Open Thread: Christmas Project

18 Comments

1. 

   CabinGirl on December 23, 2005 at 2:00 pm

   “…Roe took from the state lawmakers the authority to make this choice and gave it to the pregnant woman.”

   That just makes my blood run cold.  He thinks legislators should have more right to determine the course of women’s lives than the women themselves.  

   This guy has got to be stopped.  

   • 

     BooMan on December 23, 2005 at 2:04 pm

     Remember, if Arlen doesn’t want Scalito to go to the floor of the Senate and the Democrats on the judiciary committee remain united then Scalito’s nomination is dead.

2. 

   cotterperson on December 23, 2005 at 2:02 pm

   Sign Barbara Boxer’s petition to delay hearings on Alito until AFTER Bush is investigated! I’m sure she’ll use the number of signatures on the Senate floor, as she has done before, especially if we can get a bunch!

   (Sorry for the repetitive posting. Just trying to drum up more signatures for the petition, now at ~48,000. I can’t stand the idea of Alito on the Supreme Court!)

   • 

     BooMan on December 23, 2005 at 2:05 pm

     who is this Senator Murtha?

     • 

       cotterperson on December 23, 2005 at 2:27 pm

       Whoops! Posted my response in the wrong place. See below 😉

       • 

         BooMan on December 23, 2005 at 2:41 pm

         I meant to point out that Mr. Murtha is a representative, not a Senator.

         • 

           cotterperson on December 23, 2005 at 7:51 pm
3. 

   cotterperson on December 23, 2005 at 2:26 pm

   who wants to save lives.

   In an online chat, I asked Wesley Clark what he thought about Murtha’s proposal. He objected to a six-month timetable. Funny, though, Murtha hasn’t really tried to set a timetable, just “as soon as practicable.”

   Somewhere I read speculation that Dems want to wait until after the 2006 elections to leave Iraq so they can’t be blamed for the mess. If that’s true, it’s most disappointing!

4. 

   cotterperson on December 23, 2005 at 2:35 pm

   Alito Defended Officials From Wiretap Suits

   By DONNA CASSATA, Associated Press Writer
   23 minutes ago

   WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito defended the right of government officials to order domestic wiretaps when he worked for the Reagan Justice Department, documents released Friday show.

   He advocated a step by step approach to strengthening the hand of officials in a 1984 memo to the solicitor general. …

   That case ultimately led to a 1985 ruling by the Supreme Court that the attorney general and other high level executive officials could be sued for violating people’s rights, in the name of national security, with such actions as domestic wiretaps. …

   Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the committee, said the latest documents “fill in more blanks and deepen the impression of activism that colors Judge Alito’s career” and raise issues critical to the panel.

   “One of the most important, and one of the most timely, is the issue of unchecked presidential authority and the particular issue of warrantless eavesdropping on the American people,” Leahy said. …

   Another committee Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, released a letter to Alito in which he questioned whether the nominee believes in absolute immunity for the attorney general and other government officials “from suits based on even willful unconstitutional acts.” …

5. 

   BooMan on December 23, 2005 at 3:02 pm

   join the fun.

6. 

   Cedwyn on December 23, 2005 at 3:23 pm

   yer dreamy!

   will you please post the final collection as a comment in this diary:

   http://www.dembloggers.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2005/12/20/225036/05

   i’m doing my damnedest to keep all the alito dirt in one pile.

   : p

7. 

   BooMan on December 23, 2005 at 3:27 pm

   cross-posted.

8. 

   sybil on December 23, 2005 at 3:32 pm

   The kids & I created this image of the ‘flu based on the same idea as the evil eye. People wear images of the evil eye to let the evil eye know that it needn’t bother. So we were hoping to ward off the ‘flu.

   THE FLU

   Here’s wishing everyone a ‘flu free season.

   except for political baddies. A pox on the house of Bush.

9. 

   Disgusted in St Louis on December 23, 2005 at 3:49 pm

   

   click image to enlarge

10. 

    sbj on December 23, 2005 at 4:00 pm

    So finally the portrait of that sick bastard O’Reilly is gone from it’s prominent position on the home page and has been replaced by the mug of the always odious Kay Bailey Hutchison.

    YEEECCCCHHHH!!!

