.’

Some, of course, count more than others.

So, what do you do when someone (corporations are people, remember, so it’s “someone”) with money and a willingness to support your cause is also someone who implements and enforces other policies that are quite harmful, including to people involved with your cause? It’s never been an easy answer, but it remains a very important question.

UPDATE: Check out Bil Browning’s post at Bilerico:

Talk about tone deaf… The HRC Manhattan gala dinner will honor Goldman Sachs. …
‘We are fortunate to live in a democracy that encourages many diverse points of view,’ Fred Sainz, HRC’s vice president of communication and marketing, tells The Advocate. ‘The irony is that our programs serve the 99% of the population this group says it represents.’
What a load of horse shit; that’s the worst spin I’ve seen out of HRC yet.

Bil includes a link to a petition to “withdraw the award from Goldman Sachs.” See it at Change.org.

( Occupy HRC Guerrilla Potluck via Occupy Pix
Occupy Queer OWS Logo via Occupy Pix )

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Political Junky Friday, Hosted by TCM & The Movies

By Taylor Marsh on 03 February 2012

One of the most important cultural links you’ll need this month: The schedule of Turner Classic Movies leading up to The Oscars.

I’ve been a fan of films since I was a little girl dreaming of getting out of Missouri. They were my escape. I’m passionate about them, all sorts of films from “Gone with the Wind” to John Wayne classics to B-movies and Joan Crawford to science fiction, as well as comedy and murder mysteries, you name it.

Gary Oldman, one of my favorite actors, has been nominated for an Oscar in Tinker, Tailer, Soldier, Spy, based on the 1974 book by John le Carré, which is a stupendously marvelous film. I’m not surprised it wasn’t nominated for best picture, because it’s intensity is quietly patient and methodical, not a characteristic of Academy nominees. The performances are out of sight.

Oscar is overrated. It’s political, tilted to the personal or publicist marketing. Film award season just tends to be odd. Meryl Streep won the Golden Glober playing Margaret Thatcher, in one of the most wretchedly over-hyped films that doesn’t deliver. Rooney Mara, a tour de force original, and Michelle Williams give equally brilliant performances. I’m not going through all of them; Gawker has the full list.

Octavia Spencer, from “The Help”, got an Oscar nod. She will also be honored at the Black Women in Hollywood luncheon on Feb. 23., receiving the Breakthrough Award. Ms. Spencer gives a canny and unpredictable performance in a film that is marginally realistic and one of the most insulting white-washes of a truly despicable era of the south. I guess the producers didn’t think anyone would watch it if they stripped away the cheekiness.

If you’re in to all sorts of movies, as I am, Mark Wahlberg’s “Contraband” was a trashy testosterone-filled roller coaster. I’m not a chick flick gal; I’ve never dragged a man to a single one. But action films of all sorts are a passion; as are what I consider B movies. But next time Wahlberg makes a movie like this he needs to call me to help him craft the female part. I mean, really, knowing you’re in danger and leaving your door ajar, but then not having a gun nearby? Rewrite! No decent action film female character would ever write that into her part. Damsel in distress days are o-v-e-r.

Ignore the awards, enjoy the movies.

…and enjoy your evening. Chat it up in the comments about anything you like, if you feel so inclined.

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Super Bowl Occupations

By Joyce Arnold on 03 February 2012

Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.

“We briefly interrupt this campaign season to bring you special coverage of a shorter version of an equally distracting event, where a ‘world champion’ of teams from one nation is crowned in made-for-television spending entertainment and distraction extravaganza.”

That really isn’t a quote, just me venting. I know millions love the Super Bowl, and wish every one of you happy watching, munching and drinking. I also, however, wish those using the moment to point out the skewed priorities which see who knows how many millions of dollars changing hands, legally and otherwise, due to a professional sports event, while money can’t be found to help millions secure employment, health care, housing, food, clothing and other basic necessities. Obviously the vast majority of those who enjoy the Super Bowl are not of the 1%. And I’m guessing it’s those non-1% who the Occupy the Super Bowl folks are hoping will take notice of the non-football numbers they’re providing.

