Sara Palin can see Virginia from her PAC!

Sarah Palin is setting down roots in Virginia. She selected the newly battleground state as the one in the Lower 48 to start her bid for the Presidency in 2012.

SarahPAC, which submitted its filings in November, chose Virginia as its headquarters. Emily Buchanan of Arlington, an anti-choice volunteer for McCain, is listed as the treasurer. Melissa Graeff of the same anti-choice group, a Bob Jones University graduate, is listed as Assistant.

The anti-choice group mentioned above that is run by the two Virginians is disguised under the name of the Susan B Anthony (SBA) Foundation. SBA is an illegal pass-through group for organizations who have already donated the contribution that is the maximum allowed by law. By donating to SBA, a shell organization, SBA can disburse further donations to the same candidates, and the candidate recipients can collect donations twice - twice as much money as that allowed by Campaign Finance Law. It is the same principle that got Tom Delay indicted.

SBA is now filing under a slightly modified name here, which makes their donations seem to start from a "clean slate."

Is Sarah Palin more like Dick Cheney or more like Clarence Thomas?

A week ago, Sarah Palin didn't know what the Vice President does. "What exactly is it that the VP does every day?" Now she is asking for your vote.

Meanwhile, Palin's past has some disturbing parallels to Dick Cheney's.

* A scapegoating, firing, and influence peddling story that reminds us of the the Jim Wilson/Scooter Libby scandal.

* Oil company shill and global warming deny-er.

Alaskans call her appointment "A Bridge to Nowhere."

On the other hand, is she more like Clarence Thomas: a neophyte with no trail of experience to support her or to critcize, with no intellectual heft to bring to the table. An opportunistic choice consistent with John McCain's strategy of selling out his maverick credentials to the administration that accused his own adopted daughter of being a bastard from a liaison McCain supposedly had with an African American prostitute. McCain did not stand up to Karl Rove's slur of his own elementary-school age daughter, just so he could be President. McCain chose a running mate who, like Clarence Thomas, Joe Biden couldn't criticize without being portrayed as a bully.

I hope Biden unleashes all his fury at this Barbie politician and he should have all Feminist support behind him. With just a few months as governor under her belt, Palin is no Hillary.

In the meantime, even Associated Press confuses this ticket with Dick Cheney.

Hillary vs. Obama

STOP IT.

I say this as a first-grade student in the year Hillary graduated from college. When everyone said they wanted to be President, I said so too. Even teachers laughed. Imagine the power that gave to the students to deflate the dreams of elementary school girls.


Imagine the derision aimed at the smart, accompished, promising women of Wellsley in 1969, the same year. The year Hillary graduated.

An undated photograph of Hillary Rodham, center, during her days as a student at Wellesley College, from 1965 to 1969.

The women, and the men who benefit from their work, discoveries, and support, who read these words owe those women a debt that can never be paid. If you don't want Hillary, don't support her. But acknowledge this debt.

Hillary Clinton: Dare to Compete

Democratic Presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., walks off stage with parting gifts, after speaking at a graduation ceremony for McLean High School, Wednesday, June 13, 2007, at Constitution Hall in Washington. McLean High School is located in McLean, Va. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Hillary Clinton proved Virginia is "in play" in 2008 with the standing ovation before and after her speech to the graduating class of McLean High School on Wednesday at DAR Constitution Hall.

Senator Clinton fullfilled all the requirements of a graduation speaker. She was prompt, funny, inspiring, and over in 10 minutes.

She told about the difficulty sending Chelsea off from high school to college. Luckily, she made sure her daughter was prepared -- with plenty of shelf paper for her new dorm.

She wrapped up with a story she has told from time to time. It was 1999, and Clinton was being introduced by the captain of a girl's basketball team -- in the Chelsea-Clinton neighborhood in NYC. The program was one designed to encourage girls to participate in sports, called "Dare to Compete." Sofia Totti, the student, gave a verbal nod to the great speculation swirling in New York at the time about Mrs. Clinton's possible Senate run. Totti would say she decided her speech would be the perfect opportunity for a little encouragement and told the audience that Mrs. Clinton was an athlete, too: "hopefully a runner."

"Mrs. Clinton came to shake my hand and gave me a smile, acknowledging my comment," Ms. Totti said. Still clutching the first lady's hand, she whispered, "Dare to compete, Mrs. Clinton. Dare to compete."

Clinton said Totti's challenge motivated her successful campaign. The Senator challenged all the graduates to Dare to Compete.

Hillary's approval ratings are up today. Bush's are sinking lower.

Anyone with video? I'm working on getting some clips of my own linked here.

