Ummm, what was that about the Super Bowl and domestic violence again?

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL -- A record-shattering 106,000,000+ people watched the New Orleans Saints win over Indianapolis in a Super Bowl that will be remembered more for hidden misogyny in the advertisements than for the Saints reviving a city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005.

And not surprisingly, an incident of domestic violence happened very early on the day before the Super Bowl. This time, it involved Warren Sapp.

The Huffington Post has more.

Sapp was charged with one count of misdemeanor domestic battery and is expected to appear before a Miami-Dade County judge Sunday, Miami Beach police spokesman Juan Sanchez said.

Shortly after police officials confirmed the charge NFL Network spokesman Dennis Johnson said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that Sapp – who is an analyst – wouldn't be part of the Super Bowl coverage for Sunday's game between the Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints.

"We have been made aware of the arrest of Warren Sapp by the Miami Beach Police Department," a network statement said. "In light of these circumstances, Warren Sapp will not appear on NFL Network while we review the matter."

The domestic violence allegation was reported around noon Saturday and detectives interviewed Sapp later that day, Sanchez said. The incident occurred early Saturday morning at the Shore Club hotel, according to a police news release.

The victim had a swollen knee and bruises on her neck, according to an arrest affidavit. She told detectives that she was partying with Sapp and her friends at the hotel and asked for his room key when she grew tired. Sapp reportedly woke up the victim a few hours later and they started to argue. She told investigators that Sapp started to choke her and pushed her down on a couch.

As the argument escalated, Sapp grabbed the woman by her shirt and neck and threw her down again, the affidavit states.

Sapp told investigators that he let the woman stay in his room but asked her to leave a few hours later. He told police that the woman fell on her leg when he tried to help her get off a couch.

A telephone message left for Sapp's attorney was not immediately returned, nor was an e-mail.

Sanchez said Sapp was expected to be transferred to Miami-Dade County jail Saturday.

Sapp, a former defensive tackle, played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Oakland Raiders during his NFL career. He was also once a contestant on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

One has to wonder if a record-breaking number of calls to domestic violence shelters in America occurred on Sunday night.

Officer hits girlfriend's breast with a loaded can of beer

COWPENS -- A police officer was arrested and charged with abusing his girlfriend.

The Spartanburg Herald-Journal has more.

Carl Preston Clark, 42, was charged with criminal domestic violence, first offense. An arrest warrant states Clark caused "physical harm and injury to" his 39-year-old girlfriend "by hitting her in her left breast with a loaded can of beer, under circumstances that reasonably created fear of imminent peril to the victim."

The victim said she walked to the nearby Cowpens Police Department after a disturbance at a Cemetery Street residence.

The victim said she wanted Clark removed from the residence because he was calling her names and threw a beer at her, hitting her in the chest.

The on-duty officer at the Cowpens Police Department Saturday night said he was not authorized to comment on the case. Attempts to reach Cowpens Police Chief Ric Makupson were unsuccessful.

Seems like I have blogged about too many of these stories. From Allendale to Cowpens and everywhere in between, I see yet another glimpse of why the law enforcement profession has such a bad rap.

As scmom mentioned in the post about the now former NADPS officer arrested over the holidays, incidents such as these are a lot more common than we think. She provided me with several links (i am gonna add each of these links to my blogroll):

Clearinghouse for Officer-Involved Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence in Police Families

Police Family Violence Fact Sheet

As of midnight Tuesday, Mr. Clark's status with the Cowpens PD was still unknown.

Misogyny and sexism beats both the Saints and Colts in Super Bowl XLIV

MIAMI, FL -- Last year, we had misogyny and sexism in its most subtle form.

Yesterday's Super Bowl shattered some very dubious records. It featured a record amount of misogyny that was unlike the previous 43 Super Bowls.

Here are the worst offenders.

Sixth worst offender: Dove.

This was one of these ads where the misogyny is subtle, or hidden.

Fifth worst offender: FloTV

This was about as close to naked as one would get this year. Oh and yeah, it tells us to be worried about being 'emasculated' by women.

Fourth worst offender: Snickers

While not misogynistic, the ad was blatantly ageist.

Third worst offender: GoDaddy

I am surprised that no feminist put GoDaddy on the worst offenders list. Just because there was no nude of Danica Patrick doesn't make the ad any less offensive.

Second worst offender: Dodge

This most explicit of the misogyny was in this ad. “Feeling emasculated by your wife?” the ad seems to be saying. “Reaching your boiling point? We know you probably want to hit her, but buy a car instead.”

Worst offender: Focus on the Family

Far and away the worst of the misogynistic offenders. While the ad that did air was itself tame, their radical misogynistic agenda that they want to foist on all of us in America is anything but. Oh and yeah, Tim Tebow's father Bob also featured on a web-ad that was on the site just before Super Bowl XLIV spouting misogynistic statements. Focus on the Family wanted to cover up their misogynistic agenda to 106,000,000+ viewers. But thanks to the Women's Media Center's Jockocracy, we exposed Focus on the Family and CBS.

Well, that's that. Now, we can look forward to something that is worth watching: the Daytona 500.

Well, we now know that the new tea party movement is a racist, fascist movement

NASHVILLE -- No more sugarcoating when it comes to the tea party movement.

I'll make it official after I read the stuff and Zogby poll results on Huffington Post.

In addition to being a fascist movement, the new tea party movement is a racist movement as well.

Which makes their leader, Sarah Palin, the biggest racist in America.

Look at the over 90% of the people in this fascist movement thinks that we have become too politically correct when it comes to terrorism. Here is the facts: there has been blatant religious profiling against Muslim Americans for the last 8.5 years.

If there is any group of people that we Americans are being too politically correct towards, it is the Christian terrorists who tell their worshipers to bomb women's health clinics that provide abortion services. That has been going on for 11 years longer on American soil than international Muslim terrorism. Christian terrorism began in 1982. Foreign Muslim terrorism didn't hit the United States until 1993, the same year that the now late Dr. George Tiller was a victim of Christian terrorism for the 3d time (he was shot by Christian terrorist Shelley Shannon).

So, the tea party movement can just take that grievance about us being politically correct towards Muslims and stick it where the sun doesn't shine. Because that is far from the truth.

As for whether I have any kind of sympathy for the tea party movement. Well, I have none. No sympathy whatsoever for a movement whose members directly caused to destruction of America and everything we stand for during a six year period that began in 2003 and ended only last January.

BREAKING NEWS: Bamberg-Ehrhardt teacher charged with rape

BAMBERG -- A teacher for the Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School Marching Band was arrested and charged with criminal sexual conduct with a minor in both Bamberg and Orangeburg counties. The Times and Democrat has more.

Michael Miller, 36, of Orangeburg will face two counts each of lewd act on a minor under 16 and second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

Warrants allege Miller and teen engaged in sexual intercourse in the school’s band room in August and December of 2009. A bond hearing for Miller is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.

Morris said Miller was originally scheduled to turn himself in Thursday morning.

“His attorney called, saying (Miller) wouldn’t be in until after noon,” Morris said. “He said his client had overdosed on something and he went to the Orangeburg hospital.”

Morris said Miller’s attorney is Jonathan Harvey of Columbia. Phone messages left at Harvey’s office Thursday were not returned.

Miller was scheduled to be booked at the Bamberg County Detention Center Thursday evening following his release from the Regional Medical Center.

Miller and his wife, B-EHS Assistant Principal Denise Miller, had been on paid administrative leave pending the result of the police investigation, which was requested by the student’s family.

According to a supplemental Bamberg police incident report, the 14-year-old student told authorities Denise Miller came to her classroom, emptied her bag, took her cell phone and told her to go to the band room. She further claimed Mrs. Miller knocked over a trophy that broke and struck the teen on the side of her face, the report said.

Morris said Denise Miller will not be charged.

Bamberg School District 1 Superintendent Phyllis Schwarting says Miller told her he will resign from his position. The district will take no disciplinary action against Denise Miller, Schwarting said.

“She is totally another victim in this scenario,” Schwarting said. “The board of trustees will have to be informed of any resignation or approve any termination during its next meeting Feb. 22.”

Schwarting says no similar incident involving a teacher and a student has occurred in Bamberg 1 since she became superintendent in 2000. She also said that hiring a new band director at this point in the school year will be difficult, if not impossible.

“He doesn’t have an assistant, and I don’t know how to get someone in there immediately,” Schwarting said. “This could possibly mean the end of the band program for this school term. I hate it for the students.”

“It’s something you don’t ever expect,” the superintendent said. “We will deal with it as best we can and move forward.”

Denise Miller a victim? Victim my ass, Mrs. Schwarting.

Denise blamed the 14-year-old for what her hubby did. It is pretty clear that this has become a case of victim-blaming by the Millers and it hasn't really begun yet.

The Millers should both lose their jobs over this.

Here is the affidavit: Warrant for Michael Miller's arrest

Person of the Week for February 6

The first best person of the week is Renee Chilean. She has become a true inspiration to all of womankind in America.

The second best person of the week is US Rep. Carol Shea Porter of New Hampshire. She was ostracized for telling the truth: Send the Men home and we can get health care done right.

The third and final best person of the week is my other girlfriend, Gloria Allred. She has dug in her heels and announced last weekend that she intends to file a complaint against CBS, Focus on the Family and the NFL for a blatantly misleading Tebow ad.

Assholes of the Week for February 6

The first asshole of the week is the Support Tim Tebow's Super Bowl ad Facebook group. They falsely attacked me for calling out the lies and their thinly veiled misogynistic agenda that they, much like CBS, the Tebows and the Focus on the Family group, spread.

The second asshole of the week is Fox News. They, much like all of the aforementioned parties, are also spreading the lies and misogyny.

The third asshole of the week is Sean Cassidy of Camden. This high school teacher and former Lady Bulldogs basketball coach was arrested for raping a 15-year-old female pupil on Tuesday.

The fourth asshole of the week is Richard Land. He is also spreading his own misogynistic agenda on the Washington Post pages.

The fifth asshole of the week is the New York Times for siding with the Focus on the Family.

The sixth asshole of the week is Sarah Palin. She is supporting blatant misogyny by siding with the anti-choice activists.

The seventh and final asshole of the week is the Augusta Chronicle, for printing a blatantly racist editorial on January 26.

The fact that I nominated just about every notable person or thing that we know locally that has supported the Tebow ad shows that I am not playing around anymore and that misogyny will not be tolerated in the least bit by me.

Support Tebow Ad Facebook group continues to spread bald-faced lies, just like CBS and the Tebows

The Support Tim Tebow's Super Bowl Ad Facebook group continues to spread out and out lies, just like Fox News, CBS and the Tebows.

Here are the facts -- hopefully at least one person from the group will read it.

Abortion has been ILLEGAL in the Philippines for at least 80 years (the Center for Reproductive Rights says the procedure has been illegal for 130 years). And that's at least 57 years before (or 117 years before if the CRR's research is correct) Pam Tebow's claim. Here is the proof -- it is only a hectokilobyte: Abortion in the Philippines

So yeah, the misogynists in the Support Tim Tebow's Super Bowl ad Facebook group are getting desperate and attacking me for calling out the lies from CBS, Fox, the Tebows and Focus on the Family. They cannot stand the fact that we have had enough of the double standards and the misogyny in America.

FOX News tells a bald-faced lie in futile attempt to defend the lying Tebows

NEW YORK CITY -- FOX News is no stranger to telling bald-faced lies.

But this latest lie from the #1 rated news network really takes the cake.

In an attempt to distract and divert attention from the lies that came from the mouth of Gainesville's biggest hypocrite, Pam Tebow, FOX News falsely accuses us of lying about the Tebows when in fact, all reputable government sources from the Asian country proves us correct.

Abortion has been illegal in that country for at least 57 years before Mrs. Tebow faced the 'situation' in question.

FOX News has repeated the lie, not surprisingly. They will defend the misogynistic apologists such as the Tebow family. Misogynistic apologists are no every bit the same as rape apologists.

Now that we have seen a news organization defend the out and out lies from CBS and the Tebows, I now have decided that I will file a complaint with the FCC and FTC at 6:18 p.m. Sunday against Focus on the Family, CBS, and all of the local CBS affiliates.

The least either Mrs. Tebow or Focus on the Family could have done was tell us the truth about abortion being illegal in the Philippines since before World War II. They refused to do so, so now I have to take this drastic action.

Misogynistic Senators still obstructing, denying a well-qualified nominee a spot on Obama's legal counsel simply because she confronts misogyny

WASHINGTON -- I just received this on the Facebook feed from the National Women's Law Center via their Womenstake.org blog.

Dawn Johnsen, who was one of the first people nominated by President Obama as part of his new administration, is still being denied a spot on his team because of misogynistic obstructionists that include the four Senators that represent the Central Savannah River Area (Johnny Isakson, Jim DeMint, Saxby Chambliss and Lindsey Graham).

It’s been almost a year since Dawn Johnsen was nominated to be Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the Department of Justice. This office provides legal advice to the President and the executive branch. Dawn Johnsen has superb legal qualifications to lead the OLC—she is a professor of constitutional law, is firmly committed to the rule of law, worked at OLC for five years and even held this position on an acting basis.

The aforementioned quartet, in addition to the extreme misogynistic groups that support them, are making meritless accusations against Ms. Johnsen. The most meritless of these charges being lobbed at Ms. Johnsen is on her work in securing rights for women under Roe v. Wade.

That meritless charge led to the terrorist assassination of Dr. George R. Tiller on May 31. If Ms. Johnsen was already at the Department of Justice, Dr. Tiller would still be alive today and Mr. Roeder would have been arrested on May 30 and prosecuted under the FACE Act on 1994.

It is time to fight back against Isakson, DeMint, Chambliss, Graham and the rest of the misogynistic lot. They caused 5-31 (Wichita's 9-11) to happen. And there will more terrorist attacks against OB-GYNs and doctors that protect women's rights unless we stop the co-conspirators in the US Senate.

Under the prearranged text on the NWLC's action alert page, add this in there:

I will be keeping an eye on your vote. If you vote no on Ms. Johnsen, I will vote NO on you the next time you are up for re-election.

Be sure to type that. It ought to get their attention. Nothing will get their attention more that you threatening to end their careers at the ballot box as pols.

South Carolina should be permanently barred from receiving federal funding if state passes 10th Amendment measure

COLUMBIA -- Recently, the South Carolina House of Representatives passed a measure reaffirming its 'right' to refuse to participate in a national health care program if the United States House version of the reform bill passes.

I agree wholeheartedly with the comments SC Rep. Gilda Cobb Hunter's remarks, which was posted in a letter to the State newspaper editor on Tuesday.

Not only that, but if South Carolina is to pass the Tenth Amendment measure, then the Obama Administration should swiftly and promptly strip the state of all federal funding.

Lest we forget, the Bush Administration nearly stripped Berkeley, Calif. of all its funding when it passed a strikingly similar 10th Amendment resolution in 2005 when it leased space recently vacated by the Marines to CodePink. The conservatives, including three-fourths of our current Congressional delegation, falsely accused the city of Berkeley of expelling the Marines from the disputed space.

The only difference between what Berkeley did and what South Carolina is now doing is very minuscule if you take the #1 issues at the time of the votes (illegal war in Iraq in 2005, health care now) out of the equation.

If the federal government can take away funding from a city, then they certainly can strip funding from a defiant state.

The federal government should monitor South Carolina, Kansas and the other state governments and punish them for betraying America and its people in these tough times.

Coach/Teacher arrested for raping girl

CAMDEN -- A former Camden High School Bulldog girls' basketball coach was arrested and charged with lewd acts on a 15 year old female pupil. All of this just 96 hours after he announced his resignation as the head coach of the Lady Bulldogs basketball program.

WLTX-HD News 19 has more.

According to district spokesperson Mary Anne Byrd, district officials received an allegation Wednesday that Coach Sean Cassidy had engaged in improper behavior with a 15-year-old female student.

Cassidy was charged with lewd act on a minor younger than 16 and contributing to the delinquency of a minor after he turned himself over to authorities Monday afternoon.

Investigators say the student, who was not a member of the girls basketball team, met Cassidy through an online social networking site and had been communicating for about a month.

"There's not just a violation of this victim here there's a violation of the trust of people of this community toward this individual, that's why the school couldn't keep him on as an employee as well as why we're going to criminally charge him," Police Chief Joseph Floyd says.

The victim says that the incident took place on Wednesday inside of a classroom at Camden HS.

"It is connected to him actually soliciting her to leave a class session she was in to come to his room during a free period he had, which is where those acts occured," said Chief Floyd. "As much as a 15-year-old can consent to be fondled by their school teacher I guess you could call it consensual to that degree but a 15-year-old doesn't have the capacity to legally give consent for someone of that age, 32 years of age to fondle them."

Parent Lionel Angevine's daughter was coached by Cassidy for four years. He says both he and his daughter have had nothing but positive experiences with the coach. He's very surprised by the charges.

"Cassidy was a good guy. It's shocking, like I say over and over. I can't believe it happened. It proves anything can be going on behind closed doors, we just don't know about it," said Angevine.

And that is not all. Coach Cassidy could also face more charges when the Kershaw County Sheriff's Office get finished investigating his computers and phones for evidence.

I am relieved at how quickly they arrested Coach Cassidy for the sexual assault. But, I am not happy that the girls at the school, as well as the girls that play for the Lady Bulldogs, had their trust violated by him.

This is not the only investigation of sexual assault of a female pupil at a school. Earlier this year, I mentioned an investigation that is ongoing at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High. In September 2009, I posted about the arrest of former Denmark-Olar head football coach Andrae Rice for sexual assault at his own alma mater.

Wrong Response, New York Times

NEW YORK CITY -- On Sunday, the New York Times criticized us in the pro-liberty movement for going after the Tebows and Focus on the Family.

First and foremost, as the lovely Gloria Allred mentioned on Saturday (the day before the Times editorial), this is not just another ad. Women's lives and freedom are at stake here.

Secondly, if this was an ad about something else, like telling people to spare their children the rod for example, then this would not be a controversy.

And finally, had CBS aired the UCC or the MoveOn ad during Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004, then the majority of Americans would not be protesting against this ad as loudly as we are.

In short, the Bill Keller, Andrew Rosenthal and New York Times -- much like Billy Morris, Michael Ryan and the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle -- are completely out of touch with reality and are completely oblivious with the right wing bias that runs amok in our media.

There are a laundry list of grievances that we have against the Columbia Broadcast System. And we will let everyone know about them, whether they like it or not.

The response of the New York Times Editorial Staff on Sunday was the absolute wrong response.

Rep. Carol Shea Porter gets the season's second endorsement

CONCORD, NH -- Rep. Carol Shea Porter said it correctly: "Send the men home and we can get health care done right."

Is too bad that she is being unfairly criticized for her remarks by ultra-conservative men who have no intentions of reforming our dismal 37th best in the world health care system.

These remarks are the reason why we are giving Rep. Carol Shea-Porter the campaign season's second endorsement overall and the first for an incumbent.



Now, we need for Rep. Carol Shea-Porter to run for President in either 2012 or 2016.

Go get 'em, Gloria!

LOS ANGELES -- As you may well know, the Tebow family ad is now circulating on the web. If it airs on CBS on Sunday during Super Bowl XLIV, one of my favorite women of all time says that she will file a complaint with both the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission.

According to Radar Online, Gloria Allred plans to file the complaint the first time the ad airs. Ms. Allred rightfully mentions that this is not just another ad, and she is also correct in saying that women's lives are at stake.

Famed womens' rights campaigner and powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred has joined the ever growing hoard of people angered at the CBS network's decision to allow an pro life ad to air during the upcoming Super Bowl on February 7th.

In an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com Allred shares that she is outraged by CBS and fears that the motivation for money has far outweighed any commitment to truth and any duty to upholding advertising standards.

The ad, featuring college football player and devout Christian, Tim Tebow, and his mother Pam, is funded by Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian organization that places emphasis on marriage and parenthood.

In the controversial ad, Pam reportedly shares the story of her difficult 1987 pregnancy which occurred when she was working as a missionary in the Philippines. In her harrowing tale she says she fell ill with amoebic dysentery while pregnant and was treated with robust antibiotics, which she says doctors told her had caused fetal damage, prompting them to urge her to terminate her pregnancy, but she refused their advice that she have an abortion for her own safety. Going on to give birth to Tebow, the now-famous quarterback who went on to become a Heisman Trophy winner, leading the Gators to two BCS wins.

In her exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com Allred slams the ad and CBS's decision to air it, pointing out factual inconsistencies with Pam's story. One glaring one is the fact that the act of abortion is totally illegal in the majority Catholic country of the Philippines - under all circumstances including rape and incest, and even without a provision in the circumstance that the mother's life is in danger. The law has been in effect since 1930.

Allred says she believes it an impossible scenario to believe that Philippino doctors would of ever suggested abortion as a viable option for Tebow in the first place. And when you learn that physicians and midwives who perform abortions in the Philippines face six years in prison, and may have their licenses suspended or revoked, and that women who receive abortions - no matter the reason - may be punished with imprisonment for two to six years, it's easy to see why.

Allred asks Moonves to get a clear grasp of the correct and true facts in this case, and asks if he will still air the anti-choice commercial "if it turns out to be misleading advertising".

The attorney goes on to urge Moonves to think carefully on this matter, stating, "This is not just another ad. Women's lives are at stake. No woman should have to live in a country where abortion is illegal as it once was in the U.S. And was and is in the Philippines."

Allred states definitively that, "No sugar coated religiously inspired ad which fails to give all of the relevant facts should be permitted to air on CBS or anywhere else."

On a final note Allred says that she hopes that if any of the women that watch the ad are in the position of evaluating their own pregnancy options, that they "get all the facts before you make a decision. Don't let any other person influence you. You are going to live with the consequences of that choice for the rest of your life. Make sure it's your choice and you feel confident you can live with that choice for the rest of your life."

I truly hope that Ms. Allred will go forth with the complaint. She has won many many cases over the years as a lawyer fighting for equal rights for the oppressed. This case Ms. Allred will win too, because of the fact that abortion has been illegal in the Philippines for at least 57 years before Pam Tebow made the claims in the ad.

I applaud Ms. Allred for this move. No broadcast station should get away with playing games with women's lives.

These women are not here anymore to tell their stories

Well, Pam Tebow can tell her story through out and out lies and deception. Too bad a woman named Sarah will never be able to tel her story, which has become all too real for women all over America. That's because Sarah died at the age of 38 due to pregnancy.

Dr. Anne Davis has more on RH Reality Check.

...As a gynecologist, I would never dream of telling a football coach how to lead a team to the Super Bowl. That’s why I’m mystified and frustrated that CBS is letting someone who knows nothing about my job tell Super Bowl viewers how to handle a complicated pregnancy.

I’m an ob/gyn who provides a range of health care to my patients, including abortion services. I know that some pregnant women face hard choices. Sometimes women end pregnancies to save their lives, or because their health or their baby’s health is compromised. ...

...Her story is compelling. Pam Tebow’s difficult pregnancy, however, doesn’t make her an expert in reproductive health, any more than attending a few NFL games makes me an expert on football. ...

Pam and Tim Tebow both survived this complicated pregnancy. The women who do not survive are not here to tell their stories, except through the doctors who treated them. I took care of Sarah, a 38-year-old woman with a serious auto-immune disease. Knowing that a pregnancy would threaten her health, Sarah used birth control, but she got pregnant anyway. As her pregnancy progressed, her condition worsened. Eventually, Sarah couldn’t get enough oxygen into her body to survive. We tried all the treatments we had. She was counseled that abortion was needed to save her life but she chose to wait, hospitalized, trying to get to a point when her baby could survive. Her condition deteriorated and finally, with our help, she ended the pregnancy. It was too late. Her heart and lungs was so badly compromised by the pregnancy that she died as her doctors tried to implant a pacemaker. I wish we would have been able to help Sarah sooner; she might be alive today caring for her teenage son.

The Super Bowl is the biggest day of the year for advertisers. As many viewers tune in for the ads as for the game. Front page stories will recount the highlights of the game—and the best and worst commercials that aired. That’s why Focus on the Family, an anti-abortion organization, not a medical organization, raised millions of dollars to air this commercial. They want to tell the broadest possible audience that women with complicated pregnancies can—and should!—ignore their doctors’ advice. As a physician, this leaves me feeling an urgency to get out a different message, one that conveys the reality we see in the hospital every day. Denial does not make risk go away.

When it comes to personal medical decisions, no Monday morning quarterback should be making the calls. For the sake of my patients—and the thousands of other women who face complicated pregnancies each year—I hope CBS will blow the whistle on the Tebows' ad.

(emphasis mine in bold print)

What Dr. Davis explains is truth and reality. The truth is, about as succinctly as I can put it, pregnancy KILLS women. Before Roe v. Wade, pregnancy and childbirth KILLED upwards to 500,000 American women annually. Today, upwards to 4,500 women are killed annually by pregnancy and childbirth -- the highest totals of maternity mortality ever in the post-Roe era.

Pregnancy isn't some kind of fairy tale like what James Dobson and his misogynist cohorts want us to believe. This is a life-and-death situation for women of childbearing age, literally.

Let's pretend for a second that what Pam Tebow says is true. Stories like hers are extremely rare. For every Pam Tebow, there are 4,500 women that end up just like Rosie Jimenez -- dead. For every Pam Tebow, there are 4,500 Gerri Santoros. For every Pam Tebow, there are 4,500 Becky Bells.

I know a lot about football, because I used to watch the NFL between 1998 and 2008. But, I still don't know much about women's bodies. That is why I am leaving that up to women like Dr. Davis, Cecile Richards and Jessica Valenti. They know all about how women's bodies work.