    I thought about writing to Ms. Radnofsy in the hopes she’d get her ad people toredesign the ads but I didn’t wantto inadvertently risk damaging the revenue stream coming in to Boo & Co here.

    any suggestions as to how we might be able to tactfully communicate with the Radnofsky campaing and persuade them that they might get more supportif their ads didn’t feature photos of atavistic barbarians like O’Reilly or scurrilous dirtbags like Hutchison.

    A year more of seeing these sorts of faces “above the fold” so to speak on the BooTrib home page might wind up being cruel andunusual punishment.

    Just Sayin’!

11. 

    Man Eegee on December 23, 2005 at 4:03 pm

    Troubling words from Specter during a CNN interview on 11/8/04:

    SPECTER: I am very much opposed to abortion personally. But I don’t think it is the government’s rule. But when you talk about overturning Roe v. Wade you have to face up to the fact that it was reaffirmed in 1992 by an opinion written by three justices appointed by Republicans. And one of those justices, Justice Anthony Kennedy is very strong pro life and very conservative. And so is Justice O’Connor. The other Justice Souter not quite in the same camp but I think the reality is that it is hard to overturn.

    But look here. I’m giving you my opinion. Under separation of powers, that’s not for me to decide. My rule is to look at what the president does, to give him deference because he’s the president. Separation of power says the judiciary committee is supposed to confirm qualified judges and then what the Supreme Court does, that is their function, not my function.  (emphasis mine)

    I hope he grows some marmot-sized balls and recognizes that Roe v. Wade is in real jeopardy.

12. 

    blksista on December 23, 2005 at 6:38 pm

    You could say this is for Arlen Specter, too.

    My personal Christmas project?

    Helping women recover from the Katrina rapes, and publicizing it more.

    Link away to other blogs, please.

    I’m contributing to LAFASA.  Planned Parenthood is now part of this effort, too.

    Planned Parenthood & Katrina Relief

    By Eleanor J. Bader

    Several days before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast, 20-year-old Marta was raped. Distraught and scared, she returned to her Mississippi apartment–without filing a police report or telling anyone about the assault–only to be piled into the family car with her parents and siblings. The family headed north, eventually landing in Memphis to wait out the storm. Three weeks later, while living with extended family, Marta took a home pregnancy test and confirmed what she’d suspected.  Nearly penniless and severely traumatized, she went to a women’s health center she’d found listed in the Yellow Pages and requested an abortion.

    Luckily for Marta, clinic staff called the National
    Network of Abortion Funds [NNAF]–an organization of 106 community-based groups that help low-income women and girls finance abortions–and secured a small grant to pay for the procedure. ‘We’ve raised $15,000 in a month earmarked for hurricane relief,’ says NNAF Executive Director Stephanie Poggi. ‘Since the storm we’ve gotten lots of calls from pregnant women and clinics asking us to funnel money to them.’

    Each caller’s story is different, Poggi adds, but all reflect profound desperation. ‘On top of everything that’s happened, not having a place to live, not having a source of income, and not knowing where they’re going to end up, pregnancy can be an overwhelming burden. We’re helping the women in greatest need. They have nothing and sound so tired when they ask, <sup>~</sup&gtCan you help me?”

    Within three weeks of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, NNAF assisted 21 women and teens.  Lynn Jackson, a NNAF board member, describes the callers as running a gamut between the newly pregnant and those who knew they’d conceived before the storms made landfall. ‘One woman we helped was going to have an abortion in New Orleans but she was evacuated to Houston before her appointment. She rescheduled it in Houston but the day of the appointment Hurricane Rita hit and she was evacuated again. This woman had to have a second trimester abortion because so much time had passed.’

    Jackson is matter-of-fact as she recounts the stories she has heard. One caller, she reports, had been told by her obstetrician that the pregnancy was high-risk. ‘She’d had a stillborn in the past, as well as several miscarriages, and was raising a disabled son. She was now almost 12 weeks pregnant, had been relocated from a suburb of New Orleans to Dallas, and both she and her boyfriend were unemployed. She said she felt there was no way she could have another child.’ Still another caller told Jackson that she had welcomed the pregnancy until Katrina separated her from her partner. With no idea where her boyfriend had gone, or if he was still alive, she said that she was too emotionally spent to have the baby and requested NNAF’s help.

