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RH Reality Check by Beverly McPhail, University of Houston Women’s Resource Center.

There are a multitude of excuses that women offer to rationalize their lack of political participation: We are tired. We are busy. We are working in our jobs and raising our families. There is laundry to be done, bills to be paid, and a project due at work. Politics is too messy. Or we are too busy surfing the web or watching reality television. Or this is about other women and not me.

However, such excuses are reminiscent of the famous statement attributed to Martin Niemoller about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power when, one by one, certain groups were selected for purging.

The text starts, “First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist . . . ”

The paraphrased version for Texas women today would read:

First they came for the women who needed abortions, and even though one in three women in the United States will have an abortion in her lifetime, I didn’t speak out because I didn’t think I think I would ever need one.

Then they came for poor women’s health care by shutting down the Medicaid Women’s Health Program, which provided breast cancer screenings and pap smears for cervical cancer screening, and I didn’t speak out because I am not a poor woman.

Then they came for outspoken women who express their opinions on birth control mandates in preventive health care policy, like Georgetown University Law Center student Sandra Fluke, and I didn’t speak out because I was afraid I, too, would be branded a slut and a prostitute.

Then they came to take away women’s birth control (more than 99% of sexually active women aged 15-44 have used at least one contraceptive method reports the Guttmacher Institute) and I did not speak out because I am beyond childbearing years.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me….

What will it take for Texas women to use our voices and our votes to protect poor women’s health care, roll back restrictive and onerous abortion regulations, and gain back control of our bodies, our lives, and our daughters’ futures?

Read the full article @ RH Reality Check

Democratic Blog News

The three Republican women in the Colorado state Senate this year have voted as a bloc in support of at least two big family-protection bills that their male Republican colleagues have opposed. Weeks ago, Sens Ellen Roberts, Nancy Spence and Jean White argued passionately from the right in favor of same-sex civil unions as a way to bolster families headed by gay couples. The senators argued again passionately this week in favor of legislation that would combat school bullying, which can sink child confidence with tragic results and tear up families.

HB 1254 (pdf) passed in the House in March and in the Senate on Thursday. It is now headed to the governor’s desk for a signature.

In voting for the bill Senator White from Hayden said the fact that thousands of bullied kids avoid attending classes in Colorado in 2011 is “ridiculous.” In casting her vote, she said her own children, like so many, were bullied for things they had no control over.

“I think that every single day children are bullied to the point of turning into hypochondriacs because they need an excuse to stay home from school,” she said. “They’re bullied for all kinds of reasons at all levels. They’re bullied for their sexual orientation, for being fat, for being too tall, for having pimples. Our children were bullied for being adopted. Our children were bullied for living in a big house. It’s ridiculous. Kids need to know that when they go to school they have a safe environment that they can learn in and they don’t have to feel like they need an excuse to stay home from school.”

Centennial Republican Nancy Spence said the move to put more responsibility on adult school faculty and staff to prevent bullying was long overdue.

“[W]e heard testimony in committee where teachers ignore instances of bullying, such as hitting and kicking and shoving and pushing,” she said. “That’s another reason this bill is important. There needs to be a message given to staff at our school that bullying is no longer acceptable, if it ever was…. This bill is going to protect children and get a message to teachers that bullying will not be tolerated.”

A bipartisan problem

The bipartisan bill was sponsored in the House by Reps Sue Schafer, D-Wheat Ridge, and Kevin Priola, R-Henderson, and in the Senate by Pat Steadman, D-Denver. Its authors introduced it in the wake of a spate of tragic news stories from around the country detailing the fact that bullying was an ongoing source of youth suicide coast to coast. Schafer and Priola told the press they wrote the bill in order to head off a “sensational suicide” in Colorado.

Sens Roberts, Spence and White were joined by all of the Senate Democrats and Republican Steve King in voting in favor of the bill. The Republican-controlled House passed the bill with 47 aye votes and 18 nays.

Colorado has led in the nation in working to limit bullying ever since the 1999 Columbine shootings. Among the programs put in place is a successful phone and texting hotline that encourages kids to anonymously report trouble.

Supporters of HB 1254, however, say putting much of the onus on kids to intervene isn’t good enough. The bill puts more responsibility on adults to directly work to solve the problem. It establishes school codes of conduct and reporting and it establishes an interim committee of lawmakers to study school bullying in the state. It also creates a board to award grants to promising anti-bullying programs and to evaluate those programs

According to a 2009 Healthy Kids Colorado survey (pdf), roughly 19 percent of all Colorado high school kids report being bullied. Roughly 30 percent say they have gotten into fights. Roughly 7 percent have been threatened with weapons. Last year more than 5 percent of all Colorado high schoolers stayed home from school for fear of bullying, which translates to 12,000 teen students. Among certain demographic groups, the percentages soar. Linda Kanan, director of the Department of Public Safety’s School Safety Resource Center, told the Independent that roughly 37 percent of gay and transgender kids avoid school for fear of bullying.