Misogynistic ad previewed on Facebook

Well, you don't have to wait until Sunday to see why we are raising such a stink about the Tebow ad. Someone posted it on Facebook for all of us to see.



I saw the ad in full on Facebook. And yet, people are telling me that this is a message celebrating life? Bullshit. This is not a message celebrating life -- this is a message advocating total government control of women's reproductive lives.

Make no mistake. Not only is this a not-so-subtle message asking men to control their wives and girlfriends, this is a ad that is blatantly misleading about what Pam Tebow described was her situation almost 23 years earlier.

As I mentioned on another post, abortion in the Philippines has been illegal with no exceptions since 1870 -- 117 years before Mrs. Tebow made her lying ass claim about her life being in danger, and 25 years before the oldest living person in the world, Kama Chinen, was even born.

Now look at the ad and let's bypass see bs and go straight to the NFL. Call 1-212-867-2010 and tell them to overrule see bs and ban the ad!

Asshole of the Month for January

The asshole of the month for January is US Sen. Jim DeMint. His hold on a now former TSA nominee over bullshit concerns over unionizing directly caused a foreign terrorist attack on Christmas Day 2009. To this day, he has stubbornly sustained the hold on new TSA nominees. Meaning that Sen. DeMint is deliberately endangering our national security.

Sen. Jim DeMint is the asshole of the month for January.

Person of the Month for January

The best person of the month for January is US Sen. Barbara Milkuski of Maryland. She really put egg on the faces of every male pol on Capitol Hill with this now well-known attack on the first Nelson Amendment (the Nebraska Senator has since succeeded in getting another amendment with his name on it in the Senate health care bill):





Sen. Barbara Mikulski is the Best Person of the Month for January!

Scott Roeder convicted -- now it is time to go after ALL of his co-conspirators and prosecute them

WICHITA -- It took 37 minutes 25 seconds for a Sedgwick County jury to find anti-choice terrorist Scott Roeder guilty of assassinating Dr. George R. Tiller.

The message the Sedgwick County Twelve sent was loud and clear: anti-choice terrorism can never be justified and will never be justified.

OB-GYNs have not been the anti-choice terrorists' only target. Members of the National Organization for Women have received death threats from anti-choice terrorists and some NOW members have actually been assassinated by anti-choice terrorists. The Feminist Majority have also seen some of their members threatened with death by the antis.

What is truly ironic is that this verdict came 12 years to the day of Eric Rudolph's terrorist attack on a Birmingham, Ala. women's health clinic.

Now that Mr. Roeder has been put away for a long time, it is time to go after all of his co-conspirators in the anti-choice organizations, on the radio, on the TV and in our newspaper offices.

Here is the statement from Nancy Keenan:

"The jury examined the facts of this case and rightfully convicted Scott Roeder for the brutal murder of Dr. George Tiller inside his church in Kansas. Our thoughts are with Dr. Tiller's family and friends. Even though this conviction brings a murderer to justice, it won't replace the husband, father, and grandfather they lost last May. Dr. Tiller was a tireless advocate for reproductive health who called on us to 'trust women' to make the personal, private decisions that are best for them and their families. We will continue to honor his legacy of compassion and resolve.

"We also call on opponents of a woman's right to choose to end the practice of inflammatory rhetoric and tactics that inspire this kind of violent action from the most extreme factions of the anti-choice movement. No other abortion provider's family should have to endure the tragedy of seeing their loved one killed for providing an essential and legal health service to women."

Here is the statement from Terry O'Neill:

"The National Organization for Women commends the jury in the Scott Roeder trial for its swift guilty verdict and for not being fooled by the outrageous defense claim of justifiable terrorism. Roeder sat on the stand this week and described the horrific ways he had planned to maim or kill Dr. George Tiller, and he admitted outright to murdering the doctor at his church last May.

The jury also found Roeder guilty of two counts of aggravated assault for aiming his gun at two ushers as he fled the church. With these three convictions, NOW is relieved that Roeder will most likely spend the rest of his life in jail. We will be closely watching the March 9 sentencing. However, we should not fool ourselves that this is the end of anti-abortion terrorism. Other courageous physicians like Dr. Tiller, who risk their lives every day to provide women with abortion care, remain targets of the radical right.

NOW urges the Department of Justice to investigate this network of anti-abortion terrorists. NOW leadership and our dedicated grassroots activists across the country, have been tracking and witnessing these terrorists at work for decades. Some of our own members have survived harassment and assault. NOW would be happy to share with the Justice Department any relevant evidence we might have that would help shut down this conspiracy to deny women their fundamental right to abortion through violence and the threat of violence."

And here is the statement from Cecile Richards:

"Today, a jury of Scott Roeder’s peers sent a clear and resounding message to him and all anti-choice extremists: violence and murder cannot be justified by personal beliefs about abortion and will not be tolerated in this country.

“Doctors who perform abortions deserve and must receive the full protection of the law. To that end, we are gratified that Judge Warren Wilbert prohibited the argument that Scott Roeder’s deeply felt anti-abortion beliefs made him less culpable for Dr. Tiller’s murder, therefore not allowing the jury to consider the lesser charge of manslaughter.

“While today’s ruling ensures the person responsible for Dr. Tiller’s murder is held accountable, the tremendous loss of Dr. Tiller will continue to be felt for years to come. For countless women facing dire medical circumstances as a result of complicated life-threatening pregnancies, Dr. Tiller was an invaluable medical provider. His death was an enormous loss for his family and for members of his church, where he was shot to death, as well as for the patients across America who relied on him, his dedicated staff, and the medical community.

“In the face of continual harassment and intimidation by abortion opponents through much of his career, Dr. Tiller showed unparalleled courage and remained steadfastly committed to providing compassionate care to women and families. Our thoughts are with the Tiller family during this difficult time, and we hope that they are comforted by the fact that his legacy will live on through the countless lives he touched.”

A big thank you to Renee Chelian for being a heroine to all of womankind

DETROIT -- Meet Renee Chelian.

She is a 37 year old OB-GYN. Unlike most other OB-GYNs, she actually cares about women. And that is because she is an abortion provider.

Laura Breman of Detroit News has more on this brave woman.

Renee Chelian hoped to comfort the women who came to Northland Family Planning Centers when she posted a short video on YouTube around Thanksgiving.

To the naïve or politically clueless, its message is simple and even bland: Good women, too, have abortions.

Chelian, the CEO of three suburban Detroit clinics, has been working in this controversial medical practice for 37 years. But even she was unprepared for the onslaught that followed.

On a quiet morning in December, the telephones at the Northland clinic in Southfield began ringing. And ringing. The lines jammed. "You'll be bombarded," warned a trucker, Dave Rabocha, calling from his 18-wheeler on a Georgia highway. He'd heard a satellite radio host urging callers to vent their displeasure.

Chic, upbeat and the mother of grown two daughters, Chelian worked for almost a year on a video. She wanted to address the stigma of abortion, to assuage the guilt and fear of patients.

Frightened and bewildered by the ferocity of the response, Chelian removed the video from YouTube and alerted the FBI. She also called the Sirius Patriot channel, and asked host Andrew Wilkow to stop inciting his audience. A Sirius spokeswoman didn't respond to my calls for comment.

Thirty-seven years after Roe vs. Wade, passions haven't cooled, but abortion opponents have made steady progress through legislation and a vigilant campaign to sway public opinion.

On both sides, there has been fear and intimidation from extremists, including last year's murders of a Wichita abortion doctor, George Tiller, and James Pouillon, an Owosso anti-abortion protester.

But abortion has remained a fact of life for many women. In Michigan, one of five pregnancies ends in abortion, and the Guttmacher Institute, which monitors it, says that one in three American women will have an abortion during their reproductive lives.

"They are women that have the courage, honesty and wisdom to do what they knew what was right for them and their family," says Chelian, who had an abortion when she was 15.

Pam Sherstad, a spokeswoman for Michigan Right to Life, who watched the video after I called, described it as "a well-done video ... and a good sales pitch." She says she agrees "that good women do have abortions ... but it's my experience that it's usually their last resort, and they're often heartbroken."

The climate of fear has never been higher for Chelian and her staff and patients. Protesters are constant, occasionally shouting "Loose women burn in hell" and far harsher language. There are ongoing efforts to shame, humiliate and frighten patients.

Chelian sees wounded women, ashamed of the choice they feel compelled to make, every day. To make the video, she culled comments from a journal kept at the clinics in Southfield, Sterling Heights and Northville in which women share their feelings. Still shaken from December's onslaught of calls, Chelian decided last week to repost the four-minute video to YouTube.

Viewers though can no longer leave comments, and they are not counted. For now, the quiet and simple message that women who have had abortions can be good people is airing, unchallenged.

Again, Ms. Chelian is a heroine to all of womankind for the work she does. She deserves respect, praise and a big thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Chelian!

Sarah Palin gets sacked in her own end zone by NOW

WASHINGTON -- The National Organization for Women scored a safety when it hit right back at Alaska's Most Misogynist Governor, Sarah Palin, over remarks she made on her Facebook page. Via.

The National Organization for Women is firing back at former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who blasted the group earlier this week for calling on CBS to pull a Super Bowl ad featuring Tim Tebow.

The ad shows Tebow and his mother Pam discussing her decision not to end a difficult pregnancy in 1987. Pam carried the baby to term against her doctors’ recommendations, and her child grew up to be the Heisman-trophy winning University of Florida quarterback, who many consider the best college football player in a generation.

Numerous groups that support abortion rights that have called on CBS to pull the ad, paid for by the conservative group Focus on the Family. Its opponents, including NOW, have argued that the ad breaks with the network’s longstanding tradition of not airing controversial spots during sports events.

In a statement to POLITICO, NOW President Terry O’Neill said that Palin is “missing our point.”

“The goal of the Focus on the Family ad is not to empower women. It's to create a climate in which Roe v. Wade can be overturned,” O’Neill said. “There are always going to be women who need abortions. In this country, one in three women will have an abortion.”

“Focus on the Family has cynically set it up so they can say anyone who disagrees with airing this ad is disrespecting one woman and her choice. NOW respects every woman's right to plan her own family and insists our laws do the same,” said O’Neill.

O’Neill echoed the line in her response, writing: “And CBS: Do the right thing. Pull the ad. Let's focus on the game.”

NOW is correct about Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family is a misogynist organization whose views on women are in line with that of the Taliban. People need to call out Focus on the Family for what it is -- a misogynist organization.

Thank you to Terry O'Neill for pwning Sarah Palin.

New Facebook page people should join!

GAINESVILLE, FL -- Here is a new page from Not Under the Bus, this one exclusive to Facebook however:

Oppose Tebow's Misogynistic Super Bowl Ad

Assholes of the Week for January 30

The first asshole of the week is Pam Tebow. As posted on Thursday night, Mrs. Tebow is a bald-faced liar.

The next 16 assholes of the week are CBS Corporation, CBS Sports and all 14 of their owned-and-operated stations. Not only is CBS going to air a blatantly false ad from Focus on the Family, but they also tried to cover their asses by announcing more advocacy ads with just nine days before the event and with very few Super Bowl ad spots available. EPIC FAIL, see bs.

The eighteenth asshole of the week is Scott Roeder. He was just found guilty of assassinating Dr. George Tiller. I'll post more on him later.

The final assholes of the week are the anti-choice terrorists that participated in March for Life rallies in Washington, Atlanta, Columbia, and everywhere else this past weekend. You anti-choicers do not support a culture of life. You support a culture of misogyny. A prime example of my point is that a truck driver from Georgia named Dave Rabocha threatened to assassinate a female doctor working at a Detroit women's health care clinic after she posted a video on Youtube that talks about her work and how she actually cares about women.

That is why the entire anti-choice movement is a terrorist movement. It is time to stop kidding ourselves on this.

Pam Tebow told a bald-faced lie about her life being in danger when she was pregnant with Tim

(edit made @ 14:18 Friday)

GAINESVILLE, FL -- Well, this didn't surprise me a damn bit.

Pam Tebow told a bald-faced lie about her life being in danger in the Philippines in 1987 when she was pregnant with her son, Heisman-winning quarterback Tim.

The Center for Reproductive Rights goes first.

Highlighting the reality of the Philippines blanket ban on abortion, today the Center for Reproductive Rights sent a letter to CBS, calling on the network’s Standards and Practices Department to reconsider running a scheduled Super Bowl ad featuring college football star Tim Tebow and his mother Pam Tebow, and sponsored by anti-choice group Focus on the Family. While the exact content of the advertisement has not been revealed yet, the commercial is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow’s pregnancy in 1987. That story, reported in press outlets as far back as 2005, revolves around Mrs. Tebow living and working as a missionary in the Philippines while she was pregnant with Tim. Reportedly, doctors diagnosed her with a medical condition that endangered her health and pregnancy and advised her to have an abortion.

“If the Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad is based on the highly publicized Tebow story, then it raises a number of serious factual questions. Abortion has been illegal in the Philippines for over a century—no exceptions,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “CBS recently announced that their policy for advocacy ads has evolved, easing restrictions. Whatever the evolution, we are very concerned that the network would air an ad that recounts a story out-of-context and is paid for by an anti-choice organization. We strongly encourage CBS to pull the ad.”

Abortion was criminalized in the Philippines in 1870 and has been illegalin the country ever since. There are no exceptions to the law. Abortion is even prohibited when a woman’s life or health is in danger. Women are punished with imprisonment between two to six years if they obtain one. Doctors and midwives who directly cause or assist a woman in an abortion face six years imprisonment and may have their licenses suspended or revoked.

Because of the severity of the Philippines law, abortion is underground, making it unsafe, potentially deadly and highly stigmatized. Every year, more than 500,000 women in the country try to terminate their pregnancies. In 2008 alone, criminal abortions resulted in the deaths of at least 1000 women and 90,000 more suffered complications.

Center for Reproductive Rights Letter to CBS >

Facts on Abortion in the Philippines >

Now, here is the RH Reality Check piece.

We have been reporting on the sudden shift in policy by CBS News on accepting advocacy ads during the Super Bowl just in time to accept $2.5 million from Focus on the Family for an ad that features Tim and Pam Tebow. Tim Tebow is a Heisman Trophy winner and a prospective NFL player.

When pregnant with Tim, Pam Tebow was in the Philippines on a mission and became ill with amoebic dysentery. Early reports indicated that she was faced with a choice of continuing the pregnancy at the risk to her life.

That appears not to be true. Indeed the very facts of the situation are now in question.

During a bible study class, Pam Tebow related that "during that pregnancy, a Philippine doctor suggested that she abort the fetus because the strong medications she was being treated with for amoebic dysentery, which she had contacted early in the pregnancy, could cause serious disabilities to the fetus."

Suggested that she abort the pregnancy? Or laid out the various risks that were possible, leaving her to her own judgment and choices? Made a definitive judgment that the fetus would unquestionably be harmed? Or described the risks of the medication necessary to treat the dysentery, including possible risks to the fetus? All of these are very different scenarios than the ones earlier suggested.

The Tebows are fundamentalist Christians and are "anti-choice" which, as Amanda Marcotte points out, in effect makes them "pro-choice," because they have a choice to make even when circumstances are not ideal.

Pam Tebow relates that given her faith, having an abortion--which no one has suggested she should have done in any case--was not an option.

"We knew that we could not do that," she said of the suggested abortion. "We all prayed to God for a healthy baby," she recalled. "And God answered our prayers when Timmy was born."

Again...her choice, and one she seeks to take away from other women, men, and their families.

But....the operative words here: "could cause serious disabilities."

This indeed changes the whole narrative, and makes even more suspicious the trotting out of Pam Tebow as an anti-choice spokesperson.

First, as someone who herself had to be on strong medication during both of the pregnancies with my now 10- and 13-year old children, and indeed whose own health was at serious risk, the issue of "risks that could cause" problems is very different than receiving a definitive diagnosis either that something is proved to be wrong or that this pregnancy might or will kill you. In conjunction with my physicians, I calculated and considered the risks at every step of the way of two extraordinarily difficult pregnancies.

I took risks in the interest of myself and my children in both pregnancies, hoping for the best. I don't consider myself a heroine or with any special story to share. Millions of women calculate risks every day for the children they have, for the ones they may bear, and for other reasons; indeed we all--men and women--calculate risks every day of our lives, and we do so on behalf of our children, unless of course we keep each of them locked in a closet. (Mine are not.) Moreover, I had an abortion at an earlier point in my life, which was absolutely the right choice for me, enabled me to be a prepared and mature parent when I did have children, and about which I have absolutely no regrets.

But Tebow's story is being used to "pave the way for her to find a new platform to use her influence."

Since the first interview early last year, for example, "Pam Tebow has been contacted by pro-life organizations requesting her to keynote upcoming conventions and gatherings. She said she is excited about the opportunity to share her pro-life beliefs and has already been scheduled for appearances and speeches in Dallas and Louisville."

So...a story that has been reported for some years on and off, and around which Pam Tebow is now building a career all of a sudden becomes a very promising cash cow for Focus on the Family, which is spending $2.5 million on an ad after having laid off hundreds of employees because of budget crises. Focus on the Family, which describes itself as "helping families thrive," is hoping to use this ad to drive donations to its website. How's the thriving going among those families with employees laid off from the organization, Dr. Dobson?

Moreover, as pointed out this afternoon by the Center for Reproductive Rights, abortion is illegal in the Philippines, again calling the story itself into question. As noted in a CRR press release today:

“If the Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad is based on the highly publicized Tebow story, then it raises a number of serious factual questions. Abortion has been illegal in the Philippines for over a century—no exceptions,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “CBS recently announced that their policy for advocacy ads has evolved, easing restrictions. Whatever the evolution, we are very concerned that the network would air an ad that recounts a story out-of-context and is paid for by an anti-choice organization. We strongly encourage CBS to pull the ad.”

Abortion was criminalized in the Philippines in 1870 and has been illegal in the country ever since. There are no exceptions to the law. Abortion is even prohibited when a woman’s life or health is in danger. Women are punished with imprisonment between two to six years if they obtain one. Doctors and midwives who directly cause or assist a woman in an abortion face six years imprisonment and may have their licenses suspended or revoked.

Because of the severity of the Philippines law, abortion is underground, says CRR:

making it unsafe, potentially deadly and highly stigmatized. Every year, more than 500,000 women in the country try to terminate their pregnancies. In 2008 alone, criminal abortions resulted in the deaths of at least 1000 women and 90,000 more suffered complications.

So....was Tebow's doctor ignorant of the law and policy of his or her own country? Or, was the doctor willing to skirt the law for a relatively wealthy (in the context of the extreme poverty in the Philippines) white woman from the United States? Or did the doctor, again, merely lay out the range of options should it be found that the possible risks of a medication or thepossible side effects of the medication should she opt to take it?

CRR today sent a letter to CBS, calling on the network’s Standards and Practices Department to reconsider running the ad.

"While the exact content of the advertisement has not been revealed yet, the commercial is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow’s pregnancy in 1987," noted CRR.

Let's be clear then: Pam Tebow's story appears to have morphed into something it is not for the purpose of marketing and proseltyzing. Tebow's own personal choices are irrelevant to the broader context of every and any other individual woman seeking to become pregnant, avoid pregnancy, or make the decisions that are right for her about a possible or existing pregnancy, no matter what label she applies to herself. Each woman is unique; each situation is unique; each woman acting as a moral agent on behalf of herself, and her family, with her medical advisors or whomever she chooses to engage has the right and the need to exercise these choices in the moment in her life such choices are relevant and based on her own "celebration of life."

And on this the vast majority of Americans agree.

Now, it is time for the NFL to step in and pull the Focus on the Family ad themselves if CBS won't do it.

Sign the petition and demand that the ad is removed from the airwaves during Super Bowl XLIV, no questions asked.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/937/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2090

Also call the NFL at 1-212-867-2010 and demand that they pull the Focus on the Family ad!

Or you can go to the NFL.com and write to them. Here is what you enter on the site:

Your full name
your email address
Your subject: Super Bowl related
And then your comments (you can use the Not Under the Bus's comments below):

This letter is in response to the reported CBS decision to air an anti-choice advertisement during Super Bowl XLIV, sponsored by the controversial organization Focus on the Family. As united organizations dedicated to reproductive rights, tolerance, and social justice, we urge you to immediately cancel this ad and refuse any other advertisement promoting Focus on the Family’s agenda.

CBS has a well-documented history of prohibiting advocacy ads it deems controversial, rejecting ads from organizations such as PETA, MoveOn.org, United Church of Christ, and even ones that carry only an “implicit” endorsement for a side in a public debate. Last year, NBC made the prudent decision to not air anti-choice messages during the Super Bowl. CBS executives have indicated in the past that they would not air Super Bowl ads where “substantial elements of the community (are) in opposition to one another.” Abortion is a controversial issue and anti-abortion vitriol has resulted in escalated violence against reproductive health service providers and their patients, including the murder of Dr. George Tiller during Sunday morning service at his church. We sincerely hope you do not want CBS associated with this brand of un-American hate.

Focus on the Family has waged war on non-traditional families, tried its hand at race baiting during the 2008 election, and is now attempting to use the Super Bowl to further ramp up the vitriolic rhetoric surrounding reproductive rights. By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will alienate viewers and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers. The decision to air this ad would be ethically, economically and politically disastrous for CBS. The content of this ad endangers women's health, uses sports to divide rather than to unite, and promotes an organization that opposes the equality of Americans based on gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and reproductive freedom. Focus on the Family’s ad is surrealistic in its argument that a woman who chooses not to have a child may be depriving the Super Bowl of a football player. It uses one family’s story to dictate morality to the American public, and encourages young women to disregard medical advice, putting their lives at risk.

The Super Bowl is an entertainment event that brings people together regardless of background, faith, ideology or political affiliation. Focus on the Family’s ad goes against the approximately 70% majority American view that reproductive decisions should be left up to a woman and her physician; against the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that such decisions are protected by a constitutionally guaranteed right to privacy; and against the health needs of the 1 in 3 American women who will need an abortion at some time in her life.

Women comprise 40% of Super Bowl viewers. If the NFL allows CBS to air this ad, you will be throwing these women under the bus. American values of privacy and freedom should be respected, not undermined during the Super Bowl. The last thing Americans need is CBS or its advertisers telling us how and when to have a family. The NFL must take action now, by canceling the airing of Focus on the Family’s ad.

My thoughts about President Obama's State of the Union address

As you may well know, President Obama issued his first State of the Union address on Wednesday night.

The State of the Union address was the first that I watched in seven years, when ex-President George W. Bush issued his second -- and most infamous -- of six addresses.

President Obama's speech was two steps forward and one step backwards.

First, I was glad that he said that he would finally push for tough regulations on the financial market. No longer can there be a hands-off policy on the economy. Or else, we'd get the same mess that we are just starting to get out of. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. What the conservatives want is for us to keep doing the same thing over and over.

Second, he rightfully said that health care reform must be done and it must be done now. We can't just put health care reform on the back burner simply because it is politically expedient to do so. Get health care done first, then move on to jobs creation.

And speaking of, President Obama wants a jobs creation bill signed by August 1. I am unsure of the specifics, but it will definitely build on the stimulus package bill he passed 11.5 months ago.

However, he failed to take on the anti-choice extremists in Congress who hijacked the health care reform bill that was well on its way to passing both Houses in late October 2009. He should have publicly ratted them out by name.

Also, he came up with an exit plan for Afghanistan. While I am glad that he did that, I am extremely disappointed that he didn't say that our servicepeople would be pulling out of both war zones and coming home.

Year one is officially done. What year two will bring is still up in the air.

Sexual assault at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High

BAMBERG -- Now, Denmark-Olar's rival school has a sexual assault scandal of its own brewing.

From the Times and Democrat comes word of an investigation of a teacher who raped a female pupil at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School.

The superintendent of Bamberg School District 1 acknowledged Tuesday the district has launched an internal investigation to determine whether a male faculty member at Bamberg-Ehrhardt High School had an improper relationship with an underage female student.

Superintendent Phyllis Schwarting said both the faculty member and the student have denied having an improper relationship, and Schwarting said no charges have been filed against the faculty member.

The superintendent declined to discuss what prompted the internal investigation, saying the district is following the advice of its attorneys.

Rumors about the teacher and the student were swirling on the social networking Internet site, Facebook, which Schwarting said is “destroying some people’s lives.”

“Facebook can be a valuable tool, but it can also be very hurtful. Once (allegations) are out there, they are hard to take back,” Schwarting said.

The district’s internal investigation has turned up, “nothing to indicate the teacher and the student are not telling the truth,” the superintendent said. “Nothing in our investigation thus far has provided any evidence contrary to what they have said.”

“There’s no proof of anything improper between the (faculty member) and the student as of this moment,” Schwarting said.

However, Schwarting said she does not have a “closed mind” about the investigation and will move forward with appropriate legal action if the result of the probe warrants it.

“I’m not trying to cover anything up,” she said.

Bamberg Police Chief George Morris said he talked with Schwarting about the situation and she told him the police are not needed. He said Schwarting told him the district would conduct its own internal investigation.

“I’m aware of what’s going on. No charges have been filed,” the police chief said. “My department has not opened an investigation.”

We will keep you updated on this rape investigation at B-E.

Rep. John Matthews says it correctly in op-ed

ORANGEBURG -- Another effort by conservatives is under way to disenfranchise voters just in time for the 2010 gubernatorial elections in South Carolina. Rep. John Matthews writes this great piece in the State newspaper about why this effort and all others like it should be defeated at all costs.

On a sunny day, the monuments of war heroes and other historic South Carolinians cast long shadows over all who walk beneath them on the State House grounds.

For legislators, no monument casts a shadow longer than that of "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman and his legacy as the architect of our current form of government.

