Hey everyone, has anyone posted this piece written by Gloria Steinem? I’m going to now as it’s the type of article that should be distributed far and wide. It really states the situation in a very matter-of-fact kind of way. Please read it if you haven’t already. Palin: wrong woman, wrong message Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger. By Gloria Steinem September 4, 2008 Here’s the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even the anti-feminist right wing — the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party — are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women — and to many men too — who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the “white-male-only” sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes. But here is even better news: It won’t work. This isn’t the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie. Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton’s candidacy stood for — and that Barack Obama’s still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, “Somebody stole my shoes, so I’ll amputate my legs.” This is not to beat up on Palin. I defend her right to be wrong, even on issues that matter most to me. I regret that people say she can’t do the job because she has children in need of care, especially if they wouldn’t say the same about a father. I get no pleasure from imagining her in the spotlight on national and foreign policy issues about which she has zero background, with one month to learn to compete with Sen. Joe Biden’s 37 years’ experience. Palin has been honest about what she doesn’t know. When asked last month about the vice presidency, she said, “I still can’t answer that question until someone answers for me: What is it exactly that the VP does every day?” When asked about Iraq, she said, “I haven’t really focused much on the war in Iraq.” She was elected governor largely because the incumbent was unpopular, and she’s won over Alaskans mostly by using unprecedented oil wealth to give a $1,200 rebate to every resident. Now she is being praised by McCain’s campaign as a tax cutter, despite the fact that Alaska has no state income or sales tax. Perhaps McCain has opposed affirmative action for so long that he doesn’t know it’s about inviting more people to meet standards, not lowering them. Or perhaps McCain is following the Bush administration habit, as in the Justice Department, of putting a job candidate’s views on “God, guns and gays” ahead of competence. The difference is that McCain is filling a job one 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency. So let’s be clear: The culprit is John McCain. He may have chosen Palin out of change-envy, or a belief that women can’t tell the difference between form and content, but the main motive was to please right-wing ideologues; the same ones who nixed anyone who is now or ever has been a supporter of reproductive freedom. If that were not the case, McCain could have chosen a woman who knows what a vice president does and who has thought about Iraq; someone like Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. McCain could have taken a baby step away from right-wing patriarchs who determine his actions, right down to opposing the Violence Against Women Act. Palin’s value to those patriarchs is clear: She opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women’s wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves “abstinence-only” programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers’ millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn’t spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger. I don’t doubt her sincerity. As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn., she doesn’t just support killing animals from helicopters, she does it herself. She doesn’t just talk about increasing the use of fossil fuels but puts a coal-burning power plant in her own small town. She doesn’t just echo McCain’s pledge to criminalize abortion by overturning Roe vs. Wade, she says that if one of her daughters were impregnated by rape or incest, she should bear the child. She not only opposes reproductive freedom as a human right but implies that it dictates abortion, without saying that it also protects the right to have a child. So far, the major new McCain supporter that Palin has attracted is James Dobson of Focus on the Family. Of course, for Dobson, “women are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership,” so he may be voting for Palin’s husband. Being a hope-a-holic, however, I can see two long-term bipartisan gains from this contest. Republicans may learn they can’t appeal to right-wing patriarchs and most women at the same time. A loss in November could cause the centrist majority of Republicans to take back their party, which was the first to support the Equal Rights Amendment and should be the last to want to invite government into the wombs of women. And American women, who suffer more because of having two full-time jobs than from any other single injustice, finally have support on a national stage from male leaders who know that women can’t be equal outside the home until men are equal in it. Barack Obama and Joe Biden are campaigning on their belief that men should be, can be and want to be at home for their children. This could be huge. ————————————————— Gloria Steinem is an author, feminist organizer and co-founder of the Women’s Media Center. She supported Hillary Clinton and is now supporting Barack Obama.

and Michael, you don’t think that using the rhetoric of “This is God’s War” by Sarah Palin isn’t bringing religion to the front and center of politics? Politicians should refrain from throwing around words about God, period. And I don’t just mean the Repubs. Whatever they practice is their own private matter…it should NOT foul the country that they lead nor the constituency that they represent because not everyone in their constituency is Christian! We’ve got Buddhists, Taoists, Agnostics, Atheists (the list goes on) all living together in America where they are supposed to be free of religious persecution. But we still have to send our students to school where they salute the flag and use the words “One nation under God”. Uh, whose God?

Chita, while I understand your sentiment, you must reflect on a certain Bill Clinton following another Bush who left us with a war and a deficit. Did Bill party with the money and not deliver? Regardless of what you think of the man, when he left office, we had a surplus. The Repubs have never done that since before Nixon. I totally get your feelings about empty promises because the Dems aren’t really all that different EXCEPT when it comes to the social welfare of the total number of people they represent as opposed to the Repubs who are only about the top 10% earners called corporations. It will be far worse with another war-monger in office. McCain once spoke of 100 years in Iraq (whatever it takes…) and has made plenty of references of going into Iran and Syria as well. Right now, we’re in Afghanistan and Iraq…any more fronts and we’re doomed economically and politically. McCain will bring the Fall of Rome. No doubt about that among the political science professors I know.