New-style conservative family values

Months ago voting in favor of same-sex civil unions, Ellen Roberts spoke for the women Republicans in the Senate when she said that the fact is gay people are having kids and that current state law does not protect them. There is no law providing for arrangements in the case of break ups. There are no child support and visitation laws that cover gay couples, she pointed out. She told the Colorado Independent she tried to talk about these reasons to support the bill among the Senate GOP caucus but to mostly no avail.

The men, she said “had different ideas.”

Forty-one women were sworn into the Colorado legislature this year, making up the largest percentage of women serving at any state capitol in the nation. There are 17 women in the 35-member Senate. There are 24 women serving in the 65-member House.

Got a tip? Story pitch? Send us an e-mail. Follow The Colorado Independent on Twitter.

The Colorado Independent

Creating Jobs Isn’t On The Republican  “To Do”  List.     Destroying every benefit that the middle class and poor have  IS The Republican List.

They could have worked on creating jobs but instead Republicans Are Waging a War Against Women.     Christianity doesn’t make everyone want to judge others and mind their business but the ones drawn to the republican party suffer from that disease.

In addition to destroying jobs and threatening economic growth, the GOP spending bill eliminates Title X a program that provides life-saving health services, including HIV testing, cancer screening, blood-pressure testing, and contraceptive services for more than 5 million women (two-thirds of whom are uninsured).     The contraceptive services and supplies provided at Title X clinics are cost-effective and prevent nearly a million unintended pregnancies every year.

Once again the religious right is leading the Republican party around by the snout and for some reason if you want to take something away Republicans are up for it unless its taking back the unnecessary and unneeded tax breaks for the rich and big business.

Somewhere along the way a division started to show, educated and intellegent people were attracted to the Democratic Party and those oherwise inclined were not. The split grew and grew and that gets us to today and the polarized enviroment that governing must live in.

I don’t know the solution but a comedian named Ron White has built a whole act around the phrase  “You Can’t Fix Stupid”.    The one thing I’m sure of is the Republican Party doesn’t spend a moment of their time trying to educate their flock.     It doesn’t matter how goofy your views are if you’ll pull the lever for the GOP they will pander to you.      They will even attack health care for women for you to get your twisted vote.

All of us alive today were born of woman.    The great tale of the Bible is of virgin birth, not womanless birth.    Mary was needed to bring about the miracle.     When these Republicans attack health care for women they are attacking our Mothers, Daughters, Wives and other beloved female family members and friends.     When a poor woman is denied health care her life span is affected and the life of her child is at risk.     I am not willing to sacrafice women on the alter of right wing christian beliefs.     Its time for these religious terriost to mind their own business and time for the republican party to stand for something and stop attacking everything. 

Republicans can draw a crowd of people who want to attack womens rights and availability to receive health care.     A crowd
that wants to take benefits away from working class and poor people so they can advance the lot in life of the upper 2% of society.       The Bottom Line,  If you earn over a quarter of a million dollrs a year you can afford to kick in an extra couple of percent to the tax man when the country is going thru hard times.
Eliminating Title X funding isn’t fiscally responsible and the people pushing it have another agenda.     For every dollar invested in family planning services, taxpayers save .     It will not reduce the United States bottom line, it will add to it.     It may please the right wing religious busybodies of the republican party to impose their ideas of right and wrong on others but it won’t solve the defecit.


Gutting womens health services is but one of seaventy cuts the Republicans propose.

Make no mistake, these cuts are not low-hanging fruit.     These cuts are real and will impact every district across the country – including Amherst County.     Two wars and a defense budget that is out of control and the rich paying the lowest tax rates in the history of the United States and look at what the Republicans want to cut.     Read down the list, something is sure to grab your attention.     How about funds for Job Training Programs?     Or funding for Food Safety and Inspection Services,   don’t we have enough food illnesses to need this?     Why does partisanship trump common sense?

