 When we read this morning that Trump has vowed to make Paul Ryan’s economic budget a reality, none of us were surprised, but the horror with which we've lived since the election deepened. The GOP is about to impose austerity measures on the United States, and every program that is meant to help human beings will be gutted. The level of income inequality with which we live is about to quadruple. Katherine wonders what the end game is. Is it a return to the feudal system where we live by the leave and the largesse of the super rich? Ethel's just glad she'll be dead by the time the bastards finish their dirty work. One of the things we detest the most about 24 hour news cycle is important stories, stories that thematically still resonate just as strongly today as yesterday, get lost. In early June of 2012, American Catholic Nuns got on a bus, and traveled the United States speaking out against Paul Ryan’s proposed budget cuts for the poor. As per Sister Simone Campbell, in an excellent NPR interview with Michel Martin: “If Congressman Ryan hadn’t mentioned his faith, I don’t know if we would come up with this idea, but the fact that he was claiming – it’s an outrageous claim in my view that the Catholic faith, that is all about serving the poor, validates his budget, which does nothing but decimate services to the poor, provides further tax cuts for the wealthy and then he claims that this is going to help balance our budget when it actually makes it worse. That combination of misstatements was an outrage to us and we thought, we need to illustrate the problem because people outside the beltway don’t know. We thought the best way to bring an education to our nation about what’s happening here in Washington is if we went on the road and lifted up their work and the consequences they would face if this Republican House budget goes through.” Roman Catholic Religious sister, lawyer, and lobbyist, Sister Simone Campbell is the executive director of Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, founded by Catholic sisters in 1971. The organization was singled out by the Vatican and the previous pope in its scathing critique of The Leadership Conference of Women Religious for keeping “silent on the right to life.” Sister Simone, who made it very clear that she and the rest of Network’s managing staff were not even consulted during the Vatican’s inquiry, stated that Network’s focus, in keeping with the mission of the founding sisters, was poverty, immigration, and health care. “I think we scare them,” she has said of the church’s male hierarchy. “It’s painfully obvious that the leadership of the church is not used to having educated women form thoughtful opinions and engage in dialogue. Our work every day is in the streets, in the neighborhoods, with families, in a classroom, in a hospital with people who are dying or seriously ill. So our work takes us to the people. Their work takes them to protecting the institution. If you protect the institution, that’s going to give you one set of views. If you work with the people in a pastoral setting and you’re with anguish and struggle and joy and hope every day, then the gospel reads differently to us. And, historically, Catholic sisters have always been a thorn in the bishop’s side because we’ve also been on the edge. We’ve always been with folks who are suffering.” We have real issues with organized religion. Those of us at the table were raised Christian and went to all girl Christian schools from elementary school through hight school so we are intimate with the teachings of Christianity. Sister Simone Campbell and Network are a living embodiment of what I think of as the best of Christianity. Like the church leaders of Moral Mondays in North Carolina, they are applying their faith to politics, to lift up and help humanity, rather than control the masses and bend them to their will. Someone is no doubt going to write me about the church's stance on abortion. Sister Simone's position on abortion: ....."women choose abortion often, or most often, because they don’t have economic options. And I think the shock of our nation is that we claim to be pro—some claim to be pro-life, but they’re really only pro-birth. They don’t do what’s necessary to support women in carrying a baby to term, in providing paid child—paid family leave, in providing maternity leave or, you know, parental leave, providing reasonable-cost child care. I mean, the litany goes on and on. If we were really serious about being pro-life, we wouldn’t look just at birth. From my perspective, I don’t think it’s a good policy to outlaw abortion. I think, rather, let’s focus on economic development for women and economic opportunity. " Nuance and intelligence have not left the building. Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools, Katherine Manaan Secretary: The Kitchen Table Caucus http://www.npr.org/2012/06/08/154579990/born-to-be-wild-catholic-nuns-hit-the-road’ http://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/01/26/trump-vows-make-paul-ryans-nightmarish-budget-vision-reality https://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/29/nuns_on_the_bus_at_the http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/awilson-744 https://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/1/society_is_failing_our_families_sister 
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 Nancy Spero: Glory The Kitchen Table Caucus is sick and tired of mental illness being used as an excuse for mass shooting(s). Implicit in the mental illness argument is the shooter was powerless over his actions; due to his psychological pain he didn't know what he was doing. Mental illness is neither a reasonable nor rational excuse for mass shooting(s). Someone will no doubt write us and say that we've misunderstood: mental illness is the cause not the excuse. The excuse doesn’t make it okay either, any more than it’s okay to beat your children because you were beaten as a child. The Kitchen Table Caucus dreams of an immediate ban of the sale, transfer, manufacture, and importation of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. We’re pragmatists, we know the ban will not stop mass shootings, but what it will do is begin to remove these weapons of war from the streets. We are all veteran’s daughters and come from a long-line of responsible gun owners and we are disgusted with elected officials representing the profits of the NRA rather than the safety of our children and friends. We are disgusted with the law that gun