The Republican party platform has a strict anti-abortion policy that has been pushed for years by social conservatives and embraced the Bush Administration.
The "Maverick" John McCain was in favor of exceptions to this policy for rape, incest, and the mother's life.
Far right conservatives (the Religious Right) want to maintain the hardline policy, taking away all authority of a woman over her own body and placing it in the hands of those who are "pro-life" when that life is in the womb, but couldn't care less after it is born.
Assuredly, the new McCain will bow down before his "spiritual masters" once again in an effort to maintain the Republican Party's extremely fragile coalition.
McCain Poised to Flip on GOP Abortion PlatformSen. John McCain, R-Ariz., faces enormous pressure from social conservatives to ignore his repeated commitment to change the GOP's platform on abortion.
"If he were to change the party platform," to account for exceptions such as rape, incest or risk to the mother's life, "I think that would be political suicide," said Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council, to ABC News. "I think he would be aborting his own campaign because that is such a critical issue to so many Republican voters and the Republican brand is already in trouble."
A senior Republican close to McCain told ABC News that building a more inclusive GOP is a top priority for the Arizona senator.
But this adviser does not see changing the party platform to include exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother as necessary for achieving that vision.
Watch Bush, McCain, and Keyes in 2000 debating abortion.
It is indeed puzzling that so many Republican members of Ohio's congressional delegation voted no on H.R. 1113, “Celebrating the role of mothers in the United States and supporting the goals and ideals of Mother's Day” (full warm and fuzzy text here).
...until you consider the origins of Mother's Day.
Julia Ward Howe, who penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic, also authored a mothers' Declaration calling on women to oppose war, and worked to get recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. Says Code Pink: "Were she alive today, Julia probably would have told her kids to dispense with the roses and chocolates, and instead join her in an anti-war rally. Yes, Julia Ward Howe was a peacenik."
[Howe] saw some of the worst effects of the [civil] war -- not only the death and disease which killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil War, the economic crises that followed the war, the restructuring of the economies of both North and South.In 1870, Julia Ward Howe took on a new issue and a new cause….She called in 1870 for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a Declaration, hoping to gather together women in a congress of action.
Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace, but her effort was carried on by Anna Jarvis, who had organized women during the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and then toward reconciliation of Union and Confederate neighbors.
Jarvis’ daughter, of the same name, then took up the campaign for Mother’s Day. After the custom spread to 45 states, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day in 1914.
Julia Ward Howe's Mothers' Declaration:
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.
Maybe Pryce, Schmidt, Tiberi, Chabot, Boehner, Regula, LaTourette, Hobson, and Turner have a thing against moms. But YOU can make this Mother's Day a Mother's Day For Peace.
Help CodePink help Iraqi refugee moms here.
Send a MomsRising Mother's Day card and tell the presidential candidates to fight for family-friendly policies. here.
Oh and don't forget to call the Congressional Switchboard at 1-800-839-5276 to give the above members of Congress a piece of your mind about H.R. 1113.
Do you have another suggestion for honoring Julia Ward Howe's Mothers' Declaration? Are you a mom working for peace? Leave a comment below.
The words "Extra Judicial Procedures","Extraordinary Rendition," the loss of our Habeas Corpus and Magna Carta expectations were enabled by multiple passages of The American Patriot Act.
The alledged victims of the alledged sexual harrassment are adults who can figure out on their own that The Ohio Civil Rights Commission is the agency available - should THEY wish to avail themselves of the legal system without a lynchmob mentality.
On April 3, 2008 several news stories broke centering on a serious fine imposed by The Ohio Elections Commission on David Brennan, a Charter school corporate heavy, known as The White Hat Managment. The fine imposed was to the tune of $5.2 million dollars. Jennifer Brunner AND Mark Dann AND The Ohio Election Commission have been credited with identifying the sleazy money problem in August of 2007. Mark Dann has taken on other well - heeled Charter schools that have devasted our public monies and our children. The above heavy, David Brennan can be found on the list of G.W. Bush campaign contributors at one of the following levels: "Bush Pioneers" or "Bush Rangers." Sorry I can't recall which category Brennan falls under. Please remember that fine can be appealed by David Brenner and his army of attorneys.