Mother's Day: Birth Control is Healthy for Mom and Baby

Standing tall for Pregnant Women: Against Gag rules and Guns.

I had learned through work that bleeding is a common cause of death in pregnancy. It is endemic in the third world, such as Afghanistan. It is a problem that may get worse depending on the youth of the mother. In poor countries, the loss of small amounts of blood are especially dangerous due to the high rate of malaria and anemia that already weakens the moms. The lack of refrigeration makes blood transfusions almost impossible. The AIDS rate means a transfusion cure can be worse than the disease, anyway.

Without birth control and health care, these moms may die, sometimes during their fourth or fifth pregnancy, malnourished and exhausted from multiple, closely-spaced births. Often they are still nursing the previous child. This means most moms that die in childbirth leave orphans behind. If only they could space their pregnancies, they would have more strength, a better chance at life and at mothering their existing children. In cultures where men are not active in child rearing, these children are often left to suffer, starve, and die.

In the US, prior to the prevalence of handwashing and other aseptic techniques, rates of deaths from abortions and pregnancies were about the same. Midwives had better survivial rates, probably because doctors increasingly performed their work in dirty cities. As doctors tried to corner the market on obstetrics, in 1951 they formed the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, and to reduce the influence of midwives they successfully lobbied to outlaw abortions, which till then had been undistrurbed in most states.

More recently, in the US, sepsis is not so much a problem any more. Bleeding death rates have also reduced. Curious of what pregnancy-associated issue may have taken its place, some scientists have followed pregnant women for a year to see what their health issues are today.

The most common cause of death was injury. The most common cause of injury was homicide. The most common cause of homicide was guns. The moms were shot, usually by the father of her baby.

In North Carolina 1992-94. In New York City 1987-1991.

In Chicago 1986-89. In young mothers

Back to the third world, I see a story on NOVA tonight with another cautionary tale about the effect of the lack of birth control. It involved a Turkish woman who had 19 children. The first 7 children were born within 5 years. As a young mother, overcome with the burden of raising them all, she never had time to teach the children to walk upright. They still walk on all fours, stuck in a baby's crawl. The daughters dispair of never dancing, never being able to marry. Their sons are angry they can never support a family or work. Their bone structure now may never be able to support them to walk upright.

Hiding behind "pro-family" rhetoric, neo-conservatives continue their deathly policies. With inadequate background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases, pregnancy can be a death sentence in the US. In poor countries, refusing to acknowlege the desperate need for birth control is ending lives of women and their children.

Maternal mortality remains the leading cause of death for women of childbearing age—an estimated 500,000 women die each year from pregnancy related causes, with 78,000 deaths resulting from unsafe abortion. Having access to safe, appropriate family planning methods and safe abortion when needed, can make the difference in women’s lives. It can prevent dangers from pregnancies ...

Save lives with your vote. Check out the politicians on these issues at the portal at Planned Parenthood.

If pregnant women have rights to bodily integrity, will everyone want some?

Right to Lifers killed Angela Carder: the sad story of pregnant Maryland resident Angela Stoner Carder, who died from a forcible delivery of her premature fetus, is detailed well here and on Wikipedia here.

"No party should be the mere instrument of another. In shared decision-making, the act of informed consent or informed refusal affirms and protects patient autonomy while acknowledging the physician's commitment to professional standards. We strongly believe that difficult medical decisions should be made within the doctor-patient relationship and not by the courts."

Do you agree? Do you think you have a right to bodily integrity? To marital privacy? To a prescription for birth control if a pregnancy could kill you? The ACLU's timeline of reproductive rights here describes state efforts to deny these self-evident rights.

The Supreme Court decided yesterday to officially pile on the attacks on decisions by pregnant women that increasingly include coerced cesarean sections and blood transfusions.

The law in question criminalizes "partial birth abortion." Despite the fact that "partial birth abortion," however distastefully described and rarely used, is not a true medical procedure, and is not defined in the law as to what true medical procedure might be the crime, the court said it was not vague. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists not only said the procedure could be medically necessary, but pointed out how the specially invited anti-choice witnesses who testified on the Nebraska statue lied in their testimony.

The most curious rationalization in this opinion is that the safety of patients need not be addressed at all in the ban. Nevertheless, Justice Kennedy does inject his concern by saying the State is just demonstrating concern for their mental health by protecting them from the "severe depression and loss of self-esteem" because of the choice. According to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,

"When a statute burdens constitutional rights and all that can be said on its behalf is that it is the vehicle that legislators have chosen for expressing their hostility to those rights, the burden is undue.”