manufacturers cannot be sued for the damage inflicted on the innocent with their heavily marketed product. For those of you who hold true that is it your constitutional right to own guns… The only reason millions of people are calling for regulations is because gun ownership has been abused daily in the most heinous of ways. Simple logic dictates that your anger should be aimed at the mass shooters, the people who have abused the right of owning a gun, which in turn impacts your right to own a gun, not the people calling for regulations. Logic further dictates that as responsible gun owners you would join hands with those saying enough is enough and actively engage in the creation of a sane gun policy. In closing, as per the argument, “Guns don’t kill people, people do.” We agree with Eddie Izard. “Guns help.” Katherine Manaan Secretary – Kitchen Table Caucus Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools. We thank Bess Kalb for the following. The link to the original is at the end of the figures. Senator Marco Rubio - $3,303,355 Senator Cory Gardner - $3,879,064.00 Senator Rob Portman - $3,061,941.00 Senator Bill Cassidy $2,861,047.00 Senator Thom Tillis $4,418,012.00 Congressman Ken Buck $800,544 Senator Joni Ernst 3,124,273 In the 2015-2016 election cycle alone, GOP candidates took $17,385,437 from the NRA. This is NOT counting the $21 million given to President Trump. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bess-kalb-nra-tweets_us_5a84ee69e4b0058d5565cbac https://twitter.com/bessbell/status/963892565215883264  Before we begin to today's post, please be advised that over 3/4's of us are veteran's daughters. We hold true that if a young man or woman nobly chooses to die for their country, then they deserve reasons other than profit, greed, and power, to fight for, and leaders of impeccable character. Also, though half of us are pagan, the other half are staunchly Christian, and we're quite sure Jesus and God do not approve of what is being done in their names. So if the above photo offends you, move on. There are plenty of pages and people writing who will agree with you. We are not one of them. The Kitchen Table Caucus is composed of women 65 and older, who have been activists and friends since the early 70's. Though Katherine aims to corral us weekly for our latest opinions, we are not an organized group. The Kitchen Table Caucus **************************************************************************** The Kitchen Table Caucus has been talking a lot about the T.V. coverage of Vietnam. Every night the war was on the news. Every night in our living rooms, we saw dead bodies and dismembered soldiers, and body bags and burials. Every night we witnessed the atrocities and results of war close-up. It was either Nixon or Johnson who said t.v. coverage of the war was what ended the war because it turned the public against the war. A lesson learned by future warmongers and when Bush declared war against Iraq, reporters were embedded. We, the public, saw nothing like what we saw in Vietnam. The war barely registered unless you were military or your children were serving. The only difference was that now returning vets were honored at political and cultural events, and thanked profusely for their service, instead of being spat at and called baby killers. Trump bombed Syria and was applauded. It was the “morally correct,” thing to do given the fact that Syria had bombed innocent children with chemical bombs. We’ll show you who’s boss! This is what happens when you bomb children! We, of the Kitchen Table Caucus, are all for morally correct. What we oppose with every fiber of our beings is the illusion of morally correct, and its cynical application by those in positions of structural power to further the financial aims of rapacious capitalism. What we oppose with every fiber of our beings is an act of destruction that will have little if any impact on the war in Syria; a conflict that began with peaceful protests against the government and devolved into a proxy war between Russia and Iran and the U.S. and her allies. Part religious, part civil, all sides are being played against the other to serve the financial interests of the larger countries involved. 400,000 people have died in Syria and over half the population have been displaced. The idea that bombing a runway would have any impact on the clusterf**k that is Syria, or stop the chemical bombing of her citizens, is a flat out lie. Which brings us to Afghanistan and the mother of all bombs. As per the news this morning the mother of all bombs killed 36 Isil fighters. 36 you say? Other than being remarkably skeptical of where the figure came from, and how it was decided upon, the idea that the mother of all bombs only killed 36 people is somewhat confusing. Wouldn’t a bomb that big kill at least 100 people? Maybe 200? Someone no doubt is going to write and tell us that the bomb was purposely targeted away from populated areas. Someone else will write and say, they weren’t aiming for Isil fighters, they were aiming for the tunnels where Isil hangs out. The Kitchen Table Caucus isn’t buying it. We think the main reason the mother of all bombs was dropped was to show Isil the U.S. means business and don’t f**k with us, rationale so beyond stupid it takes our breath away. If terrorists were afraid of our bombs and military might there wouldn’t be terrorism. Someone will no doubt write and say that we just haven’t bombed enough. Check please. Bombing for peace is like f**king for virginity. A right wing woman with whom we are acquainted, let’s call her Bitsy, told Lenore, when they were thumping cantaloupes for ripeness at Hannaford’s, that the mother of all bombs was dropped to send North Korea a message — We’re not afraid to go to war. Bomb us and we’ll bomb you back even harder. “But I am afraid of going to war,” Lenore said. “What’s wrong with you?” Bitsy asked. “We’re America. War will show the world just how powerful we are.” “No, it won’t,” Lenore said quietly. "This is boys playing king of the mountain, only the stakes are the planet and the young men and women who will be used as weapons and sacrificed for corporate profit. Tell me Bits, are you sending your grandchild?" Bitsy backed away. Lenore is not a chatty person and always packing because a rabid skunk attacked her favorite goat. She promptly got a gun and learned to shoot and now she wins all the shooting contests at the county fair. That Bitsy backed away made us laugh, but it didn’t stop the awful sinking feeling that