Parasitic subprime lenders that plunge our college kids into wallet crushing debt. Mark Dann was on them like a pit bull. I'm positive they wouldn't miss his fangs.
Pathological subprime lenders that are "partying hardily" in spirit in the rubble of our foreclosed homes. They also desire Mark Dann to be gone.
Payday Lenders as shown by their pathetic protests with their hapless victims supporting their antics - I guarantee there will be vile celebrations of the worst kind, should Mark Dann leave office or be put out of office.
The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati would probably want a national holiday in celebration of the day should Mark Dann leaving office or being put out of office. Mark Dann put in many hours of grueling work negotiating and legitimizing the departure of The Christ Hospital from the clutches of The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati.
Casinos - Mark Dann has had a critical role to play in nailing the criminals who lead "Coingate." Do we really think that the Native American casino owners who were burned financially by compadres of Bob Ney, one of the creators of The Help America Vote Act want to rehire Jack Abramhoff or his associates? What about the victims of Coingate who were devastated by the pillaging of The Bureau Of The Workers' Compensation Fund? If Mark Dann leaves for any reason - I'm fairly certain it's "open season" on us little people.
How many dedicated public servants are we prepared to give up and write off like Don Siegelman and Elliot Spitzer?
Just remember - Big Business doesn't put food on the table, doesn't provide basic innoculations and other medical care nor provides quality education for those of us struggling to find daily busfare. Big Business doesn't provide hand - counted Election Ballots.
Neither do Superdelegates, Delegates, The Green Party, The Democratic Party, The Republicans nor Independent Candidates.
Big Business guarantees that our Vice - President and President and others won't be spending their twilight years as residents of The Hague. Only Impeachment Proceedings for our Vice - President and our President will create an atmosphere of hope and TRUST that our global trading partners and others need so we can all prosper.
Not only do we need to retain Mark Dann, but we need to STEP BACK AND LET LADY JUSTICE DO WHAT SHE DOES BEST.
Mark Dann requires our appreciation and gratitude in order to assist us, the citizens of Ohio in our fight against hopelessness. Mark Dann, if you read this - please stay right where you are and continue your activism.
Jane Schiff,
May 8, 2008
Welcome to Columbus and a hat tip for helping to organize the Justice Revival this week which is focused on issues of poverty.
You stated that the "highest levels" of the U.S. govenment have instituted a torture program during a recent local public radio program. You also said that you oppose torture and the organization that you lead, Sojourners, is a sponsor of NRCAT, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.
However, it was disappointing that you did not mention that the Constitution is worth being defended by holding elected and appointed officials accountable for implementing torture policies. Rev. Wallis, do you believe we are a nation of laws or a nation of persons? It's true that the current administration is scheduled to leave office in less than a year. But, what will be the message to future administrations if those who have implemented torture policies are given "get-out-of-jail-free" cards?
Read More »Today, Tuesday, 4/1/08 at 11:40 a.m. - "Karen" from the Ohio Department of Public Safety returned a call from me. Her number is (513) 771 - 1177. "Karen" said that she and the other employees do not use their last names. I informed her that I want BMV to correct my FORMER address in their data base that they had auto - entered erroneously. I accidentally discovered this while providing my new current Ohio Driver's License to the Hamilton County, Ohio Board of Elections. "Karen" asked me why it bothered me, since I cast a regular ballot. My whys right now, are subjects for possibly future blogs. "Karen" said that as far as she is concerned, the only way to correct the auto - entered former address in the BMV data base is to purchase ANOTHER new license. She said that I could try calling a person named "George" - remember - no last names for employees of The Department of Public Safety. She said I should try "George" on Thursday, 4/3/08 at (513) 742 - 7516. "Karen" also confirmed that when one renews an Ohio Driver's License, one is automatically registered to vote, but is not informed of that. She said that the law requires the BMV to register people to vote She also stated that if one would want to register to vote at the Ohio BMV, one would have to REQUEST an Ohio Voter Registration Card from that BMV.