Tillman was one of South Carolina's earliest segregationists. A former governor and U.S. senator, Tillman helped craft our 1895 state Constitution to make it unlikely that a black person would become South Carolina's chief executive. If by chance a black person did become governor, he or she would be ineffective because Tillman and others stripped the position of virtually all power and gave it to the Legislature.

As Tillman explained to his U.S. Senate colleagues, it was purely a matter of race and numbers: South Carolina had 135,000 "negroes of voting age" and 90,000 to 95,000 white voters. "Now, I want to ask you," Tillman said in a March 1900 speech before the U.S. Senate, "with a free vote and a fair count, how are you going to beat 135,000 by 95,000? How are you going to do it? You had set us an impossible task."

Well, ol' Ben found a way to disenfranchise black voters. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Today South Carolina again is caught in the cyclical nature of history. The state Senate is about to debate a measure requiring voters to show state-issued photo identification before casting a ballot. This time, as before, it is about blacks and voting. And again, it is about numbers.

With the election of President Barack Obama, many African-Americans and young people became involved and engaged in the political process. President Obama's candidacy unified voters across lines of race, age, gender and class.

Similar unity was displayed in South Carolina, resulting in a surge of newly registered Democratic voters. Though Mr. Obama did not win the state, his candidacy provided a blueprint for blacks, whites and others to unite for a common purpose and showed that working-class whites and blacks had more things in common than those that divided them.

For example, our state has more than 273,000 unemployed residents - of all races. These are folks seeking to support themselves and their families while finding purpose and dignity in their lives. If they became unified behind a particular political party or candidate, they would have the numbers to sway any statewide election.

Unity among the poor and disenfranchised would change the political landscape in South Carolina, posing a threat to those in power. Such a change would likely catapult a Democrat - regardless of race - to the governor's office.

So to prevent the state from moving forward, Republicans are relying on the strategies of the past. House Republicans muscled through the photo identification bill that harkens to the days of voter intimidation to continue a legacy of disenfranchisement of African-Americans.

Requiring photo identification at the polls sounds innocuous enough, some would argue. But there are many people - and they tend to be poor and disenfranchised, and African-American - don't have a driver's license or state photo ID, and don't have an easy way to get to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get one.

Moreover, most if not all of us had to show photo identification to register. So requiring folks to show a state-issued photo identification when voting seems redundant, especially for those who registered at the DMV.

I always hear Republicans calling for efficiency in government. We had record numbers of folks voting last year, with people waiting hours to cast their ballots. Yet the Republican response was to pass legislation that creates more bureaucracy and generates longer lines instead of considering proposals to streamline the voting process and reduce waits. And Republicans want to place a government-mandated burden on citizens to obtain ID cards. This does not sound like the party of smaller government.

South Carolina did not have a problem with voter fraud in the last election to necessitate the change. But that does not matter. The motives today are the same as the motives that Tillman explained more than 100 years ago:

"We did not disfranchise the negroes until 1895. Then we had a constitutional convention convened which took the matter up calmly, deliberately and avowedly with the purpose of disfranchising as many of them as we could under the fourteenth (provides equal protection and due process) and fifteenth (prohibits voting discrimination) amendments. We adopted the educational qualification as the only means left to us."

Then, it was educational requirements. Today, it's photo identification. The tools have changed, but the purpose remains the same. It's time for South Carolina's leaders to step out of the dark shadows of the past and walk into the light.

(emphasis mine in bold)

There are solutions to this (if the Senate passes this draconian bill): file a complaint with the United States Justice Department's Civil Rights Division by calling 1-202-307-2932.

Also, call on the Civil Rights Division to strictly enforce Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act -- and DO NOT preclear South Carolina's use of this law should it be signed by Gov. Mark Sanford.

And also, request federal election monitors to oversee elections in your area. Call 1-202-307-2767 or 1-800-253-3931.

Rep. Matthews knows what he is talking about. Those who don't know South Carolina's legacy of racism that still continues to this day, or those who are too ignorant to learn about this state's history are about to see a relic of the past if we don't stop the tyrants in Columbia from passing this bill in the state Senate.

Best Letter to the Editor: Rick Noble of Lake Wateree

LAKE WATEREE -- This is clearly the best letter amid all of the fallout over the racist, classist remarks that Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said in Greenville. The best letter comes from Rick Noble:

With his comments comparing public assistance to "feeding stray animals," Andre Bauer has joined an ever-expanding list of S.C. politicians who have by their actions, words and deeds embarrassed this state, making it subject to public ridicule across the nation. Will it ever cease?

Bauer has now lowered the bar even further. How much more racist, classist and downright un-Christian can you get? Everyone should have access to basic needs, and their worthiness should not be measured.

As deplorable as the lieutenant governor's remarks may be, my greater fear is that many in this state agree with and believe what he stated. Fearing personal ridicule, they diplomatically keep their thoughts private. Do they and Mr. Bauer represent the majority view of this state?

The fact that the rest of the population remains silent, allowing our so-called leaders' remarks to go unchallenged, leads the rest of the country and world to believe that their views represent all South Carolinians. I certainly hope not.

Shame on Mr. Bauer, not to mention his most recent predecessors in public shame (Rep. Joe Wilson and Gov. Mark Sanford immediately come to mind). Shame on those who agree with him privately and decline to say so. And shame on the rest of us who disagree yet do nothing.

(emphasis mine in bold print)

Mr. Noble is right. We cannot stay silent while racist jackasses like Bauer continue to slander the working poor. If you do stay silent and refuse to speak out against Bauer's remarks, then you are in 100% agreement with Lt. Gov. Bauer. No amount of silence or private agreement will change the already worst in the nation reputation that South Carolina has.

We rank dead last in every category that is good for America (such as education) and rank near the top in every category that is bad for America (such as domestic violence). Andre Bauer has no interest in changing our worst in the nation stats. Neither does any other leader on the GOP side. While I have heard the Dem candidates strongly condemn Bauer's remarks, I still do not know where they stand on issues that matter to me.

The Augusta Chronicle are full of racist scumbags

AUGUSTA, GA -- Now many of you will know why I am so furious at my mother at getting the Augusta Chronicle on Sundays.

From Mark Gelbart, comes this racist filth from the Augusta Chronicle called "Murphy Brown gives birth again.

Apparently, they do not have the editorial on their web site because they are afraid of the angry response that they will get.

Whatever.

Here is the truth about the Augusta Chronicle -- one that they didn't want you to know. The Augusta Chronicle are full of racist, Ku Klux Klan-loving scumbags.

Their editorials and their stories give that away. The Augusta Chronicle are basically supporting white supremacy just like Glenn Beck.

Here is the great response from Mr. Gelbart:

"Murphy Brown Gives Birth Again," from the January 26th edition of the Augusta Chronicle editorial page.

Michael Ryan writes that S.C. Lt. Governor, Andre Bauer, in principle is right--welfare recipients are the equivalent of stray animals. Mr. Ryan only laments Mr. Bauer's wording of the issue. I don't know how many diplomatic ways there are to say that poor people=stray dogs and cats, but the truth came out and that's what conservatives think of less fortunate human beings.

If there is any issue which clearly demonstrates the lack of logic in conservative thought, this is it. Conservatives falsely believe welfare causes a cycle of dependency. How can this be? There is a 5 year lifetime limit on federal welfare. It's therefore impossible for a woman to live on welfare her entire life as many conservatives believe. Moreover, men without children are not even eligible for federal welfare. There is no evidence that children of welfare mothers are more likely to turn to welfare themselves when they grow up. The mother of Sarah Jessica Parker, the actress from Sex and the City, was on welfare. Yet, her daughter became a successful actress.

What do conservatives think? That poor women get pregnant out of wedlock on purpose so they can collect welfare and food stamps and live in public housing. Those aren't exactly get rich schemes. Conservatives must think poor women say, "Oh yeah, I'm going to get knocked up so I can barely scrape by on welfare."

Conservatives are stooges because they think people want to be poor on purpose so they can live off the government. Nobody wants to be poor.

The reality is this: If you are going to have a free market, capitalist society, there are going to be poor people. You can be humane and have a government that takes care of the have-nots, or you can have armed revolution when poor people get fed up with starvation. I vote for the former and lots of it--we should have greater welfare benefits (including generous job training and education) than we have now.

I would love to give Mr. Gelbart a big thank you for exposing the racist rag and their editorial today.

Gary Coleman arrested for domestic violence on Saturday in Salt Lake City

SALT LAKE CITY -- Remember this story I posted on July 2, 2009?

Well, turns out that Shannon Price is NOT the only abuser in the family.

Gary Coleman was arrested for domestic violence in Salt Lake City over the weekend. Via Fox 13 of Salt Lake City.

Actor Gary Coleman was released from a Utah jail Monday after being arrested over the weekend on a warrant for failing to appear in court, police said.

Santaquin Police Chief Dennis Howard said officers went to the "Diff'rent Strokes" star's home after a domestic disturbance call Sunday afternoon. Howard said they arrested Coleman, 41, on the warrant and booked him into the Utah County Jail.

Santaquin City Attorney Brett Rich said the warrant is related to a domestic violence charge filed against Coleman in the city justice court on Aug. 26, 2009.

Jail records show Coleman posted $1,725 bail and was released Monday afternoon. He is expected to appear at a hearing in Santaquin Justice Court on Feb. 8, Rich said.

Santaquin is about 65 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Coleman's agent, Robert Malcolm, told The Associated Press he had no details about the arrest. A telephone message left for Terry Plant, a Utah-based attorney who has represented Coleman in the past, was not immediately returned Monday.

In December 2008 Coleman pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from an incident at a Payson bowling alley and was ordered to pay a $100 fine.

A personal injury lawsuit against Coleman and his wife, Shannon Price, 24, related to the same incident has been settled.

Colt Rushton sued Coleman over a September 2008 incident in which Coleman allegedly hit Rushton with his truck in a Payson bowling alley parking lot after an altercation over photos.

Coleman moved to Santaquin in 2005, around the time he starred in "Church Ball," a comedy based on basketball leagues formed by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and Price met on the movie set.

"Diff'rent Strokes" aired from 1978 to 1986. Coleman played a character named Arnold Jackson and was best known for the line, "Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"

STOP SEE-BS's WAR ON WOMEN

NEW YORK CITY -- CBS has lied about their policy and now they are getting a lot of pushback. Now, the Women's Media Center (via their Not Under the Bus page) has come out with a brand new petition. Click here to sign it and ramp up the pressure on CBS.

Also the Washington Post has a story about the backlash CBS is currently facing:

"An ad that uses sports to divide rather than to unite has no place in the biggest national sports event of the year - an event designed to bring Americans together," said Jehmu Greene, president of the New York-based Women's Media Center.

"By offering one of the most coveted advertising spots of the year to an anti-equality, anti-choice, homophobic organization, CBS is aligning itself with a political stance that will damage its reputation, alienate viewers, and discourage consumers from supporting its shows and advertisers," the letter said.

Also, the United Church of Christ came out swinging at CBS:

"While CBS is reportedly saying that a bad economy now necessitates changes in its policy on so-called advocacy ads, this decision only underscores the arbitrary way the networks approach these decisions and the result is a woeful lack of religious diversity in our nation's media," says the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, the UCC's director of communications. "Because of its own economic circumstances, CBS is affording time to one religious organization while having suppressed another. This sounds as if the broadcasters think they own the airwaves when, in theory at least, they do not."

Speaking to a National Public Radio station in Los Angeles on January 21, Guess said, "The issue for all of us should be why one religious viewpoint is continually accommodated by the TV networks when there is a common misunderstanding in this country that all religious people hold a monolithic view on certain issues, such as reproductive choice, such as homosexuality, and this is not the case."

Guess pointed out that the UCC encountered a similar situation in early 2005 when it sought airtime on the ABC network, only to be told that ABC did not accept any religious advertising. The very next month, Guess said, Focus on the Family was allowed primetime advertising on ABC's SuperNanny show. "That's what concerns us, the issue of access," Guess said.

In 2004, CBS said it was rejecting the UCC's "Bouncer" ad as "too controversial" because it allegedly advocated same-sex marriage. The UCC maintained this was a gross mischaracterization of the ad's intent which, instead, was to demonstrate that all people, including gay and lesbian people, should be welcome in the church. The church quickly filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission, a petition that was dismissed by FCC staff in 2007 and never given full consideration by FCC Commissioners.

The UCC's second ad, "Ejector," which debuted in early 2005 was also rejected by the networks and their wholly-owned cable networks, including LOGO, a channel that targets lesbian and gay viewers.

Focus on the Family says its Super Bowl ad will feature Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. CBS has confirmed approval of the preliminary draft of the script which purportedly will touch on issues faith and abortion.

The apparent hypocrisy in the CBS decision has sparked a number of blogs and a Facebook group to wage campaigns telling CBS to reject the Focus on the Family ad or agree to air the UCC's ad.

"While the UCC does not have plans to purchase network spots at this time, the larger issue of access remains, not just for the UCC but for all religious groups,” Guess said.

And this is the issue -- selective access by CBS and all of the other far right wing, anti-choice stations --NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and Fox.

As long as misogynist ads like the one Focus on the Family plans to air are always given the green light, we will continue to protest and we will continue to make bring the noise and the heat.

Happy 56th birthday to Kim Gandy!

NEW ORLEANS -- Kim Gandy is the former president of the National Orangization for Women. Today, she is the vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which was founded by Eleanor Smeal.

This great leader is 56 today. And Ms. Gandy can fight terrorism far more efficiently than any of the good-for-nothing jackasses in Washington.

Happy birthday, Ms. Gandy!

New petition to sign -- demand that CBS Sports pull anti-choice ad

Here is the info, from thepetitionsite.com:

Target: Nina Tassler, President, CBS Entertainment
Sponsored by: Care2.com

CBS has always had standards for what kind of advertisements it will show -- especially during the Superbowl. The network has rejected ads from MoveOn.org, PETA, and the United Church of Christ among others on the grounds that their content is too controversial.

But there's something wrong with CBS's definition of "controversial." This year, the network approved an ad produced by the ultra-conservative group Focus on the Family attacking a woman's right to choose.

Demand that CBS pull this incredibly controversial and insensitive ad from the Superbowl line-up.

The Superbowl is the most-watched television program in the country, giving anti-choice voices an enormous audience to broadcast their idea that a woman doesn't have the right to make decisions about her own body. To top it off, CBS has no plans to run a pro-choice ad to balance the two sides of the issue.

Stand up for a woman's right to decide what she does with her own body. Tell CBS to axe the Superbowl ad from Focus on the Family.

Andre Bauer is a robber baron -- he robs the poor and gives to his rich cronies

GREENVILLE -- Andre Bauer made some very offensive remarks over the weekend here, comparing the working poor and people dying of hunger to stray animals.

Here is the article, from the Aiken Standard:

With Democrats calling for an apology, South Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer agreed Saturday he used a badly phrased metaphor in a speech on government assistance but reiterated that the "culture of dependency" created by welfare must change.

After The Greenville News reported Bauer drew a comparison between "feeding stray animals" and doling out government assistance, Democratic candidates for governor called Bauer's comments despicable, embarrassing and unchristian.

"Maybe the metaphor isn't the best metaphor. I agree with them on that," said the 40-year-old gubernatorial candidate. "But I think there are a lot of people that use issues like this to divide people and never offer solutions. The easiest thing to do is criticize someone for saying something, other than saying, 'Maybe we should talk about this."'

At a town hall meeting Thursday in northwestern South Carolina, Bauer noted his grandmother "told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed."

"The problem is, there are so many folks now who don't have to do a thing. In government, we continue to reward bad behavior. Anytime we give somebody money, we're rewarding them. We're telling them to keep doing what they're doing. Government's got to change," he said. "Babies having babies, somebody's got to talk about. ... Education cannot really be improved until we address the real problem."

To fix that, he said, "If you receive goods or services from the government, you owe something back."

State schools Superintendent Jim Rex, who's also running for governor as a Democrat, called the stray animals comparison "reprehensible."

"If the intent of Lt. Gov. Bauer's remarks was to blame children, who are not responsible for their own predicaments, or to blame adults, who want to work but cannot find jobs, it is regrettable," said Rex, among those who called for an apology.

South Carolina's jobless rate reached yet another all-time high in December at 12.6 percent.

Bauer reiterated Saturday there are direct links between poverty, lack of parental involvement and poor student performance, and other candidates are too concerned about being politically correct to find solutions.

In South Carolina, 58 percent of public school students eat free or reduced-price meals in school cafeterias. Schools with lots of parental involvement tend to do well, while schools with the highest poverty rates post the worst results, he said.

He said the government can't afford to keep giving money away, without requiring the recipients to take an active role in bettering their lives and their children's.

That means parents of students on free or reduced-lunches should be required to go to parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings, or "bam, you lose your benefits" - just as there are repercussions if people don't pay their taxes - he said Thursday.

Here is the video:



All lies, Lt. Gov. Bauer. You knew exactly what you said. You want the government to take food away from children who are unable to afford it. So, don't start lying about what you said -- the people across the nation saw what you said.

The problem is simple: the rich people. They steal from the poor and give to their cronies. The poor and hungry are on our side. They are joining us in fighting the robber barons in our government such as Bauer. We were warned about people like him.

It isn't just him who is a robber baron. Mike Fair, Nikki Haley and Greg Delleney are also robber barons. And it is up to us to defeat them and end their reign of terror in South Carolina.

Five conservative judges legislating from the bench

WASHINGTON -- In case if you haven't noticed, the liberal judges are NOT the ones legislating from the bench.

Instead, it is the five conservative judges who are legislating from the bench.

And this is not just a one time thing, either.

Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, Sam Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts have been constantly legislating from the bench since their first term started on September 30, 2006.

The first example of judicial activism by these five judges: overturning a monetary judgment against Operation Save America/Operation Rescue in a RICO case that the National Organization for Women won back in the 1990s. (October 2006)

The second example of judicial activism by the conservative judges: upholding an unconstitutional ban on abortion that lacked a health exception for women -- setting the stage for overturning Roe v. Wade later. (April 18, 2007)

The third example: throwing out Lilly Ledbetter's lawsuit against Goodyear Tire Co. (May 29, 2007)

The fourth example: overturning a desegregation order by schools in Louisville, Ky. and Seattle -- setting the stage for overturning Brown v. Board of Education later. (June 29, 2007)

The fifth example: overturning a law was approved by DC voters and city council members in 1976 that restricted guns -- the law significantly lowered the murder rate in the nation's capital in the 31 years that followed. (June 26, 2008)

The latest example of judicial activism came on Thursday, when they overturned the entire McCain-Feingold campaign reform law. The ruling, in which the sexist anti-Hillary Clinton group C.U.N.T. (Citizens United Not Timid) was part of, pretty much gives the conservatives and tea party activists their vision of America -- which is a fascist country -- no different than the present-day Somalia and Myanmar or the Hitler-era of Germany.

That is not my vision of this nation, nor is it the vision of the majority of the American people. My vision of America is one which all 310,000,000 people are given equal rights under our Constitution. My vision is one in which the 'have-nots' get the exact same opportunity as the 'haves'.

There is one short term solution that has not been explained in the press. Impeach all five of the aforementioned judges and then change the Constitution so that the American people will vote on eight of the nine judges, including the five seats vacated by the impeached judges.

Then we can get started on undoing the damage that the current SCOTUS has done to our democracy.

CBS tells bald-faced lies about their advertising rules!

NEW YORK CITY -- CBS, or better yet, see-BS.

Early this morning, CBS announced that they will indeed air an advocacy ad from the misogynist Focus on the Family group.

CBS executives approved a script for a Super Bowl spot from evangelical group Focus on the Family, which suggests the ad will not carry a pro-life message — at least an overt one.

The network has a policy of prohibiting advocacy ads, even ones that carry an “implicit” endorsement for a side in a public debate. A CBS spokesman did say the network will review the video version of the spot before giving it the final green light, but does not anticipate any hurdles.

So, this proves me right all along: CBS is just another right wing television station. And CBS also lied about their policy on advertising.

So, here is what you need to do.

Tell CBS Sports to reject the misogynistic smut that Focus on the Family plans to air during the Super Bowl, no questions asked.

CBS Sports (via CBS Corporations): 1-212-975-4321

You can also call your local CBS affiliates and tell them not to air the ad should CBS Sports continue on with their plans to air the ad. For the Central Savannah River Area, all of the CBS stations in South Carolina are in play, with the exception of WBTV-SD in Charlotte, as no one in the CSRA can receive WBTV.

WRDW-HD News 12 (for all of the CSRA): 1-803-278-1212
WGCL-HD 46 CBS Atlanta (for Taliaferro and western Wilkes counties): 1-404-325-4646
WLTX-HD News 19 (for all of the South Carolina side of the CSRA): 1-803-776-3600
WCSC-SD Live 5 (for eastern Bamberg and Orangeburg counties): 1-843-402-5555
WTOC-HD 11 (for Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Burke, Emanuel, Hampton, Jenkins and Screven counties): 1-912-234-1111
WBTW-HD News 13 (for Northeastern Orangeburg County): 1-843-293-1301 (Michael Caplan)
WSPA-HD News Channel 7 (for Aiken, Augusta-Richmond, Columbia, Edgefield, Lincoln, McCormick, McDuffie, Saluda, Taliaferro, Warren and Wilkes counties): 1-864-576-7777

Also, you can write to CBS Corporation directly via its Feedback. Put the letter in Other - Not Listed. Then write the letter and post it under the 'complaint' button. Here is a letter I wrote (feel free to use what I wrote):

I am angry that you will be subjecting the Super Bowl audience into watching an obscene, misogynistic 30-second ad from Focus on the Family. I am even more angry at CBS to know that you all banned a MoveOn commercial during Super Bowl 38, yet you are allowing the Focus on the Family commercial in this Super Bowl.

You are also telling a bald-faced lie when you say that you don't accept advocacy ads. Focus on the Family is airing an advocacy ad and they are, just like MoveOn, an advocacy group.

This move to air Focus on the Family's ad during Super Bowl 44 further validates my point that your station has a blatant right wing slant.

If you really are neutral, then you would reject this Focus on the Family ad without question.

You can also e-mail your local CBS affiliates, but I would not recommend it, since none of the local CBS stations are owned-and-operated.

Anti-choice extremist committing criminal acts by trespassing and then lying at Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide

TEMPE, AZ -- Please meet Lily Rose.

Ms. Rose is a college student at California-Los Angeles. She lies about not only her age, but she lies about being pregnant.

And now, Ms. Rose's bald-faced lies are not only slandering and destroying Planned Parenthood, but her lies are also destroying our democracy as we know it.

Now, I know that this story is about seven months old, but I only caught this story last Friday from Serena Freewomyn.

Alternet goes first:

There is no question that Rose’s work is having an impact. Back in April, Tennessee lawmakers sought to end a $721,000 contract with Planned Parenthood, according to the Times, “citing outrage over what they saw in a video Rose had recently posted. . .”

The Orange County Board of Supervisors also “voted to suspend a grant worth nearly $300,000 to Planned Parenthood that was earmarked for sex education, not abortions… [after] a conservative Tustin businessman raised the issue with Supervisor John Moorlach after meeting Rose and seeing her videos,” according to the Times. The grant was ultimately reinstated though the board “created a new policy that will make it more difficult for Planned Parenthood and some other community clinics to qualify for the grant in the future.”

Megan at Jezebel had an article about this in December after Lila pulled her tactics in Indiana.

The results were predictable. Clinic staff at the two clinics in Indiana didn’t — as required by law in Indiana — report Lila or her accomplice to the police as suspected abuse victims and told her that they didn’t care how old her “boyfriend” was, despite Lila insisting he was 31 and afraid of getting in trouble. Indiana law states that anyone having sexual contact with a person under the age of 14 is committing a sexual assault, and requires doctors to break doctor-patient confidentiality laws — even if the sex was consensual — and tell the police.

Planned Parenthood fired both the aide featured in the video Rose shot in Bloomington and the counselor featured in the video shot in Indianapolis, and retrained its staff on complying with Indiana’s reporting requirements. Meanwhile, the prosecutor in Marion County (where Indianapolis is) has empaneled a grand jury to investigate whether any laws were broken.

This is her face. Please remember it whenever you go your Planned Parenthood clinic in either Charleston, Columbia or Augusta:



Lila Rose is 100% deceptive in her tactics. If you are a Planned Parenthood worker and see Lila Rose come near your clinic, DO NOT answer the door -- do NOT open the door. Instead, call your local law enforcement office and tell them that Lila Rose is trespassing on the clinic's property. In Augusta, that number is 1-706-821-1000.

In Columbia, that number is 576-3000. And in Charleston, that number is 1-843-202-1700. Statewide, it is CrimeStoppers. That number is 1-888-559-TIPS. Or you can call 911.

Call that number, and have Ms. Rose arrested for trespassing at your Planned Parenthood clinic.

Roe v. Wade 37 years later: Trust women and what it means to me

HELENA, MT -- Current NARAL President and former Montana state Representative Nancy Keenan has a question on this special 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade: What does Trust Women mean to you?

For me, Trust Women means that women are capable of making their own decisions about their own reproductive health care without the interference of politicians, evangelical conservatives and men.

Trust Women means that women are smart, selfless people who look at the decisions that they make about their lives and bodies with great care.

I am angry that another individual -- especially politicians masquerading as less government advocates -- are allowed to control women's lives at a whim. The federal government has no right getting into women's lives. And the fifty (50) state governments have no right getting into women's lives in their respective state.

Now. That's that.

Women's rights grade goes up -- but it's still dismal

WASHINGTON -- After two straight years of getting a grade of F for women's rights, the United States' grade on women's rights has gone up.