The List of 70 Spending Cuts Proposed by Republicans follows:

  Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies -M



· Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy -9M


· Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability -M


· Nuclear Energy -9M


· Fossil Energy Research -M


· Clean Coal Technology -M


· Strategic Petroleum Reserve -M


· Energy Information Administration -M


· Office of Science -.1B


· Power Marketing Administrations -M


· Department of Treasury -8M


· Internal Revenue Service -3M


· Treasury Forfeiture Fund -8M


· GSA Federal Buildings Fund -.7B


· ONDCP -M


· International Trade Administration -M


· Economic Development Assistance -M


· Minority Business Development Agency -M


· National Institute of Standards and Technology -6M


· NOAA -6M


· National Drug Intelligence Center -M


· Law Enforcement Wireless Communications -M


· US Marshals Service -M


· FBI -M


· State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance -6M


· Juvenile Justice -.3M


· COPS -0M


· NASA -9M


· NSF -9M


· Legal Services Corporation -M


· EPA -.6B


· Food Safety and Inspection Services -M


· Farm Service Agency -1M


· Agriculture Research -6M


· Natural Resource Conservation Service -M


· Rural Development Programs -7M


· WIC -8M


· International Food Aid grants -4M


· FDA -0M


· Land and Water Conservation Fund -8M


· National Archives and Record Service -M


· DOE Loan Guarantee Authority -.4B


· EPA ENERGY STAR -.4M


· EPA GHG Reporting Registry -M


· USGS -M


· EPA Cap and Trade Technical Assistance -M


· EPA State and Local Air Quality Management -M


· Fish and Wildlife Service -M


· Smithsonian -.3M


· National Park Service -M


· Clean Water State Revolving Fund -0M


· Drinking Water State Revolving Fund -0M


· EPA Brownfields -M


· Forest Service -M


· National Endowment for the Arts -M


· National Endowment for the Humanities -M


· Job Training Programs -B


· Community Health Centers -.3B


· Maternal and Child Health Block Grants -0M


· Family Planning -7M


· Poison Control Centers -M


· CDC -5M


· NIH -B


· Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services -M


· LIHEAP Contingency fund -0M


· Community Services Block Grant -5M


· High Speed Rail -B


· FAA Next Gen -4M


· Amtrak -4M


· HUD Community Development Fund -0M

Several bills addressing Title X have been introduced in the 112thCongress.

H.R. 217, the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act, and S. 96, the Title X Family Planning Act, would prohibit Title X grants to abortion-performing entities.


H.R. 408 and S. 178, both called the Spending Reduction Act of 2011, would eliminate the Title X program.


H.R. 1 would eliminate funding for Title X for the remainder of FY2011.    Three amendments (335, 386 and 505) to H.R. 1 would strike the language eliminating funds for Title X.     Amendment no. 335 to H.R. 1 would maintain FY2011 funding to Title X at the FY2010 level of 7.491 million.     Amendment no. 11 to H.R. 1 would prohibit the bill’s funds from being made available “for any purpose” to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America or to any of 102 Planned Parenthood affiliates and offices listed in the amendment.

You can follow and watch these House and Senate Bills here with just a click of your mouse.     Don’t be thrown off by the Title of the Bill or Senate Resolution, politicians will stick an ammendment on any piece of legislation moving unless the rules specifically prohibit it.     A great many thing get passed that almost no one is aware of and thats the way these guys like it.     The less we know the more they like it.    

Our inability to follow what they are doing allows them to take special interest money and serve that master and most times we are unaware.     If the parties wished to play it straight they would eliminte the adding of ammendments not directly related to the original bill.     They haven’t done that and they haven’t done it on purpose.

===============

Amherst County Virginia Democratic News will try to keep you informed and is constantly looking for widgets and services that keep you on top of the things the politicians are doing.      The Informed Voter is A Democratic Vote.

ACVDN Bottom Line.     Ron White appears in this posting completely beyond the scope of his personal knowledge and yet we thank him anyway.     (and hope he never finds out)

Amherst County Virginia Democratic News

Tagged with: Cenk Uygur (MSNBC/The Young Turks host) and Ana Kasparian (co-host of The Young Turks) discuss a new bill propsed by House Republicans called the ‘Protect Life Act’. Does it live up to its name? TYT Mobile: bit.ly Subscribe: bit.ly Facebook Page: www.facebook.com Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com www.theyoungturks.com DISCOUNTS: www.theyoungturks.com FREE Movies(!): www.netflix.com [...]
Best News & Politics

Newsweek is profiling some strong Green Women Leaders from around the world in this “Women & Leadership” special.
Included are Germany’s Renate Künast:
The biggest coup could come in Berlin, where party chairwoman Renate Künast has a good shot to become the first Green to head a state… “We used to think that radicalism came [...]
Green Party Watch

Candidate’s Forum

Dallas Morning News, Frisco – Democratic political rallies are a rare occurrence in Collin County, where Republicans dominate virtually every level of government.