    Although NNAF has been as generous as possible, it is not the only group fielding calls from despondent women. Within days of the first storm, Planned Parenthood began raising money and dispensing free Emergency Contraception and hormonal birth control in affected areas.

    ‘As soon as the first punch, Katrina, hit, we asked ourselves how we could be responsive to the evacuees coming into Texas,’ says Peter Durkin, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas. ‘People stepped up and got the displaced into shelters. Once we got them a roof over their heads, we started to reach out in terms of our services. Obviously, if you are an evacuee, the last thing you need is an unintended pregnancy. We decided to give anyone who’d been displaced one month’s worth of free birth control pills. We’re also working with the media, the Red Cross, and FEMA and asking that they keep us on their list of healthcare providers offering relief services.’

    Within days of Katrina, PPHSET’s 10 clinics-several of them badly damaged by wind, flooding or power outages-began working to publicize the availability of Emergency Contraception. ‘We quickly saw 175 evacuees in Houston who wanted EC,’ says Durkin. ‘We said, <sup>~</sup&gtYou can come to us if you had unprotected intercourse.’ Our goal is to make sure word gets out that Planned
    Parenthood is there for folks.’

    Larry Rodick, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Alabama, oversees five health centers covering 67 Alabama counties, southern Mississippi and Western Florida. ‘The evacuees don’t know where services are or how to reach them, so we’ve done publicity to tell them. It worked. Our Hattiesburg, Mississippi clinic is inundated. We’re giving out free birth control and free Emergency Contraception at all our sites. All a woman
    needs to say is that she’s from an affected area. As information about this gets out, we’ll see what happens to our numbers. We plan to give out free birth control as long as people’s lives are unstable. It will depend on the money raised, but we hope to make two-to-three month’s worth of free pills available. Some of the evacuees have resources, but most need help. I’d say we’re subsidizing 90 percent of evacuee services.’

    Still, helping is not always as easy as it sounds.
    Rodick says that PPA’s plan to set up temporary satellite clinics along the Gulf coast has hit numerous roadblocks. ‘You assume you can just go down there and find places to rent,’ he says. ‘But some places still have no water, others have no power, and some landlords don’t want to rent to PPA. On top of this, every hotel in the Gulf area is full of evacuees and construction people. From New Orleans to Mobile, north 100 miles, there are no rooms. We sent staff from Birmingham to Mobile and they would have had to sleep on the clinic floor if a board member hadn’t put them up.’

    Rodick calls Katrina ‘a micro test of disaster management.’ Although he concedes that rebuilding and
    providing services is harder and slower than he
    imagined, he believes Planned Parenthood is up to the
    task. His colleague, Peter Durkin of Houston, agrees.
    ‘The adversity that Planned Parenthood has historically
    confronted is good preparation for dealing with a
    large-scale crisis,’ Durkin says. ‘Everyone is tired
    and the tension is perceptible, but this is a time to
    come back in a more robust way. Louisiana was a medically underserved area; Katrina just brought out
    the disparities in public health services. This is the
    challenge. It’s time to contemplate expansion.’

    For their part, NNAF is pulling together a Southern
    States Organizing Project. ‘The forward looking piece
    out of this disaster is that we’re going to put more
    resources into building up the funds that already exist
    in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Texas and Virginia and create new ones to assist poor women in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi,’ says
    Executive Director Stephanie Poggi. ‘None of the
    southern states have Medicaid funding so the Abortion
    Funds in the region need to be stronger.’

    Contributions payable to PPFA can be sent to the
    Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 434 West 33
    Street, New York, NY10001. Be sure to specify that the check is for hurricane relief. Checks can also be sent to NNAF, 42 Seaverns Avenue, Boston, MA 02130-2865 and earmarked for the Southern States Organizing Project.
    ___

    Eleanor J. Bader is a teacher, writer and activist who
    frequently contributes to The Brooklyn Rail, Library
    Journal, Lilith, and Z. she is also the co-author of
    Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism.

13. 

    Cali Scribe on December 24, 2005 at 2:00 am

    How about straight from his website?

    I am personally opposed to abortion, but I am a supporter of a woman’s right to choose. I believe that it is not the role of the Federal government to interfere in an issue best handled by women and families in consultation with their minister, priest, or rabbi.

    Of course, he says nothing about switching the role to the states, which is what an overturn of Roe would likely do…