But, America is only at a dismal D- for women's rights. And that is only because Preisdent Obama repealed the Global Gag Rule on January 23, 2009.

Barring that, the grade would have remained an F.

Speaking of F's, that is the women's rights grades for South Carolina and Georgia. North Carolina fares better, but not much. The Tar Heel State gets a D.

Unlike the NARAL methodity, my methodity is a lot more simple and a lot more strict.

Yes, I use the NARAL method, but I simplify it so that even first-grade girls can know it.

Instead of +90s or -50s, I use a very simple method.

Since there are 19 things that NARAL look for in their report card, I just add 10 points for pro-choice laws and subtract 10 points for anti-choice laws.

The highest score is a 190, the lowest is zero.

The higher the state's score, the better the grade. The lower the state's score, then the worse the state's grade is.

In order to get an A, that state must have a score of 178 or higher.

In order to have a B, that state must have a score between 163 and 177.

In order to have a C, that state must have a score between 148 and 162.

In order to have a D, that state must have a score between 133 and 147.

A score of 146 or lower will result in that state getting an F.

The federal government also plays a big role in the state's grade, which is why I immediately knocked 12 points off all 50 states' grades due to an unconstitutional ban on abortion became law in 2007, when five judicially activist men appointed by Reagan and the two Bushes decided to take it upon themselves to become usurpers and ignore the 10th, 13th, 14th and 15th amendments of our Constitution when they ruled on April 18 of that year.

What this means is that until the unconstitutional abortion ban is repealed or until the Equal Rights Amendment is finally ratified into the US Constitution, no state will be allowed to get an A. Meaning that the highest grade I'm rewarding on women's rights will be a B.

Refer to NARAL's Who Decides? page for info on what your state's grade will be under my system.

Real socialism, explained in NY Times comment

Most people think they know what socialism is. Problem is, they don't know jack about socialism and how it works.

People here in America today are very lazy. People here never do research -- they just get sound bites from Glenn Beck or Chris Matthews.

I found an excellent comment in the New York Times comments section about Scott Brown's win in Tuesday's special election. This comment gives the real truth about socialism. I hope that atefksayed of Mobile, Ala. doesn't mind me posting his wonderful comment about the true definition of socialism.

I doubt that the majority of the USA citizen understand what socialism is and I bet that all members of the congress know that either.

You are so right, atefksayed. As I mentioned above, the overwhelming majority of the American citizens are very lazy and they do not want to get an education. They only want to listen to soundbytes from ignorant, lazy jackasses like Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and others on TV. And Beck and Limbaugh are both just as, if not more, responsible than Bush, Cheney, Jim DeMint and other conservatives for the destruction of our country as we knew it. We took back our country in 2008, four years too late to save it. And now, we will keep our country from being stolen by ignorant jackasses who howl socialism, yet are too lazy to get a Webster's dictionary and look up the damn word.

The GOP used as a fear tactics. The Government takes over. Dahh. My understanding of the the US government include the legislative and judicial branches as well as the executive one. So if the GOP blame the Government in Washington, then the GOP are part of this malfunction government and they failed to correct that when they the have white house and the congress.

Socialism is by the people and for the people. In socialism, people elect the government and their representatives in the congress. The people want the government to stand for their right against those with capital and financial power. Money corrupts politicians. That is why the financial institutes including Health care insurance, pharmaceutical companies etc corrupt our representatives and our government. Socialism by definition put the power in the hand of the government to protect the people. Our government, with all its branches; even the judicial, backs away from protecting the right of the people to protect the few rich in our country. In socialism, the elected government has earned the trust of the people, its function is to regulate the private sector and not to own it, to be sure that the few rich do not abuse the majority of working class. Should we trust the elected representative or the CEO of the insurance company. Unless, our elected representatives sold themselves to the DEVIL of the financial institute. STOP the LOBBYIST. HAVE A CLEAN GOVERNMENT. The GOP twisted that, and send the fear of Government take over. The democrats, for their ignorance, arrogance or fear fill into the GOP trap.

Blame the Democrats in the congress. Get rid of the old troops and bring new ones. REFORM THE CONGRESS. LIMIT THEIR TERMS IN THE OFFICE. A NATIONAL REFERENDUM IS NEEDED TO IMPOSE THAT CHANGE ON THE CONGRESS

Excellent comment, atefksayed. No more needs to be said.

KC Star rightfully rips terrorist-sympathizing Judge Warren Wilbert for decisions in Roeder's trial

WICHITA -- In an editorial ten days ago, the center-right Kansas City star rightfully ripped Judge Warren Wilbert for a decision to allow the jury in Mr. Roeder's trial to consider convicting domestic terrorist Scott Roeder of voluntary manslaughter.

But it was puzzling and disturbing last week to see the judge open the door to a voluntary manslaughter conviction. Wilbert said he would allow testimony that Roeder acted on an “unreasonable but honest belief that circumstances existed that justified deadly force.”

Prosecutors appropriately protested. In a motion, they noted they will present “substantial evidence” that Tiller’s murder was premeditated. Wilbert has scheduled a hearing on their motion today.

Regarding the judge’s willingness to allow Roeder to present an “imperfect self-defense” argument, prosecutors contended: “Taken to its logical extreme, this line of thinking would allow anyone to commit premeditated murder, but only be guilty of manslaughter, simply because the victim holds a different set of moral and political beliefs than the attacker.”

Tiller’s heinous murder should not be compounded by allowing the trial to open a door to that kind of precedent.

Based on previous rulings, it seems highly possible that a higher court would overturn a verdict based on an “imperfect self-defense” argument. But even allowing such a defense would make Roeder’s trial unnecessarily inflammatory.

That’s murder, pure and simple. Roeder’s trial should not be treated as anything more or less.

(emphasis mine in bold print)

Note to the Kansas City Star: it is far more than just murder. The killing of Dr. George R. Tiller was a deliberate act of terrorism -- pure and simple. If our judicial system did its job, Roeder would be tried on terrorism charges, instead of murder charges -- and in a military tribunal.

Judge Wilbert is a terrorist sympathizer, as his decisions reflect.

Judge Wilbert should be removed from the bench immediately.

Important read from the American Prospect!

WASHINGTON -- The American Prospect does a tremendous job in exposing the present-day TEA party movement for what it is: right wing fascism wrapped up in libertarianism. Here is the original article and a link I posted on the Tyra Banks Show's Ning page.

The whole piece is a must-read. I'll share some of it here.

Next month's Tea Party National Convention has been making news for the fat fee Sarah Palin is commanding -- $100,000, according to many reports. But the gathering, to be held at Nashville's Opryland Hotel, is interesting for another reason as well: It marks the attempt of the old-school Christian right to take over the tea-party movement. Speakers joining Palin include Rick Scarborough, Roy Moore, and Joseph Farah, men who are radical even by religious-right standards. Their presence shows that the tea-party movement is no longer merely populist, libertarian, or anti-government, if it ever was. It is theocratic. Indeed, after several months in which the religious right seemed lost and dispirited, it has found a way to ride the tea-party express into renewed relevance.

From the beginning, of course, there's been overlap between the tea parties and the Christian right. Both have their strongholds in the white South, and both arise out of a sense of furious dispossession, a conviction that the country that is rightfully theirs has been usurped by sinister cosmopolitan elites. They have the same favorite politicians -- particularly Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann, who is also speaking in Nashville. Glenn Beck, the media figure most associated with the tea-party movement, has a worldview deeply shaped by apocalyptic Mormonism; he is contemptuous of the idea of church-state separation and believes the United States was founded to be a Christian nation.

For those who oppose the right, all this offers cause for both hope and alarm. Neither the tea parties nor Sarah Palin are likely to expand their appeal by association with the most bellicose of religious reactionaries. Some have speculated that a third party may emerge from the Nashville convention, an outcome that can only benefit Democrats in upcoming elections. But we've now reached a point where CPAC, a conference whose co-sponsors include The John Birch Society, represents a comparatively moderate sector of the GOP. That may turn out to be bad for the Republicans, but it's even worse for America.

Obama, one year later

WASHINGTON -- It has been one year to the minute that President Obama was inaugurated into the White House.

So far, the change has been marginal.

Which is why at this point, I have to give President Obama a D+ for the job he is doing.

Yes, he is better than the three GOP presidents I have lived through (Reagan and the two Bushes). But, so far, not by much.

Other than pass the Lilly Ledbetter and Matthew Shepherd acts, repeal the Global Gag Rule and finally revoke the funding of the very weak F-22 fighter jets -- there is little else for Obama to show for his record. Except for a string of broken promises.

Obama promised to pass the Freedom of Choice Act. One year later, the FOCA bill has not even been thought of, let alone brought up for a vote. Broken promise #1.

Obama promised to abolish the Hyde Amendment. Bart Stupak, Joe Pitts, Ben Nelson and the other sexist pigs in Congress are trying to ban abortion completely one year later. Broken promise #2.

Obama promised that no one would lose their current health care coverage. The same sexist men I mentioned in broken promise #2 want to take away the health care coverage of women aged 14-39 one year later. Not an official broken promise yet, but it will be if either the Stupak-Pitts or the manager's amendment remain in the final bill.

Obama promised to keep pork barrel spending at a minimum. A little bit of pork was found in the stimulus package. The 2010 FY Defense budget, however, was found to be loaded with all kinds of pork barrel spending in it, even though the biggest pork project of them all -- the F-22 fighter jet -- was eliminated from the budget. Because of the pork laden Defense budget, this will be broken promise #3.

Obama promised to end the Iraq war immediately when he was elected. Despite the fact that there were no American casualties in Iraq in December, ALL of the troops currently in Iraq were supposed to be either coming home or in Afghanistan hunting down Osama bin Laden. However, there are still troops in Iraq. Broken promise #4.

So far, four broken promises by Obama in the first 365.25 days. Not good.

Fascism triumphs over freedom in Massachusetts election

BOSTON -- And just like that, freedom loses in Massachusetts.

By a 52% to 47% margin, fascism took over the Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy's death on August 26, 2009.

That margin sent Christofascist Scott Brown into the US Senate over pro-freedom candidate Martha Coakley.

And that says something. All of a sudden, Massachusetts have a bunch of uneducated people electing someone just because they are a celebrity that Sarah Palin likes -- just like what we have currently in South Carolina's electorate.

It was pretty obvious that the college graduates and those who are well-educated stayed home away from the rain/snow/wind on Tuesday. If the well-educated and college grads would have bitten the bullet and voted, then AG Coakley would have won -- albeit narrowly.

Instead, the fascists have a NEW 41st Senate vote. Only that it isn't Joe Lieberman or Ben Nelson. Instead, the 41st fascist vote is now Scott Brown.

And now, the Christofascist movement -- also known as the TEA party movement -- talks about taking their country back on November 2 of this year and again on November 6, 2012. We can't let the Christofascists get back in power!

We must defeat all forms of fascism wherever they may be. Failure to defeat Christofascism and right wing fascism coming from the TEA party movement is NOT an option.

If Christofascists like Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Joe Wilson get their way in the next two national elections, then we can say goodbye to freedom and America as we know it.

Tell CBS Sports, WRDW, WSPA, WLTX, WTOC, WBTW, and WCSC not to air obscene, misogynistic ad during Super Bowl!

MIAMI, FL -- There is some urgent action that you need to take!

Focus on the Family is planning to air the most misogynistic ad ever during the Super Bowl. The ads that aired on NBC Sports, WAGT, WIS, WYFF, WCBD and WSAV during last year's Super Bowl were misogynistic enough, and now James Dobson and Focus on the Family is trying to outdo them all.

The ad features the Tebow family in Gainesville, about 170 miles north of Miami. Here is what Jodi Jacobson of RH Reality Check says about this:

Using the same "what-if-you-abort-a-future president" meme deployed during the 2008 Presidential campaign, Focus on the Family is purchasing time to air an ad during the Superbowl featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother Pam.

According to the Huffington Post, the Tebows will share a personal story centering on the theme "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life."

The group isn't releasing details, but the commercial is likely to be an anti-abortion message chronicling Pam Tebow's 1987 pregnancy. After getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child and gave birth to Tim.

Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, said the commercial comes at a time when "families need to be inspired."

"Tim and Pam share our respect for life and our passion for helping families thrive," Daly said. "Focus on the Family is about ... strengthening families by empowering them with the tools they need to live lives rooted in morals and values."

Thirty-second commercials during the Super Bowl are selling for between $2.5 million and $2.8 million. Daly said all the funds for the ad came from a handful of "very generous and committed friends," and that no money from the group's general fund was used.

Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, ended his college career this month with several NCAA, Southeastern Conference and school records, and two national championships.

He will enter the NFL draft in April.

Tebow has been very involved in his family's Christian-based ministry and regularly includes references to Bible passages in his eye black.

During the SEC Championship game, he guided viewers to John 16:33. The week before, in his last home game as a Florida Gator, his eye blacks referenced Hebrews 12:1-2. Tonight, Tebow is playing the final game of his college career in the Sugar Bowl, and he has included one final message beneath his eyes..

What's wrong with this picture?

It is nothing new for the anti-choice movement to profile or promote athletes in their efforts to limit women's choices, ranging from football to baseball to basketball.

But the effort fails the smell test on several levels. For one thing, Pam Tebow freely made a choice that fit with her own conscience, faith, and calculations of risk, and that is to be celebrated. It is not a cause for taking away the choices of other women. The issue is the right of each woman to choose what is best for her and her own family, not to force the choices of Pam Tebow or anyone else on the entire population of women for all time.

For another we are constantly and increasingly seeing men, men, men (think Stupak, Nelson, the Catholic Bishops, Scott Brown and others) leading the charge to limit women's choices, not only to abortion, but to birth control.

I like a good competitive sports game as much as anyone else. However, I find it dangerously ironic that football players, participants in the most aggressively male-centered and violent contact sport in the United States and constantly surrounded by cheerleaders whose job it is to dance and look pretty for the men, feel compelled to tell women what to believe and how to act. Or is that just an extension of the patriarchal nature of the sport itself?

Finally, if Focus on the Family is so concerned with "inspiring and celebrating the family," then maybe it ought to advertise directly to the anti-choice community urging them to put their political efforts where their mouths are. The so-called pro-life movement consistently and vociferously works against policies and programs that would support pregnant women and children in need. For example, as Cristina Page wrote on RH Reality Check:

In 2007, The Children’s Defense Fund published its Congressional Scorecard on the best and worst legislators for children. The organization scored congressmembers votes on many of the policies that help pregnant women decide whether to parent or abort. The votes were on Head Start, increasing the minimum wage, reauthorizing and increasing funding for S-CHIP, increasing funding for children with disabilities, job training, Medicaid funding, helping youth pay for college, and tax-relief for low-income families with children. Based on their votes on these issues, the Children’s Defense Fund ranked 143 congressmembers as ‘the worst” for children. Of the 143 worst
legislators, 100% are pro-life.

I challenge Focus on the Family to a different strategy:

Spend your Super Bowl Ad money launching a campaign regarding violence against women, particularly by intimate partners, which, it so happens, rises during pregnancy.

Focus your funding on violence against women by athletes, and the culture of rape.

Focus your funding on increasing access to and information on contraceptive methods that can assist all individuals in avoiding unintended pregnancies in the first place. Focus your money on having athletes call for more compassionate policies addressing the needs of low-income families struggling to survive in this recession.

Or is that too much "fantasy" for football and Focus on the Family to handle?

(emphasis mine in bold print)

It really angers me that it is people of my own gender that want to impose their own sharia laws on women. Men like Stupak, Nelson, Bush, Dobson, Armey, Cheney, and Tebow are the main reasons why America is one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to human rights today.

We can change that and we must change that.

The first order of business is telling CBS Sports AND your local CBS stations to reject the misogynistic smut that Focus on the Family plans to air during the Super Bowl. For the Central Savannah River Area, all of the CBS stations in South Carolina are in play, with the exception of WBTV-SD in Charlotte, as no one in the CSRA can receive WBTV.

CBS Sports (via CBS Corporations): 1-212-975-4321
WRDW-HD News 12 (for all of the CSRA): 1-803-278-1212
WGCL-HD 46 CBS Atlanta (for Taliaferro and western Wilkes counties): 1-404-325-4646
WLTX-HD News 19 (for all of the South Carolina side of the CSRA): 1-803-776-3600
WCSC-SD Live 5 (for eastern Bamberg and Orangeburg counties): 1-843-402-5555
WTOC-HD 11 (for Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Burke, Emanuel, Hampton, Jenkins and Screven counties): 1-912-234-1111
WBTW-HD News 13 (for Northeastern Orangeburg County): 1-843-293-1301 (Michael Caplan)
WSPA-HD News Channel 7 (for Aiken, Augusta-Richmond, Columbia, Edgefield, Lincoln, McCormick, McDuffie, Saluda, Taliaferro, Warren and Wilkes counties): 1-864-576-7777

Also, you can take action on feminist web pages and demand that CBS not air that smut from James Dobson and Focus on the Family!

Best letter to the Editor: Alan Landreth of Greenville

I found a great letter among the Greenville News's most commented links. This letter was written by Alan Landreth:

I’m a “bleeding heart” liberal. For the life of me I can’t understand how my right-wing friends could find something bad in that statement. I’m liberal because I want every human being on this planet to live their lives as they see fit, within the bounds of the law, of course.

God gave us the great gift of free will. He didn’t give my free will to someone else. God keeps me informed of the bad choices I make through my conscience and I’m sure he will lay it out more clearly when my spirit leaves this earthly shell and I’m free of all physical pain and human emotions, such as greed, lust, envy, pride, worry, jealousy, etc. For me, my ticket to heaven is my belief that Christ hung on that cross because he loves me so much he wanted all my sins, past, present and future to be washed away. And all I have to do is ask his forgiveness. No, he didn’t give me a license to sin but he gave me, and just me, the gift of choosing the good or bad choices I make.

My point is that it appears to me that our conservative Republican friends, especially the right-wing Christian fundamentalists, think that they should have some say in what a woman does with her body, or who has the right to good health (health insurance for all costs too much), or what we as individuals consume for the pleasure or strengthening of our bodies.

To me Christianity and conservatism just don’t jive. Christ preached taking care of each other even if it is costly. In fact, he said that the only thing we can do for him is what we do for others.

(emphasis mine in bold print)

Mr. Landreth is correct. The conservatives (and I am quite positive that Scott Brown has done this in the special election campaign in Massachusetts) all give a good talk about how they are for less government in order to get votes. But, in the 30 years that they have been using this bumper-sticker rhetoric (and in my almost 26 years on this Earth), I have yet to see any elected conservative in either Washington, Columbia, Atlanta, or anywhere else for that matter, actually reduce the size of government during their term. I have seen the only liberal president in my lifetime actually reduce the size of government in his eight years from 1993 to 2001. Jimmy Carter, as badly as he bungled the Iran hostage crisis response (which led to his ouster in 1980), also reduced the size of the federal government during his short four year term.

What has Reagan, Bush 41 or Bush 43 have accomplished? Well, for starters, each of these men greatly increased the size of government and destroyed our civil rights and liberties. The only difference? Bush 41 wasn't around for eight years to destroy our freedoms like his predecessor and his son did.

There is a name for people like those three conservative presidents, and it is called hypocrisy with a capital H.

Conservatives support big, intrusive government into people's lives. While liberals are very opposed to big government.

That's the cold, hard facts.

3,676, Count 'Em

WASHINGTON -- Early last week, former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani said:
“We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama.”

You talk about someone that has a real bad case of amnesia and hoof-and-mouth disease.

First and foremost, Mr. Giuliani correctly states that there has been one terrorist attack under Obama. Problem is, it didn't happen on Christmas Day 2009. No, no, no. The domestic terrorist attack under Obama's watch actually happened on May 31, 2009 -- when Scott Roeder (currently on trial in civilian court) assassinated Dr. George R. Tiller at the OB-GYN's Wichita Lutheran Church.

Now, this is why I said that Mr. Giuliani inserted his foot in his mouth.

Since September 11, 2001, there has been 3,676 domestic terrorist attacks at women's health clinics all over the United States. You heard me right: THREE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED SEVENTY-SIX terrorist attacks at women's health clinics. If we were to include terrorist attacks on women's health clinics between January 20, 2001 and September 10, 2001, there would have been well over 4,000 domestic terrorist attacks that happened under Bush's watch, all of them at women's health clinics.

Which means that abortion providers are much easier targets for terrorists than military bases, airplanes and airline terminals, malls, cinemas, football stadiums, baseball parks, superspeedways, basketball stadiums, hockey rinks, skyscrapers and nuclear plants combined.

Let me repeat that again: Abortion providers are much easier targets for terrorists than these 11 things put together: military bases, airplanes and airline terminals, malls, cinemas, football stadiums, baseball parks, superspeedways, basketball stadiums, hockey rinks, skyscrapers and nuclear plants.

Which means that you are much safer from terrorists at a mall or in a movie theater with no security than you are at an abortion provider with 1,000 security forces patrolling it.

And people ever wonder why I keep saying that the mainstream media has a far right wing bias. Well, your answer to that question is in the next sentence. The media has not once reported on the over 4,000 terrorist attacks that happened at abortion providers since the decade began on January 1, 2001. Furthermore, every mainstream media outlet is owned by anti-choice extremists, which is why news stories like this goes unreported.

It is long past time that we make protecting our abortion providers from terrorism the number 1 priority. Then protecting everything else must come after that.

Info on domestic terrorist attacks during Bush years via Mrs. Mastro from Feminists for Choice.

Vote for Martha Coakley! She is the less government candidate in Massachusetts.

BOSTON -- On Tuesday, people in the Bay State will go to the polls and vote for US Sen. Kennedy's successor.

There is only one correct choice in this race.

Martha Coakley.

She is the ONLY less government candidate in this race here. She opposes government intrusion into people's lives -- and most importantly, she opposes government intrusion in women's lives.

Furthermore, she wants a responsible market -- the kind of market we had at Wall Street from 1993-2001. And she supports fair trade, to make sure that our jobs stay in the continental United States.

On the other side is Scott Brown. He is the typical big government conservative candidate that is the master of double speak. [For those who don't know what I mean when I say double speak, a candidate says one thing in 30-second television commercials, and then do another thing (mainly the complete opposite) when they are elected into power. This kind of deception is a key tactic conservatives use in winning elections. First say that [insert conservative candidate's name here] is for less government in a 30-second spot, then grow the size of government to very intrusive levels when the conservative is actually in power. This kind of deception has happened under every conservative president in the last 30 years.] He wants to grow the government more. He wants more government treading on women and women's bodies.

Furthermore, he wants to continue the failed side-supply economics theory that caused this mess. And he has made it known that he opposes any kind of reform for health care. His Republican Party has a disapproval rating of 71% overall, while Dems have a 58% disapproval on health care, but about 52% overall.

Also, consider the fact that Massachusetts have far more progressive voters than New Jersey does. And some of the progressive voters may have voted early.

On Tuesday, vote for less government. Vote for Martha Coakley.

Don't want to pay for abortion coverage? I don't want to pay for war!

WASHINGTON -- Good things from RH Reality Check and the Center for Reproductive Rights.



I'll make it known right here, right now. I DO NOT WANT MY TAX DOLLARS SPENT ON ILLEGAL WARS IN IRAQ AND IRAN!!!!

Feminists, what do you not want your tax dollars spent on?

Are you surprised? I'm not!

WASHINGTON -- A new study shows that divorce rates are higher in the 29 or so states (including California and Maine) that legalized discrimination against LGBT people in that state's Constitution. Feministing has more (chart below stolen from feministing).



Nate Silver at 538.com has this to say:

Over the past decade or so, divorce has gradually become more uncommon in the United States. Since 2003, however, the decline in divorce rates has been largely confined to states which have not passed a state constitutional ban on gay marriage. These states saw their divorce rates decrease by an average of 8 percent between 2003 and 2008. States which had passed a same-sex marriage ban as of January 1, 2008, however, saw their divorce rates rise by about 1 percent over the same period.

Out of the 29 states that has a ban on same-sex marriage, South Carolina has the second-lowest divorce rate, pending the outcome (and possible challenge) to Maine's recently passed ban. But, Alabama and South Carolina are in a tiny minority. A overwhelming majority of the states with bans on gay marriage have the nation's highest divorce rates. Alaska, which was the first state to ban gay nuptials in 1998, has far and away the highest divorce rate in the nation with more than 1 in every 6 couples there divorcing. Connecticut has the highest divorce rate out of the handful of states that legalized gay marriage with only 1 out of every 101 couples divorcing there -- making Connecticut the only state in which gay couples can legally wed that saw divorce rates increase. All of the other states in which LGBT people can legally marry in saw divorce rates drop. By contrast, the states that rank below Connecticut in divorce rates all have some sort of ban on same-sex marriage in the state's Constitution -- 16 states in all.

More proof that gay marriage does not destroy the institution. Homophobia, on the other hand, destroys the institution of marriage -- just like homophobia destroys families.

Totally irresponsible

WASHINGTON -- Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson and that Nazi named Liz Cheney ALL speak for the conservative movement. Make everyone take responsibility for their own actions. Everyone that is, except for themselves.

Each time each of these three fascists open their mouths, they remind me of why I have extreme distrust of the conservative movement when it comes to keep us safe and free.

We'll start chronologically, with Mr. Robertson (I refuse to recognize this fascist as a Reverend):



Now, here comes that knucklehead Rush Limbaugh:



And last but not least, cue that Adolf Hitler-sympathizer named Liz Cheney (via the O'Reilly Factor):



Now, take a look at those three videos and they tell you something about the conservative movement. It tells you that the conservative movement has no compassion for anyone who is different from them. Each of these three are openly rooting for America's failure by wanting Obama to fail or die. Each of these three are openly rejoicing over the scores of people killed in the Haitian earthquake that occurred on Tuesday. Each of them are scoring cheap political points off this tragedy.