Via Interoccupy, from Occupy the Super Bowl:

There are currently 21,334 foreclosed homes in Indianapolis. The median list price of these homes is $139,900.00. That’s a total of $2,984,626,600.00.
Capitalism without control results in companies spending $76,667.00 per second for a Superbowl advertisement. At 67 ads that amounts to $154,100,670.00.
These ad profits alone would totally pay off 1101 homes.
$720,000,000.00 was the cost of Lucas Oil Stadium. This cost would return 5,147 homes to their owners debt free.

Like all such comparisons, these are mostly about providing a way to envision what for most of us is a difficult thing to do: what very large amounts of money can buy. And of course, the numbers also provide a contrast between two worlds, or often, between two overlapping worlds. Back to the Interoccupy post:

We The People of Indianapolis are not anti-Superbowl. We’re a sports city lacking only a baseball team. We love our Colts even this year with their atrocious record, they are still The Indianapolis Colts! The point is this, Corporate America is not about doing what’s right for The People, it’s about profit. Yet these same corporations don’t hesitate in demanding funds from We The People.

Or as Dave Zirinon writes, at The Nation:

The Super Bowl is perennially the Woodstock for the 1 percent: a Romneyesque cavalcade of private planes, private parties and private security. Combine that with this proposed (now passed “right to work”) legislation, and the people of Indiana will not let this orgy of excess go unoccupied.

At TomDispatch, via TruthOut, Robert Lipsyte writes, “Four Reasons to Watch the Super Bowl: Joe Hill, Joe Pa, Tebow, Wee Brains,” which includes:

Most Americans won’t need a justification to watch Sunday’s game, but if you’re a TomDispatch.com reader you might think, even in passing, that celebrating the holiest day of violence, consumerism, and class warfare on your couch is a betrayal of your values or a waste of your time. You might even imagine that it would be better to take a hike, read a book, or meditate.
Not this Sunday, buster. It’s an election season. You need to watch this game to fully understand how jobs, religion, leadership, and healthcare dominate every American contest.

You’ll need to check out the article to follow his thinking, but here’s an excerpt:

Even with a progressive attitude, watching the Super Bowl, which seems to float on rivers of oil — think car ads — and beer, is not exactly like holding a OWS-style general assembly in the red zone. Nevertheless, it’s a terrific visual of the American class divide. In their skyboxes, usually in jacket and tie, eating, drinking, and high-fiving — or scowling — are the one-percenters who own the team, which is usually not their only source of income.
Below them, on the field, are their employees (many of them temporary one-percenters, given the median league salary of at least $560,000), using up the capital of their bodies.

One last thing, an indication of some fun and creativity of the Occupy the Super Bowl group, about a music event they’re organizing:

The protests of the 60s and 70s had Wood Stock. We came up with the name Occupy Corn Stock.

(Super Bowl sign via OccupySuperBowl
Jefferson Class Warfare Quote via OWS Posters)

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Komen Caves? Not Really.

By Taylor Marsh on 03 February 2012

**UPDATED**

“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” the group said. “We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities,” the group said. – Komen reverses decision to stop Planned Parenthood funding

This is what victory looks and feels like. But let’s look at the results to make sure they actually fully fund Planned Parenthood, because “preserve their eligibility” is awfully wishy-washy.

The people at Susan G. Komen underestimated the fury of the Democratic and progressive allies of Planned Parenthood. That’s because you rarely see them in action unless the worst has already happened.

This is instructive to the weak-kneed Democratic base and progressives who have compromised whenever Pres. Obama goes soft on principles that matter to the left.

From the New York Times:

Although multiple sources have said the board’s decision to eliminate funds to Planned Parenthood was driven by abortion opponents inside and outside of the organization, the Komen foundation, in its statement, insisted that its decision was not “done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood.”
“Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation,” the statement said. “We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.”
The statement asked everyone “who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.”