Thought I should mention that I helped conduct citizen exit polls for Project Vote Count. Ohio Election Justice Campaign which I participate in was looking for takers. I witnessed people who had been forced to vote Provisionally about to leave without being given the followup hotline toll - free phone number to call to see if their votes counted. I walked with them back to their precinct tables so they could request those hotline papers.
More tomorrow.
"Any time you go through a crucifixion experience … eventually they have to lift you up," said the Rev. Otis Moss III, who did not shy away from the controversy surrounding his predecessor at Trinity United Church of Christ, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.
I venture to say that I am not the only voter that believes that this church is doing Obama no favor by making an analogy of itself to Christ on the most holy of Christian holidays in the Church calendar. To call the criticisms of Rev. Wright a crucifixion is not only in bad taste, but is inflammatory.
Do you think that because Obama did not attend the Easter service that he does not have to respond to this controversy?
New York Times Sunday Magazine:
NYT: As a prominent evangelical pastor based in San Antonio, you were recently catapulted into national controversy when you endorsed Senator John McCain for president. Is it true that McCain actively sought your endorsement?
Hagee: It’s true that McCain’s campaign sought my endorsement.
Countdown: Hate Talk Express
NYT: How did you feel when critics called you a Catholic-basher and said McCain should reject your endorsement?
Hagee: My statements regarding the Catholic Church have been grossly mischaracterized. I never called the Catholic Church “the anti-Christ” or a “false cult system.” I was referring to those Christians who ignore the Gospels.
John Hagee Preaches Anticatholicism
NYT: What about your observation in a recent book that “most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews”?
Hagee: What I was trying to express was the fact that Christian anti-Semitism — both Catholic and Protestant — contributed to an environment in which Nazi racial anti-Semitism could flourish.
NYT; Let’s talk about your much-quoted comment that Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for a gay rights parade in New Orleans .
Hagee: We’re not going down there. That’s so far off-base it would take us 33 pages to go through that, and it’s not worth going through.
Meet Team McCain: Pastor John Hagee
Activists Gather At Theaters In 25 Cities For Free Simulcast To Put Church-State Separation On National Agenda During 2008 Election
Democracy Not Theocracy:
Decisions about religion and spirituality are deeply personal. The government’s only role in these matters is to protect individual choice. That’s what separation of church and state and religious liberty are all about. These values protect the rights of believers and non-believers alike to make personal, private choices about faith. Sometimes we take these inherent rights for granted, but we shouldn’t. Safeguarding separation of church and state and protecting religious liberty are the foundation stones upon which our country was built.
If government is allowed to prefer one religious viewpoint over another or favor people of faith over non-believers, then we are sacrificing our heritage of freedom. Some pressure groups want to change federal tax law and allow houses of worship to endorse or oppose political candidates using tax-exempt donations.
But this is an unwise proposal that would be deeply divisive in a nation as diverse as America. It would harm our democracy and jeopardize the integrity of our religious organizations. Many houses of worship would be torn apart over partisan politics. We must not politicize our houses of worship. Certainly, we all hold different beliefs, but it is our first freedom -- to privately choose our own beliefs -- that is our most important American value.
Here's the evidence- first the neo-nazi's words followed directly by 'Liberty Belle's' Xerox copies, which are all in caps:
McCain's father-in-law got his start as a top henchman for Kemper Marley, who, for 40 years until his death in 1990 at age 84, was the undisputed behind-the-scenes political boss of Arizona. But Marley was much more than a machine politician. In fact, he was also the Lansky crime syndicate's top man in Arizona.
JIM HENSLEY GOT HIS START AS A HENCHMEN FOR KEMPER MARLEY, WHICH WAS THE BEHIND THE SCENES (SIC) POLITIAL (SIC) BOSS AND LANSKY CRIME FAMILY'S TOP MAN OF (SIC) ARIZONA.
In 1948, 52 of Marley's employees (including Jim Hensley) went to jail for federal liquor violations...
