Time to Get Angry

Prowl Done. Thanks Murphy

If anyone wants more on Scott Brown and emergency contraception, here’s some history of his amendment in MA in 2005 to allow a hospital to DENY EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION TO RAPE VICTIMS.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2010/01/13/abortion_takes_stage_in_senate_race/?page=2
The 2005 amendment that Brown sponsored in the state Senate would have allowed a physician, nurse, or any other employee to deny rape victims an emergency contraceptive if it “conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief.’’ The facility would have had to have someone else who could administer the contraceptive or refer the victim to another facility at no additional cost to the patient.

There was a lot of discussion of this at H44 at this thread and the adjoining threads.
hillaryis44.org/2010/01/14/brown-versus-coakley-halperins-game-change-the-democratic-left-creative-class-the-boston-tea-party-movement-and-the-nobama-coalition/
….
Another commentor supplied this ‘defense’ of Brown (emphasis mine):
“He VOTED FOR the morning after pill for rape victims TWICE. The bill came up in the Mass legislature. He supported the bill, but introduced a religious exemption so that health care providers with religious objections wouldn’t be required to terminate pregnancies. His admendment failed, so he voted to pass the morning after bill anyway.
…..
Me:
Here’s more from the story at

boston.com/news/politics/2008/articles/2010/01/13/abortion_takes_stage_in_senate_race/?page=full
On WCVB-TV last night, he said he could not recall whether he had actually filed that amendment, although Senate records clearly say he did.

More on Brown’s attitude to women’s choice:

Brown cosponsored a bill] which would require a woman to wait 24 hours before having an abortion and to review pictures and information detailing the developmental progress of her fetus.
[ Brown got ] the support of the Massachusetts Citizens for Life in this race, based on his position on issues including abortion, stem cells, and federal health legislation. He also opposes federal funding for abortion, supports strong parental consent rules for minors, and supports the ban on what opponents call partial-birth abortion.[....]
boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/01/04/abortion_stances_of_brown_coakley_not_so_easily_defined/?page=2

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/02/16/is-virginia-governor-mcdonnell-backing-off-his-intent-to-sign-state-sanctioned-ra

I guess I don’t really see how Obama “started this war on our bodies and our rights”. This whole thing started because he insisted on providing funding for contraception and abortion.

Do we really hate Obama so much that we have to turn the good things he does into bad things?

Headclunker,

Speaking of prevention being cheaper than pregnancy, there have been quite a few studies showing that covering contraception DOES save the insurance company money — or at least pays for itself, breaks even (“cost-neutral”) depending on how far you follow the costs of the pregnancy/delivery/maternity leave, etc.

Here’s a good readable summary, with footnotes to many different studies. (Of course the insurance companies may pretend they have an excuse to raise premiums anyway, but I think there will be some regulatiosn to keep them from abusing that.)

http://my.firedoglake.com/rhrealitycheck/2012/02/14/the-cost-of-contraception-in-insurance-plans-what-the-data-s

Wow Murph, that is a little harshly worded don’t you think?

And no, that isn’t entirely correct. It was covered in some states, and by some policies, this is the attempt to roll it out (and make it mandatory) nationally, by the national health care act. You know, that piece of crap that passed when he caved on single payer.

And no, that isn’t entirely correct. It was covered in some states, and by some policies, this is the attempt to roll it out (and make it mandatory) nationally, by the national health care act.

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

That’s not entirely correct either. It’s complicated. Aiui, the Supreme Court ruled long ago, nationally, that IF you were going to cover preventative care for anyone, you had to include prevention of pregnancy or you would be discriminating against women. Some states had already been requiring preventive care, so policies there were including women.

invalidresponse 02.19.12 at 6:02 pm

Yeah. In the UHC issue itself there are layers of good things and bad things. UHC good (eg Hillarycare). Fascist feudalistic crony capitalist employer/private insurance Obamacare bad. But within that, covering contraceptives etc good. Negotiating with the bishops, bad. Not caving completely, good.

From what I’ve read, it was the bishops who picked the fight. HHS was just proceeding along with spreading nationwide the same kind of policies that 28(?) states already had, and Catholic universities etc in those states were already providing contraceptive coverage with no controversy.

And as you say, the GOP jumped on it for political reasons.

Imo Hillary is not the ONLY good person working in the current Democratic administration. When something good does come out of the confusion, we don’t have to give Obama himself credit for it.

Simonson 02.20.12 at 2:21 pm

Overall, yeah. But he did have the choice of how to react to the bishops. Instead of ignoring them and letting it be a non-issue, he did offer a ‘compromise’ which made headlines and tempted the GOP to come out and make fools of themselves (incidentally making birth control into a debatable, negotiable issue like abortion).