If you don’t want your “mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics,” then don’t hire a right-winger for public policy at the same time you fire a Democratic lobbyist.

The fact remains that Cecile Richard and Planned Parenthood, along with a lot of Democratic and progressive groups and activists, missed the signals and underestimated yet again the goals of right-wingers.

This is what you can do when you join each other in a worthy fight. But don’t let up, because eligibility is not full funding restored.

The statement from Nancy Brinker and the Susan G. Komen Board of Directors:

We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.

The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.

Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight againstbreast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.

It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women. We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.

Starting this afternoon, we will have calls with our network and key supporters to refocus our attention on our mission and get back to doing our work. We ask for the public’s understanding and patience as we gather our Komen affiliates from around the country to determine how to move forward in the best interests of the women and people we serve.

We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.

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“Is There a ‘Quick Fix’ for Partisanship?”

By Joyce Arnold on 03 February 2012

Joyce L. Arnold: Liberal, lesbian, Independent, equality activist, writer.

Independent Voting asks the question above, and talks about why, unsurprisingly, there are no “quick fix” reforms possible. From a recent emailing:

Outside-the-beltway reform activists believe that the difficult and long-term effort it takes to achieve these reforms is a good thing. In the process of winning them and using them, the American people will become more developed and politically sophisticated and take direct responsibility for our democracy.

I’ve included Independent Voting in earlier posts in this Two Parties = Too Few Choices series, in talking about the multiple efforts underway across the nation to challenge (my word) or reform the two party system. I thought it might be helpful to think again about some of those efforts, which can be overlooked at most any time, but all but lost during high profile presidential election times. This is simply one example of what is, in fact, happening. From Independent Voting’s About section:

We are a national strategy, communications, and organizing center working to connect and empower the 40% of Americans who identify themselves as independents. …
Our mission is to develop a movement of independent voters for progressive post-partisan reform of the Ameri-can political process.
We do not aspire to be another special interest. Independents seek instead to diminish the regressive influence of parties and partisanship by opening up the democratic process. Independents in the CUIP networks are creating new electoral coalitions such as the Black and Independent Alliance, supporting new models of nonpartisan governance and striving for the broadest forms of ‘bottom-up’ participation.

Another effort that’s received more attention is Americans Elect. Via Common Dreams, Joel Hirschhorn describes the overall two party situation in ways with which I can identify, and makes an argument for Americans Elect that makes some sense, even with my strong skepticism about the role the Board gives itself in the final determination of who the AE presidential and vice-presidential candidates are.

Why am I so sick of all the media attention to the Republican presidential primaries and all the blabbering about President Obama’s advantages and disadvantages for the coming election? I just cannot get excited. My answer may also be yours: No matter who wins, our nation loses. …
Considering the widespread and deserved disgust among Americans with both major parties, there is a decent chance that people like me will be strongly motivated to vote for the Americans Elect alternative ticket. It defi-nitely will be a vote against both major parties. If millions of Americans make this choice, then I will be over-joyed and so should you. Why? Because it may be the most important historic event that could motivate actions to get us genuine reforms of our political and government system. The Americans Elect ticket does not have to win, just show the Democrats and Republicans how much they are both being rejected.

Of course, you can say the same thing for “third party” efforts in general. The total number of votes cast for an “alternative ticket” will be interesting to know. Naturally the message isn’t as strong – because the challenge isn’t as great – if those votes are split in multiple ways. But none of these non-Two Party votes are “wasted,” not from my perspective. They are a challenge to the Two Party Front for the Oligarchy, and a rejection of the “wasted vote,” “you have no other choice,” “this is just the way things work” arguments that help perpetuate the system.

Phil Rockstroh, at OWS News, writes, “A Journey To The End Of Empire: It Is Always Darkest Right Before It Goes Completely Black.” It’s more philosophical than pragmatic, but his conclusions are quite practical in their implications.

‘That’s just the way it is’ might be one of the most soul-defying phrases in the human lexicon.
Contrast this with the OSW slogan, ‘The beginning is near.’