MARLEY BUILT UP A LIQUOR DISTRIBUTION MONOPOLY IN ARIZONA, BUT IN 1948, 52 EMPLOYEES OF MARLEY'S WENT TO JAIL FOR FEDERAL LIQUOR VIOLATIONS, INCLUDING JIM HENSLEY.
The story in Arizona is that Hensley took the fall for Marley and, upon his release from prison, Marley paid back Hensley's loyalty by setting him up in the beer distribution business. That beer company today, said to be worth $200 million, is what largely financed John McCain's political career.
SOME PEOPLE SAY THAT FOR PAYMENT FOR HIS LOYALTY, KEMPER MARLEY SET HIM UP IN THE BEER DISTRIBUTION BUSINESS, WHICH IS NOW WORTH $200 MILLION AND HAS HELPED TO FINANCE MCCAIN'S POLITICAL CAREER.
While John McCain himself cannot be held personally responsible for the sins of his father-in-law, the fact is that this "reformer" owes his political and financial fortunes to the good graces of the biggest names in organized crime. Today, the Las Vegas gambling industry is among McCain's primary financial benefactors.
THE LAS VEGAS GAMBLING INDUSTRY IS ALSO AMONG MCCAIN'S PRIMARY FINANCIAL BACKERS. OF COURSE, JOHN MCCAIN HIMSELF CAN NOT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE SINS OF HIS FATHER-IN-LAW, BUT THE FACT IS, THAT THIS 'REFORMER' OWES HIS POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL FORTUNES TO SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN ORGANIZED CRIME.
You may read the original Michael Collins Piper piece HERE at the American Free Press or on the website of his close comrade, racist DAVID DUKE
WARNING: these sites exhibit antisemitic and racist 'discourse' but (IMO) people NEED to be aware of the sinister forces gnawing at the body politic. I also highly reccommend the respected Southern Poverty Law Center's 'INTELLIGENCE REPORT' for more information.
The next post in this series looks at the established history of promoting antisemites, neo-nazis and their ilk by Columbus 911 'Truth' activists despite efforts by concerned individuals to caution them not to do so.
The latest issue of 'Vanity Fair' has an exposure
of the Bush administration orchestration of the
recent Hamas versus Fatah civil strife.
The article is available online.
An audio interview with author, David Rose, and copies of incriminating
documents he uncovered are available as well.
'Vanity Fair's' introduction:
After failing to anticipate Hamas's victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, David Rose reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.
It covers her life as a child growing up during the overthrow of the C.I.A. installed Shah Reza Palavi dictatorship to the establishment of a socially conservative theocratic regime and the horrific Iran-Iraq war and beyond. Sardonic and very powerful... Now at the Drexel East- through 3/20.
Click HERE for showtimes,
M. Satrapi
My Other Blogs
Literally anything he writes is worth examining and some of his work, such as the following, can help the serious reader see the world from a valuable and startling new perspective.
This essay (since expanded into a small volume: Verso; 2007, 256 pp) first appeared in New Left Review
whose online archives are well worth perusing.
The essay, including the bibliography, which I deleted for this post, is currently available at The Black Commentator
New Left Review introduced it as a 'Future history of the Third World's post-industrial megacities. A billion-strong global proletariat ejected from the formal economy, with Islam and Pentecostalism as songs of the dispossessed.
Planet of Slums, Mike Davis. 2004
Sometime in the next year, a woman will give birth in the Lagos slum of Ajegunle, a young man will flee his village in west Java for the bright lights of Jakarta, or a farmer will move his impoverished family into one of Lima's innumerable pueblos jovenes. The exact event is unimportant and it will pass entirely unnoticed. Nonetheless it will constitute a watershed in human history. For the first time the urban population of the earth will outnumber the rural. Indeed, given the imprecisions of Third World censuses, this epochal transition may already have occurred. Read More »
Obama is ready to be the next President of the United States:
In the advertisement, a phone rings incessantly as video shows children asleep. "Your vote will decide who answers the call," a narrator says. "Whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military, someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world. It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?"
But the truth is that:
"It was almost 2 a.m. on October 11, 2002, and that's when we were called on to vote as to whether to authorize President Bush to invade Iraq,", Senator Durbin said in the interview on Sunday!
