8/29/2008

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for President!!!

For Immediate Release
August 29, 2008
Contact:

John McCain Selects Alaska Governor Sarah Palin As Vice Presidential Running Mate

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain today announced that he has selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate and to serve as his vice president.

Governor Palin is a tough executive who has demonstrated during her time in office that she is ready to be president. She has brought Republicans and Democrats together within her Administration and has a record of delivering on the change and reform that we need in Washington.

Governor Palin has challenged the influence of the big oil companies while fighting for the development of new energy resources. She leads a state that matters to every one of us -- Alaska has significant energy resources and she has been a leader in the fight to make America energy independent.

In Alaska, Governor Palin challenged a corrupt system and passed a landmark ethics reform bill. She has actually used her veto and cut budgetary spending. She put a stop to the "bridge to nowhere" that would have cost taxpayers $400 million dollars.

As the head of Alaska's National Guard and as the mother of a soldier herself, Governor Palin understands what it takes to lead our nation and she understands the importance of supporting our troops.

Governor Palin has the record of reform and bipartisanship that others can only speak of. Her experience in shaking up the status quo is exactly what is needed in Washington today.

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Article taken from johnmccain.com http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/Read.aspx?guid=b1a33b7f-5388-4ab9-99a4-95d9d35268ce

I have a Screen Shot for posterity, assuming they will change it at some point when the GOP realizes who's running for which office. Didn't post it here because the res is so low. But if you want a copy let me know.

8/06/2008

7/24/2008

McSexist: McCain's War on Women

A February Planned Parenthood poll of 1,205 women voters in 16
battleground states found that:

50 % of women voters don't know McCain's position on abortion
49 % of women who backed McCain were pro-choice, even though McCain is against women making their own choices..
46 % of women supporting McCain said they'd like to see Roe v. Wade upheld -- though McCain says he supports overturning the decision.

When they learned of his position on Roe, 36 percent of women who identified as both pro-choice and likely McCain voters said they would be less likely to vote for him.

Voting Record Snapshot:

  • While voting in favor to include unborn children, McCain Voted AGAINST legislation to expand SCHIP's (State Children's Health Insurance Program) coverage to low-income children and pregnant women at least six times.
  • Voted to require parental consent for teenagers who want access to contraceptives, but AGAINST an amendment to the Senate's 2006 budget that would have allocated $100 million for the prevention of teen pregnancy by providing education and contraceptives.
  • McCain OPPOSED legislation requiring that abstinence-only programs be
    medically accurate and based in science.
  • McCain voted to abolish funding for birth control and gynecological care for low-income women, and AGAINST funding for public education on emergency contraception.
  • Voted AGAINST a measure that would require insurance companies to cover prescription contraception, despite the fact that many currently fund male reproductive pharmaceuticals, such as Viagra.
    • In the 2000 primary, he was asked what he would do if his daughter Meghan, then 15, became pregnant. McCain said it would be a "family decision."
      • However, if there is no access to contraception or abortion, there wouldn't be much of a decision to make, because Meghan wouldn't have been able to choose birth control to prevent becoming pregnant or have an abortion after the fact. Short of abstinence, this effectively leaves control of a woman's body and mind in men's hands and in the hands of the state cutting her out completely from her own self-determination.
  • McCain has an equally dismal record on other issues central to women's lives -- pay equity, fighting workplace discrimination, and supporting programs that help working mothers and their families.
    • McCain skipped the vote on the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Had it passed the Senate, this bill would have restored the nterpretation of the protections for pay equity in the Civil Rights Act that was overturned in a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling.
    • Though he didn't vote, he spoke against the bill on the campaign trail, saying in New Orleans: "They need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households...it's hard for them to leave their families when they don't have somebody to take care of them."
      • "In addition to suggesting women need to be taken care of, the statement shows a total lack of understanding of the case." "It's not because of training and education; it's because of discrimination," says NOW Executive Vice President Olga Vives. "And he doesn't seem to get that."
  • In 1993, before voting in favor of the Family and Medical Leave Act --which, among other things, allows pregnant women to take unpaid maternity leave if it's not automatically offered in the workplace --McCain sought to weaken the measure. He proposed allowing the government to suspend the law if it found that the act would increase the cost to business.
  • In 2002, Voted AGAINST a $3,000 tax credit to help seniors and their families cover long-term care
  • Voted seven times for measures that cut or restricted funding for Medicaid, and 18 times for measures that cut or restricted Medicare

And how about a little glance into his PERSONAL record with women?

  • "In his book The Real McCain, Cliff Schecter describes one stop during his 1992 Senate reelection bid. He writes, "At one point, Cindy playfully twirled McCain's hair and said, 'You're getting a little thin up there.' McCain's face reddened, and he responded, 'At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.' " (Schecter confirmed this remark with three reporters who were present when it was made.)"
  • Then, there is McCain's response to a questioner in Hilton Head, S.C., last November, who asked, referring to Sen. Clinton: "How do we beat the bitch?" McCain responded: "Excellent question."