Bradley Maxwell, at Occupy the 99%, writes “Reform vs. Radicalism: More Damn Labels to Divide Us,” and includes talking about the way “1%” uses division to help prevent large enough numbers of people from coming together to challenge the status quo.

The powers we face, love for these conflicts, which divide us, to exist. And even if the 1% did not plant the seeds of division, they certainly water them. …
We will need to continue shaking off irrelevant theories and labels in order to become the true kind of movement we need to be. … So I say let the people do their ‘reform’ work, and let other people do their ‘radical’ work. …
We all have work to do, so stop making it so damn difficult for those you don’t agree with, to get their work done.

Going back to the top, I don’t think anyone who pays even cursory attention to politics would believe a “quick fix” is possible. On the other hand, there seem to be a large number of people who do believe any kind of “fix” is impossible. Somewhere between those two positions is the space to make serious challenges to “the way things are,” enough space so that even people with differing perspectives can get to work.

( Photo via ThinkProgress )

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Susan G. Komen Puts Romney’s ‘Not Concerned About the Poor’ In Perfect Context

By Taylor Marsh on 02 February 2012

The decision, made in December, caused an uproar inside Komen. Three sources told me that the organization’s top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board’s decision to cut off Planned Parenthood. ..Three sources told me the organization’s top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board’s decision to cut off Planned Parenthood. – Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Warning if you watch the video above, you’ll need a seat belt to escape the spinning by Nancy Brinker, founder of Komen, who has disgraced herself through her decision to take a McCarthyite House investigation as gospel.

The Democrats and progressive advocates of Planned Parenthood act as if they’ve never heard of Sun Tsu. But every battle is won before it’s waged. That’s how this entire conversation moved right to the point where Komen feels it has cover to adopt ideology over public health priorities.

One question that remains worth asking, even if I’m the only one asking it, is why was there no outlet or relationship to tap for those inside Komen to reach out to progressive allies to prepare or fight off the defunding of Planned Parenthood? How could Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood be caught so totally flat-footed on a decision that impacted the organization so profoundly? Is it possible Richards knew it was coming and decided taking the battle on after it was decided was the only option she had? If that’s remotely possible, the left is worse than even I imagined.

But if ever two events represented the right’s relationship today with the 99% they are the dueling events of Nancy Brinker of Komen and Mitt Romney for the 1%.

Mitt Romney talked about not being concerned about the very poor, because they have a safety net.

Brinker and Susan G. Komen damaging one of those safety nets for poor women by pulling funding for Planned Parenthood reveals what a Mitt Romney presidency might mean.

Meanwhile, Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave $250,000, which goes on top of the money so many are donating to Planned Parenthood since Komen flipped wingnut.

The primary function of Planned Parenthood is reproductive health care, which lives well beyond abortion, with the funds received by Susan G. Komen kept separate from abortion services, which is a fraction of what it does. Now, Megan McArdle is talking about the funds being fungible:

It is, as Josh Barro noted, absurd to pretend that abortion is somehow incidental to Planned Parenthood’s services, and since money is fungible, giving them money is probably helping to fund abortion provision.

Why is it absurd? McArdle’s lazy analysis of “probably helping to fund abortion” flippantly ignores the impact when a woman is denied any reproductive treatment she cannot afford.

The upper crust analyst class is a scourge.

It also doesn’t begin to deal with the investigative yarn being used by Komen to ostracize Planned Parenthood, which is the primary goal of the right, no matter who gets hurt. That the biggest anti Planned Parenthood contingent also absurdly believes abortion is linked to breast cancer proves how far out on the limb these people will go.

Democrats and progressives are outwitted and outgunned in this department, because they simply won’t wage the fight, always careful to appear moderate while clinging to the coveted centrism above principle or any philosophical foundation.

I’ve made it perfectly clear that I believe this event was allowed to happen through negligence and careless naivete of Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood, but also their progressive and Democratic allies. They should have seen this coming, because it’s been in the works for years.