There are the three people who deserve the absolute scorn of the American people -- Mr. Robinson, Mr. Limbaugh and Mrs. Cheney.

Women should Not be thrown Under the Bus!

WASHINGTON -- As Democrats continue their closed-door meetings, I think it is long past time to remind them of who swept them into power in 2006 and 2008.

Women were the ones who swept you Democrats into power in those two elections. And women can just as easily sweep you out of power on November 2.

Rep. Bart Stupak did NOT put you in power. Sen. Ben Nelson did NOT put you in power. Women did.

So, stop listening to Rep. Stupak, Sen. Nelson, and Sen. Tom Coburn and start listening to women.

Women all over the nation are demanding that you pols keep your hands off their reproductive rights! Women from cities as big as New York City and from towns as small as Monetta in Aiken and Saluda counties are saying this.

The video posted above is from a group called Not Under the Bus!

That video is a must-see by everyone who cares about health care. Because what happened to Rosie Jimenez in 1977 will happen to the women in your lives if any anti-choice measure is in the health care bill's final package. What happened to Rosie Jimenez 32 years ago with the Hyde Amendment will happen to your female friends, your girlfriend, your wife, your sister, your mother, your female cousins, your aunts and your nieces if Stupak, Pitts, and Nelson get their way.

It is time to stand up and be counted. It is time to tell Congress that women will not be thrown under the bus!

Scott Roeder should be tried in a tribunal, not in civilian court

WICHITA -- A couple of weeks have just about come and gone, and I heard the right go nuts about trying international terrorists -- including an American-born Nigerian who tried to blow up Flight 253 in Detroit on Christmas Day 2009 -- in civilian courts.

I have heard none of that hysteria from their side when it came to domestic terrorist Scott Roeder.

Well, we see the hypocrisy of the right coming out right now as we know it. The conservatives are the real terrorist sympathizers -- as they would rather protect the rights of anti-choice terrorists than to protect women and their God-given right to abortion.

If the right really are concerned about terrorism, then they would have insisted on military tribunals for Scott Roeder, just like what they have wanted for international terrorists. They didn't, so therefore, the right wing's concern for terrorism is virtually non-existent.

Anyone who has a brain will rightfully tell you that we are at a much higher risk of being victims of anti-choice terrorism than of international terrorism. And what's worse, anti-choice terrorists are still allowed to board airplanes and are still allowed to buy firearms for their acts. International terrorists are still allowed to buy firearms thanks to Rep. Todd Tihart, but thankfully, they are not allowed to board flights if there is reason to suspect that they will commit an attack on an airliner.

One more thing: international terrorism can be defeated anywhere. Anti-choice terrorism can only be defeated right here in the US of A -- and ONLY if we are willing to arrest people who harass women and their doctors at the front doors of their clinics.

Because that is what anti-choice protesters do. They don't just be protesting, like they claim. They are harassing women who go to these clinics. They are harassing the OB-GYNs that work there. And the harassment goes on non-stop.

Back to Mr. Roeder, what we are seeing play out in the early days of the trial thus far is exactly what happens when dangerous anti-choice terrorists are allowed access to civilian courts. He is basically paying this judge -- who is anti-choice just like Mr. Roeder himself -- to get a slap on the wrist for the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, the most high-profile assassination of a well-known figure since the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

This civilian trial should end immediately and Mr. Roeder should be tried in a tribunal. He is a terrorist, and Mr. Roeder is no different than al-Qaida when you take nationality, race and religion out of the equation.

Ten Senators that are the LEAST deserving of re-election

With so much focus on retiring Senators from both parties, I put into focus those who are up for re-election and have announced their intent to seek another six year term.

This list are the ten Senators that are the LEAST deserving of another term:

10. Chuck Grassley (Iowa): His comments about the health care proposal killing grandma landed him on this list.

9. Sen. Maj. Ldr. Harry Reid (Nevada): His remarks about Obama's skin color in 2008 landed him on this list.

8. John Thune (South Dakota)

7. John McCain (Arizona): 132 votes against women's rights since he first came to Washington (in 1983). You knew he was going to be on this list.

6. Bob Bennett (Utah): His anti-choice record clearly indicates that Sen. Bennett is anything but a 'RINO', as Human Events called him. But still, he needs to go.

5. Johnny Isakson (Georgia): He would not have been a Senator had it not been for Denise Majette's camp pulling a smear job on Cynthia McKinney. His record proves that he is out of touch with Georgians.

4. Richard Shelby (Alabama)

3. Tom Coburn (Oklahoma): Misogynist supreme. This is not a doctor women can be proud of.

2. David Vitter (Louisiana): Having trysts with two sex workers makes him a hypocrite. Voting against equal rights for LGBT citizens and not to mention voting anti-choice, makes him an even bigger hypocrite. His sexual life was the business of the public in 2007 -- it needs to be the business of the public now.

1. Jim DeMint (South Carolina): Clearly the worst of the worst. His misogynistic record is something South Carolina does not need, especially considering that this state ranks among the worst states to live in for women, is one of the twenty worst states in the Union when it comes to women's freedom, and ranks dead last when it comes to the number of women in power. Sen. DeMint is a career politician and there is no doubt about that.

We need to send the Greenville Fascist back to the Upstate.

Domestic violence advocate turns abuser: Mary J. Blige is the female Chris Brown

NEW YORK CITY -- This incident was not reported in the national media last month, and the fact that this domestic violence incident went unreported it shows why journalism is a dying art.

On December 23, 2009; Mary J. Blige brutally attacked her husband. For what? For absolutely nothing. Then, what made it so bad is that Mary J. Blige has repeatedly told bald-faced lies about the incident that the New York Post, of all media outlets, caught on tape.

Video doesn't lie, Mary J. Blige does. Which is why I am demanding that Ms. Blige resign from her position as a Domestic Violence advocate IMMEDIATELY. Either that or be dismissed from that position. Abusers like Ms. Blige shall have no place in the anti-DV community.

Also, Ms. Blige's name must be removed from a domestic violence shelter in New York state.

Ms. Blige may be a face of a victim, but now, she is also the face of an abuser.

New record coldest high set in Miami

MIAMI, FL -- Sunday saw historic cold come down to a place that is more well-known as a getaway, party spot.

The official high temperature in Miami was 48 degrees, which is a record for the coldest high temperature on January 10.

The high temp in West Palm Beach was 50 degrees, while in Key West, it was just 52 degrees.

On Friday, it was just 43 degrees in Brownsville, Texas; which is typically the fourth warmest-city in the US in the winter. Key West (2d warmest) and Miami (3d warmest) were in the deep chill right along with Brownsville on Sunday.

These high temps are now being used by skeptics of global warming for their own nefarious agenda.

While it may have been cold in South Texas and South Florida over the weekend, global arming still exist. You just have to look to the north of the Arctic Circle to find the evidence.

Ice caps that melted in 2007 have yet to re-form over near Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. Meaning that polar bears are still losing their habitat and thus, are still dying, even as we squabble over how cold it is and block any real progress on solving a problem that will eventually cost Americans their lives -- literally -- if it isn't dealt with.

We wish that the Earth could cool down. But, only we humans can make that remotely possible.

Federal government should bar the state of Kansas from receiving any federal dollars if amendment passes

TOPEKA -- Some fascist lawmakers in the state of Kansas are now pushing for a constitutional amendment that would make the Jayhawk State exempt from the health care bill currently under negotiation in the Congress.

It is long past time for Congress to send a stern message by cutting off all federal funding for any state that wants to opt-out of the health care reform bill.

Nowhere in the Constitution does it give states the right to opt out of federal health care reform -- not even the 10th amendment gives states a right to opt out of health care. The 10th amendment gives states (and local municipalities) the right to stand up to the type of tyranny that hardly exists in DC as of January 21, 2009. It was tyranny that Berkeley, Calif. was standing up to in 2005 when they decided that the Bush Admin's abuse of power was no longer going to be tolerated by the city and the conservatives responded by threatening to cut off funding to the city.

This is about keeping our citizens healthy. The conservatives don't want our citizens to stay healthy. The conservatives want people to die as quickly as they can.

That is why Rep. Todd Tihart of Kansas opposes health care reform of any kind. He (and the rest of the conservatives) are doing the bidding of insurance companies. And there are way too many insurance company lobbyists in DC as it is.

IF Kansas wants to go forth with this outrageous constitutional amendment, then Congress should cease all funding for the state.

Call the Congressional switchboard at 1-202-224-3121 or 1-202-225-3121 or call your local Representative and Senators and tell them to support a proposal that would cease all federal funding for any state that wants to opt out of health care reform!

Asshole of the Week for January 9

The asshole of the week is US Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). The Greenville Fascist has done nothing but play games with our national security and he has done nothing productive for South Carolina or the United States. The Greenville Fascist is the main reason for the attack on Flight 253 in Detroit because of his anti-union agenda. The Greenville Fascist, first elected to succeed the retiring Fritz Hollings in 2004, is definitely a career politician.

It is time to send DeMint back to Greenville with a pink slip on November 2.

Best Letters to the Editor: Kevin Abel of Alpharetta, Ga.; Pam Chasek of New York City; and Patrick Stevens of Moose Lake, Minn.

Three great letters appeared in today's New York Times, all of them critical of the tea party movement that wants to finish tearing down America.

Kevin Abel of tea party hotspot Alpharetta, GA goes first:

David Brooks, in “The Tea Party Teens” (column, Jan. 5), describes the tea party movement as “a large, fractious confederation of Americans who are defined by what they are against.”

Like Mr. Brooks, I am not a fan of this movement. It starts from a position of negation.

In these troubled times, when our economic and security status quos register very low on the scale, and our confidence in government to help remedy these ills is off the scale completely, we are in dire need not of negation but of the quintessential American values of optimism and fortitude.

If we don’t like the status quo, we should stop saying no and instead say yes to change.

We should demand of our politicians that they, too, say yes to change by working with one another to craft meaningful legislation that addresses our problems related to energy, climate change, entitlement spending and campaign financing.

By scoring our politicians on their willingness to tackle these issues head on rather than retreating to the safety of the naysaying special-interest fringes, we will be sending the most powerful message we can — with our votes.

Next up is Pamela Chasek of the Big Apple:

David Brooks raises an important issue: rejection of the so-called educated class. Rather than blaming the left or the right, Republican or Democrat, we should all be concerned.

What the tea party movement is calling for could lead our country into greater economic, political and social stagnation.

In a peculiar way, the world that Mr. Brooks is describing reminds me of “Atlas Shrugged,” by Ayn Rand.

Without taxes and without government, there will be little or no investment in infrastructure, transit, education, science, national parks and so on.

As the educated elites are banished and the lights go out across the country and the final bridge across the Mississippi River collapses, disrupting the food supply, whither the America we once knew?

Rand blamed socialist ideology. In this case, we can blame only ourselves.

Before we get to the letter written by Patrick Stevens of Moose Lake, MN; I want to point out that Ms. Chasek is 100% correct in saying that we have to blame ourselves for the latest tea party movement and its destructive agenda. We cannot blame socialism for anything, because there is nothing socialist about Obama's health care plan and there is nothing socialist about America with the notable exceptions being our military and national defense programs.

Now, Mr. Stevens's letter is due up:

I think that David Brooks allows the tea party too much consideration in his analysis of today’s political scene. The party is not organized around any single idea other than the thought that its members don’t like our president.

They get their inspiration and justification from the right-wing extremists who hang on the fringes of the Republican Party, and who continue to incite the groups but take no responsibility for the tea party activists’ actions.

Thus, when tea party members shout down members of Congress, or shout racist slogans, or hold racist signs, or openly carry firearms, or defend anarchy, Republican Party leaders opt to look the other way, or feign moral outrage.

The tea partiers are reactionary, and shrill out of fear. They are the bully on the playground. We just need to hold steady to show them up for what they are.

Mr. Stevens makes an excellent point in his letter. These people are bullies, just like the big bad Chinese government. There is a hint on Super Mario 64 called "Bully the Bullies" in the Lethal Lava Land. Well, it remains entirely possible that we may have to bully the bullies in the tea party movement.

No 60s in South Florida

KEY WEST, FL -- Take a guess at what Wednesday's High Temperature was in Miami, Key West and Marathon.

70? Nope.

60? No.

The actual high temps in Miami was 58 degrees. It was also maxed out at 58 in Marathon. The max temp was 57 degrees in Key West. Those high temperatures, believe it or not, are actually cooler that the average low temperature of 60 degrees in each of the three locations.

Wednesday marked the first time since 2006 that no locations in South Florida cracked 60 degrees.

And it could get even worse this weekend, with temps in South Florida projecting to be in the lower to middle 50s for highs -- and that includes Miami, Key West and Marathon.

By contrast, it was 72 degrees in Brownsville, TX and in the lower 70s in Los Angeles and Phoenix. But Brownsville is also expected to get the exact same arctic air that could keep them in the upper 40s all day long in the upcoming weekend.

Five years after the wreck

GRANITEVILLE -- Today is the fifth anniversary of the worst non-severe weather disaster in South Carolina's history.

At 2:33 a.m. on January 6, 2005, a train carrying chemicals collided with another train at an improperly aligned railway switch. Within thirty minutes of the accident, CNN provided continuous breaking news coverage on cable and each of the three news stations in Augusta, GA (at the time, WFXG did not provide news), all of the news stations in Columbia and all of the major news outlets in Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Asheville had provided continuous coverage. In the case of the Upstate and Columbia news outlets, the coverage ended when primetime shows came on. All of the Augusta news stations pre-empted all programming, including the national news and all primetime shows until 11:35 p.m. that night.

Already a national story, the disaster grabbed international headlines when Canada's Joseph Stone died in the train wreck.

Avondale Mills closed down and Graniteville is now looking more like poverty-stricken Allendale County despite being in Aiken County, which has some of the lowest unemployment rates in the entire nation, let alone in the state.

The Aiken Standard picks up the story of Graniteville residents from there:

On Jan. 6, 2005, a Norfolk Southern train veered off the main track and collided with a parked train. The resulting crash resulted in the release of 160,000 pounds of chlorine gas. Nine people were killed. More than 500 were treated at local hospitals. More than 5,400 were evacuated. And one town was changed forever. Five years after one of the most deadly chemical spills in American history, residents of Graniteville reflect on that fateful morning five years ago today.

Scott Harley, owner of Harley's Automotive on Main Street, left the store around 2 a.m. Jan. 6 and headed to his house just one mile away. He heard the train cars collide, but didn't grasp the enormity of what happened until he turned on the TV later that morning. He was on standby to be evacuated. Harley's Automotive shut down for three weeks.

"I don't know much about trains, but I knew when it happened that someone hadn't turned the switch. Graniteville is steadily getting worse and worse as far as the economy goes. The mill shut down. People moved out of town. It's gone from being an industrial town to a ghost town."

Wraylea Robinson woke up to her phone ringing. It was a friend telling her to leave her house.

"I said, 'Girl, stop playing with me.' Then I turned on the TV. I covered up my head, got in a neighbor's car, and we drove to a hotel. Graniteville has changed a lot. Trees are down. The mills are closed. When it rains or something, you still get a smell."

Joseph Nash, who was 11 years old at the time and attending Leavelle McCampbell Middle School, woke up and began dressing for school like a normal day on Jan. 6, but his parents said there was no school.

"We were out of school a couple of weeks. I could still smell the chlorine all the way out to my house on Whaley Pond Road. They now seem a lot more strict about who's running the railroad. We're not allowed to skateboard there anymore."

Sue Graham and her family chose to evacuate their home since they lived within a mile radius of the wreckage site. They had to take precautions to protect their youngest daughter since she has asthma and made a trip to the doctor for medicine.

"Of course, the chlorine was pretty bad. It burned our eyes, our throats. The mills closing really affected a lot of people. People's health definitely got worse. We've never had something that bad happen here before. It's really sad for those who lost family members. It's hard to believe it's been five years."

Steve Maker worked for a convenience store chain at the time and lived on the Trenton side of Graniteville. But, he still felt the impact. A friend whose husband was a paramedic for Aiken County called Maker and warned him something had happened and told him to stay out of Graniteville. The same train track runs within a hale-mile of his house.

"The loss of jobs at Avondale had a great impact on Graniteville. The economy has worsened since then. I wish we could see more growth. I hope the sign company (MCA Industries has announced it will relocate its operations to a building in the Sage Mill Industrial Park) does well."

Mary Griffin woke up coughing that morning, but didn't know what the cause was until she heard the news. She lives in the Breezy Hill area but did not have to evacuate.

"I knew it was a pretty big mess. Graniteville has changed. It has gone down with the mill closing. The first time I drove down there after the accident, I had that funny feeling."

Barbara Martin

"I was at home when I heard about it. I first heard from the news. I was shocked and surprised that something like this could happen in this area. I knew trains and people, and I know myself - I used to try and beat the trains at the tracks - but you just don't expect something like this to happen."

Terry Carter

"I was a judge here in Graniteville when it happened. I was at my home in Midland Valley when I first heard it happened. I really didn't know what was happening; I just heard you couldn't come back over here. We had to work in a courtroom in Aiken for a couple of weeks."

Yvonne Toole

"I was working at the Aiken Standard the night it happened. My ex-husband called and told me I might not be able to get home because there was a train wreck and the road was blocked off. My son was working at the Gregg Mill, and he was trying to save a lady who was pregnant. I thought something had happened to him because he wouldn't answer his phone.

"I thought he was running through the woods to get to my car, but he went back to help. I was parked on the side of Robert M. Bell Parkway near the Exxon. That is where they had the roads blocked, and, after about an hour, the police said no one could park on the side of the road. I went to my mother's where I stayed for two weeks. I heard from my son the next day. His car was left at the mill, and he had been transported to the hospital."

Debra Moore

"I used to be a resident of Graniteville in the early '90s when I moved her from New York to be near my grandchildren. I was living in Augusta when the accident happened. I was working as a registered nurse at Aiken Regional Medical Centers. My good friend Leonard Mathis died; not knowing what he was going into, he was always helping somebody. He died a little later. I remember seeing him on the news; he was wearing a red shirt.

"Working as a RN on 4 Main at Aiken Regional, I saw the aftermath on the people who came in. They came to my floor before they went home. It was horrible."

Rebecca Stevens

"I wasn't home when it happened; I was traveling and in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. I saw it come across the television screen. I was worried I wouldn't be able to get home to Langley. I remember driving near the area and seeing a huge cloud in the sky above the area, and everyone was talking about the train wreck."

Phil Napier, G.V.W. fire chief

"I was at home asleep when I was paged out at 2:39 a.m. I remember responding and hearing a firemen crying out for help, he said he couldn't breath. I remember talking to the train engineer who said there had been a train wreck and a chemical spill. He was overcome by the chlorine gas and fell to ground.

"We were evacuated from our home for eight days. I pretty much stayed at the command post and then the community service building was used for one day as the temporary fire station. I was more worried about the community and the affects on them. There were two or three days with little to no sleep.

"I was the direct incident commander working and coordinating with other agencies and organizing search and rescue teams. There was a fire going in the steam plant at the Avondale Mills pretty much the entire time. There were people who initially refused to leave and then later decided to leave and we had to get them out. There were animals that had been left behind that needed to be fed. There were gas leaks starting everywhere.

"It was a tragic mistake that once it happened was out of everyone's control from that moment on until the chlorine stopped leaking. Unless you were here and lived it, you will never understand. I just thank God no more people were killed or injured than were. It could have been a lot worse.

"I think the derailment was used as an excuse to close down the textile industry which was devastating to the community. It really hurt the economy of the entire community and degraded the appearance to have shut down buildings not being maintained.

"I feel after five years, we finally have some hope for the future with the possibility of new industry coming to the area and the formation of the GVW Community Investment Corporation. I feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel."

Sorry, Chief Napier. The derailment was NOT used as an excuse to shut down the textile industry. The fact that a half dozen employees were killed (including four people from Williston in a November 20, 2004 train wreck) in two separate train wrecks was just too much for the honchos who ran Avondale Mills. Midland Valley High School lost two weeks of vital instruction time due to the derailment, and the derailment was not used as an excuse to shutter MVHS for two weeks.

If Chief Napier want to know why Avondale Mills was run out of town, look at Norfolk Southern. It was their railroad and their lack of oversight of the railroads that drove the textile industry out of Graniteville. Chief Napier needs to work with federal government officials to ensure that what happened on that January 6 will never happen again when a business does come back to Graniteville.

Best Letter to the Editor: Teresa Taylor of Greenport, N.Y.

GREENPORT, NY -- The first great letter of 2010 belongs to: Teresa Taylor. I appeared in Sunday's newspaper, since it was a response to what the misogynist Catholic bishops said in the New York Times Magazine on December 20, 2009. Her response may have been short, but it really resonates:

Whether he grounds his conclusions in the Bible or in so-called “practical reason,” Robert George’s opposition to feminism, homosexuality, multiculturalism and a lifestyle based on freedom of choice sounds remarkably like the tenets of the Taliban.

Add to this his calculated political efforts and determination to impose his views on the “culture wars,” and his “practical reason” becomes despotic fundamentalism.

Sen. Jim DeMint caused terrorist attack in Detroit with his anti-union agenda

WASHINGTON -- Well, we now know who is to blame in the government for the 'failed' terrorist attack in Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

Sen. Jim DeMint of this state caused a terrorist attack that should not have happened in the first place. It is his hold on the TSA nominee, one that he says he will hold firm on when he was interviewed on the NBC network's big city news earlier today, that made the environment ripe for terrorism and attempted terrorist attacks on our airlines.

That's right, Sen. DeMint's anti-union agenda was the primary reason why the jailed American-born Nigerian who has ties to al-Qaida was able to carry out his plan of terror along Northwest Flight 253.

That is precisely the kind of stubbornness that has made America a much weaker country -- and Sen. DeMint and his cronies in the Congress would rather protect terrorists in order to bust unions than to protect the American public at all costs.

And I'm Back...

So, it is 2010, but that DOES NOT mean that it is a new decade -- because it isn't. A new decade will begin on January 1, 2011.

Here are some things that I have on my resolution list:

1. Voting Jim DeMint out of office.
2. Get My Shape in Shape.
3. Get an outdoor antenna (yes, we have to go back to the 1960s when it comes to DTV).
4. Shave my legs.
5. Calling conservatives out on their bluff when it comes to less government.
6. Getting my driver's license.

Well, I have a lot more things on the list, but those are the most obvious when it comes to my resolutions for the last year of the decade.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This will be my last blog post of 2009.

Now that the severe weather threat is over and gone, now it is time for me to make some of my favorites smile.

First and foremost, I like to wish Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to my immediate family and to my extended family.

I would also like to wish a Merry Christmas and Nappy New Year to the following people:

1. fellow South Carolina blogger Daisy


2. Laura Bagwell


3. Jackie Chelsea Marie Edwards


4. Karen Fiery


5. Steven Brown


6. Jessica Sears


7. Vicki Ballard


8. Willie Jenkins


9. Jenna Leroy


10. Jenifer Herlovich McKnight


11. Summer Marie Padgett


12. Kerrie Leanne Matthews


13. Jamie Cooper


14. Brett McCarty


15. Chris Weatherby


16. Mary Scott Valentine


17. Anna Fletcher Valentine


18. Jill Filipovic - Feministe


19. Mrs. Linda Alsept


20. Rachel Albers


21. Betty Bohmer


22. Audacia Ray - Waking Vixen


23. Amber Rhea


24. Jessica Valenti - Feministing


25. Robin Reed - National Women's Law Center


26. Elijah Ashley


27. Tie Odom


28. Victoria Trottie


29. Ciji Bolen


30. Jackie French


31. Anitra Roberts


32. Yolanda Stroman


33. Stephanie Yon Hensley


34. Krissie Yon


35. Ashleigh Williams Hair


36. Ashley Anne Tune


37. Ashley Davis


38. Ashley Gibson


39. Sarah Adams


40. Brittini Adams


41. Ren Ev


42. Connie Martin


43. Chevonne Trottie


44. Derek Youngblood


45. Erin Pierce


46. Ian Fields


47. Jackie Hall


48. Jake Lucas


49. Jennifer Waring


50. Jennifer Davis


51. Jennifer Hutto


52. Kareem Mack


53. Joe Stanton


54. Lily Stanton


55. Justin Staten


56. Keith Savage


57. Melynda Kaye Smith


58. Kimberly Stewart


59. Kristine Smalls


60. Kin Hair


61. Kurtis Kennedy


62. Deanne Johnson


63. Terrie Kennedy


64. Orry Kennedy


65. Troy Washington


66. Travis Washington


67. Latraiel Dicks


68. Lauren Smalls


69. Leroy Bradley


70. Hayley Collins


71. Lindsay Collins


72. Maddy Collins


73. Leslie Ann Carter


74. Monte Hay


75. Mary Beth Pierucci


76. Nick Smalls


77. Nicole Williams


78. Patrick Dicks


79. Nikki Bolton


80. Paige Jamison


81. Flynn Valentine


82. Robin Coleman a.k.a. "Hellga"


83. Robin Brown


84. Sara Howard


85. Sasha Ferguson


86. Sauntia Johnson


87. Shameika Carter


88. Shawn Chavous


89. Shelby Knox - The Education of


90. Staci Langford


91. Stacy Martin


92. Stephanie Greer


93. Suzanne Amaker


94. Courtney Carlisle Brown


95. Marissa Hutson


96. Alyson Hutson


97. Teyona Coleman


98. Tamieka Rogers


99. Travis 'Chico' Green


100. April Sanders


101. Wanda Thompson


102. Paige Jamison


103. Willie Odom


104. Yaxaia Wilkerson


105. Ashley McGee


106. Christy Furtick


107. Mrs. Christine Garvey


108. Mrs. Deborah Edwards


109. Kathy Hunt

This blog will now be shuttered until January 2, 2010.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

106 Assholes of the Year

Here are the 106 Biggest Assholes of 2009:

106. Brandon Cameron: This former North Augusta Dept. of Public Safety officer was arrested for abusing his girlfriend.

105. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.): This homophobe from North Carolina really has a habit of spouting off at the mouth.