From the Department of Theology, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC:

...[B]ecause a [medical intervention for a fetus, in this case, a] cesarean section, unless there is a threat to her life [by the pregnancy], is not of any clear benefit to the woman, it is wrong to insist that a dying woman must always endure burdensome treatment for the sake of a viable fetus. Should the mother decide to take on such burdens, it is important also to recognize that a cesarean section is not always in the interest of the fetus simply because it is viable. Given the ambiguity of the prognosis for survival and the risks of significant handicaps for the preterm or low birth weight fetus, it may be ethically appropriate to omit an act on behalf of the fetus. Finally, the fact that the fetus' only chance of survival is a preterm delivery does not make the delivery ethically mandatory. The issue is not whether a [medical intervention] is the fetus' only hope, but whether [it] is in the interest of the fetus.

Good NYT story here.

Women in Power Luncheon in DC March 6

EMILY’s List is hosting their annual luncheon in DC on March 6. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Amy Klobuchar, and Claire McCaskill will be honoring Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Join Democratic GAIN and take advantage of a special offer of reduced price tickets to this luncheon for DG members from EMILY’s List.

The special reduced rate is only $50 for tickets for this exciting event. If you are able to attend there should be some awesome networking. For more information, please click here or contact Anna Lidman at (207) 773-8703.

Even if you are not in DC then you should check out EMILY’s List. Anyone interested in making a serious career in Democratic politics should make sure they go to a EMILY’s list training, spend some part of their career working for a EMILY’s list candidate, or if you are lucky enough working for EMILY’s List directly.

Happy Roe Day

PhriendlyJamie has an eloquent blog here.

Angela Carder was a neighbor of mine who got pregnant at 26+ years old. She had been told since she was 13 that her cancer gave her 6 months to live. She and her husband were determined to keep the baby and she stopped taking her medicine. Her remission ended and when her cancer returned she was hospitalized during the 2d trimester for her high-risk pregnancy. George Washington Hospital in DC appointed a guardian for her fetus - not for her - and he sued the mother to end the pregancy. He said it was for good of the child, since Mom was as good as dead, he said, to give the fetus a "better chance" in Neonatal ICU rather than in her declining body. The wacked-out judge weighed the value of her life and the unborn baby's and agreed. The fetus was removed over the objections of her, her husband, and her doctor. The anesthesia killed Mom, AND the baby. The ACLU continued the case to settle the law, even though the outcome couldn't help Angie. They won because the lower court should have honored her freedom of choice and right to privacy.

Ugly Femi-Nazi Condi: asking for it?

There was a time not too long ago when Rush Limbaugh said, "feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream." This week he rushed to defend one power woman drowning in the mainstream when he came to Condi Rice's side after Barbara Boxer pointed out that no one in the current administration including Condi bears accountability to her own family members for the dangers in Iraq.

Here's the exact quote from Boxer, who mentioned Condi's immediate family, which would include her parents and any brothers and sisters. Boxer said nothing about Condi's child-free choices:

"'Who pays the price? I'm not going to pay a personal price. My kids are too old and my grandchild is too young. You're not going to pay a particular price, as I understand it, with an immediate family. So who pays the price? The American military and their families. And I just want to bring us back to that fact.'"

While standing on the shoulders of giants like Madeline Albright who have personally been targets for Rush, Condi defended her own femi-Nazi status "I thought it was O.K. ... if you were single and didn't have children." Rush, who has said that women who are sexually harrassed at work were asking for it, seems to think that sexual harassment is chosen more freely than Condi's alternative lifestyle.

Media Matters for America monitored The Rush Limbaugh Show from March 15 to April 29. During that time, Limbaugh used the term "femi-Nazis" eight times; he suggested that women want to be sexually harassed; he repeatedly equated Democrats with terrorists; he twice resurrected long-discredited right-wing claims that Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was murdered; he repeatedly called Senator John Kerry a "gigolo"; he called environmentalists "total wackos"; he called Howard Dean "a very sick man"; he said Democrats "hate this country"; he referred several times to Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe as a "punk" ... and so on.

But he’s come to Condi’s rescue, and Condi, like a good Republican woman, has done nothing to suggest that she doesn’t need the knight in shining Oxycontin to come to her rescue.

Last week on Rush Limbaugh's show, his own feminism came out of the closet. "Here you have a rich white chick with a huge, big mouth, trying to lynch this -- an African American woman -- right before Martin Luther King Day, hitting below the ovaries here. What about the childless Gloria Steinem? Drum her out of the feminist movement? I'm going to tell you, I was joking the other day about setting up a lobbying group for the childless. This kind of thinking is exactly where we're headed
with Democrats.”

Rush seems eager to form a lobbyist firm of Femi-Nazis for Condi.