What could they have done? State unflinchingly and unapologetically that the rights of women where our own bodies are concerned are nothing less than a basic human right. That means you fight equally on every front and don’t apologize.

However, Democrats and progressives have not only not been diligent, but they’ve become increasingly and embarrassingly meek to the point of weakness in standing on a line and refusing to compromise on a woman’s basic human right to control her own body. That’s how the right carved out an investigative position over which to wage the Komen battle.

“Our donations are up 100 percent in the past two days. With all of the emotion around these issues — which we understand, we get emotional too, we do this every single day of our lives,” Brinker said, explaining that they do not make decisions to be popular, they make them to fight cancer. – Daily Caller

You don’t “fight cancer” by cutting out cervical screenings and mamograms to women who can’t afford them.

“I’m not concerned about the very poor” is the flag under which Susan G. Komen, Mitt Romney and their conservative apologists stand.

This never would have happened if the left was as strong in refusing to compromise on human rights issues of women’s individual freedoms. Compromising this fundamental purpose is how Planned Parenthood got in this position.

You can’t carve out portions of the women’s human rights philosophy because it makes you uncomfortable or you don’t have the spine to make the argument. Well, you can, but the result is that the right beats you and the least able to fend for themselves get crushed.

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Preparing for the Spring Occupation

By Joyce Arnold on 02 February 2012

Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.

Last week I wrote about The Rahm Emanuel way, and the Occupy way, to get ready for the Chicago G8 / NATO Summit. That summit takes place in May, and that month appears to be a very significant part of the future planning of Occupy / 99% and related movements around the world. On the other side of the globe it will be a Fall rather than Spring offensive of course, but international efforts to coordinate are taking place.

It isn’t as if things haven’t and won’t happen between now and then, but a significant part of what will happen is focused on May as a month of global action. For some of the anti-Occupiers who are aware of this, it very quickly became, of course, tied to “communist Russia,” a phrase I’ve seen in several places. The burning of a U.S. flag by one person participating in the Oakland Occupy / PD skirmishes over the weekend resulted in the same arguments made a few decades ago, although most of what I saw on the OWS Twitter feed were of the “this proves all Occupiers hate America” variety. A good number of condemnations along those lines show up on that feed, so that’s nothing new.

Most likely more of the same will appear following the planned “Feb 4th Day of Mass Action to Stop U.S. War on Iran,” as described at Occupy Seattle. According to the post, “over 23 cities” have indicated participation. Given how the anti-war actions all but disappeared with Obama’s election, and given all that’s happened since – including the sad and scary increased use of drones – it will be interesting to see how much attention this Saturday’s efforts will gain. Actually, two other “givens” – 2012 elections and Super Bowl – it’s likely anti-war actions will be lucky to even be noticed. Priorities, you know.

Related to attention given is the consistent and growing use of police to curtail freedom of the press. Reporters Without Borders, based on just such actions, significantly lowered the U.S. standing in their Press Freedom Index.

This also seems related, via OWS News:

Another subpoena to Twitter for Occupy related account

Twitter today (January 30) informed user @destructuremal that the State of New York had issued a subpoena for his account information. The account holder, Malcolm Harris of New York City, is an Occupy Wall Street activist who has been involved in movement organizing since at least September 2011.

Some planned actions between now and May are ongoing, such as the “move your money” step. From Adbusters:

When the G8 meet in Chicago in May, it will be a major moment of truth for the global economy.
Already there are all sorts of ideas percolating – Robin Hood tax, banning high frequency flash trading, a true cost economy, bio-economics – that will lead to reform of the global financial system.
But in the meantime there is something we can all do to set the stage for #Occupy Chicago, and that is the personal action to move our money away from the big banks.

Some of the Occupy actions are probably more surprising than others, in terms of the focus. For example, via Common Dreams: “OWS Stands With Farmers, Says Enough! to Monsanto.” The huge corporation controls the genetics of almost 90% of corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets.

… in New York City, the Occupy Wall Street movement is calling for protests to support 60 family farmers, small and family-owned seed businesses, and agricultural organizations that are challenging Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seed in federal court.