starts up every morning when we turn on our computers and read the latest. The world that held us has cracked wide open and as for the people....most want simple answers to complicated questions. Fix it, make it like it once was, and the corporate narrative is only too willing to oblige. "The bombs were beautiful." "Trump became president." "Morally we had to do something." "Making America great again!" But you can’t make anything like it once was because it denies what is and what is, is an economic system so rapacious it has destroyed the economy, the environment, and a genuine morality that knows neither religion nor country. People feel powerless and when people feel powerless they don’t feel safe and when they don’t feel safe they will do anything, believe anything, that makes them feel safe and protected. Like the beaten wife who refuses to leave her abuser, it doesn’t matter if that protection runs completely counter to reality. Trump is but a symptom; the body is patriarchy, the right hand is war, the left hand is capitalism, and the feet are firmly planted in religion. Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools. Katherine Manaan Secretary – The Kitchen Table Caucus Installation of Memory - Nancy Spero "Democrats lack the votes needed to block any of Trump’s nominees from taking office — and there are no signs of Republican opposition to any of his picks. In fact, Republicans lashed out at Democrats for what they described as partisan, obstructionist moves.”
“It is time to get over the fact that they lost the election,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said. “The president is entitled to have his Cabinet appointments considered. None of this is going to lead to a different outcome.” Dear Mitch, The Kitchen Table Caucus just wanted to clarify a few things for you because clearly you’re confused. The democratic's opposition to Trump’s cabinet nominees is not about sour grapes over having lost the election. It’s a wonderful sound byte, but it’s a big lie. And really, obstructionist moves? After what you and the rest of the Republicans did to Obama? Seriously? We wanted to make sure you understood that the democrats are against Trump’s appointments because the appointees are either inept and/or serving an alt right wing agenda, and/or don't believe in the office or the department they've been tapped to head, and/or a combination of all of the above. When we of the Kitchen Table Caucus say alt right wing agenda, we mean policies dedicated to eviscerating a woman’s reproductive freedom, destroying the environment, and rendering civil rights null and void. That you get away with this under the guise of religious freedom, creating jobs, and protecting the country and her citizens, boggles the mind and is further testament to the education policies you support, and the utter brilliance of your P.R. machine. We (the Kitchen Table Caucus) are a group of women, 60 years and over. We love our coffee, live hand to mouth, and had no idea we would be spending the last chapter of our lives fighting for truth and justice. Unfortunately Mitchell, there's no doubt that you are blind with greed, addiction to power, and have lost your way. In order to help you find your way, we thought we’d remind you that the purpose of government is to protect the individual rights of its citizens. Surely you remember learning this in history class, along with, "government is necessary to ensure the proper use of force.” We do, and we're not that much younger than you, Right use of force to protect the individual rights of its citizens. I tell you we got chills imagining what could happen if the power of government was used to benefit her people. It was like the 70's all over, when we were going to save the world, and when the whole point of an education was to help others. That’s when Mary B. intoned, “Promotion of the general welfare of the citizens and securing liberty for all," The constitution Mitchell. Remember the constitution? That piece of parchment that you and yours are completely ignoring? Edna G. likes to think that maybe your brain was wiped, and the brains of all the Republicans were wiped, by reptilian forces and y’all were reprogrammed to use government might to protect oil companies, big business, Wall Street, and the 1%. Stranger things, you know? We want you to pass the following onto your boss, that poorly brought up republican who thinks speaking with constituents is “a f**king waste of my time,” and the rest of your party locking their doors and turning their phones off in order to avoid the opinions of the people they represent. Intrinsic to democracy is the participation of her people in the direction and operation of its political systems. Some of the elected Democrats (not all because of the weenie factor) are standing firm against the horror show of Trump’s nominees, because the people who elected them have demanded they do just that. Ergo, the people calling and marching and resisting are participating in democracy! What a concept, huh? They are democracy in action! They are everything the founding fathers and mothers fought and died for. You’re probably right when you say, it doesn’t matter what they do. The Republicans have the majority; you can do pretty much anything you want, and yes, we can slow you down, but that’s about it, unless members of your party wake up and realize that what they are in fact supporting is the overthrow of democracy and the institution of a military cult. This is not sour grapes Mitchell, and you know it; you’re lying to cover up the coup. Those opposing the coup — elected officials and a rainbow coalition of human beings — are growing in number. We are America at her most beautiful. We will not be silent. We will not bend to your will and your ways and the evil you are unleashing on our beloved country. Her-story is recording. Best wishes, The Kitchen Table Caucus Katherine Manaan — Secretary  As a Bernie supporter, I was quite clear that if Bernie didn't win the nomination I would vote for Clinton. After I saw the first version of the DNC platform, I said there was no way I would vote for Clinton, if the platform remained as written. I don't think I've ever gotten so many emails and comments. Bernie supporters loved me — "I can't vote for her either!" — and Clinton supporters reviled me — "You are handing the election to Trump and pissing on all the women who fought and died for our right to vote!" The sane and rational discourse my the MAWT fb page was famous for took a nose dive.
