Health care reform and domestic violence

Please, just read this excellent, comprehensive post on how our society fails in reacting to misogynistic hate crimes and the sad reality that is "TFL." Seriously, the whole thing should be read.

FDL (Emphasis mine):

Alaska's Frost Lady is part of Eminem's stimulus package.

Gov GILF has a new fan in rapper Eminem, who includes Sarah Palin in a wish list of ladies with whom he'd like to be intimately involved. Palin joins the rapper's hit list of simulated sexy celebs like Lindsey Lohan, Kim Kardashian, and Jessica Simpson in the video for "We Made You." Fame, it's a bitch.

Well I can be as gentle and as smooth as a gentleman
Give me my venom, an inhaler, and two Xenadrine,
And I'll invite Sarah Palin out to dinner, then
Nail her. Baby, say hello to my little friend

Yesterday I watched and listened to Rush Limbaugh give his speech to the faithful of CPac. Since it was covered by FOX, he jokingly announced that it was his first address to the Nation and later on he called it his first International address, slyly noting that he was not using a teleprompter. I can remember when I'd turn off the radio if he came on but that was when there was a Democratic Party that I could identify with.

Full of himself with his usual bravado, the big guy seemed really nervous and coughed a lot. Like most of us he is much more confident alone behind his radio mic but despite all that he was his usual megaphone self, blasting away at the current administration and rallying the Conservatives to take back the country.

Today marks the 19th anniversary of the École Polytechnique Massacre.

The shooter, who claimed that feminism had ruined his life came into a classroom and separated the nine women from the approximately fifty men and ordered the men to leave. Speaking in French, he asked the remaining women whether they knew why they were there, and when one student replied "no", he answered: "I am fighting feminism". One of the students, Nathalie Provost, said, "Look, we are just women studying engineering, not necessarily feminists ready to march on the streets to shout we are against men, just students intent on leading a normal life." Lépine responded that "You're women, you're going to be engineers. You're all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists." He then opened fire on the students from left to right, killing six, and wounding three others, including Provost. Before leaving the room, he wrote the word shit twice on a student project He killed 14 women. Here are their names:

Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student.
Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student.
Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student.
Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique's finance department.
Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student.
Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student.
Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student.
Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student.
Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student.
Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student.
Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student.

[I think I'm going to leave this sticky for a bit. The picture doesn't get any less wrong with time, and -- yes, I know this will surprise you -- the A-list just doesn't seem to be covering it. Susie did, though. --lambert]

Nothing, silly! Sure, Hillary Clinton may have been the first serious woman presidential candidate but that doesn't mean Jon Favreau, Obama speechwriter, mocking her gender (grope!) means anything. No, it's just "harmless fun" (read: misogynistic bigotry is fine by us!).

I just finished reading this Guardian article on how Iraqi men are now paying assassins to kill off their wives and daughters for "shaming" the family, when I (once again) asked myself, "Why is the paper using the misogynistic euphemism 'honor killing?'" I can't think of any other crime, whether generic or hate,* in which we the press uses the terms preferred by the perpetrator of such crimes as its universal standard.   Read more…

Misogyny? Nah! Never!

*Caution* that link is about as disgusting as you will ever see (click at own discretion) and was advertised through "Advertising Liberally" on Chris Bower's Openleft post where he cries about how the "netroots" don't get no respect.

Now why would that be?

H/T Big Tent Dem who explains why they "git no respect" a little differently" than by the above example.

I elevated this from a comment in Vastleft's thread here.

Irresponsible to speculate? NO! It would be irresponsible not to! Something calling itself a “Jay McDonough” doing something he calls “will write about politics from a progressive perspective”, at something called “Progressive Politics Examiner” (which also has something called a "British Music Examiner" (wow, check it!) writes this:

Insurers: Women are just too risky

Via The Sideshow,

limerick:
In the past I cheered Olbermann’s rants—
Loved his anti-war, anti-Bush stance.
But misogynous bluster
Is all he can muster
In Olbermann’s mirror-romance.

On the morning of the West Virginia primary, Washington Post Associate Editor Kevin Merida published a blockbuster story about ugly racial incidents experienced by Obama campaign workers that continues to fuel debate.

Media pundits are now using it to prove that “Clinton is willing to ride these biases to the White House.”

Melissa McEwan posts her Hillary Sexism Watch: Part 83, starring the Frat Boys of MSNBC.

Feministe has the new cover of TNR. Unbelievable.

No, I take it back. Perfectly believable. Just infuriating.

You can contact TNR's editors at letters [at] tnr [dot] com.

Marc Rudov, sexist wanker. Not that this is news.

