July 2006 – Feministe

It Was Good, It Was Bad, I Made An Ass Of Myself

I wish the bags-under-the-eyes look circa 1995 would come back into style because I’m rockin’ it like a mufuh. Even the two cups of coffee, two cans of Dr. Pepper, and the handful of Stackers somebody gave me at work didn’t deter me from trying to sleep through the jet lag at my desk today.* Add the 100 degree heat index and 70% humidity and you’ll find me ready to melt into a great big sticky pile of sweat and exhaustion.

Over the next week or so I hope to write about bits and pieces of the conference in detail (as well as the time I spent with Chris in lovely Pinole, CA), but for now I want to detail the people I met at the conference. Because holy shit. I met a lot of people.

New Tactic: Make the Target of a Smear Prove It’s Not True

Oh, Ohio, You crazy, crazy place:

Here’s a bizarre postscript to the story we brought you last week about the Republican operative who was fired by the Ohio GOP for sending out an email questioning Ted Strickland’s churchgoing record and floating speculation that Strickland and wife are gay.

Ted Strickland is the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor; Ken Blackwell (who’s also the secretary of state and therefore, as he was in 2004, in charge of overseeing the election) is the Republican nominee. Blackwell has been running on the “values” thing.

Now we’re hearing from one Reverend Russell Johnson, a prominent Republican pastor who happens to be the e-mail author’s old boss at the conservative Ohio Restoration Project. Rev. Johnson still isn’t satisfied.

Rev. Johnson is insinuating that if the Stricklands really weren’t gay, why, they’d file a lawsuit and go to court so they could prove it and clear their good name. Until that happens, Johnson says, he’s “withholding judgment” on the Stricklands’ sexuality.

Pam Spaulding has a whole archive on the homophobia in the Ohio GOP’s campaign, which is focused on God, Guns and Gays.” Johnson and Talibangelist Rod Paisley are part of the Patriot Pastors Movement and have been backing Blackwell for years. I had just finished an article in the recent New Yorker about this Unholy Trinity and the way they’re stirring up so-called “values voters” who care more about who’s fucking whom than about social justice — or, for that matter, making sure that black voters are not disenfranchised like they were in 2004, with predominantly black and Democratic districts given far too few voting machines and voter registration forms rejected because they were not printed on a certain kind of card stock that even Blackwell’s office didn’t have.

Check out the smears and allegations and the involvement of good Christian folk in spreading them:

The Ohio Republican Party’s newly hired “social conservative coordinator” e-mailed an undisclosed group of “pro-family friends” this week, offering a 10-point introduction to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland.

His message attacked the church attendance, work ethic, and voting record of Mr. Strickland, a southeast Ohio congressman and ordained Methodist minister. It alleged Mr. Strickland and his wife of nearly 20 years live in different states – and linked to an Internet posting that questions whether Mr. Strickland is gay.

The e-mail’s author, a Christian home school headmaster named Gary Lankford, signed the note with his Ohio Republican Party title below his name. “Pass this information along,” he concluded.

Don’t you love it? This impugning of the commitment to church of a METHODIST MINISTER comes from some nitwit who is too stupid to hide his name and affiliation and who cites Internet rumor that Strickland is gay. Someone was not studying his Karl Rove playbook — Turdblossom knows the secret of a whisper campaign is to be sure that nobody knows for sure the information is coming from you.

Of course, the idea that an ordained minister could be attacked on his churchgoing shows a few things: number one, the contempt that the Christian Right has for liberal denominations; number two, that the Republicans have pretty much locked up the language of values and defined them in the most narrow, hateful way possible; and number three, that maybe someone *is* studying the Karl Rove playbook, at least the sections that deal with taking one of your opponent’s strength and turning it into a weakness.

And it also shows that rumors that candidates are gay still gain a lot of purchase with voters, though how much remains to be seen.