In my rebuttal I wrote that the idea that a 63 year old woman with virtually no structural power, held more sway over the way people voted, than the DNC, was ludicrous. "That's it, blame it the DNC for your irresponsible choices," somebody wrote. Oh for heaven's sakes, I wasn't blaming the DNC, but I was holding the DNC responsible for the sleigh of hand. Theoretically, when Clinton made the unprecedented move of allowing Sanders five representatives on the platform committee, it was to unify the party. Theoretically, when Clinton made the unprecedented move of allowing Sanders five representatives on the platform committee, support for progressive issues would be included in the platform. Yet, Clinton's and Wasserman-Schultz's representatives rejected every single recommendation by the Sanders people, including. but not limited to, anything that had to do with climate change. When Cornell West said, "Morally, I can't vote for this," I was with him. Clearly, I was not the only one who had issues with the first platform. After it was made public, headlines on lefty news pages screamed, "Progressives Thrown Under the Bus!"and the DNC received 90,000 petitions demanding the inclusion of climate change. In the next remarkably contentious committee meeting, the Sander's people fought tooth and nail to get progressive issues into the platform. They didn't win much, but what they did win is notable; namely amendments that supported pricing greenhouse gases, prioritized renewable energy, and limited fracking. Prioritizing renewable energy is a first in America, so this is huge, and humanity is forever in Josh Fox's and Bill McKibben's debt. The platform was immediately and proudly spun as the most progressive in history. Fast forward to the convention and I am watching Hillary's acceptance speech. "WE wrote the platform together," she said, "now let's get it done!" The crowd went wild, clapping and cheering and carrying on. "But, but, but," my brain sputtered, this wasn't a "we" thing. The only reason anything progressive was even in the platform was because of how hard the Sander's people fought. Hillary was taking all the credit for all the work the Sander's people did, when her representatives fought every one of their recommendations. The Clinton campaign stole ideas from the Sanders campaign throughout the entire primary season but this was so blatant my brain snapped. Still, knowing everything I knew, I cried like a baby watching the convention, because I was so deeply moved. I cried as I witnessed the fervent hopes and dreams in the eyes of everyday people. I cried that there was finally a woman candidate for president in my lifetime. I cried when Michelle spoke, I cried when Chelsea introduced her mother. And afterwards as I got ready for bed I remember thinking, "Wow, if I didn't know anything about politics or the machinations of the political machine I'd be a believer." I'd been shamelessly manipulated and I knew it, but shameless manipulation is the point of conventions — rah, rah America! And after watching both conventions it was pretty damn clear that one America is white, and the other is a melting pot of every color and both the Republicans and Democrats are using the people to their benefit so the 1% can continue to do what it has always done. Make a lot of noise over here by setting the people against each other, so you can do what you want over there. Bernie's unwavering focus on economics and the dire need for economic change had the 1% shaking in its shoes, which is why the the DNC rigged the election for Hillary, and liberal elite came out for Clinton as early as they did. I respect Bernie and I'm pretty fucking tired of people saying oh he folded, he gave into his overlords. Bullshit. Bernie knew exactly what he was doing. He stayed in the race as long as he did to to get progressive issues into the platform. That would be the platform that Hillary said we wrote together. That would be the platform that prioritized alternative energy. I think he was absolutely right to endorse Clinton, because there is no question that a Trump presidency would be the worse thing that could happen to this country. I thought Bernie's endorsement of Clinton at the convention was pure genius. Everything he said she stood for was something he stood for. He set her up brilliantly. Politics is a game of quid pro quo; Clinton not only owes Sanders, she owes Warren, big time. I don't think Hillary is the anti-christ, and I never have. If you take the time to do the research, you will see that she has one of the better progressive track records in recent history. Yes, she's a politician, no worse than some and worse than others, playing the political game like all politicians do. Someone said to me, you're voting for her because she's the lesser of two evils. Maybe yes, maybe no, but I'd rather deal with the devil I know, and work for progressive control of the Senate and the House, than some crazy man incapable of rational dialogue or thought, who gets his kicks stalking a middle-aged-woman around the stage and spewing abuse. He reminds me a great deal of my ex-husband when we were going through our divorce some 30 years ago. My ex-husband was more interested in destroying me than hammering out the details of the divorce that would keep our four-year-old son free and clear of as much hurt as possible. I got so caught up in protecting and defending myself against his lies and innuendo, I missed the facts; namely, I had certain legal rights that