Women with Opinions

Maya Angelou's for Hillary

    Take a listen to poet Maya Angelou and hear why she wants Hillary to be our next president:

Sparks Fly Over Kennedy Endorsement

    Like a lot of us, Marcia Pappas, the NY State NOW president, is teed off with Ted Kennedy for endorsing Barack Obama, and she issued a scathing press release, going up one side of Teddy and down the other.  Hillary took things more in stride,  reaching out to shake Kennedy's hand and even smiling at him last night at the Bush State of the Union Address.   Atta girl, Hillary!  Be a good sport.

Speaking of Cutthroat Elections

    In case you missed this gem, it's been playing on Slate.com.  If you saw the Matthew Broderick/Reese Witherspoon movie "Election," based on the Tom Perrotta novel,  you may appreciate it more.  Perrotta, by the way, wrote "The Abstinence Teacher," which is also headed for the Golden Screen.

Clinton's Reproductive Health Care Agenda

If you don't know Clinton's stand on reproductive rights - it's 100% good - then read her news release On Anniversary of Roe, Clinton Announces Agenda for Reproductive Health Care.

Obama also issued a press statement on the anniversary of Roe v Wade, read it here.

Contrast the two statements. I know that both candidates are pro-choice. But look at the details in Clinton's press release compared to Obama's press release.

This is just one reason why I'm supporting Hillary.

Who Says Family Planning Isn't Funny?

    It's January 22, the thirty-fifth anniversary of Roe v Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.   Carol Love, president and CEO of the local Planned Parenthood  and Joann Smith,president and CEO of Family Planning Advocates of NY State, have an excellent Speaking Out piece in the Democrat and Chronicle this morning explaining the importance of enacting Gov. Eliot Spitzer's bill to update NY State's antiquated abortion laws.

    First order of business:  We must convince anti-choice legislators such as Senators Joseph Robach and James Alesi that it is in their best interests to stop opposing this bill.

Who's Sorry Now?

     Anyone familiar with the MSNBC show "Hardball" is no doubt  keenly aware of host Chris Matthews' penchant for misogynistic put downs of women in general and Hillary Clinton in particular.   Matthews' hate-laced comments about Hillary and other women  have been well documented by Media  Matters and other watchdog groups. 

    Well, the day after the New Hampshire primary, Matthews went a step too far.  That was when he made this   outrageous statement about Hillary:

    "The reason she's a U.S. Senator, the reason she's a candidate for President, the reason she may be a front-runner, is her husband messed around. That's how she got to be Senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn't win it on the merits..."

 

Quackery & Junk Medicine: The Women's Health Collaborative Peddles Both

      Who is Suzanne Topping, and why is State Senator Joseph Robach cozying up to her?  Topping, who is pictured to the far right of Robach in his latest mailing to constituents, is the prime mover behind a local anti-abortion group which calls itself the "Women's Health Collaborative" (WHC).

     Although it claims its mission is to educate women about their health choices, in reality, the WHC  is akin to the fake abortion clinics which lure unsuspecting women in with false advertising, then use deceptive methods to try and talk them out of having an abortion.

     The caliber of educational materials distributed by the WHC is questionable at best.  For example, on its website is posted a research study published in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPandS) purporting to show that abortion causes cancer, a claim that has been rejected by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and the mainstream scientific community.

     Further investigation reveals that the JPandS has been listed as "an untrustworthy, non-recommended periodical" by Quackwatch, the nonprofit corporation which combats health-related frauds, myths, fads and fallacies.  The JPandS is not listed in the major literature databases of MEDLINE/PubMed nor the Web of Science.  The World Health Organization has criticized research published in the journal.

     The JPandS once published an article arguing that HIV does not cause AIDS and another criticizing humanists for conspiring to replace creationism with evolution.

No comment

         Barack Obama, it seems, is a fan of rap music.  According to today's New York Post, when Obama won the Iowa caucus on January 3, he and his wife Michelle "strolled triumphantly into his victory party in Des Moines" with  Jay-Z's "99 Problems" blaring in the background.  Here's one  line from that little ditty: 

                  "I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one."

    According to the Post, this set some to wondering whether the choice of music was a not-so-subtle dig at Obama's strongest opponent.   

 

Hillary: Ageism & Sexism

Lenore Skenazy (a columnist) wrote:
" ... in a way, says Faye Wattleton, president of the Center for the Advancement of Women, "'(Sen. Barack) Obama is giving people an excuse not to vote for Hillary.'

"Yes, they're voting for change. But Hillary's voters are voting to change the isms America loves to ignore: Ageism. Sexism. Anti-older-womenism."

--January 12, 2008, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle

Age and Obama & Clinton

Barack Obama is 46, 47 ... somewhere around there.  Hillary Clinton is 60. Isn't this another example of how women still have to wait until they are older to fulfill their dreams? destiny? Women work their way up in politics -- getting their husband elected and then finally taking their turn. While men, serve a couple of years in the Senate and then runs for the White House. Barack may indeed be a good president. But I do want people to stop pilling on Hillary that she is too old and she can't tap the youth vote. We do need younger women running. But until they start, let's not give Hillary a hard time.

She won New Hampshire last night. Whew!