Yet on Monday evening here in the heart of GOP territory, a slate of Democratic candidates rallied in the hopes of breaking the Republican stranglehold on Dallas’ northern suburbs.

“We have a tough row to hoe here in Collin County,” said Rafael De La Garza, who is running for Collin County district attorney against Republican Greg Willis.

— Click here for REST OF STORY!… —

Democratic Blog of Collin County – News

Join the Aurora Republican Women’s Organization as they host their annual holiday dinner. This year’s event will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wesnesday, Dec. 9, at Ballydoyle’s Irish Pub, 28 West New York Street in Aurora.

Tickets are and include a traditional Irish dinner and the trimmings. Cash bar. Sponsorships are available. To reserve a spot, email carl_and_debbie@sbcglobal.net. For sponsorships, call Gabriela Wyatt at 630-772-6436.

Kane County Republican News

Republican women from Kane County seeking financial assistance for college can apply to be considered for the Mary Richards Scholarship Fund, offered by the Aurora Republican Women’s Organization.

Mary Richards, a graduate of the Northwestern School of Nursing, served on the Kane County Board for 24 years. She was integral in the formation of the county’s Health Department and the development of its prenatal care program.

A former president of the Aurora Republican Women’s Organization, Mary was active in the Republican Party and a strong advocate of voter registration. Richards passed away in 2007.

Scholarships in the amount of 0 will be awarded.

Applicants must be female and a resident of Kane County, Ill. They must be enrolled in a two-year or four-year college in Illinois. Other conditions also apply.

Applicants also must submit a written essay of 500 words or less, answering the following: “I’m interested in better government practices because…”

Applications must be received by April 15. Winners will be announced in May.

For full details of the scholarship, e-mail pennyfalcon@sbcglobal.net.

Kane County Republican News

The Aurora Republican Women’s Pig Roast, to be held Wednesday, Aug. 4, will serve as the backdrop for the inaugural presentation of the “Charlotte T. Reid Women of the Year Award.” The award is given to women who show exemplary dedication to their community through political service. This year’s awards will be given to Penny Cameron and Penny Falcon.

The Pig Roast will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. at Cool Acres Park, off Route 25 in Aurora.

“I know that my mother would be honored to have an award in her name given to women who have worked so diligently for the Republican Party,” said Pat Lindner, retired State Representative, upon hearing of the award. “As you know, when Mother went to Congress in 1963 there were very few women elected, so she made it a point to always encourage women to get involved. The two women who you will honor have worked tirelessly for years and are most deserving of this award. I have had the pleasure of working with both of them and they have always been stellar volunteers.”

Cameron served 24 years on the Kane County Board and the Kane County Forest Preserves. She was active in the National Association of Counties (NACo), where she chaired the Workforce Steering Committee and, as chairman, was instrumental in the passage of The Workforce Investment Act.

A former precinct committeeman, she has served as Kane County Republican Chairwoman and President of the Fox Valley Republican Women’s Council.

Falcon, a business analyst for Nicor Services, is in her first term as 1st Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Republican Women. She has served as secretary of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Illinois, and treasurer of the local chapter. Falcon also has served on the executive board of the Aurora Township Republican Central Committee.

Falcon attended the 2008 Republican National Convention as an alternate delegate. She is the editor of the bi-monthly newsletter, Kane County Trunk, which is distributed to Republicans throughout the county. She is on the core team for the Illinois Victory Center in Geneva, and is on the RNC Coalitions Team.

Both Penny Cameron and Penny Falcon serve on the board of directors of the Aurora Republican Women’s Organization.

Keynote speaker for the riverside event is Nancy Brady, wife of gubernatorial candidate, Bill Brady. Nancy will give attendees a glimpse of the man behind the politician, as she speaks from the heart about her husband.

Nancy and Bill met at college, and married just after graduation. A working mom, Nancy now serves as business manager for a part of the Brady family business, Brady Homes.

With two cancer survivors in her family, Nancy has served as a member of the Susan G. Komen board, is an active member of the foundation for the Bloomington Public Library, and recently served on the board of her local YWCA.

Nancy will be joined by 14th Congressional District candidate Randy Hultgren, and state candidates Judy Baar Topinka and Steve Kim. Several local candidates will be in attendance, as well.

Tickets for the event are per person; for a family, and include beverages, roast pork and the trimmings. Cool Acres Park is off Route 25, north of Indian Trail in Aurora.

To order tickets, email Penny Falcon at pennyfalcon@sbcglobal.net or call 630-254-8291.

Kane County Republican News

The Hankster