Checking In

Well I see it’s been an interesting few days here at Feministe, with surgeries (hope you’re feeling ok, piny!) and rape apologists and whatnot (in two days, I will be Travelling Alone With Female through Eastern Europe — start the shaming and blaming now, assholes). Anyway, I’m currently winding up my time in Istanbul, and it’s been incredible. It’s a gorgeous city, and I think I’ve walked about 20 miles since I’ve been here — which is good, since I think I’ve also eaten about 30 pounds of food. And man is Turkish food good. Today we spent the morning at the Grand Bazaar, and I treated myself to an early birthday present — a hand-embroidered bedspread and pillowcases (bedspread is red, pink, orange and gold, two of the pillowcases are the same, and two are more purple — I will post pictures at some point). I’ve been looking for something like this for my bed for a while, so I was excited. I also couldn’t resist three hand-made glass lamps (one larger red one, one small orange one, and one small gold one). And a mother-of-pearl ring. But everything else I bought was for other people, I swear.

Ok, except for that one pair of earrings. But that’s all!

Yesterday we went to a Turkish bath, which was quite an experience. They scrubbed off an entire layer of my skin, and I think I’m about five shades paler, but it felt great. Afte the scrub was an oil massage, and we walked out of there ready to fry — we must have looked like filthy greaseballs to everyone we passed, but it was definitely worth it. We spent the rest of the afternoon in a nargileh cafe, talking international politics with the Turkish owner who had a great love for puns and funny English sayings (his favorite, he said, is “She’s as beautiful as a tractor”). Then the evening was spent on a ferry, cruising down the Bosphorus over to the Asian side of Istanbul and back again.

Not sure what the plan for tomorrow is, but we’re considering taking a day trip to the Black Sea. And the day after tomorrow, I depart for Belgrade, where I will be possibly meeting some relatives. I’ll also be the first person in my family to set foot in Serbia since my grandpa left before WWII. Hopefully I won’t tarnish the family name.

However, tomorrow I’ll also be doing a guest post for the Rude Pundit. And I’m joining an all-star cast, so it should be good. I’m actually working on the post now, since tomorrow I think I’ll be out of the city (yes, blog-cheating… shhh…), so hopefully it’ll fulfill all of your wildest dreams.

There have been lots of post-worthy observations and experiences here, so I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get online sometime in the next week and actually write something substantial. Until then, enjoy yourselves! And as always, if you want a postcard from your blogger, feel free to email me your address and I promise I’ll send you one.

South Dakotans Not So Hot On Abortion Ban

Well, looky here. A statewide poll conducted by the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader and KELO-TV of Sioux Falls shows that more South Dakotans than not oppose the ban on abortion that was signed into law earlier this year (but has not taken effect pending the outcome of a referendum this November).

According to the statewide poll, conducted for the Argus Leader and KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, 47 percent of voters polled would vote to reject the ban, compared with 39 percent who would vote to keep it. Another 14 percent were undecided.

Support for the current form of the abortion ban came equally from men and women and matched the statewide 39 percent. The political breakdown showed only 23 percent of Democrats support the proposed law, while 51 percent of Republicans and 43 percent of independents back it.

Gov. Mike Rounds earlier this year signed the ban that the 2006 Legislature passed. It would outlaw all abortions except to save the life of a pregnant woman. Opponents circulated a petition and got enough signatures to prevent the law from taking effect until after a November vote.

However, more of the likely voters surveyed would support a ban if it included rape and incest exceptions:

The poll indicated the ban would have broader overall support if it included an exception for cases involving rape or incest. Those undecided or against the current form of the abortion ban were asked if they would favor the proposed law if it included those exceptions. Statewide, 59 percent said they would support that form of an abortion restriction.

Those voters could be the key to the ban’s fate, said Brad Coker, Mason-Dixon’s managing director.

“It looks like that there’s no exception made for rape and incest seems to be the factor that could sink this,” he said. “That’s the hook the opponents can really build their argument on. If you’re trying to defeat something that’s on the ballot, you have an easier campaign to run to be successful by raising little seeds of doubt.”

Oddly enough, I have a lot more respect for people like this guy who support a total ban (with an exception for the mother’s life) than for those who would ban all abortions except in the case of rape and incest:

Gordon Geick of Sioux Falls, who is voting for the ban, said he’s had his mind made up on the issue for some time.