In true turn coat Obama form, he drew back from being identified with the only Christian minister he has had (Rev. Wright) as soon as he announced his presidency. And in rebuttal of his father's Muslim roots, recently countered with the following: Obama wrote in a Time magazine piece posted online on October 16, 2006, that "although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition."; (According to other bio information, his father (who had four "wives" of whom the mother of "Barry"(now known as Barack) was #2, with the sticky issue that his father was still married to #1 when he took up with her) was an active Muslim until he became an "atheist" later in life. Note finally that his mother had a record of Communist leaning and that Obama (above quote) now disclaiming his father's Muslim faith, says instead his father came to view ALL religions as "superstitions". So where did all this "faith" come from? Read More »
My husband and myself obtained new Ohio Drivers' Licenses (although we had current licenses, we had moved precincts) at the BMV on Thursday, January 24, 2008, to avoid having to cast Provisional Ballots. On Friday, January 25, 2008 we updated our voter registration cards in person at The Hamilton County Ohio Board of Elections to avoid having to cast Provisional Ballots. We were given the Acknowledgement Notices with the new precinct info in person at The Hamilton County Ohio Board of Election. In the past, we had received those types of cards by mail, despite registering also in times past, in person at The Hamilton County Ohio Board of Elections.
Monday, February 11, 2008
A Second Acknowledgement Notice arrived in our mail for my husband with a Barcode on it. I didn't get a Second Acknowledgement Notice. I immediately contacted Ann Strasser (513) 632 - 7036 at The Hamilton County Ohio Board of Elections to find out why the notice arrived for him but not for me. Ann and I spoke from 5:45 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Ann told me that she would mail those "Voter Registration Cards that were AUTO - FILLED OUT" that again - she insisted that we had signed. Ann examined our data further and determined the following:
My husband and I were serviced by two different persons at the BOE because we made separate trips on the same day. Ann said that during reconciliation of data, Question #24 was erroneously answered by the typist doing the reconciliation for my husband. In a nutshell, the question is phrased "Send Duplicate Notice?" The typist who was reconciling my husband's data INCORRECTLY typed "YES" IN ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION. Apparently, the person who typed the answer to Question #24 on my data answered the question "Send Duplicate Notice?" CORRECTLY by typing "No." Ann said I won't be getting a second card.
Today - Wednesday, February 13, 2008:
We received these documents from Ann Strasser at The Hamilton County Ohio Board of Elections.
These documents are disturbing. Our signatures and our responses to 2 Voting Inquiry Questions at the top, were used without our knowledge and and consent at The Bureau of Motor Vehicles without revealing that one of the purposes was to register us to vote.
1. Are you a U.S. citizen? YES box NO box
2. Will you be at least 18 years of age on or before the next general election?" YES box NO box
"If you answered NO to either of the questions, do not complete this form."
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CITIZEN IS NOT ASKED IF HE/SHE WANTS TO VOTE.
I am also complaining about the accuracy of MY AUTO - FILLED info. The information intended for my previous address appeared as my current address with an erroneous apartment number during the process of WHAT I THOUGHT WAS JUST A DRIVER'S LICENSE RENEWAL AND MERGING OF DATA. I told Maria, the clerk to fix it. She said she would but evidently failed to do so. I expect all of you to correct this error.
Here is how my PREVIOUS address SHOULD read:
5431 Kenwood Road apt. 208
Cincinnati, Ohio 45227
I'm cognizant of The Real ID Act and all related "benchmarks" requiring the "seamless merging" of The Ohio Secretary of State/The Department of Homeland Security/The Ohio Department of Public Safety/Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
All of you have a responsibility to inform citizens that when they get their Drivers' Licenses renewed that all of your agencies as I itemized have gone far afield re: Homeland Security requirements.
Although I am a Voter Rights activist with The Ohio Election Justice Campaign I feel you have violated all Ohio Citzens' Constitutional Rights NOT TO VOTE IF THEY SO CHOOSE NOT TO VOTE by making people THINK that they are simply renewing Ohio Drivers' Licenses and merging data.