104. Angelina Jolie: See Jon Voight

103. US Chamber of Commerce: They have opposed everything that Americans support.

102. David Letterman: His sexist jokes about Gov. Palin's children was too much.

101. Susan Atkins: Manson follower died in September.

100. Tiger Woods: The divorce is all but certain

99. Attorney General Henry McMaster (South Carolina): Conducted a witch hunt of Craigslist back in the spring.

98. S.C. Rep. Mike Fair (Greenville): He is by far one of the worst state Senators in South Carolina.

97. Katy Abram of Lebanon, Pa.: No explanation needed for this nominee.

96. Chris Wallace: EPIC FAIL for putting Karl Rove on when trying to deflect criticism of Fox News from the overwhelming majority of Americans.

95. Mike Rounds, the governor of South Dakota: He doesn't seem to give up, don't he?

94. George W. Bush: This disgraced former president has been quiet. But not quiet enough to go off this list just yet.

93. Chris Brown: The R&B singer abused his now ex-girlfriend, Rihanna, on Feb. 8.

92. Bebe Winans: He was arrested for abusing his wife CeCe.

91. Dick Armey: His remarks to Joan Walsh: "I’m so damn glad that you can never be my wife because I surely wouldn’t have to listen to that prattle from you every day." (From January 29 episode of Hardball on MSNBC)

90. Okla. Rep. Sally Kern: This homophobe just can't shut up.

89. Robert Smock of Hephzibah

88. Rep. Paul Broun (R-Georgia): His fascist values may impress the hardcore conservatives, but it doesn't impress the moderates in the Peach State

87. Ga. Rep. Glenn McConnell: He had an affair. Oh and yeah, he also touted so-called 'family values'.

86. Mark Tribby of Augusta, Ga.

85. US Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma)

84. Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty: He was one of the instigators of a secessionist movement this year.

83. Michael Latzy: He was arrested for illegally videotaping a female roommate.

82. US Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama)

81. Michael Rogers of Greer: He was arrested for exposing himself to women and girls in the Piedmont and Upstate.

80. Chuck Knoblauch: This former DH for the Yankees was arrested for abusing his wife.

79. Tom Taber of Augusta, Ga.

78. Shannon Price: She was arrested for hitting husband Gary Coleman

77. Curtis Pickard of Evans, Ga.: This Greenbrier High School pupil was arrested and charged with upskirtting in videotaping up his teacher's skirt.

76. Charles Tremblay of Augusta, Ga.: He was jailed for five years after taking pics of women's miniskirts at the Target exchange.

75. Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.)

74. Kay Hays of North Augusta

73. The Saudi Arabian government: They banned women from a rally race in March.

72. Larry Stenger of Augusta, Ga.

71. Jim Irish of North Augusta

70. Carrie Prejean: If there ever was someone who has pure ugliness on the inside of them, it is the former Miss California.

69. Rusty DePass: He called a gorilla that escaped from Riverbanks zoo an ancestor of First Lady Michelle Obama.

68. George Sodini: He killed three women in a misogynistic rage at LA Fitness in Bridgeville, Pa.

67. Ryan Alexander Jenkins: He killed Jasmine Fiore in a jealous rage.

66. Shawne Merriman: He was arrested for abusing Tila Tequila.

62. Tracy Hood-Davis

62. Wendy Sewell

62. Michelle Belliveau

62. Therese Ziemann: These four women raped Mr. Ziemann by gluing his penis to his stomach.

61. US Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): He has led the obstructionism in the Senate.

60. Former Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.): He was arrested and charged with corruption in relation to the cash in the freezer incident.

59. US Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.): He is currently being investigated for pork barrel deals in the military.

58. US Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.): He had an affair with a woman who was married to one of his top aides.

57. Andrae Rice: This former Denmark-Olar Vikings football coach was arrested for statuatory rape.

56. FreedomWorks: They played fast and loose with the September 12 TEA party numbs and lied on WJLA-DT (the local ABC network in DC) about the number of people that showed up at the TEA party.

55. David Fry: He was arrested for trying to bribe pols on the Augusta-Richmond County Commission to vote yes on the TEE Center.

54. Anthony Kennedy: This Associate Justice is no swing vote on the Supreme Court. He is a rubber stamp for the far right wing.

53. Ruth Barclay of Aiken

52. US Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)

51. US Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): He has worked on a bipartisan basis on some things. But it isn't good enough to escape being a nominee on this list this year.

50. US Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.): Aside from Bart Stupak, Rep. Miller is the most hated person in Michigan's Congressional delegation. And for good reason.

49. Bill Hemmer

48. US Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.): The riders for abortion was his idea. EPIC FAIL for him.

47. Amy Peduto of Augusta, Ga.

46. Johnny Gardener of Columbia: This misogynist is seen all over the Charleston Hy in Lexington County holding up a sign saying 'Stop Abortion Now!'.

45. Norma Ingram of Augusta, Ga.

44. Terence Douglas of Augusta, Ga.: He is proof that African-Americans outside of the hip-hop industry can also be misogynists.

43. James Lamb Junior of Chapin

42. Rep. Mike Fair (R-Greenville): Misogynist and heartless. That is the word to describe this state Senator.

41. Kate Gosselin: The mother of eight abused Jon throughout their entire marriage.

40. Michelle Malkin: A traitor that has done nothing to contribut to society.

39. Phillip Markoff: He killed Julissa Brisman in cold blood.

38. Stephen Morgan: He killed a Planned Parenthood volunteer in cold blood in Middletown, Conn.

37. Liberty University: They engaged in viewpoint discrimiation by banning its college Democrats from the campus.

36. The Swedish media at large: They are condoning violence against men.

35. US. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.): Speaking of death panels...his co-ops proposal was one.

34. US Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.): Another person that is beholden to the insurance companies.

33. US Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.): He rudely interrupted the Democratic women when they were trying to speak at a Saturday session last month.

32. Lynne Cheney: This former First Lady is a McCarthyist just like her old hubby.

31. Elin Nordegren: She did not help Tiger Woods on the night of his 'accident'. She abused him instead.

30. Vern Simon of Augusta, Ga.: He is one of the most misogynistic people in the CSRA.

29. Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas): He supports secession. That is tantamount to treason.

28. Hou-Yin Chang of Orangeburg: Another one of the CSRA's most misogynistic people.

27. Lou Dobbs: A mouthpiece for the right, he is one of those responsible for CNN's right wing slant.

26. Roman Polanski: He was arrested for jumping bail in 1976 after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl.

25. US Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.): See Bart Stupak

24. Jon Voight: Clearly, he has no sense of the history of this country. It was the far left that made America the great nation that it is today.

23. US Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)

22. US Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz): He clearly is one of the most partisan Senators ever elected.

21. US Rep. Michele Bachmann: She is the biggest McCarthyist Congress has ever seen.

20. John Bolton: He should have just kept his mouth shut about the North Korea situation. Instead, he removed all doubt about why people like him should NEVER be in charge of anything by opening it.

19. US Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)

18. Stuart Feldman: He tried to rape a Greek woman and his two attempts backfired, literally.

17. US Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)

16. US Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah): see Ben Nelson

15. The National Right to Life Committee: Misogynist is what misogynists are.

14. Chris Brown: He abused Rihanna just hours before the Grammys were to begin

13. Sahel Kasemi

12. Kelly Bensimon: She got away with badly abusing her ex-boyfriend.

11. Lee Benedict of Augusta, Ga.: He is a smug America-hater .

10. Rush Limbaugh: No explanation needed for this.

9. Bill O'Reilly: He relentlessly defiled Dr. George Tiller and has never once take responsibility for it.

8. Sean Hannity: He did something far worse on his Sunday show than what CBS did in its infamous 60 Minutes II piece in 2004 about the Bush National Guard records.

7. Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.): He cheated on his soon-to-be ex-wife Jenny in Buenos Aires and tried to cover it up.

6. US Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.): He is the worst Senator ever to represent South Carolina. Bar none.

5. Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska): She is full of lies, even after leaving Juneau far behind.

4. US Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.): He broke House rules with his 'You Lie' outburst.

3. US Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.): He got his way in the Senate with his misogynistic proposal. The pro-choice activists need to rip him apart for it.

2. US Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.): He is the worst of the Michigan delegation, and his amendment is tantamount to a total ban on women's rights.

The Asshole of the Year for 2009 is: The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle: Billy Morris and Michael Ryan are simply the worst of the worst in the world. Misogyny, racism, homophobia, fascism, communism, and Nazism are appropriate words to describe the sack of shit at 725 Broad Street in Augusta.

[UPDATE: The identity of the fourth woman in the Wisconsin gang rape case has been released, and the changes reflect that.]

106 Best People of the Year

The 106 best people of the year are:

106. US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.): She is a lot more progressive than I thought.

105. SEIU

104. GOP Choice: Its members have promised to go to war against the extreme, misogynist wing of its party.

103. Oprah Winfrey

102. Sady: She is one of the up-and-coming bloggers in the progressive movement.

101. Katherine Heigl

100. US Rep. Anthony Weiner: He challenged the conservatives to put up or shut up.

99. Danny Dunaway of Williston

98. Ellen DeGeneres

97. Charris Bowers: She defended herself from marital rape.

96. Lilly Ledbetter

95. Patti Scialfa

94. Meghan McCain: She is much more moderate than her father or any other Republican.

93. Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D-Orangeburg)

92. Sandra Bullock: She takes on sexism and ageism in the television and film industry.

91. Jennifer Aniston.

90. Peter Gabriel

89. Denise Mitchell of Columbia

88. Bob Bentley of Greenwood: He tells it like it is -- progressives HATE the Fairness Doctrine and that it has been progressives that have been fighting for the last 22 years to get rid of the 'balance' rule when it comes to discussing abortion.

87. Nicholas Stefanov

86. Victor Reilly of Aiken

85. Rihanna

84. US Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)

83. Joaquin Godoy of Aiken

82. US Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio)

81. Arielle Smith of Washington, Ga.

80. US Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (R-Texas)

79. US President Barack Obama

78. Marina Fanouraki: She set fire to a rapist's penis.

77. Rep. Barney Frank

76. Jim Reid of Evans, Ga.: He calls out the conservatives for not taking responsibility for their destruction of this nation.

75. US Sen. Claire McCaskill (D- Mo.)

74. Janet Napolitano

73. James Buckmaster: The craigslist founder bullied South Carolina when the state decided to bully him.

72. Phil Cook of Columbia: He is right on -- Christians should embrace liberal ideology instead of conservative ideology.

71. David Souter

70. Sonia Sotomayor: She became the first Hispanic (and third woman) to serve on the Supreme Court in the summer.

69. US Sen. Jeanne Shaneen (D-N.H.)

68. US Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.): She rightfully tore up the male pols a few weeks ago when debating the first Nelson Amendment.

67. Gov. Beverly Perdue (D-N.C.)

66. Harry Connick Junior: He rightfully ripped the racist skit in the world down under.

65. Sen. Brad Hutto (D-Orangeburg)

64. Sen. Todd Rutherford (D-Columbia)

63. Sharon Stone

62. Judy Blume

61. Gloria Greenbaum: This powerful political wife from Augusta has confronted the conservatives' obstructionist agenda.

60. Yoko Ono

59. Amanda Terkel

58. Frank Dougherty of Chapin

57. Ellie Smeal, founder of the Feminist Majority

56. US Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.)

55. N.Y. Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava: She was vindicated by a vote that put Bill Owens into the Congress.

54. Samerra Thurmond of Augusta, Ga.

53. Andy Reese of Augusta, Ga.: He tells the truth about the conservatives. Conservatives only care about getting back in power.

52. Les Paul: He created rock & roll.

51. Laura Bagwell of Aiken

50. Shawn Kalmus of Kansas City

49. Gov. Jay Nixon (D-Mo.): He vetoed a bill that would have repealed the Miz state law requiring helmet use.

48. Erin Andrews

47. Cara Kulwicki from the Curvature

46. Choice Matters: the antis don't like the fact that Choice Matters is telling the truth about their agenda.

45. US Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.)

44. Vicki Robertson: This judge supports freedom for Oklahoma women, while the pols support enslaving women in the Sooner State.

43. Janeane Garofalo

42. Joan Walsh

41. US Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.): He told the truth about the conservatives' health plan.

40. Elizabeth Barnes

39. Joni Ellsworth of North Augusta

38. Sistersong

37. Ashley Judd

36. Gloria Feldt

35. Kathleen Sebelius

34. Gloria Steinem: She said it correctly -- women need coverage for abortion more than they need coverage for breast cancer.

33. State Rep. Lon Burman (D-Texas)

32. Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.)

31. Cecile Richards and Planned Parenthood

30. US Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.): He is the only person in our Congressional delegation that is even representing us right now.

29. US Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.): She is throwing the gauntlet down against the anti-choice Dems.

28. US Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.): She too is tired of the games the anti-choice right is playing with women's health care.

27. US Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.): He made a big first impression in the US Senate by introducing and passing a bill that would deny funding to contractors who rape their female employees.

26. Nancy Keenan and NARAL

25. US Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.)

24. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

23. R.E.M.: The Athens, Ga. music group rightfully railed against the Senate's gutting of health care reform.

22. Marjorie Signer president of the Virginia NOW

21. US. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.): She introduced a bill that would hold murderous contractors to the same ethical standard that the wingnuts want to hold ACORN to.

20. Dr. Leroy Carhart: He has purchased Dr. Tiller's clinic

19. US Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.)

18. US Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.): She rightfully ripped the sexist male pols over abortion.

17. Rachel Maddow

16. Arianna Huffington

15. Madonna

14. US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.): He told it like it is -- Congress is controlled by special interests and crooked corporations.

13. Marla Patrick: the Kansas NOW member has gained national prominence since Tiller's assassination

12. Harold Meyerson: He tells the truth about ACORN

11. Gail Collins

10. ACORN

9. Daisy Deadhead

8. Terri O'Neill and the National Organization for Women

7. Nancy Northup and the Center for Reproductive Rights

6. Dr. Warren Hern: His quote is the best quote of the year: 'the only difference between the Taliban and anti-abortion fanatics is 8,000 miles.'

5. Mary Beth Mazza-Pierucci

4. Dr. George Tiller: America's OB-GYN was assassinated on May 31.

3. The Williston-Elko football team and its coaches (including head coach Dwayne Garrick).

2. Jackie Chelsea Marie Edwards of Williston: she is a strong, independent, beautiful badass. Oh and yeah, she just recently graduated from Williston-Elko High School.

The Best Person of the Year for 2009 is ... ... ... The Williston-Elko High School cheerleaders: Jalen Reed, Erika Lax, Charnita Mack, Alex Tobin, Tira Tobin, Kiana Grant, Celie Garrick, Amber Coleman, Shy Davia Baxley, Bryana Dyches, Anna Fletcher Valetine, Mary Scott Valentine, Berlene Shipes, Summer Gainey, Lorena Nuño, Kayla Blume, Ashley Nix, Karisma Young, Desiree Watford, Kakaye Peeples, A'mircal Simmons, Genaria Porter and my cousin Acacia Williams.

Top stories of 2009

Here are the top stories of 2009, put in chronological order:

January:

19 - WZRB CW47 in Columbia becomes the first television station in South Carolina to turn off analog and go digital-only for their broadcasts.

20 -- the end of an ERROR: The fascist Bush Admin leaves the White House and President Obama is sworn in.

23 -- Global Gag Rule repealed: The Obama Admin repeals the atrocious Global Gag Rule. The Dems failed in their duties to permanently repeal the Gag Rule in 2009.

February:

5 - Charles Junious of Summerton is sentenced to life in prison for killing his girlfriend and her mother in 2007.

8 - Chris Brown is arrested for hitting Rihanna just hours before the Grammy Awards show was to start.

15 - Matt Kenseth wins the Daytona 500 by playing the rain strategy to perfection.

17 - TV stations in the Augusta-Aiken, Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Asheville, Charleston and Savannah-Hilton Head Island markets are among the television stations to switch from analog to digital broadcasts. WKTC My63 in Columbia, all SCETV member stations (including WEBA 14) and all GPB member stations (including WCES 20) also turn off their analog signals and go digital-only.

March:

1 - WSPA's analog and digital towers collapse when a ice and wind combination sweeps through the Upstate. The station's digital signal is brought back to life when its Media General sister station WYCW-HD puts the Upstate CBS station on its second digital subchannel. The tower collapse ends WSPA's days of analog broadcasts three months earlier than the planned June 12 turn-off date.

2 - Nieves Ngeskebei of Tampa, Fla. is arrested for aggravated domestic violence after hitting her boyfriend in the head with a stiletto heel shoe.

5 - Kelly Killoren Bensimon is arrested and charged with domestic violence after beating her now ex-boyfriend Nicholas Stefanov. The victim-blaming related to this case commences.

12 - Allendale City Police Officer Jasper White Junior is arrested for beating his wife on September 28, 2008.

16 - Jack Sterling is sent to jail for swindling 12,000 HomeGold customers and wiping out their life savings. The total loss? $278,000,000.00

16 - Bebe Winans is arrested for hitting his wife.

18 - Project Runway contestant Kenley Collins is arrested for hitting her ex-fiance with several apples, a laptop computer and even having the family cat attack him.

31 - CNN finished third in news rating for the month of March, the first time that has ever happened to the station that was created in 1980. CNN's right wing slant is what continues to make them cellar dwellers.

April:

7 - The Connecticut women's basketball team finishes 39-0 for the second time in its history.

10 & 11 - Aiken and Allendale counties are hit by tornadoes.

12 - AmazonFAIL: Amazon censors pornography, feminist and LGBT books, and R-rated movies.

15 - Texas Gov. Rick Perry and thousands more TEA party activists support secession from the Union.

16 - Another wave of television stations turn off their analog signals and begin digital only broadcasts. However, none of the remaining analog stations in Georgia and the Carolinas are among them.

20 - Sex worker Julissa Brisman, 26, is killed in Boston. Phillip Markoff is captured two days later. The witch hunt against Craigslist begins.

23 - Allen Andrade is sentenced to life in prison for killing a transgendered person.

26 - Carl Edwards flips on the last lap of the Aaron's 499. Eight fans are injured from debris. Talladega and its sister track in Daytona Beach raise the fencing in the grandstand areas. Track officials plan on raising the fence height at the remainder of the track during the offseason.

27 - The Dominican Republic officially makes its women brood mares and slaves to the government.

28 - Judicial activism strikes again: The Supreme Court upholds the so-called 'Bono' rule.

28 - Kathleen Sebelius is confirmed as the Health and Human Services secretary.

May:

4 - David Souter announces his retirement from the Supreme Court.

5 - Day 15 in the Craigslist witch hunt: South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Henry McMaster announces that he will prosecute Craigslist unless it met his totalitarian, anti-business demands.

6 - A Middletown, Conn. Planned Parenthood volunteer is killed by a jealous Stephen Morgan.

12 - A proposal that would allow for private schools to steal taxpayer money from public schools is defeated after many South Carolinians revolt against the proposal.

18 - President Obama speaks at Norte Dame's commencement exercises.

20 - Carl and Danielle Long receive a record-breaking 200 point penalty for a failed inspection in the Sprint All-Star Challenge, a non-points event.

20 - James Buckmaster, tired of waiting for an apology from AG McMaster, files a lawsuit against the entire state of South Carolina that could well cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

25 - Hélio Castroneves wins his third Indianapolis 500. Vitor Meira crashes late and is sidelined for the remainder of the season.

26 - Discrimination is enshrined in the California Constitution after its Supreme Court refuses to hear a case brought up by opponents of Proposition 8.

26 - David Reutimann wins the Coca-Cola 600 by playing the rain strategy. The race was called after 227 laps, or 340.5 miles. This, after it was completely washed out for the first time since 1960 the previous day.

31 - The first terrorist attack of the Obama presidency: Dr. George Tiller, 67, is assassinated by Scott Roeder and other anti-choice terrorists. To this day, Bill O'Reilly, the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle and the rest of the anti-choice extremists have flat out refused to take responsibility for the role that they played in Dr. Tiller's assassination. Which means that O'Reilly and the Augusta Chronicle both have blood on their hands as well.

June:

1 - Private William Long is slain by anti-American Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad.

5 - The Williston-Elko Class of 2009 graduates. Some notable graduates in this class include Chris Johnson, Brittini Adams and Jackie Chelsea Marie Edwards.

9 - Women's Health Care clinic in Wichita closes. Dr. Leroy Carhart announces that he will purchase the clinic days later.

10 - An 89 year-old man kills a security guard at a Holocaust museum in Washington.

12 - Charges against Kelly Bensimon are dropped by a activist judge in New York City.

12 - All of the remaining full power stations -- including WFXG in the Augusta-Aiken market; WLTX, WACH, WIS and WOLO in the Columbia market; WCBD, WCSC and WCIV in the Charleston market; WSAV and WTOC in the Savannah-Hilton Head Island market; WBTV, WCNC, WMYT, WJZY, WSOC, and WCCB in the Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord-Rock Hill market; WMMB, WFXB, WBTW, and WPDE in the Florence-Myrtle Beach market; and WYFF, WHNS, WGGS and WLOS in the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson-Asheville market -- turn off their analog signals and switch to digital-only. WSPA had planned to turn off their analog signal on June 12. But as mentioned above, ice and wind destroyed their analog tower on March 1 and that date became the de facto turn off date for WSPA's analog signal. WSOC is one of a handful of stations to move from the troublesome high-band VHF analog signal to the much improved UHF digital signal.

17 - Nelson Alejandro Colon of West Columbia was arrested for stabbing a woman because she told him that he made a wrong turn when he was taking the female victim home.

22 - Chris Brown escapes jail time after pleading guilty to hitting Rihanna on Feb. 8

23 - David Emory Paul of Aiken gets a slap on the wrist for pleading guilty to child rape.

23 - Gov. Mark Sanford of this state was caught in Buenos Aires with his mistress, Maria Belen Chapur. So much for the Appalachian Trail bullshit.

25 - Farrah Fawcett dies at the age of 62. Michael Jackson dies less than 12 hours later at the age of 50.

29 - Bernie Madoff gets 1.5 centuries in jail for his 17-year Ponzi scheme.

July:

2 - Shannon Price is arrested for domestic violence in hitting dwarf actor Gary Coleman.

4 - Former Pro Bowl quarterback Steve McNair is killed by his mistress, Sahel Kasemi, in Nashville. The 20-year-old then kills herself.

4 - In the first Independence Day race in 17 years, Tony Stewart crashes Kyle Busch in the final 150 yards to win his third Coca-Cola Zero 400.

7 - Ukraine bans all pornography in the nation.

10 - Arturo Gatti is killed in Brazil by his wife, Amanda Rodrigues. The investigation continues as of December 18.

14 - Rep. Tim Ryan is kicked out of the Democrats for Life just for protecting the lives of the already born.

14 - Norma McCorvey, the Roe plaintiff in the Jan. 22 1973 decision that enshrined a woman's God-given right to abortion, was arrested for disturbing a hearing on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court.

19 - Erin Andrews is illegally videotaped by a sick voyeur outside of a hotel room.

30 - California's government 86s funding for all domestic violence shelters due to budget crisis.

August:

1 - Four women gang rape a man by tying him up, blindfolding him, making him erect and then gluing his penis to his stomach in Stockridge, Wis.

5 - George Sodini, 48, slaughters three women in a misogynistic rage in the town of Bridgeville, Pa. Mr. Sodini claims to have been without sex since 1990.

5 - Marina Fanouraki, 26, of Athens, Greece burns the penis of 23-year-old Stuart Feldman of London after he tries to rape her.

9 - Budget cuts force Kansas to de-fund deceptive crisis pregnancy centers.

10 - A white man rips up a poster of Rosa Parks after he thought it was a poster of President Obama in Saint Louis.

11 - Michael Jay Rogers, 36, of Greer was arrested in Greenwood after flashing women and girls in the 864 area code.

12 - Les Paul, the man who invented rock and roll music, dies at the age of 94.

17 - School begins for Aiken area pupils.

18 - Vicki Robertson overturns a intrusive law that would have forced women in the Sooner State to get ultrasounds before having an abortion.

21 - Aiken and Thurmond begin the 2009 high school football season. The Green Hornets won, the Rebels lost.

26 - US Sen. Ted Kennedy dies at the age of 77. By not being elected as president, the Kopechne family got some measure of revenge against the Mass. Senator, who killed Mary Jo on July 10, 1969 in a drunk driving accident.

27 - Williston-Elko hammers Barnwell 56-14 to begin the march to the State title.

28 - Three days of protesting against anti-choice terrorism begins in Bellevue, Neb. Pro-choice forces heavily outnumber anti-choice forces in all three days.

28 - The season begins for the other seven Aiken area teams. North Augusta def. Midland Valley, Aiken def. South Aiken, Silver Bluff def. Fox Creek, Thurmond def. Ridge Spring-Monetta, and Wagener-Salley lost to McCormick.

September:

6 - History at Hampton, Ga.: The Atlanta Motor Speedway holds its first-ever nighttime race. Kasey Kahne wins the event.

7 - Tyra Banks moves her eponymous talk show to the CW.

9 - The Beatles release their mono remasters.

9 - Alan Parsons release remasters of all of his albums.

