MI Privatizes Democracy: Congress Unprivatizes Women

While Governor Snyder and his posse are busy privatizing Michigan schools and cities, the 112th Congress is busy unprivatizing women's bodies. Is it a coincidence that Michigan representatives play a prominent role in this outrage? The House Ways and Means Committee is chaired by bought and paid for Dave Camp (R-MI4) and is now holding subcommittee hearings to advance H.R.3, the "Stupak on Steroids" bill introduced by yet another Michigan troglodyte, gone but still invading women's lives. H.R. 358 has just been advanced to the floor by the Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Fred Upton (R-MI6) who are been turned completely by his contributors on both women and the environment. This co-opted by campaign contributions legislator is from Benton Harbor, a city now being victimized by Emergency Financial Manager Joe Harris. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called Michigan "Ground Zero" in education reform. Rachel Maddow called Benton Harbor "Ground Zero" in the hostile takeover of democracy in America. And Michigan is "Ground Zero" in the war to keep our bodies, our lives, our healthcare private. Privatize this!

112th Congress Budget Bill Endangers Wolves

In stealth, Congress has removed gray wolves from Endangered Species Act protection in a policy rider to the budget bill passed at the brink last Friday. This leaves gray wolves at the mercy of states that plan to kill hundreds of them. The Natural Resources Defense Fund has a petition to sign and send to your Senators and Representative. Enough of this sneaky legislative nonsense! Call your Senators out. If the link won't work for you, email your Senators and Representative from their respective sites. If you don't know who your Senators are, you can find your Senators here.

Dukes v. Wal-Mart: So Maybe Size Does Matter?

Supreme Court is hearing Dukes v. Wal-Mart this week. Scalia and Ailito have already asked "well, is it corporate policy or store management [to discriminate against women]?" The answer, boys, is probably both. The size of the class action suit is why the Supremes took the case. Is this a good case? I don't know. Has Wal-Mart discriminated against lots of women in pay and promotions? The fact that, since the suit was filed in 2001, Wal-Mart has increased the number of women in lower management positions, and restored Dukes' pay rate may not reveal anything, but Wal-Mart did both. The fact that Wal-Mart has chosen this sidebar issue to take to the Court after 10 years of unsuccessfully ditching the case is significant. Women in the United States still make less than men in same positions, women are underrepresented in senior management. This graphic shows women in positions of power in Afghanistan and the U.S. I can't find good numbers for the blank percentages for U.S., and I'm not sure that's insignificant. Our United States has still not ratified the United Nations Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It was ratified by the UN in 1979. What other countries join us in abstaining? Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Narau, Palau and Tonga. The 186 countries that ratified CEDAW pledge to take action to end discrimination against women and girls. The Obama administration strongly supports ratification. The bill has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 1979. The U.S. is still mulling over an implementation plan to support U.N. Resolution 1325 ten years after, and 60 years after the Declaration of Human Rights. That America cannot get its arms around gender issues, except to diss other countries about their issues, that the 112th Congress and too many state legislatures are busy undermining and reversing human rights issues by attacking women's health and safety, that we cannot get a simple resolution out of committee while violence against women has increased around the world, that the Supreme Court might decide that a 1964 Civil Rights Act violation affecting hundreds of thousands of women is just too damn many women, is an appalling indictment of our culture's ideology, our government's priorities. We can do better than this.

Assaulting Women

Jane Arraf is a journalist who covers war and conflict. She has reported from Iraq and the Middle East since 1991. On npr today Ms. Arraf writes about women journalists writing in wartorn areas. It is particularly timely since Lara Logan was sexually assaulted in Egypt. A sidebar article regarding comments posted on a story about the attack on Lara Logan explains why comments have been flagged and removed from the story. npr had to explain that the rules do not allow hate speech, sexist, bullying or obscene comments. While schoolgirls in Iraq are leaving school because of the violence against them by teachers, commenters in America can't keep their comments civil. Violence against women is on the rise. Iraq, Sudan, Middle East. And the United States. The 112th Congress is busy assaulting women's reproductive rights. Blaming the victim is an old, tired game, but it is a game that is played daily in the world. I honor the women who speak out. I shout the names of women who speak the truth and speak it often. Jane Arraf, Ann Jones, Christiane Amanpour, and so many others who observe and then report.

112th Congress H.R.3: Subjugating Women Further

Republican word cloud. Talking points in color, reality in black. Claiming action for struggling Americans on jobs and the economy, the first bills introduced are: H.R.1 titled "Reserved for the Speaker." Cosponsors: None. Major Actions: None. H.R.2 titled "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act." Passed. H.R.3: No Taxpayer Money for Abortion Act. There are 173 cosponsors for this bill, including Democrats and a few women reps. The cosponsors in Michigan are these: Justin Amash, R. MI3, Dan Benishek, R. M1, Thaddeus McCotter, R. M11, Candice Miller, R. M10, Mike Rogers, R. M8, Tim Walberg, R. MI7. This bill was introduced January 20, and has been referred to Judiciary, Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees for a period to be defined by the speaker. What the hell Energy and Commerce has to do with this bill is beyond me, but Michigan's Dave Camp, R. M4 is the new Chair of the Ways and Means committee. Camp has voted 100% along party lines. Energy and Commerce is chaired by Fred Upton, R. MI6. Upton also votes 100% party. While the Republicans talk jobs, small business, middle class, the bills introduced talk Speaker privilege, knifing healthcare reform in the back, and denying women more reproductive rights. HR3's language goes sinisterly beyond denying women's reproductive rights. Introducing the phrase "forcible rape" is diabolical. There is no legal precedent for such a description. But the Republicans want degrees of rape entered in the legislative record. We all know the burden to prove "forcible rape" will be placed on the woman. Boehner called the bill "one of our highest legislative priorities." Abortion funding is an issue that has been legislated repeatedly: escalating the legislative language to include demanding battered, beaten, pregnant women prove "forcible rape" is monstrous. Is it possible that the people who support the subversion of women's reproductive rights as a highest priority, who are apparently willing to personally adjudicate the degree of injuries sustained by a raped woman, who use religion and morality as a shield to dispose of women, will continue to hold their seats in our legislature? That men want this further power over women is patriarchy to the next level; that women have signed on is horrific.