“Primarily, I think it’s murder,” said Geick, 75. “To start with, I don’t think there’s anything in the U.S. Constitution that gives anybody the right to kill another human being.”

Now, I happen not to agree with Mr. Geick, but at least he’s got some convictions. If you believe that abortion is murder, then you support a ban for any reason other than the mother’s life (because then it would be murder to let her — and most like the fetus as well — die). Why? Because you believe it’s murder, and murder’s wrong no matter how the fetus got there.

However, if you think that abortion allows women to escape the punishment of their loose ways, you support a ban for any reason other than rape and incest. Because if a woman was raped or a victim of incest, you can tell yourself that she didn’t have teh sex for her own sake. That she’s not someone who has to bear the consequences of her actions.

H/T Atrios.

Ted Stevens Would Be Proud

Best shirt ever.

For context, watch this, and for a little more fun, watch this.

Why Do I Bother?

For once, just for once, I wanted to try to have a discussion about a woman getting raped and murdered that DIDN’T devolve into an extended rehash of the same goddamn argument we always seem to have whenever a rape and/or murder of a woman is discussed: Namely, we start out on topic, then someone has to come in and blame the victim (she was drunk! doesn’t she know there were consequences! she was dressed like a hoochie! she was a stripper! she must be lying! what was she doing alone at night? what was she doing trusting a man?) and we’re off to the races.

And inevitably, in all the talk about what the victim did or didn’t do and whether the natural consequence of having a few too many and making some poor parking decisions is to be abducted, raped, murdered and your body left in a dumpster, someone disappears.

And that person is the rapist/murderer.

Why does this man always disappear in these discussions? It’s as if he had no role at all. Even those of us who are feminists and fight victim-blaming tend to, as hexy pointed out, ignore the perp.

What need do we have to make him disappear? Do we not want to think about the fact that regardless of what we do or don’t do, we can’t always know who will harm us or who poses a danger to us? Do we need to believe that by analyzing what the victim did or didn’t do, or did or didn’t have every right to do, we’ll somehow be insulated from what befell her?

Sometimes I wonder why I bother writing about any of these crimes. The same discussion, always heated, always follows. And we never advance the ball.

Updates

Exhasted as hell and stuffed with chicken and waffles. Went to Blogher with no computer and took notes analog. Met bazillions of people, took lots of great notes. Will update after I get home and rest on the mothership.

Also, there are apparently pictures of me everywhere. Although it appears that I willingly posed for these photos, I will have you know they were taken upon threat of death and/or flamewar.

You Just Know It’s Bad When a Nun Takes Planned Parenthood’s Side

Ah, Dawn Eden. Such a special strain of hypocritical religious nutbag you are.

What’s got Dawn in a lather this time?

Seems that an anti-abortion group in Long Island got its abstinence-only education program defunded after the group’s executive director falsely claimed that Planned Parenthood was promoting bestiality:

In a setback for his program to bring together advocates and foes of abortion rights, Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi has rescinded his offer of a county contract to a group whose leader accused another participant of promoting bestiality.

Lorraine Gariboldi, executive director of the Life Center of Long Island in Massapequa, made the comments about Planned Parenthood to Newsday at the county offices in Garden City in February, immediately following a news conference where Suozzi announced grants for eight groups in an effort to cut down on abortions.

Let’s try this again (test)

I’m back from the hospital. I’m a little bit sore, but feeling fine. I posted one update already, but tid disappeared. Hopefully, this will work better. Everything was uneventful. I’m taking Vicodin and trying to get lots of rest. Yesterday I felt great, but I’m starting to feel the bruising now.

I have no idea what my chest looks like, since they zipped me into the Shatner girdle while I was still unconscious. I won’t see it until at least my follow-up, which is in one week. The girdle won’t come off altogether for six weeks. No lifting, stooping, or bending for three weeks/month. (I didn’t know about the latter two, and they’re the most difficult restrictions.)

Thanks for the support and good wishes throughout, everyone.

Humor Break

Things are getting a little intense in comments, so for a little break, a video.

Enjoy.