all the character assassination and horrific behavior in the world couldn't change. Hillary never lost her grasp of the facts, of the details, of the issues being discussed during the debate, in spite of the terrifying stalker behind her, huffing and puffing nasty asides and interruptions. She did not engage his abuse; rather she kept the focus on the debate and the issues, and my respect for her knew no bounds; as much as when she went to bat for Richard Holbrooke. Trump is a mouthpiece for the enraged; those who see the world as black and white, don't understand what happened to the "American Way," and are quick to blame the "other," for what's wrong. Trump can't beat Clinton with rational, intelligent discourse, he doesn't have the mind for it or the temperament, so all he has left are the tools of the bully — stalking, character assassination, and snide asides. Sound bytes for the terrified, intent on terrorizing others to make themselves feel safe. Trump is accusing a sole woman of being responsible for every ill that plagues this country and the world. He and his followers and a goodly number of Sanders followers are blaming Hillary for the downward spiral that American has been locked into as global corporations have taken control over every aspect of our lives. In other words they are accusing her and holding her responsible for man's downfall from paradise. As if the rules God set up had nothing to do with it. Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools. Katherine Manaan  The nationwide juggernaut of anti-abortion legislation we witnessed in 2011, and are witnessing daily in 2012, is clearly part of a perfectly coordinated and precisely executed strategy to chip away at abortion rights at the state level.
It’s quite brilliant actually; why take on abortion at the federal level where a win is not guaranteed when with the right language in the right states, a win is guaranteed. This is the thinking of Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life. “You don’t have to overturn Roe to actually make progress at state level,” she said. The point is to make Roe “crumble under its own weight and become irrelevant.” This is why all the legislation you’re seeing is geared towards making abortion, a heart wrenching and remarkably hard choice to begin with, as horrifically difficult and humiliating as possible. AUL, the legal wing of the pro-life movement and Charmaine Yoest, its President and CEO for the past three years, are players behind the bills for pre-abortion ultra-sounds, trans-vaginal ultrasounds, forced viewing of an ultra-sound, abortion waiting periods, parental notification, required viewing of state established anti-choice websites, re-defining gestation time, the question of fetal pain, abortion causes breast cancer lies, required pro-life counseling, and clinic regulations so restrictive that clinics have to close their doors. The effectiveness of the bills is due in large part to the language, what is called “model language” and that language is spelled out in AUL’s annual report, Defending Life: Proven Strategies for a Pro-Life American. Once the bill is written, and AUL will provide lawyers to help, it’s just a matter of getting it into the hands of a pro-life elected official, in a state friendly to anti-abortion measures, to move it through the legislature. Defending Life just happens to rate the states friendliest, and not so friendly, to anti-abortion legislature. AUL under Charmaine Yoest put together the report, The Case for Investigating Planned Parenthood, which reads a lot like my divorce papers wherein my ex-husband described my daily Buddhist chanting as “strange rites and rituals involving loud noises and loathsome odors.” Along with accusing Planned Parenthood of misusing federal funds, which is impossible as Planned Parenthood is audited every year due to the Hyde Amendment, the report accuses the organization of “assisting those engaged in prostitution or sex trafficking,” “failure to report criminal child sexual abuse,” “willingness to provide women with inaccurate and misleading information,” and “willingness to refer to substandard clinics.” It also accuses Planned Parenthood and its affiliates of plotting to defeat common sense federal and state laws and legislation meant to protect women and families in order to “enrich their bottom line with attorney fee awards.” The investigation was opened in September 2011, by the vehemently pro-life Cliff Stearns, (R-FL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Having had the honor of working with first responders I already knew who Stearns was; he was the man who decided that the names of the men who for months on end dug for bodies in the toxic wreckage of the World Trade Center and desperately needed medical care as a result, should be checked against all terrorist lists when they applied for aid under the Zadroga Bill. On January 31st, 2012, Susan G. Komen announced that they could no longer fund Planned Parenthood as they were under federal investigation and their new guidelines outlawed funding any organization under state or federal investigation. Keep in mind the investigation began in September of 2011, Komen defunded Planned Parenthood in 2012 so the guidelines had to have been written after the investigation into Planned Parenthood started. The loudly pro-life Karen Handel, who wrote the new guidelines, was hired in April, 2011. That someone so loudly pro-life and openly against Planned Parenthood was hired as