The Myth of the Conservative Majority

Late last week I got an email from Media Matters informing me that (no surprise here) I've been in the right all along: extensive polling and research has now found that the majority of Americans are, like me, PROGRESSIVE.

Never mind what the conservative thought leaders and media-makers tell you--the majority of us in this country believe in Government taking responsibility for its citizenry--even if it means more spending. The majority of us want a higher minimum wage; are for conservation; want to protect a woman's right to choose; want health care coverage for all; and see that it's long since been time to get the hell out of Iraq.

I like being right, so this is very good news, indeed. For more details, see Eric Lotke's article on AlterNet this morning (via TomPaine.com).

The Abortion Frame, Revisited

Because I couldn't sleep with the last post resting at the top of my page (why do we feel such shame about our pop culture fetishes???) I wanted to provide some real news about how the right is reclaiming, and reframing, the abortion debate.

Today's NY Times featured a front page article (print edition) by Robin Toner on how Kennedy's recent decision is increasingly being used as a stepping stone for the right to reframe the debate in terms of not just "what's good for the fetus" (the classic argument against choice), but now, insanely enough, what's good for women.

Why are the right to lifers making the leap? Because Kennedy gave them exactly the ammunition they needed to do so, referring numerous times in the majority decision to the "regrets" and "emotional damage" reported by "some" women who have had abortions. Therefore, Kennedy found--in his great wisdom--that the state had a right to "protect" women from making a choice that could, maybe, in the future, someday, maybe, cause one or two of them, maybe, a touch of regret.

Now if I were a right to lifer, I'd be jumping for joy about now--because how much more handily could you ask to be proffered a platform for the future? Women cannot protect themselves--and we have the anecdotes here to prove it--so it's "our" job to protect them. Never mind all this pesky nonsense of when life begins, and privacy, and so on. This is about protecting the already born--and we're just the group of conservative white men to do it.

In any case, I natter on... but the point is, read the article. And then let's begin thinking long and hard about how we wrest back control of this twisted messaging--before they've claimed yet another victory and we're wondering (again) how it happened.

Bienvenidos a Miami!

Call it the luck of the (black) Irish: I've been sent to Miami for three days to observe a convening of the Foundation's Reproductive Rights grantees--and so far so good. Today was mostly travel, check-in, and settling in to our surroundings. Tomorrow, though, the hard work begins. Which is why I spent my evening "enjoying my own company," as I said to Jess (who is currently on a company boondoggle in Cancun... ah, the for-profit world).

Anyway, this enjoyment of my own self took the form tonight of taking up residence in a bar along Lincoln Road called Finnegan's 2, where I nursed an Amstel Light for about an hour and half while reading "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (loving every minute of it; definitely pick it up). Then I wandered down to the far end of Lincoln, popping into stores; then turned and headed back up towards Collins, where my hotel is, stopping first to have the sushi I had been craving all day. The concierge recommended a place called Sushi Siam, and though I'm usually wary of sushi places that try to mix with another cuisine (here, Thai), I figured I'd give it a shot. It was... fine--though the seaweed tasted a bit too "seaweedy" for my taste. The lesson? Never second-guess your own instincts.

Still, it's been a great few hours. I'm taking a breather back in the room for a bit to watch what I believe is the season finale of "Heroes" (can't wait!) and then either going to venture down toward Ocean Avenue and see what's happening there in the way of dessert. Or I'll just hop next door and check out the quality of their gelato. Not bad, friends. Not bad at all.

Want to Support Choice? Pick Up Your Phone

Ready to DO SOMETHING to respond to last week's abortion ruling? Here's your chance:

TODAY IS NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY!
SUPPORT THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE ACT

On April 18, the Supreme Court turned back the clock on women's health. Every American who values freedom and privacy should be troubled by the Court’s decision to uphold the Federal Abortion Ban, an abortion ban with no protection for a woman’s health.

You can fight back.

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) would guarantee reproductive freedom for future generations of American women. With the Court’s decision, we need the protection of FOCA now more than ever before. Join us for the national call-in day on April 25, the third anniversary of the historic March for Women’s Lives. We will flood the phone lines of the U.S. House and Senate.

Don’t let this attack on women’s freedom and privacy go unanswered. Urge your members of Congress to cosponsor the Freedom of Choice Act.

ON APRIL 25th, CALL YOUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AT (202) 224-3121

(FOCA House Bill Number: H.R. 1964; FOCA Senate Bill Number: S. 1173)

Time to get on it, ladies and gents.

Ms. Foundation Responds to Supreme Court Abortion Ban Ruling

The Ms. Foundation for Women (an organization near and dear to my heart) today released its official statement on the Supreme Court's ruling on "partial birth" abortion. I may be biased (ahem), bit I think it makes a pretty decent case about what's at stake in this particular miscarriage of justice (if you'll pardon the pun).

A Woman Gets the Abortion Decision Right

There's no way she knows it, but I've loved Dahlia Lithwick for a long time. Not only because her first name reminds me of a horse I once rode many years ago, but because her commentary on Slate is just so damned brilliant.