Star, I love that I came home after a long day’s work doing sound at a beautiful street fair where food booths abound and arts and crafts abound and the stage I ran the sound for catered to young children in need of stimulus outside of a monitor in front of their faces. They got to witness two young teen bands perform, a performer whose music caters to the 3 - 6 yr. old demographic and boy did the kids turn out! and then a fantastic capoeira dance presentation with music from Brazil (where Capoeira hails from as well. I got away from this thread and it made me feel alive again. So, here is your statement about the rope and I love it because that’s what I did today. I volunteered the rope to be at a place of beauty and individuality and peace. That felt good. If only any of our parties could bring us that. From the point of view of the people I met and saw today, Obama does bring that. I liken McCain / Palin getting enough rope because they are on the most vehement story-telling that I’ve ever encountered. It’s unfair, but thankfully Obama / Biden aren’t biting the same rope. They are very clever to avoid it and talk about the issues. Something the M / P ticket does very little of.

A quick note about those who thought Dana Jae was being tacky about McCain’s deliberate use of his POWness. Listen, please: Does anyone remember the hearings of the POW families that McCain shunned in his absolute power on the panel of the Senate hearings on POW’s. He closed a case in a quite disparaging way on families who pleaded with the government, “please, no, my family member has not yet been found.” I can’t defend a human being who claims such a POW life as he does now, with the same Senate hearings I watched where he made someone cry with his complete lack of ethics on the matter that is suddenly now closest to his heart. PEOPLE, catch up with McCain’s past. Why is he not telling you about his life in the Senate??? Why does he not make claim to the dozens of committee hearings he has been a part of?. Because he voted against POW families (Google it, don’t make me do your homework for you!) and it’s not about me being cruel, it’s that HE IS CRUEL. That man has no right to serve this country solely on the basis of the fact that he endured a hardship in Viet Nam. Hell, I’ve got two older brothers who endured a horrible war and I would never put them in position as our President nor ask you to. I hear a lot of ….”oh Dana, how tacky!” Have any of you watched the hearings that he was the front-and-center senator to and actually got really angry with one of the women who was trying to keep the POW hearings alive. He was supporting the “shut these hearings down” bit. He shunned her like a Salem witch! Go learn about the man you’re telling me “oh, how can you go on like this about him” and then YOU make your informed decision.

Thanks for watching my back, CK. Does anyone remember the hearings of the POW families that McCain shunned in his absolute power on the panel of the Senate hearings on POW’s. He closed a case in a quite disparaging way on families who pleaded with the government, “please, no”. I can’t defend a human being who claims such a POW life as he does now, with the same Senate hearings I watched where he made someone cry with his complete lack of ethics on the matter that is suddenly now closest to his heart. PEOPLE, catch up with McCain’s past. Why is he not telling you about his life in the Senate??? Because he voted against POW families (Google it, don’t make me do your homework for you!) and it’s not about me being cruel, it’s that HE IS. That man has no right to serve this country solely on the basis of the fact that he endured a hardship in Viet Nam. Hell, I’ve got two older brothers who endured a horrible war and I would never put them in position as our President. I hear a lot of ….”oh Dana, how tacky!” Have any of you watched the hearings that he was privvy to and actually got really angry with one of the women how was trying to keep the POW hearings alive. He shunned her like a Salem witch! Go learn about the man you’re telling me “oh, how can you go on like this about him” and then YOU make your informed decision.

Oh, here’s a fave for the Clinton supporters (and that was me at one point) “Let me tell you something,” said Luanne Van Werven, a Republican delegate from Lynden, Wash., as the convention closed late Thursday night. “I secretly think Hillary loves Sarah Palin.” Why? “Because she wants Barack to lose, so she can run again, of course!” Ms. Van Werven said with a laugh. “I just bet Hillary was watching Sarah’s speech on T.V. Wednesday night and cheering, ‘You go, girl!’ ” Uh, Ms. VW…what on earth are you smoking????

and that means to you that the law of the government shall be ruled by Christian doctrine? Is that how you Repubs interpret it? very interesting. No wonder your party is making new claims on the words “change” and “country first” and “independent”…isn’t that what your candidate claimed last night? That suddenly he’s going to wipe the land of the Republican rule of the last 8 years by being an “independent”. hmmmm.

Hi there, Michael. Perhaps you need to brush up on the Amendments? The separation of church and state is a legal and political principle derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” But thank you for your Republican interpretation. As with many things your party claims, you have a unique way of putting a spin on things. Have a great weekend.

Ahhh, yes. You hit it on the head, E. The voting machines by the company formerly known as Diebold who recently changed their name to the more Orwellian, “Premiere Election Systems”. And here is an absolute HOOT about Diebold that you should check out because we all need a good laugh: http://www.theonion.com/content/video/diebold_accidentally_leaks priceless!

Diana, I’d be willing to bet that he, like his running mate, think that our environment is doing just fine, thank you. Incredible, I know. I’m flabbergasted.

“He couldn’t find the EJECT button on a crashing aircraft because, according to his own admission, he didn’t know where it was located “because I didn’t read that part of the manual”. His curriculum was too crowded with partying and womanizing.” Oh no….really? Then he really is a BUSH 2.0. Holy cow!

{hands clapped over mouth, aghast} Oh my God! He’s in Stepford!

Oh Lise! SO WELL SAID! There was a song about 15 years ago called “Cult Of Personality” by Living Color that spells this sentiment out quite neatly. Sadly, I feel that America is about 85% image and 15% substance in politics these days. I really like hearing a Canadian POV, by the way, so keep your opinions and thoughts coming.

HOw fun! Now Facebook is getting involved via a fun group of posters there! At least we can start having a giggle or two about it. I know we all need that right now. WOOF!