Darryl Issa said that no women were allowed to testify before his panel on the mandate for contraceptives because the panel was about religious freedom. Kudos to Rachel Maddow for pointing out that women might have something to say about religious freedom also.
Before the issue of Sandra Fluke, lost in the flap has been her remarks that women use oral contraceptives for other things than birth control. Touche.
By this morning Rush Limbaugh has lost six of his sponsors because the primary customers for their goods are women, something Limbaugh doesn't seem to care about since he is a 1%er.
Before the Sandra Fluke flap, the attack on the Girls Scouts escalated. The Washington Post reported that a small girl trying to sell her Girl Scout Cookies was berated by a woman saying that Girl Scouts encourage abortion and the little girl went him shaken by the vitriol. P.S., I did buy my Thin Mints and Short Breads. My gripe with the Girl Scouts is they have diversified their selection so much that I worry the old standards will be phased out.
For the on-going war against Planned Parenthood, the latest rightwing meme is that Panned Parenthood hands out sex drugs to young women. What are they talking about?
Now Sandra Fluke is not your candidate to be the Rosa Parks of the next generation of feminists--a 30-year old Georgetown Law student who only wanted to make a point about the cost of oral contraceptives to law students who are just getting by. Incredibly soft-spoken and articulate, she is not your poster child for militant political action. But the attacks on her have generated a firestorm that has even made Republican women pushing back against the misogynists.
For a full list of measures the GOP at the national and state level have taken against women, read Dana Milbank's column in today's Washington Post where he wonders whether Republicans even remember if women vote.
Someone who knows is President Obama who called Sandra Fluke to ask about her well-being and ,contrary to the conservatives, tell her her parents should be proud of her. In relaying this to Andrea Mitchell, Ms. Fluke started to break down. It is one thing for Limbaugh to go after Michelle Obama in his racist way. Unfortunately the First Lady is a public figure. But another to incessantly go after an unknown law student and geared up the hate machine after her.
This isn't something Republicans can laugh off. Joe Scarborough reports that his pro-life wife who never votes Democrats had women over and they started to wonder what has happened to the Republican Party. These brilliant minds thought they could frame the issue as a religious rights issue until they decided to go after contraceptives themselves. Republican women have been too tolerant of the attacks on Planned Parenthood, once a major organization of Republican participation. Now even the Red State feminists, as the Palin supporters call themselves, are furious.
And it is about time that women fight back against the nation-wide attack on reproductive rights. Hopefully, some men should get involved since we have been the main culprits in sponsoring crazy Personhood bills and almost sadistic restrictions on abortions involving medical procedures that are thoroughly unwarranted. Over the last three years, reproductive rights have been curtailed to a greater degree since Roe V.Wade was passed. One of the few people who has documented this is Rachel Maddow on her television show, the rest of the media never has caught up. Besides if you want to know what the reproductive organs of a woman looks like, Rachel Maddow has generously displayed graphics of them for the men to learn.
Now Republicans were slow off the mark criticizing the chairman of their party Rush Limbaugh. Mitt Romney the same day as Limbaugh savagely attacked Sandra Fluke said in Ohio that the mandate to cover contraceptives would be Obama's way to confiscate "your guns". How phallic can you get?! And he really said that. Considering that Bain Capital owns Rush Limbaugh's radio show, Willard said "I wouldn't have used those words". Santorum called Rush an entertainer and these were absurd notions. John Boehner, looking at the election going down the drain, did denounce Limbaugh's attack. However, Darryl Issa said that Democrats should apologize to people of faith. Sorry, Charlie, the issue is too far gone. Except for an evangelical radio announcer who followed up on Rush's line.
The Sandra Fluke episode hopefully will be a wake-up call to women about how far the Right will go in this country in attacking the rights of women. All of this has been done in state capitals far from the issues of the day--which supposedly were focused on the economy. Any one who has followed the House Republicans know that anti-abortion bills far exceed anything they suggest for the economy.
But observers have avoided the real crazy notion of the Blunt Amendment. The Blunt Amendment was so poorly written that it would have allowed employers to deprive employees of health coverage for anything the employer found objectionable. What is I am a Christian Scientist boss? I object to you and your love ones getting blood transfusions on religious grounds. What if I believe that humans should not have artificial body parts because this pollutes the body and therefore the soul? Then I would prohibit artificial hips and joints. The Blunt Amendment could be used to deprive people of far more than just payment for contraceptives.
We haven't seen politicians genuflect to Catholic Bishops for quite some time. Marco Rubio said on the Senate floor that he was co-sponsoring the bill because he heard a letter from the Bishops read in the church on Sunday. I received video e-mails of anti-Obama homilies from priests during this whole debate. It is incredible that in the 21st century anyone would listen to a patriarchy declaiming on women's health issues. The American Taliban indeed.
I guess if the Supreme Court decides to take a case challenging affirmative action one should expect that other hard fought rights will disappear also.
Meanwhile Maryland governor signed into law marriage equality. Previously Washington State did the same. It has gotten so bad for Republicans on these issues that Dick Cheney actually lobbied for passage of the same sex marriage law in Maryland. If even Dick is abandoning ship, watch out.
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