Today, Lithwick tackles Justice Kennedy's majority opinion in upholding the so-called "partial-birth abortion" ban and truly rips him a new one. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who finds it so utterly irritating when these Supreme Court decisions wax ridiculously poetical, in the hopes, one can only imagine, that people will be lulled into a sense of complacency by the melodious tune of Kennedy's argument. It sure isn't working in this case and as anyone who's read any of the MSM coverage of the finding is now aware, the decision is not only insulting to women, it has--as none other that Ruth Bader Ginsberg put it--no basis to stand.

Despite how outrageous the ruling is, I have to tell you that I know only one, ONE, person who got out and joined a protest over the issue. Including myself--but I hope to change that soon. I'm going to the NARAL site to join up, because this is the beginning of the end my friends. Once you give a fetus rights over a woman by law, there's no going back. Unless, of course, we all get out there and fight for our rights. Remember: the fact that this case got to the Supreme Court was due to some pretty hard work by the Right to reframe the debate on their own terms--and they won, this round. Now it's time for us to take the discussion back. MOVE!

Justices Deliver Blow to Defenders of Choice

Today, the highest court in the land handed down its decision on the issue of partial birth abortion--and for those of us who would defend a woman's right to chose to the gallows, it's not good news.

According to Yahoo! News, in a 5-4 ruling, the court found that "the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion." This, despite the fact that there is no provision in the law that would allow doctors to perform the procedure to save a woman's life.

This is the first time the Supreme Court has banned a specific abortion procedure, and the right to lifers are over the moon at what they quite rightly see as a firm step in the direction of obliterating abortion rights completely.

Justices Ginsberg, Stevens, Souter and Breyer were in the minority; Thomas, Scalia and Kennedy, along with Bush appointees John Roberts and Samuel Alito formed the majority.

The Yahoo! News article offers a description of what partial birth abortion looks like that will make any feeling person's skin crawl--but that's not what this is about. The point is that the Supreme Court has just found, beyond a doubt, that the life of a fetus is worth more than the life (and liberty) of a woman-- and once that ideology becomes law, as it did today, then it is only a matter of time before abortion is out the window entirely. This is big, big stuff, y'all. It is the turning of the tide--mark my words. And we have everyone who voted for George Bush to thank for it.

Weekend Round-up

Funny, isn't it, how life and art (or journalism) intersect? This morning as I was walking down Wall Street with a copy of this weekend's NYTimes Magazine griped firmly in my left hand, I noticed an absolute phalanx of combat ready NYPD officers clogging the street, the sidewalks, and the entrance to the number 1 train. Being that this is New York, and downtown NY at that, only blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood, seeing all this police activity made my heart race a little bit--and not in a good way. And then I heard the shouting in the distance, rhythmic and punctuated by an intermittent drum beat, and when I looked again and saw once officer with a camera to his face, snapping madly at the scene, I realized what was going on: a protest. An anti-war protest. It's the first one I've seen in person here in Manhattan and it made me wonder if we've finally reached a place where people are actually going to begin standing up and demanding real change... Which brings me back to the life/art connection, because what I was holding in my left hand, in that NY Times magazine, was this week's cover story on women and war--or, specifically, the female US soldiers who are returning from their tours with cases of PTSD caused not just by the trauma they are seeing in the war zone, but also by the sexual trauma inflicted upon them by their male counterparts in the military. To have been so fully immersed in the story on my subway ride downtown this morning, and to have had the sense, in reading it, that the shit is really about to hit the proverbial fan in regards to this war; and then to emerge from there straight into the middle of an anti-war protest... Well, it gives you the feeling that the war really is everywhere--that the chickens have come home to roost. And the most terrible part about it all is that, in so many ways, the damage has already been done. There's no going back for the thousands of soldiers dead or damaged. The only question left is: how many more lives are we willing to ruin in the name of oil and power?

On that happy note, a few items of note from this past weekend:

Let the Mudslinging Begin (Again): Barack's team may be disavowing it, but this video spot that parodies Apple's landmark "1984" commercial is the best piece of pirate political advocacy I've seen yet.

Is Ignorance Bliss?: From the NYTimes, a paralyzing article about one young woman's choice to find out whether she possesses the genetic marker for Huntington's disease (she does). Likely to provoke the "What Would You Do?" sentiment in most of us. For the record, I don't think I have the capacity to hold such knowledge about the limitations of my life expectancy and still live any full kind of life. When it comes to pain and suffering, I'm a wimp, quite frankly. So let me float off in a daze, all who are listening...

Pre-abortion Ultrasounds Could Be Required Under SC Law: In another move to limit a woman's right to abortion without being lectured to or coerced, a bill is now winding its way through the South Carolina legislature that would require women seeking abortions to view ultrasounds of their fetuses before actually going through with the procedure. Un-freakin'-real.

Plan A? Romance. Plan B? Ask Planned Parenthood.

Folks in Pittsburgh sure are lucky: not only do they get to live in what is without a doubt one of the more beautiful (yet underrated) cities in the U.S., but on Valentine's Day they'll be able to access FREE emergency contraception from their local Planned Parenthood chapter. Starting tomorrow at 7:30 a.m., the downtown clinic in Pittsburgh will be handing out Plan B to any passersby who want it--and can prove they're over 18 years of age. Ingrid and Big Al: you FINALLY have something to be proud of Pennsylvania for!!