Tag Archives: lady stuff

Job Creation: Quality VS. Quantity

Posted on March 11, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Right now, everyone is talking about job creation.  It seems every candidate has a theory or plan to create more jobs.  However, it’s not all about numbers.  There is the issue of quality vs. quantity, and improvements that protect people while adding jobs.

I’ve gotten messages from Zandar readers, asking if I know I’ve linked to one certain news article a number of times.  Yes, I know.  I just think it’s terribly important, and reveals a largely overlooked issue facing working Americans.  I’m taking about when Senate Republicans unanimously voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act.  Their chief concern was the burden it would put on businesses.

Collins argued that the bill would place undue burden on small business, and “impose increased costs and restrictions on small businesses in an already difficult economic climate.”

“Many business groups oppose this legislation, including the National Federation of Independent Businesses, our nation’s largest small business advocacy group, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” Collins said.

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Posted in Bon the Geek, Lady Bits, Political Shenanigans, Teabilly and GOP Mendacity

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“Your Bruises” by @ThundarKitteh

Posted on March 8, 2012 by | Leave a comment

[Here's a poem and guest post from the wondrous ThundarKitteh. -ABLxx]

So much blood in the carpet

It always had such a lovely pile.

But the house needs to eat…again.

You left me worse than last time,

I hope you’re having fun at the tavern.

And I will wear your bruises

While I clean the sanguine marsh.

These bruises, lacerations, and lumps

Are in fact yours, but you say

They look so much better on me.

So I will wear your bruises

Because you can’t. Continue reading →

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Posted in Lady Bits, Read Me!, Submissions from Readers

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Georgia Democratic Rep. Yasmin Neal Seeks State Ban on Vasectomies

Posted on February 21, 2012 by | 18 Comments

Tit for tat

 As the War on Women marches inexorably onward, Democrats are starting to fight back —  cheekily.

In Virginia, state Senator Janet Howell attached a “rectal probe” amendment to the Virginia State-Sanctioned Rape bill.  The amendment would have required men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.  (It failed to pass.)

In Oklahoma, Constance Johnson attached an “every sperm is sacred” amendment to the GOP’s Personhood bill.  The amendment would have construed any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina as an action against an unborn child. (Democrats voted to table the amendment in order to demonstrate that it was introduced in jest.)

And now Georgia Democrats are stepping up.   Continue reading →

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Posted in Balloon Juice Cross-Posts, Body/Health Shenanigans, Kick Ass, War on Women

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GOP Cannot Deny War On Women

Posted on February 19, 2012 by | 10 Comments

I was researching abuse patterns and came across something interesting. My question was what do abusers think, what mind tricks do they pull to deceive themselves and the victims so that the cycle can continue? I found the best answer at Mid-Valley Women’s Crisis Service, a site dedicated to stopping abuse through education.

There are eighteen ways abusers lie to themselves, the public, and the women they mistreat. It sounded awfully familiar, and then I realized for each and every warning sign of abuse towards women, I could find a tie to the GOP’s recent activities. I’m not kidding you, so much so that I am publishing their list below, with my responses appearing in bold.

Excuse Making

Instead of accepting responsibility for his actions, the abuser tries to justify his behavior with excuses. For example: “My parents never loved me” or “My parents beat me” or “I had a bad day, and when I walked in and saw this mess, I lost my temper” or “I couldn’t let her talk to me that way. There was nothing else I could do.”

GOP: We care about families, of course! But rather than make sure women are paid the same as men, we prefer to make sure that we don’t burden businesses by making them pay women equally. What, a burden on women, you ask? Back to the kitchen with you! It’s your fault, you’re all sinners who need us to force some goodness into your lives. We’re just doing what we have to, stop forcing us to make your personal decisions for you.
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Posted in Body/Health Shenanigans, War on Women

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President Obama Stands Up for Women's Health… AGAIN.

Posted on February 10, 2012 by | 7 Comments

The contraception coverage debacle has been nothing short of ridiculous.

For the past couple weeks, we’ve been treated to scores of Republican men (primarily — and even a couple Democrats) using women’s health as a political football. Suddenly a decision to permit women free access to birth control became a War on Religion, as the GOP decided to up and move to Crazytown (population: them) in order to avoid talking about the issues that people actually give a shit about — jobs and the economy.

Today — whether by design or brilliant post-Crazytown strategery, President Obama “accommodated” the Catholic Church and the bishops who had been trying to convince us all that permitting women free access to contraception was a harbinger of the end of days.

Initially, I thought that the Administration, after instituting the rule, was taken aback by the right-wing freak out, but managed to strategize and negotiate its way around it.  Others have since convinced me that this was the plan all along — to force the Republicans to show their asses thereby demonstrating to Democratic and Republican women alike (as well as those crucial independents) that what Republicans really want to do is install a tiny government in to every women’s vagina and arrogate complete control over women’s sexuality and health.

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Posted in Balloon Juice Cross-Posts, Body/Health Shenanigans, Obama 2012: Yes We Will!, War on Women

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The GOP Endgame On Birth Control Is Just The Beginning

Posted on February 9, 2012 by | 13 Comments

There’s a method to this madness.