I am not a Jehovah's Witness, but I know some people are. My best guess is that Jehovah's Witnesses expect high levels of Homeland Security like other citizens; but literally sticking license renewal info onto Voter Registration cards with AUTO - FILL and then USING SIGNATURES WITHOUT PERMISSION is UNCONSTITUTIONAL for anybody and interferes with the right of Jehovah's Witnesses to practice their faith by remaining apolitical.
Do not permit: THE OFFICE OF THE OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE/THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY/THE OHIO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY/THE OHIO DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES/THE BOARDS OF ELECTION OF THE STATE OF OHIO TO PARTICIPATE IN ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED IN ANY WAY WITH THE CREATION OF PHONY VOTER REGISTRATION CARDS.
Figure out the software issues - don't take it out on We The People.
I don't believe for one minute that HAVA calls for phony voter registration cards with our signatures TAKEN without our knowledge, informed consent and permission.
I await your responses.
Sincerely,
Jane Schiff
Ohio Election Justice Campaign
The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders' political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs. Certainly the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government's hostility to religion- A quote from Ron Paul
RON PAUL'S FAR RIGHT FOUNDATIONS
What (Ron Paul"s newsletters) reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies, sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are backing--but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and ugliest traditions in American politics.
THE DARK SIDE OF THE 'PAUL PHENOMENON'
Virtually every far-right entity -- neo-Nazis, white supremacists, militias, constitutionalists, Minutemen, nativists, you name it -- that I've been monitoring for the past decade or more is lining up behind Paul. I've checked with other human-rights observers, and they're seeing the same thing. Ron Paul, rather quietly and under the radar, has managed to unite nearly the entire radical right behind him.
Creating human suffering and death by banning condom use isn't just Benedict XVI's idea:
HIV spreads under Bush Africa policy
By ROBYN E. BLUMNER, St. Petersburg Times Perspective Columnist
Published October 12, 2003
Visiting a neighborhood bar or shebeen in Soweto, South Africa a few years back, I noticed a basket of condoms propped on the floor of the tiny restroom. The prophylactics were free, available for the taking - a tangible reminder of safety first.
I often wondered just how many lives that small public service had saved in a country where more than 20 percent of the population is HIV-positive. Hundreds? Thousands?
There is nothing magical about the way to stop a sexually transmitted killer. If a population is not going to abstain from sex - and even many Catholic priests can't seem to accomplish that feat - then protection against transmission is the best defense. But sub-Saharan Africa, home to 30-million of the world's 40-million HIV/AIDS sufferers, is suddenly facing a condom shortage. Family planning clinics from Ethiopia to Swaziland have had their American-donated supplies sharply reduced or cut off; and we can thank our president and his religious right politics for this.
President Bush reinstated the Mexico City Policy, also known as the global gag rule, as one of his first official acts. It was also one of his meanest. The policy bars organizations that receive U.S. international family planning funds from having anything to do with abortion; even uttering the word in counseling is verboten.
Ronald Reagan gets the credit for this political stroke, announced at the 1984 Mexico City Conference on Population. It was a way to spread an antiabortion agenda around the world - delighting the religious right - without doing much political damage at home. Americans notoriously have little interest in what our government does relative to the developing world.
Bill Clinton retracted the policy and Bush resurrected it. Think of it as our culture wars exported.
So how has Bush's Mexico City policy been impacting women in Africa? A new report titled "Access Denied," put out by Population Action International and a few other sponsoring organizations, lays out the harms.
In Kenya, five established clinics have closed; some were the only affordable reproductive health services in the area. One was located in Kisumu, a town with the highest HIV prevalance rates in the country. In Lesotho, where one in every four women suffers from HIV/AIDS, the Lesotho Planned Parenthood Association no longer receives any donated condoms from USAID, the U.S. government agency that doles out family planning money and supplies. During the years 1998 to 2000, the Lesotho group had received 426,000 donated condoms.