a senior vice president responsible for federal and state advocacy efforts speaks volumes to Komen’s receptivity to the pro-life movement. Given Ms. Yoest’s remarks after the defunding, I’m pretty sure the next step of the movement was to align themselves with the “cure,” From an article by Sarah Kliff in the Washington Post, “Yoest says the anti-abortion community is exploring ways to support the group (Komen). Her group (AUL) for the first time will have a team in the D.C. Race for the Cure, called. Team Life. “Yesterday we were looking at Komen’s web site and how we can interact with them,” Yoest says, “I want them to get as much benefit as possible. We’ll have T-shirts and a pasta dinner. I’ve run in a couple of marathons, that’s why I always wanted to be a part of their great work.” Team Life disappeared with the backlash. A married mother of five, a breast cancer survivor, a high-powered career – she testified against Sonia Sotomayor – Charmaine looks like the person you sold doughnuts with to raise money for your child’s class trip and comes across as the kind of reasonable, rational woman you’d believe if she warned you away from the produce at the store on the corner of Elm and Maple, in favor of the produce at the store on Main. Her appearance, her demeanor, her way of answering every question as if she is protecting and empowering women, perfectly masks the true thrust of the pro-life movement namely the harassment, coercion, and intimidation of women and the absolute annihilation of women’s reproductive freedom and choice. Charmaine Yoest is a female face of the moral authority that is Patriarchy. She is a woman against the Tribe of Women. Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools, Katherine Manaan MAWT 1st posted on addicting info 4/16/12  Kristina Roegner, (R-Ohio) a married mother of three, Tea Party candidate and first year state representative was seated on the Hudson City Council when the Republicans discovered and decided to field her as a candidate in the 2010 mid-term elections against democrat Mike Moran. Since her election the soft-spoken Ms. Roegner, who has co-sponsored and been instrumental in the passage of three anti-abortion measures, sponsored HB 298, a measure that would de-fund Planned Parenthood, with Ohio Right to Life and Families First backed Cliff Rosenberger. The Senate counterpart of the bill was sponsored by Kris Jordan. Jordan, who was under investigation for fourth degree misdemeanor domestic violence until his wife dropped the charges, is the only legislator in Ohio to vote against the Jessica Logan Act, the bill designed to protect children from bullying and named after the young girl who took her own life.
With some slick machinations that reek of Charmaine Yoest and AUL, HB 298 was snuck into the state budget to avoid public scrutiny and the word “defund” became “re-prioritize,” the bill passed, and Planned Parenthood is now at the bottom of the barrel for receiving federal monies for health care for low-income and poor women. If I were to hazard a guess where Ohio was planning on steering some of those federal monies I would say to Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Crisis Pregnancy Centers are the pro-life movement’s Planned Parenthood, with scripture and without the choice, and are currently pushing free sonograms. Ms. Roegner’s voting record reads like a template for ALEC’s agenda. She is pro-fracking and opposed an amendment to add an extra layer of environmental protection to Lake Erie. She supported bills for re-districting, limiting collective bargaining, school vouchers, and opting out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. She is a proud signer of the Tax Payer’s Protection Pledge and has an A rating from the NRA for supporting the bill to authorize a concealed and carry licensee to possess a firearm in a liquor permit premise, providing said licensee is not drinking, and to openly carry a handgun in a car, rather than say in the glove compartment. In case you’ve been living under a rock the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) promotes a wide range of profit geared “model legislation” of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation. ALEC’s agenda includes, but is not limited to, gutting the rights and protections of workers (limited collective bargaining) privatizing and weakening the public school system, (school vouchers), eroding regulations and environmental laws (opposing environmental protection for Lake Erie) providing business cuts and corporate welfare (the Tax Payers Protection Pledge) undoing health care reform (opting out of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and permitting greater corporate influence in elections (redistricting). In order to draft and promote their “model legislation” ALEC operates Task forces that bring together Republican legislators and representatives from corporations. Kristina Roegner is an ALEC Education Task Force Member. Cliff Rosenberger is an ALEC Telecommunications and Information Technology Task Force Member. Kris Jordan is an ALEC Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force Member. In the past ten years ALEC has spent $9.3 million on the state; thirty-three bills were introduced in Ohio between January and October, 2011 that were identical to or contained elements of ALEC “model legislation proposals.” Nine of those bills, which contained thirty-three pieces of ALEC legislation, were signed into law. When Charmaine Yoest’s AUL, the