With all the offensive lower-than-low crap slung by Republicans and right-wingers on a daily basis, this really shouldn't surprise me. But their ability to exhibit sheer stupidity and disrespect still amazes me. Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH) was the target of a sexist attack when a Republican multimillionaire, Tom Ganley, who wants to take her place in Congress, funded a mailer sent out by the Republican party that said:

"Let's take Betty Sutton out of the House and send her back to the kitchen."

I still have a hard time grasping that people still actually think like this. Women have come so far thanks to feminism, but attacks like this are a blatant attempt to shove us ten steps backwards. Well, I'm standing right here. My feet are planted and I am not moving.

Sign the petition to push Tom Ganley to denounce this comment, and for Medina County Republican Party Chairman Bill Heck, who continues to defend this sexist attack, to step down.

"...I want somebody who is going to be interpreting our Constitution in a way that takes into account individual rights, and that includes women's rights... And that's going to be something that's very important to me, because I think part of what our core constitutional values promote is the notion that individuals are protected in their privacy and their bodily integrity. And women are not exempt from that."

Hmm. He's expected to choose Justice Stevens' replacement within the next couple weeks, and I'm really excited/nervous to see who he picks.

Today is Blog for Fair Pay Day.

The fact that over 45 years have passed since the Equal Pay Act was signed and women still face unfair pay shows that discrimination is alive and well. A wage gap still exists in every state, women are poorer than men in all racial and ethnic groups, and black women have a median net worth of $5.

We have a long way to go.

That's why calling awareness to unfair pay is so important. The ability to be economically stable and independent is crucial for women, and we cannot settle for anything less than 100% of what men make.

Take action today. And as usual, make some noise! Talk it, blog it, post it, tweet it.

WE WANT FAIR PAY, ALREADY!

Today is the National Day of Silence, a day in which "hundreds of thousands of students nationwide take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools."

According to a 2007 study done by GLSEN, nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school and more than 30% report missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety.

The Day of Silence is close to my heart, because I began participating in it when I was a wee 9th grader in high school, and it unleashed my then-dormant activist side.

It's a great feeling to participate, and I recommend everyone do it at least once. Even if you aren't a student anymore. But if you aren't comfortable with actually staying silent all day, there are plenty of other things you can do to support the cause, if you visit the Day of Silence website.

Here's what people who walked into the library on my campus were confronted with today:

There are two bills underway in Nebraska that could severely limit a woman's access to abortion.

The first would require doctors to screen women for possible mental and physical problems before performing abortions for them. Doctors or other health professionals would have to also screen women to determine whether they were pressured into having abortions (are they going to start screening women who choose adoption or parenthood to see if they were pressured into that?) This ridiculous bill received final approval from Nebraska's "nonpartisan" legislature on Monday.

The second bill would ban abortions after 20 weeks based on the assertion that fetuses feel pain (?!). Nebraska is one of the few states that has doctors willing to perform late-term abortions.

Both these bills would cause severe barricades for women who need reproductive services. The bills are likely to be challenged in court, and we can only hope for the best.

After 34 years of serving on the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens has announced his retirement. He served until age 89 (!) and was first nominated by President Gerald R. Ford in 1975, who said he wanted to appoint "the finest legal mind I could find." I got e-mails from both NOW and CredoAction, commending all Justice Stevens did for equality. He was a proponent of women's rights, reproductive justice, affirmative action, and LGBTQ rights.

Stevens' are some enormous shoes to fill, but I'm hoping President Obama will appoint someone who is just as dedicated to fighting for justice and equality. NOW is calling upon President Obama to appoint a woman in order to better balance the male-dominated Court, but I'm afraid he might be hesitant to appoint another woman, out of apprehension for what crap the ignorant right-wingers will sling at him: "OMGZ, he lyke appointed another woman?!?! He's totes only appointing judges based on whether or not they're a part of oppressed groups!!! Because two women could not possibly be best qualified to serve on the Court... I blame affirmative action!!!1!!111"

But let's hope for the best, and take a minute to send Justice Stevens a thank you note, all of which will be delivered on his 90th birthday on April 20th. Thank you for your years of hard work, Justice Stevens, I wish you all the best.

...Robert F. McDonnell, governor of Virginia!

This prestigious award is given to Bob because of his push to create CONFEDERATE HISTORY MONTH in Virginia to honor a rich history of oppression, slavery, and proclaiming that "the negro is not equal to the white man."

Keep up the good work, Bob.

Well, Caster Semenya has fallen out of the media, but luckily people have yet another public figure to impose gender upon. A Filipino singer, Reggie Ramirez, from "Pilipinas Got Talent" has become known for his ability to sing both "female" and "male" parts of songs, and his tendency to perform in both women's and men's clothing.



And inevitably people MUST KNOW! Is it a tranny? A dragqueen? A hermaphrodite? WHAT IS IT?!? WE CANNOT ACCEPT THIS PERSON UNTIL THEY FIT INTO A GENDER BOX! AGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Methinks people should save themselves a whole lot of trouble and just realize it's none of their damn business.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius severely criticized the crazies that come (largely from Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church) and protest funerals of former soldiers. You know, these people:


You really can't publicly condemn them enough.

Like cockroaches, abstinence-only education programs just will not die, no matter how many times they are proven to be a load of crap (I'm not buying the new studies that say they might work).

The health care reform legislation that President Obama signed includes a renewal of $50 million per year for five years for abstinence-focused education. That's $250 million to tell young people to put their chastity belts on.

RHRealityCheck has an explanation on how this funding made its way into the health care bill:

Here are some of the things we are hearing. Even though a number of prominent Democrats including Cong. Henry Waxman (D-CA) had contacted leadership and demanded that the ab-only programs be pulled from the bill, we’ve been told that leadership was focused on the "bigger issues" and never reached consideration of the ab-only piece.

Boy, does that ever smack of the “dog ate my homework” excuse. There was no rationale for keeping this amendment in the bill. Hatch is a Republican who opposes health care reform so there was no political need to placate the author of the measure. Taking Title V out of the bill would have saved a quarter billion dollars over five years and Democrats were desperate for savings so they could show that the bill would reduce the federal deficit.

Finally, we’ve been hearing that the recent publication of the Jemmott study showed that abstinence-only programs really work. One small problem with that line of thinking. Jemmott’s program would not qualify for Title V funding since it doesn’t follow the rigid, ideological eight-point definition—a point made by the authors themselves! So there is still no evidence those programs work; in fact quite the contrary.

This whole health care reform debacle is giving me an aneurysm.