9 - US Rep. Joe Wilson shows his blatant disregard for House rules by shouting 'You LIE!' during a joint primetime session in Congress.

10 - The Beatles release their stereo remasters.

16 - Former Denmark-Olar head football coach Andrae Rice is arrested and charged with statutory rape of a 17-year-old former pupil.

21 - South Carolinians observe the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Hugo.

28 - Principal Pat Keating dismisses Ryan Russell as head coach of the Wagener-Salley War Eagles football team. Then, Mr. Keating lies to the media about the coaching change.

October:

5 - The New York Times shreds the conservatives for their hypocrisy when it comes to the size of government issue.

6 - Silent Witness: People at the State House in Columbia observe a silent memorial in which 32 domestic violence victims from 2007 were remembered. Dale Wells becomes the first male victim of domestic violence to speak at the event in its 12-year history.

8 - The Biggest Government is in Oklahoma: The pols in the Sooner State pass an even MORE invasive law that would force women who have abortions to post all kinds of information -- including Social Security numbers -- online. This law is been invalidated until a final decision on it is announced in the courts.

12 - Exit, stage north: The 1,890,000 lb generator that was in the Aiken area for more than two weeks officially left the Aiken area and headed towards Greenwood on its way to Boiling Springs, N.C.

12 - Michael Latzy of Cincinnati was arrested and charged with illegally videotaping his female roommate.

15 - Elitists in the media: Mainstream media outlets and their henchwomen (and henchmen) unfairly smear Jon Gosselin of Jon & Kate + 8.

15 - Lou Albano, the original voice of Mario on the Super Mario Bros. Super Show! died at the age of 76.

16 - Barnwell High School forfeits two region wins. However, this had no effect on any of the Aiken area football teams.

18 - Chris Wallace FAIL: Mr. Wallace tries unsuccessfully to convince an increasingly skeptical public that Fox News was fair and balanced. He failed when he brought smear master Karl Rove on the program.

18 - Tyra Banks becomes the first talk show host to take an unbiased approach on the issue of violence against men.

22 - Blackville-Hilda loses 8-7 in Columbia at C.A. Johnson High School, effectively handing Williston-Elko the Region 4-A title.

28 - A 15-year-old Richmond, Calif. girl is gang raped by at least seven people. Twenty-four bystanders stood by and did absolutely NOTHING to stop it and some of them even joined the men and boys in raping the girl.

29 - Roland Corning is fired as Deputy Assistant Attorney General after he was caught in his sport utility vehicle with a stripper, sex toys and Viagra.

30 - Williston-Elko routs Blackville-Hilda 30-0 at Huggins Stadium to complete a perfect regular season.

31 - Dede Scozzafava is forced out of the race for New York's 23d District US House seat by the far right wing extremists calling themselves TEA partiers.

November:

1 - Dede Scozzafava endorses Bill Owens and sends a message to the traitors in the Republican Party that moderates will not stay in the Republican Party if it appeases the wingnuts.

3 - Bill Owens deal a major blow to national Republicans (who otherwise had a great night after running New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine out of Trenton, N.J.) when he wins the NY-23 House seat.

4 - Maine becomes the latest state to amend its Constitution to legalize discrimination against a group of citizens.

6 - House of Representatives pass a completely unacceptable health care bill after the Bart Stupak amendment is added at the last second.

9 - Gossip Girl airs a threesome episode that was the source of controversy by the anti-sex right wing extremists.

11 - Former Moonlite Bunny Ranch worker Brooke Phillips, 21, is murdered by David Tyner before her lifeless body was set on fire. He is currently awaiting trial for her death.

16 - New report confirms that the Federal Bureau of Investigation willfully ignored warning about the threat to Dr. Tiller's life.

17 - ACORN sues the federal government over a bill of attainder that was passed in both houses of Congress. Bills of attainder are unconstitutional.

18 - North Augusta Dept of Public Safety officer Brandon Cameron is arrested for domestic violence after he hits his girlfriend.

22 - Jimmie Johnson wins his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup title, which breaks the old record of three straight titles that he shared with Timmonsville native Cale Yarborough.

27 - The Williston-Elko Blue Devils (pictured) capture the Class A Division II State Title with a 34-26 win over Scott's Branch in a rematch of the 2008 state title game. The Blue Devils finished perfect for the first time in 30 seasons.

30 - Brandon Cameron is dismissed as a officer with the North Augusta Dept. of Public Safety.

December:

1 - The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show aired for the first time in the post-digital era. Heidi Klum returned to the catwalk for the first time since giving birth six weeks earlier.

2 - Revolt against the Stupak Amendment: Tens of thousands come to Washington to blast the anti-choice amendments and anti-choice Catholics and pols for interfering in women's lives.

3 - South Aiken High School refuses to renew the contract of head football coach Robert Wrightenberry. The Thoroughbreds are still searching for a new head coach.

10 - After months of enduring relentless slut-shaming, Hope Witsell committed suicide.

11 - First Lady Jenny Sanford files for divorce from Gov. Mark, citing infidelity.

14 - Denise Jonican of Hilda is killed by her husband, Samuel Bruce. Sam Jonican is still awaiting extradition from Madison, Ga. to Barnwell to face murder charges.

15 - A judge correctly interpreted the Constitution in striking down a bill of attainder that would have otherwise stripped all funding from ACORN.

These were the top stories. It will be pretty interesting to see what 2010 will bring.

What does Mark Sanford, Charlie Rangel and John Ensign all have in common?

They all made the Top Ten list of scandals of 2009. Along with Bernie Madoff.

CREW (Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington) compiled the list in chronological order.

There were many, many more scandals involving leaders in both the conservative and liberal movements that was not on the list, including the health insurance scandal involving United Health Group and the explosive report on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric just last night that mentioned the huge nest eggs that convicted pols such as Tom Delay (R-Texas) and William Jefferson (D-Louisiana) will still receive.

Take a look around

The self-absorbed egos in DC have grown larger than ever.

Some want special deals for their home state (i.e. Ben Nelson) and others want the status quo (i.e. Jim DeMint).

It is precisely because of the conservatives in both parties as to why we have such a watered-down, unacceptable health care bill that both chambers have come up with.

And while the idiots in Congress and in the White House continue to gut and obstruct health care reform, the battle against the unscrupulous insurance companies has now gotten personal for me.

A newfound friend of mine who just turned 18 years old three months ago got a call about a very rude wake-up call from her insurance company today just before she reported to work.

Is this is really what has come down to? Going to war with insurance companies who only care about their own bottom lines than they do about the people on their rolls?

While there has been talk about reforming health insurance companies, there has been little talk in the media -- either from the left or right -- about reforming insurance companies that bring up bullshit claims after other catastrophes such as car accidents.

The bottom line is that we need to reform every type of insurance company. Health insurance, car insurance, house insurance, etc.

Problem is that most of the people who are in power are beholden to some type of insurance company.

We must find a way to kick them out in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

Or else, my newest friend will not be the only person in Williston and Elko having to do battle with insurance companies.

Majority of Gophers oppose government intrusion into women's lives, says Saint Cloud State University poll

SAINT CLOUD, MN -- When it comes to a woman's right to abortion, a majority of Minnesotans want the government to stay out of women's lives altogether. Via the Minnesota Independent and RH Reality Check.

St. Cloud State University poll data released on Friday (PDF) shows most Minnesotans support abortion rights and oppose overturning Roe v. Wade, a result that’s in line with polling throughout the decade. Republicans, religious conservatives and those who never completed high school were most likely to oppose abortion rights.

In the survey conducted this fall, 8.7 percent of respondents felt that a woman should never have an abortion for any reason; 30.4 percent said it’s acceptable in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother; 12.6 percent said abortion is allowable only if the need to have one “is clearly established”; and a plurality of those surveyed, 45.9 percent, said that abortion is a woman’s personal choice.

The preference for banning any and all abortion was higher among Republicans (17 percent), Baptists (15 percent) and Catholics (12 percent). Lutheran support for a total ban was low (3 percent) and comparable to non-religious people (2 percent). Minnesotans who had not completed high school were much more likely to support a total ban on abortion (24 percent).

Emphasis mine.

The results make it clear that people don't want the government butting into women's lives. Not even those in rural Minnesota towns such as Embarrass. What part of keep the government out of women's lives DON'T these rogue pols in our state governments understand?

It also makes clear that the more educated people are, the more likely they are to respect women. Those who never got a high school certificate (or diploma) are the ones who have the least respect for women and girls. And that is true in all aspects of gender equity, although this is about just abortion.

So the moral of the story is get an education, folks.

OPPOSE the sexist Nelson-Stupak-Hatch-Pitts proposal!

Well, the misogynist Catholics are at it again.

And so is Bart Stupak, misogynist supreme in the US House.

At the last possible minute while most of us were sleeping in on Saturday, a so-called 'manager's amendment' was tucked into the health care proposal that would allow for misogynist states like South Carolina to opt-out of covering women's health care to appease the Taliban-like politicians in Congress.

What part of keep your laws off women's bodies don't these MEN understand?

That is the problem. MEN are making the laws in the country and they are, with the help of our male supremacist culture here in the United States, raping women against their will in the halls of the Congress. And this proposal is yet another example of the United States government raping its own women.

When will MEN's reproductive rights be brought up for a vote on the floors of the House and Senate?

This is why freedom-loving Americans must make it known, vote against the Manager's Amendment, and -- if the Manager's Amendment is included in the bill, kill the entire health care bill.

This comes from NOW:

Take Action NOW: Please call your senators immediately and urge them to oppose the Manager's Amendment in the Senate health care reform bill, which will effectively make abortion coverage unavailable in health insurance exchanges and, ultimately, in private insurance policies as well. If the Manager's Amendment passes, urge your senators to oppose the entire health reform bill.

A nearly 400-page Manager's Amendment offered by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), being debated currently, contains a provision every bit as bad as the infamous House-passed Stupak-Pitts Amendment. The provision was drafted to gain the vote of abortion rights opponent Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and is a complicated variation of Stupak-Pitts. It allows any state to prohibit abortion coverage in health insurance exchanges. In addition, all funds that would pay for abortion services would have to be segregated from other private funds and federal subsidies. This requirement would apply to the tens of millions of women who would buy their insurance under the new exchanges and, in the opinion of expert health policy analysts, would mean that insurers simply would not provide abortion coverage in the exchange plans. Eventually, insurers would stop offering abortion coverage altogether.

The Senate health care reform bill is highly flawed now, with the leadership having been forced by a lone senator, Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), to drop the most important components of reform: a public option and the Medicare buy-in for persons ages 55 to 64. While there are remaining aspects of the legislation that are positive, these three factors -- an abortion coverage ban, no public plan and no Medicare buy-in -- make the Senate bill unacceptable, in our view.

YOUR MESSAGE:

Call your senators directly to their Washington, D.C., offices (please do not dial the main switchboard, as it is likely overwhelmed with calls from abortion rights opponents), and urge them to oppose the Manager's Amendment. You can make the call by going to our website, entering your zipcode, and then clicking on the "info" link under each of your senators.

If the Manager's Amendment is adopted, ask your senators to vote against the entire bill. The Senate does not HAVE to pass this flawed bill before Christmas, but they MUST fix the bill to remove onerous abortion restrictions! And the senators should restore the public option and the Medicare buy-in as well.

And also threaten to vote your Senator out of office in 2010, 2012 or 2014 (whenever he or she is up for re-election) if he/she votes in favor of the Manager's Amendment and any health care bill that has anti-choice amendments in them.

People of the week for December 19

Back after a long hiatus, the best person of the week, the last nominees of 2009.

The two best people of the week are the Barbaras in the US Senate: Boxer and Mikulski. They rightfully tore up the male politicians for taking away women's rights, yet the men would throw a fit if the government had control of penises.

Assholes of the Week for December 19

Back after a long hiatus, our assholes of the week, the last nominees of 2009.

The first asshole of the week is Elin Nordigren. When the Florida CPS team arrives at where she and Tiger were staying prior to December 7, you know that the jig is up and that she abused Tiger with a sand wedge. Which is why Ms. Nordigren should be arrested and sent on the first flight back to a Florida prison.

The second asshole of the week is the Republican National Lawyers Association. They berated a New York City federal judge just for doing her job in striking down a bill of attainder that stripped all funding from ACORN.

The final assholes of the week are the Swedish media. They are all supporting an open season on men.

There are many, many people worthy of asshole of the year award. But, I can only narrow it down to the 106 biggest come this time next week.

If you want retailers to say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays, then don't play holiday music before Black Friday

Listen up.

I am sick and tired of the political correctness coming from Christians at this time of year.

And this is especially true if that person plays holiday music starting on Halloween.

There are those who insist on making the saying of Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays a political agenda of theirs.

Well. Here's what I think of it.

Those who play holiday music before Thanksgiving Day must use the phrase 'Happy Holidays'. Those who play holiday music between Thanksgiving Day and the day that CBS airs the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show can use either one at their discretion. Those who play holiday music after CBS airs the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show MUST use the phrase 'Merry Christmas'.

I say Merry Christmas myself, and that is because I am so calendar-conscious, that I don't play holiday music until it is time to do so -- which is after the fashion show ends on CBS.

Now, Christians need to do the same thing and pay attention to the calendar and know that November 1 is definitely NOT the appropriate time to be playing Christmas music.

Conservatives in US may have helped pro-coup gunmen kill protestor

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras -- A 27-year-old man was killed by supporters of an illegal coup that ousted President Manuel Zelaya from power in the summer.

The anti-coup National Resistance Front said gunmen in a car shot Walter Trochez on Sunday as he walked in downtown Tegucigalpa. Friends rushed him to a hospital, where he died.

"Trochez was an active militant in the resistance and an example of the fight against the dictatorship," the group said in a statement released on the day the victim was buried.

The front, which until recently staged daily protests to demand Zelaya's restoration to the presidency, blamed the attack "on the repressive forces that the oligarchy uses to stop the demands of the Honduran people for liberty and democracy."

And one such person that supports this kind of oppressive oligarchy is our own Senator, Jim DeMint (R-SC). He was the one that blocked Obama appointees to the State Department over this. He probably had a hand in this murder because it was DeMint that specifically denied those State appointees a seat until Obama and the Senate Dems appeased him. Had Mr. Zelaya returned to power when the Dems demanded him to, he would have gotten voted out anyways in the recent election. And Mr. Trochez would still be alive today.

The meddling by conservatives here in America led to this inevitable outcome in Honduras.

ARREST Elin Nordegren for domestic violence!

NOTE: This blogpost will be written in English and Swedish

STOCKHOLM -- According to TMZ and visits by the Florida Child Protective Services, Tiger Woods was a victim of domestic violence.

That is more than enough to yank Elin Nordegren out of Sweden and arrest her for criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature.

And not to mention that all of the newspapers in Sweden are also strongly supporting female-on-male domestic violence and that husband-beater who has made it official about 42 minutes ago that she will file for divorce from Mr. Woods after the holidays are over.

In no way am I excusing what Mr. Woods did to his marriage. His recent affairs destroyed his and Ms. Nordegren's marriage, most likely beyond repair. But, it is even more inexcusable by journalists in Sweden to defend husband-beaters like Ms. Nordegren. The way the journalists are behaving in Sweden are 100% unprofessional and blatantly misandrist to say the least.

That is why the Florida officials and the FBI should go to Sweden and put the handcuffs on Ms. Nordegren and send her ass back to the States and face DV charges. Then, the judge in Florida should throw everything including the kitchen sink at Ms. Nordegren and send her to jail for no less than 7 years for this. Fact and the matter is that Ms. Nordegren is 100% guilty of domestic violence and she should not have any safe haven in Sweden.

And while we are at it, we should demand the mass dismissals of every journalist at every Swedish newspaper for condoning domestic violence and for misandry.

Swedish language version:

Enligt TMZ och besök vid Florida Barn skyddande Tjänster Tiger var Trä ett offer av husvåld.

Det är mer än tillräckligt till yank Elin Nordegren ut ur Sverige och anhåller henne för kriminellt husvåld av en hög och försvårade naturen.

Och inte att nämna att alla av tidningarna i Sverige också starkt stöder kvinnlig-på-man husvåld och den man-vispen som har gjort det tjänsteman om för 42 minuter sedan att hon ska arkivera för skilsmässa från hr. Trä efter helgdagarna är över.

I ingen väg är jag som ursäktar sig som hr. Trä gjorde till hans äktenskap. Hans nya angelägenheter förstörde hans och fr Nordegrens äktenskap, högst sannolikt utom lagning. Men, det är även mer inexcusable vid journalister i Sverige att försvara sig man-vispar som fr Nordegren. Vägen journalisterna uppför sig i Sverige är 100% unprofessional och blatantly misandrist att säga den minst.

Det är varför Florida tjänstemän och FBI skulle gå till Sverige och la handcuffs på fr Nordegren och sänder hennes åsna bakre till Staterna och möter DV priser. Då, domaren i Florida skulle kasta allting samt köket diskhon på fr Nordegren och skulle sända henne till fängelse för inte mindre än 7 år för det. Faktum och saken är att fr Nordegren är 100% skyldigt till husvåld och hon skulle inte ha någon säker haft i Sverige.

Och medan vi är på det, skulle begära vi massan avskeden av varje journalist varje svensk tidning till tolerera husvåld och för misandry.

A totally Constitutional ruling

NEW YORK CITY -- A federal judge in Brooklyn effectively ended the government's attempt to strip funding from one of the nation's hardest working not-for-profit groups, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

ACORN proved that it would suffer irreparable harm if the funding was cut off. Furthermore, the judge also proved that the video of two conservative activists were in fact doctored in order to make it look like it was a sting against ACORN.

This is a totally Constitutional ruling. And ACORN still would have won because the proposal that Congress voted for is a bill of attainder. Bill of attainders are 100% unconstitutional with our laws.

But not surprisingly, the extremist trial lawyers from the Republican National Lawyers Association attacked the ruling:

This same court questioned why Congress had not investigated ACORN. The Department of Justice's feckless defense of Congress's action cutting off funding to ACORN and protecting American taxpayers combined with its failure to prosecute the Philadelphia New Black Panthers for voter intimidation has led to the conclusion that politics can thwart the rule of law. The Republican National Lawyers Association will continue to call out the illegal activities of ACORN until every dime of taxpayer funding has dried up. ACORN may have all the Obama 'powers that be' protecting it from being held to account and Democrat lawmakers in their back pocket, but those seeking to bring this criminal enterprise to account have the support of the American people.

Bullshit. The American people support justice, and in this federal court's ruling, they got justice. I am among those who believe in innocent until proven guilty by facts, not by completely doctored videos. Anyone with a trained eye can see that the video that the two conservative activists engaged in are doctored. Now, we need for our pols to start listening to us and stop listening to those who want to protect military contractors who rape and murder employees and innocent civilians.

Justice was served in this case, even if the conservatives don't like it.

Hilda woman killed by husband

HILDA -- A 37-year-old woman is dead and her husband is charged with slaying her with a blunt object, then dumping her body in Madison, GA.

A Barnwell woman was murdered Tuesday, Dec. 8 and her husband is being held as a suspect, according to the Barnwell County Sheriff.

Denise Michelle Jonican, 37, of 2446 S.C. 70, Barnwell, was found dead inside the home. Her husband, Samuel Bruce Jonican, 44, of the same address, is being held in Morgan County, GA awaiting extradition to face charges of murder, said Sheriff Ed Carroll.

Carroll said that a motive for Jonican’s death has not been determined. Also other details about her death are not being released until the investigation is complete.

Denise Jonican was pronounced dead at the scene by the Barnwell County Coroner’s Office.

“The cause of death was severe head injury due to blunt force trauma as determined by the autopsy,” said deputy coroner Denise Cato. “Based on the information obtained at the scene and from the law enforcement authorities, the deceased was transported to Newberry for an autopsy.”

The Williston Rescue Squad requested assistance from the Barnwell County Sheriff’s Office after being called to the scene around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 8. After deputies determined a homicide had occurred, an alert was issued for Samuel Jonican as “a person of interest” driving a silver 1998 Honda Accord with Georgia license plates, said Carroll.

A police bulletin called the suspect “armed and extremely dangerous.”

Around 2 a.m., the Morgan County, GA Sheriff’s department called Barnwell to say they were holding a suspect matching Jonican’s description. Two investigators from the BCSO and a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent went to Georgia and identified Jonican.

Carroll said Jonican was found with the silver Honda parked on the side of Interstate 20 about 60 miles east of Atlanta. A passerby had called police after noting the car on the roadside, he said.

Cato said that any time the cause of death is not readily
apparent, an autopsy is performed and not just in cases where a crime has been
committed or suspected.

This is Barnwell County's third murder in 2009 (the other two slayings happened in Blackville proper). And as Daisy alluded to almost eleven months ago, these kinds of crimes do happen in smaller communities such as Hilda, which is the approximate location of the crime scene given the address number. This is Barnwell County's second domestic violence slaying in two years, another woman was killed by her boyfriend in the City of Barnwell in 2008.

The People-Sentinel has not updated the article yet, which means they are trying to find out Mr. Jonican's motive for killing his wife. I am going to suspect that Sam Jonican was jealous and possessive, just like most other men who kill their wives and girlfriends in South Carolina.

No word yet on whether Sam Jonican will be held without bond when he returns to Barnwell.

Person of the Month for December

The best person of the month for December is Dede Scozzafava, a New York state pol. She became the first of the moderates to revolt against the Republican Party for its purity agenda. Along with other pro-choice moderate Republicans, she will make sure to revolt against Republican candidates who are part of the party's purity pledge in 2010 and beyond.

Assholes of the Month for December

The asshole of the Month is the Chicago Tea Party Patriots. There is absolutely nothing patriotic about what these heartless savage animals that are part of this tea party group did to a grieving couple at a town hall last month. The video in the linked blogpost speaks for itself.

Mark and Jenny's marriage is finished

SULLIVAN'S ISLAND -- Now, it is over.

First Lady Jenny Sanford announced just before noon today that she was filing for divorce from the governor, Mark.

This announcement came just about 38 hours after Jenny's interview with Barbara Walters on Wednesday night. In that interview that aired on WJBF-DT (6.1, 42.1), WOLO-DT (25.1, 8.1), WPDE-DT (15.1, 16.1), WCIV-DT (4.1, 34.1), WJCL-DT (22.1), and WLOS-DT (13.1, 13.3, 40.2, 14.2), she said that she wouldn't have stood by Gov. Mark even if she asked him to.

Not only that, but in the early summer, the first lady forbade the governor from seeing her or their four sons for 31 days.

"I wouldn't have. If he had asked me, I would have said no," she said.

And thus, the reason why liberals and all women who watch Maury love Jenny Sanford so much.

And here's Daisy with more:

...more than a little thrilled that it is a southern woman who has finally put the kibosh on this terrible tradition...

...have always thought it was an added, horrific humiliation to make wives stand there mutely while sleazemeisters like James McGreevey, Larry Craig, Elliot Spitzer, et. al. make their various confessions. Their wives were used as moral set-decoration: Looky here, I have a WIFE, I am not a sex pervert!*

This is an ethical variation of woman-as-ornament, woman-as-arm-candy: Woman as TAMER of men's collectively untamed, wild, crazy libidos. It is offensive as hell and always has been. Bravo to Jenny for NOT PLAYING ALONG!!!!

Now, here is more from the First Lady's divorce from WACH-DT (57.1, 48.1):

Just one day after S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford announced he wanted to reconcile with first lady Jenny Sanford, she has announced she is filing for divorce.

Mrs. Sanford released the following statement Friday morning:

"As so many of us know, the dissolution of any marriage is a sad and painful process. It is also a very personal and private one. Because Mark and I are public figures, we have naturally had less privacy with which to deal with our difficulties than do other couples. Indeed, I know it will soon become known so I choose to release this brief notice that I am now filing for divorce. This came after many unsuccessful efforts at reconciliation, yet I am still dedicated to keeping the process that lies ahead peaceful for our family.

I remain thankful to so many across this state and nation for their words of encouragement and prayers during this difficult time. Please know the boys and I are doing well and are blessed with the incredible support of friends and family and bolstered by our faith and the unfailing love of our God above."

Governor Sanford released a statement in response to the first lady's announcement that praises his wife for being gracious and patient since his public admission of an affair. The governor also blames his own moral failures for the divorce.

"While it is not the course I would have hoped for, or would choose, I want to take full responsibility for the moral failure that led us to this tragic point. Jenny is a great person, and has been a remarkable wife, mother and First Lady," said the governor's statement in part.

The first lady filed for divorce Friday in Charleston County Family Court. A copy of the divorce filing lists the governor's adultery as grounds for the divorce. The filing also says the Sanfords plan to reach a private agreement over any issues such as dividing property and sharing custody of their children.

Stay tuned. This may get real nasty real quick.

Slut-shamed to death at just 13 years old

TAMPA, FL -- Earlier this month, a thirteen year old girl committed suicide after some sick, twisted boys spread nude photos of her around the entire community on their cell phones.

Cara has more. I am issuing a severe trigger warning for this.

At the end of the school year at Beth Shields Middle School, the taunting became so bad that Hope Witsell’s friends surrounded her between classes. They escorted her down hallways like human shields, fending off insults such as “whore” and “slut.” A few days before, Hope had forwarded a nude photo of herself to a boy she liked — a practice widely known as “sexting.” The image found its way to other students, who forwarded it to their friends. Soon the nude photo was circulating through cell phones at Shields Middle and Lennard High School, according to multiple students at both schools. … School authorities learned of the nude photo around the end of the school year and suspended Hope for the first week of eighth grade, which started in August. About two weeks after she returned to school, a counselor observed cuts on Hope’s legs and had her sign a “no-harm” contract, in which Hope agreed to tell an adult if she felt inclined to hurt herself, her family says. The next day, Hope hanged herself in her bedroom. She was 13.