legal wing of the pro-life movement, received the coveted Weyrich Award for “Grassroots Organization of the Year” she noted in her acceptance speech that eighty-eight anti-abortion measures introduced in thirty-two states were based on AUL’s “model language.” This is ALEC speak. Paul Weyrich, now dead, God rest his soul and keep it away from ours, founded ALEC in the 1970’s to oppose abortion, ERA, and to support school prayer. One of the men instrumental in ALEC’s early years was John Kasich, the Governor of Ohio, who just signed into law the bill Kristina Roegner sponsored, eviscerating Planned Parenthood and seriously jeopardizing the health care of 100,000 women, men, and children. It’s like playing six degrees of crazy conservatives and I’m barely touching the surface of a web of connections that go on and on and on. Kimberly Yee, the subject of my last post, is an ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force Member. Cynthia Lumis (R–Wy), who a colleague of mine recently wrote about, is an ALEC member. Debbie Lesko (R-Ar), who said that women should be made to watch their abortion, is an ALEC state chairman. Jan Brewer was the featured speaker at the ALEC annual State & National Policy Summit in Phoenix. Rick Perry is an ALEC member. Fifty of the ninety legislators in Arizona are ALEC members, eight-two Texas legislators are ALEC members, thirty-six Ohio legislators are ALEC members, and the list goes on. It’s pretty damn clear that the more ALEC legislators there are in any given state legislature, or the House, the more legislation there is against abortion and women. The fact of the matter is the women I’ve been writing about, the so-called softer gentler face of the pro-live movement, are an integral part and intrinsic to the success of a conservative agenda that reaches far beyond women’s rights and the freedom to choose. They are part of a movement that would turn the country into a kind of feudal system run for profit by patriarchy and their God, and that is not only a crime against the tribe of women it is a crime against humanity. The backlash has started but the damage has been done and it is going to take time, pit-bull persistence, and a refusal to be easily mollified by shiny objects to undo. Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools. Katherine Manaan MAWT (1st posted addicinginfo.org 4/22/12)  When I read a few weeks ago that Planned Parenthood suspected yet another sting was going on I wondered what that lying viper Lila Rose and her anti-abortion group Live Action were up to now. The last hoax of a sting led by Rose was part of the AUL report that would become the grounds for opening up a Congressional Investigation into Planned Parenthood. That would be the investigation Susan G. Komen would use as the excuse for defunding Planned Parenthood.
It’s no coincidence that Rose’s Live Action latest video was released to coincide with the Prenatal Discrimination Act up for a vote on the floor of Congress tomorrow, Wednesday, 5/30/12. This is simply the next move in the war against women’s rights. The video claims that, “the search-and-destroy targeting of baby girls through prenatal testing and abortion is a pandemic that is spreading across the globe. Research proves that sex-selective abortion has now come to America. The abortion industry, led by Planned Parenthood, is a willing participant.” According to NARAL, the Prenatal Discrimination Act bill would, “subject a doctor to five years in prison for failing to determine if sex is a factor in a woman’s decision to choose an abortion,” and “threaten any medical professional who does not report even a suspected case of sex selection.” Here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0pdhjl2XDY Sex selective Abortion? Seriously? There is no issue with sex selective abortion in this country but in China it is a huge issue because of China’s One Child Policy. It is as much an issue in Taiwan, India, Korea, and Pakistan. Enter the right wing Susan B. Anthony List and their Charlotte Lozier Institute, which is the anti-choice movement’s Guttmacher. According to a Lozier Institute Poll, 80% of the respondents would support banning sex selective abortion. This was clearly an angle that needed to be played, ergo yet another transparently deceptive Lila Rose, scary music, video implying Planned Parenthood is pushing sex selective abortion, when it does no such thing. I watched the video and clearly the counselor is not pressuring the young woman, who claims to want an abortion if the baby is a girl, to have an abortion. The counselor is warm, helpful, and answers the young woman’s questions non-judgmentally. My heart sank for her as I watched because she was so nice and doing everything she possibly could to help, and had absolutely no idea she was being played or that she might be doing something wrong. I don’t know what the standard Planned Parenthood procedure is, I understand the counselor in question has been fired, but it looks to me like she was guilty of a compassionate heart and a huge desire to help another woman. As for explaining the ins and outs of Medicaid, I have heard the same conversation between friends on the DeCamp bus going into the city, in the locker room at the gym, in the kitchen of a restaurant I once managed, and between nurses with whom I periodically work. The insurance game is a game that people play that we wouldn’t have to play if we had an effective single payer system. As for the Prenatal Discrimination