Part 4 of Misogyny, Sexism, & the Gender Gap in the 2008 Election

In choosing a nominee, the Democratic Party will not merely be deciding who deserves to win, or who would make the best candidate. It will also be a decision about which poisoned landscape the Party wishes to compete upon --- one in which toxic wildflowers of misogyny and sexism are in full bloom, or one in which the poisonous weed of racism is a constant part of the environment, and needs the merest watering to completely despoil the land.

Via Shakesville, go read.

The cousin's victim impact statement, reproduced in the comments, is particularly heartbreaking. I'm not generally a big fan of victim impact statements, but then I have always assumed killing a woman by drugging her so that the defendant could rape her and reach his goal of sleeping with (read: raping) 100 women didn't require a victim impact statement for people (read: the court, the government and society) to understand what a horrible, little psychopath the defendant is. Clearly I was wrong.

followed by some push back:

HOW THE GENDER GAP, SEXISM, AND MISOGYNY CHANGE THE OUTCOME IN INDIVIDUAL STATES

The gender gap in presidential elections is a well documented phenomenon. Almost without exception, women vote for Democratic candidates at a higher percentage than do men, while men vote for Republican candidates at a higher percentage than women. Moreover, men’s preference for Republican candidates is more pronounced than women’s preference for Democrats. In the 2004 election, nationally men gave Bush an 11 point lead (Bush 55%, Kerry 44%), while women gave Kerry a mere 3 point lead (Bush 48%, Kerry 51%).

Data from a recent (conducted Feb 26-28, released March 7) 50 state Survey USA (SUSA) poll of registered voters shows more than just a gender gap; it provides evidence that sexism and misogyny can have a profound impact in shaping electoral outcomes. The gender gap is nearly double the size when the matchup is John McCain vs. Hillary Clinton than when it is McCain
and Barack Obama. McCain/Clinton shows a 13.5% gap in registered voters and a 7% gap when it is McCain/Obama.

  Read more…

REGIONAL COMPARISONS & BEST AND WORST STATES

The individual state cross tables from the SUSA 50 state general election poll demonstrate how the gender gap determines the winner in a very large number of states. But there is considerable variation between states themselves and within regions. Much of the variation appears to be related to other factors, such as race and racism, and how liberal/conservative a state is.

Just because they're my favorite people today, let's review how much the Saudi government sucks. At least she didn't turn him into a newt.

In a letter to King Abdullah, the rights group described the trial and conviction of Fawza Falih as a miscarriage of justice.

The illiterate woman was detained by religious police in 2005 and allegedly beaten and forced to fingerprint a confession that she could not read.

Among her accusers was a man who alleged she made him impotent.

Human Rights Watch said that Ms Falih had exhausted all her chances of appealing against her death sentence and she could only now be saved if King Abdullah intervened.

[Update 2: I can't even muster the snark for it] (Updated with a very revealing Bob Herbert behind the wall quote) Quick: when I say "black man" what's the first thing to pop into your head?

So I'm going to tackle the misogyny issue in depth more later, but the race angle to this affair is one I can address in short form. Pam raises some good points about how sexist videos on BET don't let Imus off the hook for his words; two wrongs don't make a right and all that. But I'll add: not all Black people like hip hop and watch BET and use the word "Nigger" among themselves and their friends and families. The women Imus chose to mock are perfect examples of what I'm talking about; friends who watched their TV interview said they came across as classy, not angry, and incredibly astute about the entirety of the matter. Yes, folks- some black people are atheists, have naturally red hair and blue eyes, listen to classical music (Farrakhan and Condi come to mind), enjoy hockey and sci-fi, speak with completely whitebread middle American accents, and some are even multimillionaires who've never been on welfare or prostituted themselves.

This whole affair has reminded me that too many people still really do think that we are "all alike." Check your in'gance, whitefolk.

Ha, while we've been having our own little discussions about misogyny here at Corrente, it looks like Big Orange stepped in it. You make the call. Kos' original post. In which he basically says, "Suck it up. Death threats happen. They aren't a big risk." Which is what I said somewhere, I'm too tired to go digging for it now. Steve D and about a score of other bloggers (live links at link) think Kos should apologize, mainly for underestimating and misrepresenting the very real risk that women, but not men, face in these sorts of threats. BTD also falls into that group who think Kos blew it, but initially had a different reaction. Is Kos a misogynist and what does that mean for the movement?

Sweet Jeebus, it's like shooting bicycles in a barrel, isn't it? And as CD pointed out yesterday, the Heathers are the worst. Must be the Stockholm Syndrome, or something.

Today, Bonnie Erbe from Useless News and World Distort:

Giddy [Trans: Effeminate] Lefties All Over the Hill

Pay-go is the perfect way for Democrats to gracefully [Trans: Effeminate] say "No" to left-wing ideologues who will demand payback for Democrats' November election wins.

How odd. Democrats win an election, and want their agenda implemented. What could they be thinking?