I expect most of the timing was legitimate, but when he did get that small window of choice, he exploited it callously.

Santorum is now leading in all the GOP polls. He also just came out against prenatal testing for pregnant women being included in the health care law.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8ulcbKrJFY

Well..It’s just amazing to me that some folk can take a big bowl of fecal matter and put a dollop of whipped cream on it and call it an ice cream sundae.

it’s still a bowl of sh*t

Murphy is right as usual…whacked it out of the park!

thanks Murph.

There’s email for you, Headclunker.

DancesWithPumas 02.21.12 at 8:59 pm

It is a 1967 ad.
http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/femfree.html

invalidresponse 02.21.12 at 10:50 pm
It is a 1967 ad.
http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/medshow/femfree.html
————————–
Seems like yesterday… oh, wait!

GOOD NEWS!!
DOMA bite the grit again!!

Federal Judge Ruled Section 3 Of DOMA Unconstitutional
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal definition of marriage, is unconstitutional

see ruling
http://lambdalegal.org/in-court/legal-docs/golinski_us_20120222_order

And they should require THIS for Viagra!

http://prostatitis.org/cystoscopy.html

MORE GOOD NEWS!!

Maryland Senate PASSED its marriage equality bill today. The house passed it last Friday. Gov. Martin O’Malley has pledged to make Maryland the EIGHTH state with marriage equality.

Well, the marriage equality victories are in state laws; the people of that state immediately get the benefits. But the ERA is an amendment to the US Constitution, which requires a large number of states to ratify it before it has any effect. (And getting enough of the holdouts to ratify may be hopeless at this time.)

So it makes sense for gays to put their energy where they can get immediate returns. And anything that weakens the anti-sex crowd helps us all. And lesbians are half the gay population too.

Just to be clear, with the exception of that one paragraph that post was not directed toward Dances or anyone else. It was just an explanation of facts. My facts and perspective.

Sky Dancing Blog
There is going to be another House hearing on contraception next Tuesday, according to Rep. Louise Slaughter. She and her colleagues have set up a site called One Million Strong for Women, where you can sign a petition against the war on women. h/t Boston Boomer

http://www.democratsenators.org/o/44/p/dia/action/public/index.sjs?action_KEY=369
One Million Strong for Women
http://www.democratsenators.org
After Planned Parenthood and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, it’s clear that women’s rights are under attack. Stand strong. Join One Million Strong for Women…

Dances – I would like to hear about the story you mentioned below:

I don’t know if you recall the story I related quite some time ago regarding the SFO Bay Area’s fundraising walk across the GG Bridge? Granted, it’s only one story, but it is indicative of the point I’m trying to make.

freddiebrown,

It is still a situation of Draft Hillary, or die.

“He will be re-elected president,” Clinton said in Tunis. “I think that will be a very clear signal to the entire world as to what our values are and what our president believes.”
—————————————
How does re-election of Obama send a clear signal about US values and or what Obama believes?? It doesn’t.

PS It isn’t “still a situation of elect Hillary or die”. It never was and never will be. Those chicken little type statements are overly dramatic, purely hyperbolic, ignorant, self-defeating, and unfair to Hillary, or any one human being, to say the least.
I want to see a woman as US President as much as anyone else here, but
Hillary isn’t my savior. No one is. My personal preference is to focus on the enemy and to cut them off at the knees at every turn. Until that happens we’ll continue to grovel and roll in ecstasy at the crumbs that fall from the tables of those who still believe they are ordained to dictate the quality of our lives. At this point, 40+ years later, the fight isn’t for myself, it’s for skipper, lily, belle, kristyn, jeanna, nicole, noelle, grete, mairead, aubrey, michael, fox, marc, sean… on and on and on.

That the pricks, and women who have internalized prickdom, denied the superlative candidate we had in Hillary Clinton tells me if we ever have a woman president in my lifetime it will, in all likelihood, be one of those who will do the bidding of her puppetmeisters.

Anyway, i’ll die when I die, and my death won’t have anything to do with Hillary, or any other politician.

The Democratic Party is the other side of the same coin. Good riddance it it and them.

Dances,

#57 – Very well said. Ditto

Freddie, o’Freddie…
why the heavy sigheth from thee?

Hey DWP – heavy sigh was just from quietly reading the comments above. Some things seems so un-attainable – like a woman President for starters.

However, on another note, I am glad that Meryl Streep won the Best Actress Oscar in Iron Lady (Magaret Thatcher). Nice that it is a woman of substance woman about a woman of substance not some young Hollywood type.