MoJo’s Nick Baumann puts the various GOP birth control freakout stories in perspective as he catches “moderate” Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida dropping this bombshell of a bill: the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

What does it do?  Why, it ends birth control insurance coverage for women, of course.

Rubio has sold his proposal—introduced Jan. 31 as the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act,” or S. 2043—as a way to counter President Barack Obama’s controversial rule requiring even religiously affiliated schools and universities to offer copay-free birth control to their employees. But health care experts say that its implications could be far broader.

If passed, the bill would allow any institution or corporation to cut off birth control coverage simply by citing religious grounds. (You can read the bill here or in the DocumentCloud embed below.) It has 26 cosponsors in the Senate; a similar proposal sponsored by Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) has 148 cosponsors in the House. On Wednesday, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) vowed to repeal Obama’s rule, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pointed to Rubio’s bill as a potential model for doing so.

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Posted in Teabilly and GOP Mendacity, War on Women, Zandar

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Komen for the Cure Cuts Planned Parenthood Funding for Breast Cancer Screening and Health Services

Posted on January 31, 2012 by | 16 Comments

Komen for the Cure is abandoning women in need.

PhotobucketThere’s a new and ugly development in the GOP’s War on Women.  The Forced Birthers have enlisted an organization — Komen for the Cure, which scores of women have relied upon both to prevent breast cancer, and as a support network when fighting breast cancer — to help undermine the rights of women to make decisions about their bodies for themselves.

In a press release today, Planned Parenthood announced that The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation will no longer provide Planned Parenthood the more than half million dollars in grant funds which Planned Parenthood uses to provide breast health education, screenings, and referrals for mammograms.

Turns out that Komen’s new Vice-President of Public Policy, Karen Handel, is a Forced Birther, and even ran for governor of Georgia on a platform of defunding Planned Parenthood.  Thus, it seems that Komen for the Cure, the purpose of which is to help women, has been taken hostage by Karen Handel and her right-wing Forced Birth views which undermine women and women’s reproductive choices.  In her own words, “Since I am pro-life [anti-choice] I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.”

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Posted in Balloon Juice Cross-Posts, Body/Health Shenanigans, Lady Bits, War on Women, What the Crap!?

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Today in Rick Santorum: 'Eat a Bag of Dicks' Edition

Posted on January 23, 2012 by | 10 Comments

Rick Santorum needs to find a hot fire and ceremoniously hurl himself into it.

Why?  For Two reasons:

1. Santorum thinks that women who are impregnated by their rapist have been given a gift, albeit in a “broken way” and should “make the best of a bad situation.”  He also thinks that women carrying the child of their rapist should just “accept the gift God has given to [them].” Gee whiz, Rick — thanks for being there to tell all women what’s “best” for them.  Also?  Tell God he’s a really shitty gift-giver.

2. Santorum lacks the sort of integrity that any person aspiring to the highest political office should have; the sort of integrity that would require correcting a Floridian woman at a campaign event when she tells you that Obama is “an avowed Muslim” who has “no legal right to be President.”

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Posted in Please Die in a Fire, The Frothman Cometh

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Seriously, New Hampshire GOP? With the Magna Carta?

Posted on January 4, 2012 by | 31 Comments

Putting the “wha?!” in “what the fuck?!”

 New Hampshire Republicans have already demonstrated that they drink steaming hot mugs of crazy on the regular.

Remember how New Hampshire Republicans essentially defunded Planned Parenthood of New England thus making it impossible for low-income women in New Hampshire to obtain contraception? The Republicans’ reasoning, of course, was NO ABORSHUNS EVAH! even though federal law (hello? Hyde Amendment?) prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion.

But no matter! New Hampshire Republicans don’t need a reason to kick New Hampshire women in their vaginae.  These Tea Party fanatics just do whatever their tiny mental Jesus tells them to do.

I wrote about the New Hampshire GOP’s assault on women’s reproductive rights here.  Later, I wrote about how Obama basically was all, “Nobody kicks American women in the vaginae! Not on my watch!” which resulted in the federal government stepping in to fund Planned Parenthood of New England, so women in New Hampshire could purchase contraception and other totally-not-abortion-related healthcare services.

(Now, what does all this have to do with the Magna Carta?  Very little.  Just wanted to point out that Obama is totally looking out for you and your uterus.  Moving on.)

New Hampshire Republicans have dialed up the crazy yet again.  But this time it’s not women’s lady-areas they’re legislating, it’s old-ass English law – the Magna Carta (most of which was repealed as soon as it was enacted.)

Yes, seriously.

From Think Progress,

New Hampshire Republicans are taking textual originalism to a whole new level: three lawmakers have proposed a bill that requires that all legislation find its origin not in the U.S. constitution, but an English document crafted in 1215.

When the legislature reconvenes this month, Republicans want their colleagues to justify many new bills with a direct quote from the 800-year-old Magna Carta.

No, don’t rub your eyes.  You just read that.  That just happened.

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Posted in Political Shenanigans, Teabilly and GOP Mendacity, War on Women, What the Crap!?

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