Bill, which is being promoted as a means to stop sex selective abortions, what’s it’s really about is legislating at the federal level the reasons why a woman would not be allowed to legally terminate her pregnancy. AUL is the legal wing of the anti-choice movement and writes all anti-choice legislation. According to AUL’s 2012 Defending Life that is going to be the focus of their legislation this year, new laws at the state and federal level, to legislate the reasons underlying a woman’s decision to get an abortion. Charmaine Yoest, President and CEO of AUL, calls Lila Rose a modern day Upton Sinclair, a female muckraker connecting the dots between the slaughter houses of Chicago in the early 1900’s and modern day abortion. I can think of a lot of things I’d like to call Lila Rose, muckracker isn’t one of them. Blindly ambitious, self-righteous, a woman who has no problem fabricating reality to suit her needs and goals, Ms. Rose is a female mirror image of her friend James O’Keefe, and like O’Keefe, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, Mitch O’Connell, and Eric Cantor, Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute. The Leadership Institute is the Mothership of Dominionism; Lila Rose is its Crown Princess. Please sign the petition to stop the passage of The Prenatal Discrimination Act. https://secure.prochoiceamerica.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=5291 From my heart to yours. Live loud, love fierce and suffer no fools, Katherine Manaan MAWT The Lies of Lila Rose was an editors pick at Open Salon THE BILL WAS DEFEATED IN THE HOUSE MAY 31ST, 2012  Republican Representative Kimberly Yee, the sponsor of HB 2036, is the first Asian American woman to serve in the Arizona State Legislation. She was originally appointed by the Maricopa County Board to replace Republican Representative Doug Quellan, who was removed from office in August 2010 for violating Clean Election Limits. The pro-life, pro-guns, pro-privatized health-care, Yee was recommended to the Maricopa County Board by none other than Governor Janice Brewer. At the time Yee was working as the communications director for the Arizona State Treasurer’s Office, the frosting on the cake of a work resume that included serving in Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger’s administration and working in California Governor Pete Wilson’s office.
The Chairman of strongly Republican Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to whom Brewer addressed Yee’s letter of recommendation was Don Stapley. Stapley is a real estate developer whose loan deal(s) with Silver State Banking have been linked to unsafe and unsound banking practices but the dealings are so convoluted the FDIC is having a hell of time making their case stick. Vice Chairman under Don Stapley was Fulton Brock, whose now ex-wife, the devoutly Morman Susan, was convicted of sexually molesting a fourteen-year old teenage boy and is currently serving a fifteen year prison sentence. Two months after his wife was arrested, Brock’s twenty-two year old daughter was arrested for molesting the same boy. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to ten years of probation with one year of deferred jail time. This is the Republican pro-life, pro-family pool out which Kimberly Yee crawled. As point person for the right of right, right wing Arizona Center for Public Policy Ms. Yee sponsored the horrific HB 2838, which would have banned abortions after twenty weeks. Due to the testimony and overwhelming response (phone calls, emails, petitions) against the bill from women across the country, it was pulled from the Arizona House Health Committee. The fact that Ms. Yee chose to then employ a “strike all amendment,” a political sleigh of hand to resurrect the bill, speaks to the evil genius of the willing and ambitious puppet’s puppeteers. The point of a “strike all,” is to completely remake a bill under the shadow of darkness without the pesky inconvenience of committee hearings and public scrutiny. HB 2036 originally had something to do with regulations in the Attorney General’s office and had already passed the house and was in the Senate. Ms. Yee removed or “struck” all the language of the original bill that was HB 2036 and replaced or “amended” it with new language, namely the language of HB 2838. Now, if a “strike all amendment” is adopted by the chamber in which it was proposed, the new language in the “strike-all” becomes the language in the bill, which is exactly what happened. This is how HB 2838 became HB 2036. As per the workings of the “strike all amendment,” the amended bill, in this case HB 2036, is then returned to the chamber where it originated to be voted upon. HB 2036 rendering a woman’s legal right to an abortion null and void after a gestation period of twenty weeks, passed with a strong majority in both the house and the senate and was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer, April 12th, 2012. Ms Yee’s response, “I want to thank Governor Brewer for signing the Women’s Health and Safety Act. This vital bill strengthens Arizona’s laws protecting the health and safety of women and recognized the precious life of the pre-born baby.” Women’s health and safety? Cleary Ms. Yee, yet another woman’s face on the moral right of Patriarchy, has been reading the Charmaine Yoest handbook. Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools. Kat 1st posted addictinginfo. org 4/16/12 |
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