Her death is the second in the nation in which a connection between sexting and teen suicide can clearly be drawn.

Some in the media want to call this sexting related suicide, but it is intellectually dishonest to call this a sexting related suicide. Let's call this what it really is: it is called being slut-shamed into committing suicide. And Cara (as well as Veronica via twitter) calls it like it is.

It is not the photo that caused her to take her own life. It was the non-consensual spreading of the photo across the whole neighborhood (and school) that caused Ms. Witsell to take her own life.

This is all too common these days -- and no, I am not talking about the girls/boys taking nude photos of herself/himself. I am talking about the non-consensual spreading of said photos by the opposite gender.

For example, at least four-ninths of all high school boys -- 44.4% -- said that they have seen nude photos of a female pupil. Overwhelmingly, they shared the photos with others in the neighborhood.

I agree with Cara when she says that we need to teach boys that spreading photos without that girl's consent is NEVER OK. And while we are at it, we also need to teach girls that it is NEVER OK to spread photos of nude boys without that boy's consent, even though girls spreading nude photos of a boy without his consent is far less likely to happen.

And while we are busy talking about a person of one gender spreading nude photos of a person of the opposite gender without her/his consent, Cara mentions that it was another girl that spread the nude photo of the late Ms. Witsell in a bitter romantic rivalry.

Accounts vary, but many students describe the chain of events this way: The last week of school in June, Hope forwarded a photo of her breasts to the cell phone of Alex Eargood, a boy she liked. A rival girl, who was the girlfriend of another boy Hope liked and a friend of Alex’s, asked to borrow Alex’s phone on the bus. That girl found the image and forwarded it to other students.

Alex, now 16 and a freshman at Armwood High School, told the St. Petersburg Times last week that he deleted the photo. He does not remember whether he deleted it before or after the girl borrowed his phone. The mother of the girl told the Times that her daughter would not comment for this article.

As I mentioned above, non-consensual is non-consensual. It doesn't matter if it is boys committing it against a girl, girls committing it against a boy, boys committing it against another boy or, as in this case, girls committing it against another girl.

Just because the girl is a super-duper slutty slutty slut slut, it certainly does not mean that she deserved whatever she had coming to her. Because Ms. Witsell certainly did not deserve any of the ridicule and harassment that she endured and led to her eventual suicide.

Ms. Witsell was already punished enough for the photo prior to the slut-shaming suicide. She was told by the principal on the last day of the 2008-2009 school term that she was suspended for the first five days of this school term. After serving the suspension, she was then stripped of her position as student advisor. Her parents severely punished her for the summer, meaning that Ms. Witsell was not allowed to play games, go on vacations, hang out with her friends, or even go online at all from June to late August. Then, the some boys coerced her into taking a second photo of her breasts and, once again, she was treated as a culprit rather than as a victim:

No one knows how Hope met a group of boys staying across the hall. Rebecca Knowles, who is the FFA president, saw Hope talking to the boys by the hotel pool.

The boys were in their late teens and were not there for the FFA convention. They insisted she send a nude photo to them.

One of the boys was especially aggressive and called the room repeatedly on the conference’s last night, asking Hope for a photo of her breasts.

“They kept calling and they kept bugging her,” said Rebecca, 14, who said she was in the room but asleep. “I think she was just scared. One of our roommates was scared as well and said, ‘Oh, my God, just do it.’ They were scared and wanted to get it over.”

The boy calling didn’t have a cell phone. So Hope used Rebecca’s phone to take a picture of her breasts, then slipped it outside her door.

The phone, which Hope had left outside for the boy, was still in the hallway when an adult found it and saw the photo.

As for all of those who forwarded and demanded both photos, as well as all of those who harassed, ridiculed and tortured Ms. Witsell and made her thirteen years on Earth pure hell...well, there was no word on what kind of punishment they could face.

I don't know how Florida law works, but if this was to happen in South Carolina, all of those who forwarded and demanded the pics; taunted, harassed, and ridiculed Ms. Witsell could have all been expelled permanently from school under the Palmetto State's toughest-in-the-nation anti-bullying laws.

Ms. Witsell made her decision -- the same one that a male classmate of mine made in February 2000. The decision to kill herself.

Not only did we fail Ms. Witsell and her family, we also failed in our duties to protect every woman and girl in this country from this kind of blatant victim-blaming and slut-shaming.

We can either continue to shift the blame and say "that is how today's kids are", or we can man-up/woman-up and take responsibility for our role in this tragic situation as a society and make major adjustments to our culture to ensure that not another girl and not one boy have to go through what Ms. Witsell had to go through.

The big tent is quickly closing and throwing people out

WASHINGTON -- Have anyone else heard or seen something about the GOP's ideologically pure test?

In case if you haven't then, here is a ten step list you must go through (you must agree on eight out of the ten questions) in order to be considered a good candidate by what was once a proud political party.

That, my friends, is called a litmus test. And yet, many of those who support the GOP's litmus test --such as the Augusta Chronicle -- have falsely accused us of wanting a litmus test on the United States' Supreme Court.

Here is the ten questions that the GOP will force its candidates to go through.

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.

See those questions above? The GOP's resolution list may be a recipe for success in Iran, Oman or the Taliban-era Afghanistan, but here in the United States, that is a recipe for losing every presidential election in a landslide.

Right now, based on how the people voted on Nov. 4, 2008; the GOP would only have eleven Southern states (Florida would solidly be Democratic since it is more moderate than the the rest of the region and it could possibly lose North Carolina over this), plus Alaska, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. It would effectively lose the entire Northeast, West Coast and Urban Midwest (including Indiana, Iowa and Ohio) over this litmus test. And likely lose Montana, West Virginia, Arizona and New Mexico.

Unlike even a few years ago, when rural areas were all the rage in elections, urban areas now reign supreme in politics. Chicago is the largest city to have ever been represented in the White House (I'm sure that Ronald Reagan wasn't from Los Angeles, although he did have an acting career before going into the White House in 1981). Nowadays, urban areas are the localities that any aspiring White House hopeful must woo in order to get that city's vote.

With this ideologically pure test that the GOP is foisting upon anyone who wants to become a candidate for office, it is no wonder why they are so much of a minority nationally right now.

I'll bet that Abraham Lincoln is rolling over in his grave given how the GOP has managed to turn his party into one that has a Taliban-like agenda.

The defeat of Nelson amendment means big government loses in attempt to control women's lives

WASHINGTON -- The progressives told big government conservatives on Wednesday to get out of women's bodies and stay out! The Nelson amendment was dealt a swift 54-45 defeat. Only Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) did not vote.

I am happy that this amendment got defeated. Now, we need to work in both Houses towards putting the Hyde amendment right where its primary sponsor currently is: six feet under.

Now, comes the naming and shaming for those who did vote in favor of the Nelson Amendment.

And I'll begin right at home (in South Carolina and Georgia).

Sen. Lindsey Graham. He proved me right -- he is a far right misogynist.

Sen. Jim DeMint. Sen. DeMint is Misogynist Supreme. No doubt about that.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss. This senator has no class, no dignity and no respect for women.

Sen. Johnny Isakson. It doesn't matter if his rating with Planned Parenthood is 43 or 0, anti-choice is anti-choice. And Planned Parenthood accurately identified Sen. Isakson as anti-choice. And his vote for the Nelson amendment is evident of that.

Now, for the other 41 Senators by name only:

Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Casey (D-PA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
LeMieux (R-FL)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Wicker (R-MS)

Now, we need to get rid of these 45 Senators between November 2, 2010 and 2014.

A big thank you to Sens. Boxer and Mikulski for taking the fight to the sexist male pols in both Houses of Congress

WASHINGTON -- The backlash against the Stupak-Pitts and Nelson-Hatch amendments continue.

Now, the Democratic women in the Senate are rightfully ripping misogynist Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson apart for his role in attempting to torpedo the health care bill.

First, Sen. Mikulski of Maryland:

MS. MIKULSKI: THANK YOU. MADAM PRESIDENT, I RISE TO SPEAK ON THE BILL AND ALSO IN OPPOSITION TO THE NELSON OF NEBRASKA AMENDMENT ON THE SUBJECT OF ABORTION. FIRST OF ALL, MADAM PRESIDENT, I TRULY BELIEVE THAT HEALTH CARE REFORM IS THE MOST IMPORTANT SOCIAL JUSTICE VOTE THAT WE WILL CAST IN THIS DECADE. WHY? BECAUSE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT PROVIDING UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE, WHICH I BELIEVE IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT AND SHOULD BE A FUNDAMENTAL AMERICAN RIGHT.

THAT'S WHY HEALTH REFORM IS SO IMPORTANT. PROVIDING UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE AND IN THIS BILL ENDING THE PUNITIVE PRACTICES OF INSURANCE COMPANIES AGAINST WOMEN, PARTICULARLY IN THE AREA OF GENDER DISCRIMINATION, WHERE WE PAY MORE AND GET LESS IN OUR BENEFIT PACKAGE, AND ALSO WHERE SIMPLY BEING A WOMAN IS OFTEN TREATED AS A PREEXISTING CONDITION. EIGHT STATES CONSIDER DOMESTIC VIOLENCE A PREEXISTING CONDITION, AND YOU CAN'T GET INSURANCE. ONE WOMAN WHO HAD A MEDICALLY MANDATED C-SECTION WAS TOLD SHE COULDN'T GET INSURANCE AGAIN UNLESS SHE HAD A STERILIZATION. COERCED STELZATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA -- STERILIZATION IN THE UPLTS. -- IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. I THOUGHT THAT'S WHAT THEY DID IN NAZI GERMANY.

THE OTHER THING THIS BILL DOES IS STRENGTHEN AND STABILIZE MEDICARE TO MAKE SURE SENIORS HAVE ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE AT ALL AGES AND ALL STAGES. NOW, MADAM PRESIDENT, I CONSIDER THESE PRINCIPLES TO BE PRO-LIFE. I THINK THE HEALTH CARE BILL THAT WE ARE DEBATING IS AS PRO-LIFE AS YOU CAN BE, BECAUSE WHAT OTHER THING HELPS MAINTAIN, PROTECT, SAVE, OR DEAL WITH IMPAIRED LIFE THAN PROVIDING UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO HAVING HEALTH CARE? A FAMOUS PASTOR BY THE NAME OF RICK WARREN WHO'S WRITTEN THE GREAT BOOK THAT'S INSPIRED SO MANY -- "PURPOSE-DRIVEN LIFE" -- TALKS NOT ABOUT PRO-LIFE BUT WHOLE LIFE PRINCIPLES. NOW I THINK THAT BEING ABLE TO SEE A DOCTOR OR AN APPROPRIATE HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONAL SAVES LIVES, AND I VIEW THIS VOTE ON HEALTH CARE REFORM AS PRO-LIFE OR WHOLE LIFE AS ANYONE CAN CAST. I AGREE WITH PASTOR RICK WARREN WHEN HE USES THAT PRINCIPLE, AND I BELIEVE TO SEE A DOCTOR WHEN YOU NEED ONE, TO SAVE A LIFE OR TO DEAL WITH THE HEALTH CARE YOU NEED SO YOU DON'T LOSE AN EYE. LIKE IN DIABETES, YOU DON'T LOSE AN EYE, YOU DON'T LOSE A KIDNEY, YOU DON'T LOSE A FOOT, OR IF YOU'RE PREGNANT AND DIABETIC, LOSE YOUR CHILD. WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT WOMEN HAVE ACCESS TO MAMMOGRAMS, THAT THE MEN WE LOVE AND WHO LOVE US HAVE ACCESS, IF THEY HAVE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE -- AND SOMETIMES THEY HAVE IT BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE HEALTH CARE FOR THEIR FAMILY -- PROSTATE CANCER. I BELIEVE THAT'S WHAT WHOLE LIFE IS. SO, YOU SEE, IN THIS BILL I BELIEVE THAT SUPPORTING SCREENING FOR DIABETES IS PRO-LIFE, CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING IS PRO-LIFE. BUT MOST OF ALL, IF YOU WANT PEOPLE TO HAVE HEALTHY PREGNANCIES, HEALTHY CHILDBIRTH, HEALTHY BABIES, THEY NEED ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE. SO THAT'S WHY I SAY THAT VOTING FOR UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE IS AS PRO-LIFE AS YOU CAN BE. MAKING THIS DEBATE ABOUT ABORTION, I BELIEVE, IS MISGUIDED AND WRONG. FIRST OF ALL, IN THE BILL WE ALREADY DEAL WITH THIS TOPIC. NOW, IN THE INTEREST OF PASSING HEALTH CARE REFORM, I BELIEVE WE DEAL WITH THIS SENSITIVE TOPIC IN A SENSITIVE WAY. WE WERE CHECKED IN ON AMENDMENTS ON BOTH SIDES -- FOR EXAMPLE, WE DID NOT SEEK TO CHANGE THE SETTLED LANGUAGE REGARDING ABORTION THAT IS THE HYDE AMENDMENT. THERE WERE THOSE IN THE EXUBERANCE OF LAST YEAR'S ELECTION SAID LET'S GET RID OF HYDE. MANY OF US TOOK THAT POSITION TRYING TO FIND THAT SENSIBLE CENTER. WE'RE PRINCIPLED AND WHOLE LIFE PEOPLE AS WELL. WE SAID LET'S KEEP THE HYDE AMENDMENT. IT IS SETTLED LANGUAGE. I DON'T USE THE TERM SETTLED WRONG, MADAM PRESIDENT, BECAUSE THAT IS A PRECISE LEGAL TERM AND I KNOW MY COLLEAGUE FROM PENNSYLVANIA AND OTHERS CAN ARGUE THAT. BUT HYDE IS SETTLED LANGUAGE. WHAT DOES THE HYDE AMENDMENT THAT'S BEEN AROUND FOR ALMOST 30 YEARS DO? IT PROHIBITS ANY FEDERAL FUNDS TO BE USED DIRECTLY FOR ABORTIONS EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF RAPE, INCEST WHERE THE LIFE OF THE MOTHER IS AT RISK. IT HAS A CONSCIOUS CAUSE TO PROTECT PROVIDERS WHO DO NOT WANT TO PROVIDE INSTITUTIONS. THIS BILL DOES NOT SEEK TO CHANGE THE UNDERLYING PREMISE OF THE HYDE AMENDMENT, WHICH, AS I SAID, I REGARD THE SETTLED LANGUAGE OF 30 YEARS AGO. THE SENATE BILL, THE PENDING BILL, GOES EVEN FURTHER THAN HYDE. IT WAS LEGISLATION THAT CAME OUT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE, AND I SALUTE THEM FOR ONCE AGAIN TRYING TO FIND A SENSIBLE CENTER, ENGAGE IN CIVIL AND RATIONAL DIALOGUE. AND I WOULD LIKE TO COMPLIMENT THEM ON THEIR EFFORTS. HOWEVER, THE OTHER SIDE KEEPS CHANGING THE MIDPOINT. BUT SEEKING A GREATER GOOD, MANY OF US AGREED WHAT WAS IN THE FINANCE BILL. QUITE FRANKLY, IT WENT FARTHER THAN I WOULD IF I WERE WRITING A BILL. BUT, AGAIN, IN THE ISSUE OF COMITY AND SO THAT WE WOULDN'T TURN -- WE WOULD KEEP THIS DEBATE ON THE ISSUE OF PROVIDING HEALTH CARE AND NOT TURN IT INTO AN ABORTION DEBATE. NOW WHAT IS -- WHAT CAME OUT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE IS IN THE MERGED BILL DO? IT SAYS LOUDLY, CLEARLY AND CONSISTENTLY, NO FEDERAL FUNDS CAN BE USED TO PAY FOR THE COVERAGE OF ABORTION. AND IT DOES IT BY SEPARATING OUT FUNDS SO THAT NO PUBLIC MONEY FROM FEDERAL CREDITS OR SUBSIDIES WOULD BE USED FOR ABORTIONS. WHAT MORE DO YOU ASK ANYONE TO DO? HEALTH CARE UNDER THE PENDING BILL HEALTH CARE PLANS CANNOT BE REQUIRED TO COVER ABORTION. HEALTH CARE PLANS CAN CHOOSE TO COVER OR NOT COVER IT. AND STATE LAWS REGARDING ABORTION ARE NOT PREEMPTED. AND IT AGAIN INCLUDES THE LONG-STANDING PRACTICE OF A STRONG CONSCIOUS CAUSE FOR EITHER INDIVIDUAL PROVIDERS OR INSTITUTIONS, FOR EXAMPLE, CATHOLIC HOSPITALS, FROM PERFORMING ABORTIONS IF IT'S AGAINST THEIR CONSCIENCE. I BELIEVE WHAT WE'VE DONE HERE IS FIND THE SENSIBLE CENTER. AND IT LEAVES THE DECISION IN THE HANDS OF PATIENTS AND DOCTORS, NOT POLITICIANS OR INSURANCE EXECUTIVES. SO THE QUESTION IS NOT WHAT IS DECIDED, BUT WHO DECIDES. AND I BELIEVE IT SHOULD BE IN THE HANDS OF PATIENTS AND DOCTORS, NOT POLITICIANS OR INSURANCE EXECUTIVES. LET'S GO TO NELSON, WHICH IS REALLY A SENATE VERSION OF STUPAK. I REJECT THE BEN NELSON AMENDMENT. I BELIEVE IT IS UNNECESSARY. I BELIEVE IT IS UNNEEDED. AND I BELIEVE THAT IT'S UNCALLED FOR. IT GOES FURTHER THAN HYDE BECAUSE IT PROHIBITS THE PUBLIC OPTION FROM COVERING ABORTION. IT PROHIBITS INDIVIDUALS FROM RECEIVING FEDERAL INSURANCE SUBSIDIES FROM PURCHASING A PLAN THAT COVERS ABORTION. AND EVEN IF YOU USE YOUR OWN MONEY, YOU CAN'T RECEIVE -- YOU CANNOT BE USED TO PAY FOR AN ABORTION. IS MY TIME EXPIRED? I'M SORRY, I THOUGHT I HEARD A KNOCK. THE PRESIDING OFFICER: NO, YOUR TIME HAS NOT EXPIRED.

MS. MIKULSKI: IT ALSO ALLOWS WOMEN TO PURCHASE AN ABORTION RIDER. OH, BOY, IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE BIG DEAL. IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE THE KIND OF THING THAT'S SUPPOSED TO MAKE US HAPPY? WHAT AN INSULTING, HUMILIATING THING TO SAY: IF YOU WANT AN ABORTION, GO BUY A RIDER. I THINK IT DEMONIZES WOMEN. WHY DON'T YOU JUST GO INTO THE WORKPLACE AND PAINT A SCARLET LETTER ON YOUR HEAD? HAWTHORNE STILL LIVES IN THE NELSON AMENDMENT. LET'S GET AN "A." LET'S PAINT THE "A" WORD ON YOUR FOREHEAD. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? I DON'T KNOW OF ANY INDIVIDUAL WOMAN OR ANY WOMAN IN CONSULTATION WITH THE MAN THAT SHE LOVES AND LOVES HER SAYING, YEAH, YOU KNOW, WE MIGHT HAVE AN ABORTION. YEAH, WHY DON'T WE BUY THAT RIDER. NOBODY PLANS TO HAVE AN ABORTION. IT'S NOT THE SUBJECT OF WHAT INTIMATE CONVERSATIONS THAT FAMILIES TALK ABOUT AS THEY PLAN THEIR LIVES TOGETHER. YOU REALIZE THE INTENSE DISCRIMINATION A WOMAN WOULD FACE? AND HOW ABOUT WHY NOT HAVE MEN BUY AN ABORTION RIDER FOR THE WOMEN THEY GET PREGNANT.

THIS. AND WE'RE CRANKY ABOUT IT BECAUSE THERE'S NO NEED TO DO IT LIKE THIS. WE HAVE TRIED IT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY TO TRY TO HANDLE THIS TOPIC WITH GREAT RESPECT. BECAUSE THERE ARE PEOPLE WITH PRINCIPLE. WE ARE ALL PEOPLE OF PRINCIPLE. SOME PEOPLE USE THE TERM PRO-LIFE, I USE THE TERM WHOLE LIFE. WHAT ARE THE REST OF US? DO YOU THINK I'M ANTILIFE? ALL MY LIFE AS A SOCIAL WORKER, I FOUGHT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE. I FOUGHT FOR ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE. AND TO SAY THAT I'M GOING TO SUPPORT A BILL THAT DENIES ACCESS TO SERVICES FOR MOST WOMEN -- ANYWAY. I THINK THIS LANGUAGE GOES FURTHER THAN HYDE AND WE'D SHOULD BE DEBATING HEALTH CARE, NOT ABORTION. THIS LEGISLATION ON THE SENATE FLOOR SHOULD BE ABOUT WOMEN'S HEALTH, LIKE THE DEBATE WE HAD LAST WEEK ABOUT PRENATAL HEALTH CARE, ABOUT HOW TO IMPROVE DELIVERY SYSTEMS FOR GREATER SURVIVAL THINGS. TO MINIMIZE BIRTH DEFECTS. THAT'S WHAT IT SHOULD BE. WOMEN'S HEALTH CARE SHOULD BE MADE BY THE WOMAN IN CONSULTATION WITH HER DOCTOR. THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE ACT IS WHAT WE BELIEVE IS A WONDERFUL COMPROMISE. AND IT DOES REJECT THE STRIDENT FEW POINTS. BECAUSE THE MORE PRO-LIFE THING WE CAN DO IS TO PASS UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE. THE MOST PRO-LIFE THING WE CAN DO IS STABLIZE MEDICARE SO THAT PEOPLE HAVE HEALTH CARE AT ALL AGES AND AL STAGES. SO REJECT THE NELSON AMENDMENT. AND IF YOU'RE REALLY PRO-LIFE, VOTE FOR THE SENATE-MERGED BILL.

And here are two videos from Mikulski:





Also, Sens. Boxer and Kristen Gillibrand spoke out against this sexist amendment. Here is a video of Boxer:



Again, a big thank you to these Democratic women for putting the sexist male pols in both Houses in their places!

25th Anniversary of Accurate Maps

WEST COLUMBIA -- This year marks the 25th anniversary of Accurate Maps and Atlases.

However, their products are not nearly as visible nationally as it was eight years ago.

However, their most recent products are still available at bookstores and gas stations around the Carolinas and in the immediate Augusta, GA metro area (Augusta-Richmond, Columbia and McDuffie counties) in Georgia.

In fact, a Beaufort County map released in 2008 is my most recent purchase from Books-A-Million at the Aiken Mall.

My first map purchased? An Aiken County map copyrighted 1996 from the now-defunct B. Dalton. That purchase came in December 1998.

Half of the thirty-four maps (and a majority of the thirty-one county maps) I have are from Accurate Maps. And the map of Lexington County from 2001 (pictured) is among the 34 that I have in my possession.

The others? One more of Aiken County (copyrighted 2007), two of Orangeburg County (copyrighted 1995 and 2003), one of Spartanburg County (copyrighted 1999), one of Colleton County (copyrighted 1996), one of Berkeley County (copyrighted 1996), one of Dorchester County (copyrighted 1995), one of Anderson County (copyrighted 1996), one of Florence County (copyrighted 1996), one of the Augusta/North Augusta metro area (copyrighted 1996), one of Columbia metro (copyrighted 1995), one of Charleston metro (copyrighted 1997) and an atlas of Greenville County/Greer/Easley (copyrighted 1997).

I am going to try to get one of all of the locations that Accurate Maps currently have one for and reload on many of the ones I currently have as most of the maps I currently have are outdated now.

Yet another case demonstrates why we NEED to get rid of ALL anti-nudity laws!

DETROIT -- Here we go again.

Target called the sheriff's office on a couple just because the mother was breastfeeding her child.

The couple say it wasn't crowded in that section at the time.

"It wasn't busy. One gentleman came through and... he complained about the prices," said Mary Martinez.

Harper Woods police were called to the scene. They joined Target security talking with the Martinez family until the couple and child left embarrassed.

One Target employee said that breastfeeding is allowed in their stores while another says that it is explicitly forbidden. Well, we don't know who to believe, don't we?

I do know this much: the anti-nudity laws, also known as 'public decency' laws, need to be repealed. NOW, not later! No amount of legislation designed to protect breastfeeding women will remedy the problem as long as these so-called 'public decency' laws are still in place. So for those who are complaining about the problem, I applaud you. But, you all fail to realize that anti-nudity laws are the biggest PROBLEM here, store policy is only a small fraction of the problem.

Instead of having feed-ins at places that offended breastfeeding mothers, we feminists and lactivists would better serve the nation by going to the town/city hall, the state governments and the federal government and demanding that they get rid of ALL anti-nudity laws. And show up everyday at the government offices to protest anti-nudity laws until those laws are fully repealed.

Thirteen religious organzations demand the Senate to reject ALL anti-choice amendments

WASHINGTON -- It has been a looooong time since this many religious groups have revolted against the government's assaults on women.

According to RH Reality Check, a baker's dozen religious groups have spoken out against the anti-choice amendments being offered by one Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska).

"The undersigned religious and religiously affiliated organizations urge the Senate to support comprehensive, quality health care reform that maintains the current Senate language on abortion services," states the letter..

We believe that it is our social and moral obligation to ensure access to high quality comprehensive health care services at every stage in an individual’s life. Reforming the health care system in a way that guarantees affordable and accessible care for all is not simply a good idea—it is necessary for the well-being of all people in our nation.

"The passage of meaningful health reform legislation will make significant strides toward accomp