Category: politics & causes

politics, both trans & otherwise

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Post-Blogging the DNC

I didn’t blog tonight because I was busy worrying about Betty and having dinner with my sister.

I don’t care what anyone else thinks — I think (Bill) Clinton’s speech was mediocre. For him, & for this campaign. Were I his speechwriting consultant, I would have sent him back to the drawing board. It was too safe, nearly mealy-mouthed. This is the man who defined what is is, after all.

Who did rock tonight was John Kerry. His talk left me thinking, as I did with (Hillary) Clinton’s, where the hell was that during their own campaigns? Kerry had his claws out, & that was lovely.

Biden’s rocked too (though it’s not yet up on YouTube). & Yes, I’m biased, since he’s a good Catholic boy from PA. But I just love that he’s made up for his stutter by being someone who speaks, sometimes too much, in public. In front of thousands. I haven’t liked him much since the Anita Hill fiasco, but he’s a good VP for Obama, and he gives good emotion. I especially liked what he said about America regaining the world’s trust.

What’s funniest is that I find myself agreeing with Pat Buchanan (who’s a regular commentator on MSNBC): Where’s Guatanamo? Where is the criticism of Cheney, that fucker? He’s a traitor and a shit and his approval rating is something like 18%. What about Rove? What about Valerie Plame? ATTACK, DEMOCRATS, ATTACK! These guys suck.

Here’s another thing: someone needs to get up & try to undo (Hillary) Clinton’s poison against Obama, specifically her charge about his “rhetoric.” We need rhetoric right now. Great leadership is not just about policy. It’s about Fireside Chats, and “nothing to fear but fear itself,” and “once more into the breach.” It’s about motivating people. & While no, we don’t need a motivational speaker as President, it doesn’t hurt when a guy as smart as Obama can move the masses with his words. I know I’ve needed someone to tell me to have hope, what with paying $900/month for health insurance that covers who the fuck knows what.

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Clinton Redux

Is anyone else annoyed by the ongoing media silliness about Clinton’s voters? Either they’re on board, or they’re not. Clinton has said her piece about as articulately as anyone could, & it’s very apparent that if they don’t back Obama, they’re going against her wishes, which is one hell of a way to “support” a candidate.

Still, even for those who won’t vote for him, I do hope they vote. Ah, the stupidity of a woman not voting in a year where we had our first female candidate for president… don’t get me started. & All those other Dems running for the other umpteen offices will need supporting as well.

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Blogging the DNC – Pt. 2

10:45pm – Wow. That was one hell of a video introduction, & one hell of a reception, Clinton just got. & She wasted no time at all expressing her support for Obama.

No way, Nohow, No McCain.

10:53PM – She’s in fine form, coming off as both confident but humble. *sigh* Wish we’d seen more of that during the campaign. & Why oh why didn’t she ever give that talk about gender she should have given? Atlantic Monthly reported that she considered it, but never made up her mind to do it. She should have. We needed that talk as much as we needed Obama’s on race.

11:03PM – Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her give this good a speech. With a shout out to Seneca Falls: “My mother was born before women were given the right to vote. My daughter got to vote for her mother for President. This is the story of America.” Nice. & Then rousing Harriet Tubman’s “Keep going.”

Godspeed, Hillary Clinton. Well fucking done.

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Votes for Women!

Eighty-eight years ago today women were given the right to vote in the U.S. Here’s a cool timeline of all of the events that lead up to it, which is vital to understand in the context of fighting for other rights. It took about 70 years from the first Seneca Falls convention to the ratification of the law.

& Tonight, Hillary Clinton will be speaking at the DNC convention. I’m waiting to hear what she’s got to say now that it’s all said & done (but I do hope she’s writing a book about the experience, too).

There is nothing, but nothing, that pisses me off more than women who don’t vote. So get registered, if you’re not.

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Blogging the DNC – Why Not?

Normally Betty & I would be talking loudly at each other over the DNC reporting, and since she’s not here, you all get to suffer my opinions, instead.

First: cool to see Luke Russert reporting, but even more cool, the happy smiles on Brokaw’s and Olbermann’s faces after he did.

Then: Nancy Pelosi’s speech was about as boring as dirt. She’s still right, though, that John McCain is wrong.

On the idea that Clinton supporters are voting for McCain… please stay home. Um, HELLO? He’s not pro choice, he’s not for equal pay for equal work, and he has voted against legislation that would make contraception more available, including the Gag Rule.

(more as the night goes on)

Ted Kennedy, filled with optimism and laughter, was like a salve. His comment on the war – and how our soldiers should not be sent into mistakes that aren’t worthy of their courage – was a concise articulation of the how sad so many of us have been these past years while we’re fighting the wrong war entirely.

10PMish – Buchanan is such an asswipe. Just in general.

10:30PM – Michelle Obama’s video retrospective, and now her older brother introducing her.

12:32AM – & Wow was she great. I was right there with all the other women who were crying listening to her, as Matthews & Olbermann pointed out. It killed me that they had to ask a woman why the tears. It’s one of us up there: a smart woman, a woman accused of being angry. The sexism directed at Clinton had its ramifications for all of us – even for those of us who don’t particularly like her.

Now go register to vote if you aren’t.

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Diane Schroer & the LOC

The ACLU has a stunning blog post up about the Diane Schroer / Library of Congress case.

Science doesn’t matter, the Library insists, it’s what Congress was thinking of when it passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. “Everett Dirksen,” a reporter said to me in the hall outside Court, “wasn’t thinking of Diane Schroer when he helped pass the Civil Rights Act.” “Probably true,” I said as she headed off to meet her cameraman, “but James Madison wasn’t thinking of TV when he penned the First Amendment either.”

The issue isn’t the way someone who wrote or voted for a law was thinking it would apply; the issue is the concept embodied in the law. What was the idea? The flip answer is that on this point, Congress didn’t have an idea; many of those who voted to put sex into the 1964 Civil Rights Act were hoping it would kill the bill.

But in 1964, as today, it is hard to believe that anyone thought sex was just about chromosomes or even just anatomy. It was about the whole package. The issue in the case is how does that idea apply in a world where the package is different than we thought in 1964, a reflection of more things than we thought, maybe not including a lot of things we thought, maybe more fluid than we thought.

It was written by Matt Coles, the Director of the ACLU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender & AIDS projects. Read it.

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Abortifacient Irafaciens

The Bush administration distributed a memo that would make birth control pills abortion:

According to the HHS draft, “abortion” takes on a very broad meaning: “The Department proposes to define abortion as ‘any of the various procedures — including the prescription and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.’”

RH Reality check has a link to the leaked document. The whole thing is ridiculous – the last legs of the Bush administration, trying to redefine “abortion” as any kind of birth control or family planning. Coming soon: woman saying no to sex defined as abortion. As much as that’s Onion-y, I fear it’s what the anti-choicers are really all about – women barefoot & pregnant.

(via Carpetbagger).

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Can’t Afford Kids

Dubya & Co. have been in power long enough to pretty much devastate the economy, and in response, women are reporting that they had abortions in the past year precisely because of the bad economy. Women, being imminently practical, and carrying the burden of most childcare, and being the first and hardest hit by dropping wages, can’t afford to have their babies.

An interesting dilemma for Republicans, no?  So if you want to prevent abortions, maybe it would be a good idea to quit funding tax cuts for the rich.

(via Feministing)