And among other recent Occupy happenings:

Via the Miami Herald, Cops break up Occupy Miami camp:

Scores of police swept through the downtown location of Occupy Miami Tuesday night, ejecting several dozen demonstrators and arresting a few of them while shutting down the protest camp after three and a half months.
The police, wearing riot gear and banging batons on their plastic shields as they advanced, cleared demonstrators from within half a-dozen blocks of the camp site … .

Several Miami Occupiers indicated they already had plans to move to other Occupied sites.

Directly related to May planning, from Occupy News:

Occupiers from NYC are visiting occupations in 16 northeast cities to help organize for a spring offensive.

About that “offensive,” from a global perspective, via Take the Square:

Spring is coming – US Occupy call for a General Strike on May 1

Pres. Obama Already has Your Vote and He Knows It

By Taylor Marsh on 02 February 2012

This article was first published for U.S. News & World Report, under the title “Time for a Tea Party of the Left”.

President Obama takes his base for granted on issues like the Bush tax cuts, Plan B, and the economy

Here we are at the beginning of Pres. Obama’s reelection and what do we find? The Bush tax cuts that, back in 2008, candidate Obama pledged he’d fight to repeal, but which as president he extended. Considering not extending them began as his base position, three years into his first term it’s not too much to ask how Democrats allowed themselves to get twisted into this policy pretzel.

That’s exactly where Obama’s got his Democratic and progressive base, which has absolutely no resemblance to the Tea Party, who began challenging the Republican establishment back during George W. Bush’s term. The efforts finally ended up making history in 2010, with state legislatures across the country went Republican. It started an assault on the middle class, unions, as well as a war on women’s freedoms that ended up turning Wisconsin and Ohio upside down, but boy did it change the debate.

Now Newt Gingrich, once a speaker of the House, is running on an anti-establishment, anti-Washington platform spouting Tea Party populism as the new change message. In South Carolina, Newt sang the Tea Party’s tune and the right wing base rewarded him with a win, leaving the establishment mouths agape.

Where’s the Democratic version of the Tea Party? You’d think after Obama’s anti-progressive economics, foreign policy, and adoption of Bush antiterrorism policies (though to a more methodically lethal, anti-progressive effect), the Democratic base would have taken the Tea Party template and run with it by now.

Obama got away with the healthcare plan, which was bargained behind closed doors with private insurance and drug companies, manifesting a product that hasn’t kept costs down. He negotiated with himself, as he did on the stimulus, instead of using the majority he had in Congress to press the case for a public option that would have tackled healthcare costs, our biggest foe. It was never considered.

When Obama recently decided not to relax restrictions on the emergency contraceptive Plan B, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi gave him a pass, while the Colorado Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette, a member of the so called “Pro-Choice Caucus,” stated she was “disappointed.” There are never any repercussions for such decisions on the left, while repercussions have defined the Tea Party and its power on the right.

Understand that Plan B has nothing to do with abortion. It simply makes a female’s womb inhospitable for implantation and has been found absolutely safe by the F.D.A. However, as an ode to independents in an election season, Obama made a decision that any Republican would have made.

But not to worry, a carrot wasn’t far behind. The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced that universal contraceptive coverage will now be part of every employer healthcare plan, with religious-affiliated hospitals and institutions getting a one-year delay to comply. It could have been done earlier, but an election year is prime time.

During the debate around Bowles-Simpson, entitlement “reform” was broached first by Obama, with cost-of-living increases on Social Security being considered by the White House. That this would hit women hardest and put them in poverty was evidently missed by the administration. It was scuttled when all hell broke loose.

There wasn’t a woman in the room during the debt ceiling debate, a time when entitlement “reforms” were being considered. Pelosi was only added after women’s groups held a conference call and writers started complaining.

Obama also cut home heating assistance for the poor at a time when the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy are in place.

During Obama’s first term, he’s sucked on the straw of cutting the deficit, while ignoring Democratic economics. The bully pulpit for progressive economics wasn’t used until re-election season, when he took to the stage at Osawatamie, Kan., channeling the Occupy Wall Street message while launching his 2012 campaign.