Ladies, we need to better inform ourselves and make sure that we are voting for a candidate that has a record of supporting the issues that affect our freedoms and rights as citizens the most.

Women ARE the majority. Let’s vote for our rights not against!

If you're not registered to vote or if you need to make changes to your registration click here*

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To read the full article on Alternet click here McSexist: McCain's War on Women | Reproductive Justice and Gender | AlterNet

7/18/2008

Obama's Commitment to Family & Workforce

Obama remarked that he will:

-Support the Fair Pay Restoration Act
-Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit
-Double funding for After School Programs
-Invest 10 billion in quality, affordable, early childhood education
-Dramatically increase the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) including requiring paid leave.
-Pass a Middle Class Tax Cut of $1000 for every working family

7/16/2008

Gender and Advertising - What's changed in 20 years?

"Jean Kilbourne's pioneering work helped develop and popularize the study of gender representation in advertising. Her award-winning Killing us Softly films have influenced millions of college and high school students across two generations and on an international scale. In this important new film, Kilbourne reviews if and how the image of women in advertising has changed over the last 20 years." - qutoed from MEF website

For more information check out: Media Education Foundation (MEF)

7/14/2008

McCain's Women's Clinic

McCain - We're talking about a man who has voted anti-choice 123 out of 128 times. A man who wouldn't require prescription coverage for birth control. A man who voted against allocating $100 million to preventative health services that would have reduced unintended and teen pregnancies. A man who could irreparably damage women's rights in our country unless we get the word out about him now.

This series of videos gives the viewer/voter a view of "McCain's Women's Clinic", a sneak peek at what a women's health clinic could look like if McCain were elected.


Why do women give McCain a Zero?

McCain's Women's Clinic Part II

McCain's Women's Clinic Part III - John McCain knows what's best for women. He's not a doctor, he's the president...you don't have a CHOICE!


Here's what you can do: send this video to everyone you know and Digg It! By taking these steps, you can help educate female voters in battleground states about McCain's anti-choice record.

More at http://TheREALMcCain.com/

Blogged with the Flock Browser

McCain's Stance on Women's Health: Get to Know the Facts



Don't keep this to yourself...pass it on, remind people that real change comes from popular dissent...protect your rights...use your voice...know the candidates...cast your vote!

To access the "Brave New Films" website for this and other important films visit:

Planned Parenthood's Bush-McCain Challenge
Brave New Films

5/16/2008

Criticism of the President Un-Patriotic?


To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.""Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star", 149May 7, 1918




4/11/2008

Is America becoming a fascistic nation?

The excerpt below is worth considering as so often history has a way of repeating itself and often we don't educate ourselves to see the similarities between historical and contemporary times.  Bearing this in mind can we as Americans see any relationships between what Hitler accomplished in Germany in the 30s and what we are experiencing today in the USA?  If we see similarities and do nothing or if we don't notice the changes because they happen little by little, I think in many ways this answers the question "How could what happened in Germany happen?"  However, even more importantly do we want to let it happen again, but now in the USA and can we say we didn't know this time?

THE END OF AMERICA [?/!]

 

Hitler's Germany was no anarchic state: He used to law to legitimate virtually everything he did. Hitler often boasted that "We will overthrow Parliament in a legal way through legal means. Democracy will be overthrown with the tools of democracy." "I can say clearly," he announced at a Nuremberg rally in 1934, "that the basis of the National Socialist state is the National Socialist law code." He called Nazi Germany "this state of order, freedom and law:"'


Dictators can rise in a weakened democracy even with a minority of popular support. Hitler never won a majority: In the election in 1932, only 13.1 million Germans voted for the Nazi party. Although National Socialism was the largest single party, the Nazis had fewer seats in government than the combined opposition parties did. At that point they could still have been defeated." Their numbers declined further in the next election.

 

At that critical time, Brownshirts waged a campaign of violence against Nazi Party opponents in the streets. A sense of crisis descended on the country. A coalition of conservatives united to provoke a constitutional crisis in Parliament as well. Lawmakers then engaged in frenzied negotiations to head off civil war. The conservative majority still believed at that point that if Hitler were appointed Reich Chancellor they would be able to control him. They made a deal: Hitler was sworn in as Reich Chancellor entirely legally on January 30, 1933.

 

But Nazis directed events to cascade rapidly after that: They staged torchlight marches while all marches by the Communist opposition were forbidden. When thousands of citizens marched against the new government nonetheless, police arrested their leaders. Twenty opposition newspapers took issue with the new Nazi leadership-but then the papers were banned; local authorities cracked down on free assembly across the country.


Hitler told the Cabinet that an amendment to the Constitution was required, the Enabling Act, which would allow him permanently to circumvent some powers of the Parliament. It was now legal for the state to tap citizens' phones and open their mail."

 

Appalled at the terrorist threat, and not wanting to be seen as unpatriotic, there was little debate: lawmakers of all parties passed the Enabling Act by a wide majority: 441 to 94. The constitution remained, but from then on, Hitler could govern by decree.


Excerpt from: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/End_Of_America.html, pp. 41-42. Naomi Wolf. 04/11/08.