In short, thanks to the closure of medical clinics and reductions in supplies wrought by the policy, more Africans will contract HIV, more mothers will transmit it to their babies and more of the population will die. Those tend to be the calculations in places like Lesotho when a lifeline gets snatched back.
USAID is the single largest donor of condoms in the developing world, providing $75-million worth annually, or about a third of all donations. Yet, according to the PAI report, 16 poor countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East have been cut off from USAID condom shipments because their family planning groups are associated with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which refuses to sign the antiabortion pledge.
In another 13 countries, including Ethiopia and Zambia, the nations' leading providers of reproductive health services also no longer receive USAID condom supplies.
"This (gag rule) is an antiabortion policy - why is it affecting family planning supplies?" asks Wendy Turnbull, legislative policy analyst with Population Action International and an author of the report. "(Condoms) can't be used to promote abortion, they're trying to help women avoid abortion."
That is the sad twist in all this. Bush claims to care about stemming the AIDS pandemic in Africa. He was in Africa this summer, eyes welling as AIDS orphans sang America the Beautiful, pledging billions in assistance. And he is certainly antiabortion. This is the man who held back the most promising area of medical science with his nutty stem cell skittishness.
But stopping the supply of condoms to organizations that counsel clients on all legal reproductive health options is leading inexorably to HIV's spread and a rise in unwanted pregnancies and abortions.
Hillary Fyfe, chair of the Family Life Movement of Zambia, which counsels young people on abstinence, reproductive issues and HIV prevention in nine provinces, says the funding cuts have been devastating. There is not a donated condom to be had in the region,"completely nothing," she says, and "when the (young women) fall pregnant they have no place to go. They take a knitting needle and push it down or they go in the bush and dig up a poisonous root and push it down. Half the time they die."
These are the real-life consequences in Bush's war of ideology. The PAI report puts Bush on notice; if changes aren't made we must presume that he cares more about gaining a political edge than African lives.
.....351 days...1 hour....45 minutes.....Can those AIDs sufferers and victims of political policy hang on?
This letter appeared on the Editorial Page of The Columbus Dispatch on Sunday February 3, 2008.
Don't take Oprah's word on ObamaSunday, February 3, 2008 3:10 AM
Oprah Winfrey endorsed Democractic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama on her television show a short time ago. Right away we get the mob mentality and everyone wanted to jump on his bandwagon.I suggest we take a closer look at Obama.
Granted, he is charismatic and articulate. However, he has Islamic roots, and attended school in Islamic Indonesia when his stepfather moved the family there.
Obama says he is a Christian and attends Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Perhaps it would be wise to do a little research and go to the Web site of the church, www.tucc.org.
Personally, I found it a little disturbing. Judge for yourself.
JOHN A. HUGHES
Columbus
The sender of this particular correspondance has raised concerns based on an e mail that was sent to him. That does not bother me. Questioning and rasising concerns helps to open the door of opportunity. In Mr. Hughes case he can use a lesson in Black History and African American Culture as it is actually practiced in the United States.
I welcome the opportunity to provide Mr. Hughes and others with information that will hopefully give a different perspective of our cultural hertiage.
Read More »Today, the Columbus Dispatch decided to print a letter hinting that Barack Obama is not a real Christian and that he is a Muslim. See it for yourself on the link below. E-mail forwards are one thing, but newspapers are supposed to have some integrity. We have to fight back. Call or write the Dispatch and demand an apology.
To write, use letters@dispatch.com
To call, 614-461-5072, Glenn Shelter
For letters, include your name, address and phone number and keep it to under 200 words.
Sample Letter (please put in your own words):
I am absolutely outraged that the Columbus Dispatch printed a letter questioning Barack Obama's Christian faith and hinting that he is a Muslim. As an Obama supporter, we have been fighting this type of scare tactic and smear for a while. I never got too fired up about it, because the ideas were in e-mail forwards that only fools would believe. Somehow, your paper decided to print these lies and propaganda. What ever happened to journalistic integrity? The Dispatch must apologize for printing such a misleading letter. It needs to be in a prominent place in the newspaper, preferrably on the letters page. If you don't, I will cancel my subscription immediately.
-Brian Fulcher
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