There’s the latest action on the Keystone XL Pipeline, at least a short-term win, but it’s not like he came out with gusto against it. Obama said no for now then blamed the Republicans for not giving him enough time to consider the environmental impact. Activists from the grass roots to Robert Redford applauded. We don’t even know if it’s a definite decision.

The Democratic base has a passive-aggressive relationship with Obama that resembles a dysfunctional love affair. He has all the power and the base has absolutely none, unless you count the gay and lesbian contingent which was as good a model as the Tea Party on how to get it done. It’s not that progressives couldn’t have power; it’s that they refuse to wield any.

So they cannot pressure Obama at election time because he knows his Democratic base will be there. After all, they’re not the Tea Party. It doesn’t matter if they’re unhappy, all that matters is he’s got their vote and he knows it.

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“Warning: There is an occupier entering the building,” and others are Occupying the Super Bowl

By Joyce Arnold on 01 February 2012

Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.

The Occupy / 99% movement is about some very serious things. The police actions in Oakland and DC are among them. So is the effort in Indiana to, as WaPo puts it, bring the state into the “right-to-work era,” an interesting choice of words.

But first, because sometimes I just need a respite from the very serious, a focus on the absurd and the creative.

The People’s Library, which originated in Zuccotti Park, continues working to provide reading material, lectures, publication of original works, and creating mobile “libraries,” placing a few books on a park bench. Not without NYPD attention. A post at the The People’s Library, The Sad Story of Five Imprisoned Children’s Books, illustrates something of the absurd direction “police protection” sometimes goes. Obviously planned to make a point, last week Stephen Boyer and some 20 other people, armed with the receipt given at the time the books were confiscated, marched to One Police Plaza, to liberate them. The books, that is. Only Boyer was allowed to enter. He writes:

My fellow occupier cohorts were lucky to have stayed behind, as the NYPD took my photo using facial recognition software upon entering the building, they made copies of my ID, they radioed to officers throughout the building, ‘WARNING: THERE IS AN OCCUPIER ENTERING THE BUILDING.’

Alas, neither the ID nor the receipt proved sufficient to free the books from police custody. Boyer and other Occupiers left bookless, and NYC impressionable children were riot-gear protected from suspicious literature.

From Rolling Stone, news about “Occupy This Album.”

Occupy Wall Street now has an A-list soundtrack: the compilation Occupy This Album … will be released sometime this spring. …
Several of the contributors, including Joan Baez and Crosby and Nash, performed at the New York OWS site while it was still active. Proceeds from Occupy This Album will benefit the Occupy movement … .

In addition to Baez, Crosby and Nash, contributors include Debbie Harry, Jackson Browne, Yoko Ono, Third Eye Blind, Willie Nelson, Steve Earle, Tom Morello, Devo, Lucinda Williams, Yo La Tengo, Loudon Wainwright III, and Junkyard Empire.

Okay, I know this next one is a stretch, but I was thinking of the absurd, and so Newt Gingrich came to mind. On the campaign trail in Florida, Newt said: “I am an American, and Americans are instinctively grandiose.” That was him cleverly responding to Romney, of course. But here’s the thing: the crowd cheered. Maybe they don’t know what “grandiose” means. Maybe they’re grandiose. Maybe it had nothing to do with what Gingrich was saying. The line was followed by a pause, and so they responded to the cue to clap and cheer.

The fact that Newt, post-Florida, is talking about his first day in the White House, just adds to the surreal-but-unfortunately-typical game that is our “only choice” by which we play our carefully restricted role in determining which half of the Duopoly gets to be the WH representative of the oligarchy for the next four years.

Newt’s “Americans are instinctively grandiose” reminded me of those photos from the early days of OWS, with Wall Street-ers ostentatiously sipping champagne as they stood on the balcony above the Occupiers. Or similarly, the business school students, pretentiously looking down on Occupiers, with their “Get in my bracket” sign.

Which also brought me back to the NYPD’s “Warning: There is an occupier entering the building” announcement. There should be similar notices regarding political wannabe’s, and sitting Electeds. Something like, “Warning: There are instinctively grandiose individuals trying to buy your attention.”

Occupy the Super Bowl

And speaking of grandiose, there’s the Super Bowl, where the “world champion” of teams that only exist in one nation is very expensively crowned.

From Dave Zirin at The Nation:

The sheer volume of the Super Bowl is overpowering: the corporate branding, the sexist beer ads, the miasma of Madison Avenue–produced militarism, the two-hour pre-game show. But people in the labor and Occupy movements in Indiana are attempting to drown out the din with the help of a human microphone right at the front gates of Lucas Oil Stadium.

The labor and Occupy efforts are related to

… the Republican-led state legislature aims to pass a law this week that would make Indiana a ‘right-to-work’ state. …
This has drawn peals of protest throughout the state, with the Occupy and labor movement front and center from small towns to Governor Mitch Daniels’s door at the State House. …
Just as the parties start a week in advance, so have the protests. More than 150 people—listed as seventy-five in USA Today, but I’ll go with eyewitness accounts—marched through last Saturday’s Super Bowl street fair in downtown Indianapolis … .

Zirin writes about

the reality of life for working families in the city of Indianapolis. Unemployment is at 13.3 percent, with unemployment for African-American families at 21 percent. … Such pain amidst the gloss of the Super Bowl and the prospect of right-to-work legislation is, for many, a catalyst to just do something.

Quoting a local Occupier, April Burke:

‘I see right-to-work for what it is: an attack on not only organized labor but on all working-class people … . Rushing the passage of RTW in the State of Indiana on the eve of the Super Bowl is an insult to the thousand of union members who built Lucas Stadium as well as the members of the National Football League Players Association who issued a statement condemning the RTW bill.’

Just because things are absurd doesn’t make them any less powerful. In fact, given the ongoing success of the Two Party Front for the Oligarchy, I’d say absurdity sells very well.

( Occupy This Album via Music for Occupy
Wall Street-ers Sipping Champagne photo via AlterNet
Get In Our Bracket photo via Think Progress )

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**Postscript added** President Obama is now neck and neck with a generic Republican challenger in the latest Real Clear Politics [...]
OWS: The Connections are Wide and Deep
The video above is of Sgt. Shamar Thomas. It went viral and now has over 2 million hits. After Scott [...]
Obama’s Lost Moon Shot on Energy
“… We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do [...]
Fan Politics
Despite rising public concern about the federal budget deficit, Americans favor keeping Social Security and Medicare benefits as they are [...]
Money Quote that Would Make Reagan Laugh
“Cantor and Kyl just threw Boehner and McConnell under the bus. This move is an admission that there will be [...]
Getting that 1979 Feeling Again
It’s déjà vu all over again. via David Weigel Pres. Obama has never understood the incredible gift he was handed [...]

TM Connect

Rachel Maddow Slams ’60-something Male Pundits’

Planning mayhem, Occupy style and Conservative Political Action Conference style

Some of The President’s Faith Allies

Women Want Their Birth Control

When the media is a part of the news …

Susan G. Komen Fiasco Delivers Karen Handel Resignation

Al Sharpton Schools Morning Joe

Occupied Thoughts from Howard Zinn, Boots Riley, and Bill Maher

And Republicans Wonder Why Turnout is Down

Cinematherapy in Feminist Perspective: Daisy Bates

Queer Talk: HRC Honors Goldman Sachs, Queer Occupiers cry “Help”

Political Junky Friday, Hosted by TCM & The Movies

Super Bowl Occupations

Komen Caves? Not Really.

“Is There a ‘Quick Fix’ for Partisanship?”

Susan G. Komen Puts Romney’s ‘Not Concerned About the Poor’ In Perfect Context

Preparing for the Spring Occupation

“Warning: There is an occupier entering the building,” and others are Occupying the Super Bowl

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