I was in San Francisco last week and when the plane landed, we saw airforce I parked on the tarmac – the pilot announced.Then the cab driver had to radio to see if the roads into the city had cleared from being blocked. Ugh!

Please promise me that the movie will not spend half the time talking about Monica Lewinsky.

Candice: Congratulations !! Good job and wishing you continued success.
I wish more Pumas here would run for some sort of political office – it all starts with one small step. I know there are more than a few very opinionated (and knowledgeable) folks here…that would do so well.

Candice I read the story about Carnahan on The Hill this morning and was wondering how it would effect you.

The article didn’t even have the honesty to mention your name!

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/212971-russ-carnahan-will-challenge-lacy-clay-in-dem-primary

You go and beat them both! Good luck.

What’s wrong with Maria Shriver?

http://www.tmz.com/2012/02/29/arnold-schwarzenegger-maria-shriver-furniture-shopping-divorce-reconciliation/

Furniture shopping? Give me a break!

Ugh…
The guy’s freakin’ body isn’t even cold yet and the left is rejoicing Breitbart’s death while the right is up to their ears spewing conspiracy theories.

To the Left: It is beyond pathetic that anyone’s death would be cause for rejoicing because it assists your candidate’s re-election. Is your candidate so needy and bereft of accomplished record that the death of a critic becomes a huge assist to your boy?

To the Right: People die. The death of any one person is rarely connected to some nefarious political plot. ‘Sides, shouldn’t you be rejoicing Breitbart’s reunion with Jayzus and the Lard?

Happy Women’s History Month!!

freddiebrown #73

Yes freddiebrown I received it and it has helped a lot. It will be used for advertisement. Thank you so very much! (:

Sorry to all Pumas! Broke the golden rule.. Linking… (:

I forgot to include the link to the Secretary of States site that shows the official placement of candidates names on the ballot from lottery drawing February 28th 2012.

http://www.sos.mo.gov/CandidatesOnWeb/DisplayCandidatesPlacement.aspx?OfficeCode=CN-N%201&ElectionCode=750002299

http://www.candicebritton.com

Invalid,
You may be unaware of the boycott / letter writing campaign going on via Facebook in which many women and pumas are participating. Liberal media seems to be countering limbaugh’s misogyny quite effectively as well, albeit it’s a bit hard to swallow given their record of misogyny; and sexist-in-chief obama’s personal call to Sandra Fluke just prior to her appearance on MSNBC.

Isn’t Murphy’s post germane to the issue? And doesn’t it negate the so-called cricket response accusation?

Rush Limbaugh Advertisers Pull Commercials In Wake Of Sandra Fluke ‘Slut’ Firestorm
:::snip::::

on Friday, another mattress company, Sleep Number, announced through a spokeswoman that it had also pulled its ads from Limbaugh’s show. So did companies Legal Zoom, Citrix and Quicken Loans.

All cited the nature of Limbaugh’s statements, as well as the vociferous complaints they were getting, as the reason for their withdrawal of the ads.

Full article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/rush-limbaugh-sleep-train-sandra-fluke-slut_n_1315900.html?ref=media

When people talk about sending coathangers or something to a politician, I’ve been suggesting sending duplicates to Ellen Degeneres or Greta or some celebrity who can keep count and announce the totals. But maybe that’s being done electronically now.

This Forbes article has info on the advertisers lost and other effects of the feminist actions.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomwatson/2012/03/05/the-new-networked-feminism-limbaughs-spectacular-social-media-defeat/2/
Adds Kate Harding: “I think the public aspect is really important. #mooreandme, the Limbaugh boycott, the Komen/Planned Parenthood uproar all worked because there was somewhere to express ourselves visibly. Who knows how many feminists were sending letters and making phone calls over similar instances in the past? But without any way for an outside observer to measure it, the target of a boycott or letter-writing campaign was never forced to acknowledge that criticism publicly.

My dog Fred is so upset that his peoples are being used in Obama’s re-election campaign…Tell me this is not grasping for pee stained straws. In case anyone cares, Bo is the Obama dog. Gag, that they’re using doggie pictures to get people to vote for him:

Quote :
When we’ve shared photos of Bo over the last few months, we’ve learned two things. One, there are a lot of First Dog fans out there. Two, there is an enthusiasm for this campaign that extends to the furriest members of your families.

That’s why we’ve launched Pet Lovers for Obama, a special way for pet lovers like you to be a part of this campaign.

https://my.barackobama.com/page/s/om-pet-lovers-for-obama?source=om2012_lb_cnn3_disptest_0212petsforobama_300x250

OT
Murphy and Dances…Do you remember the first time we met?
There was a conversation about threats regarding the release of the Breitbart tapes. I don’t want to mention names for obvious reasons. Small world.

The lead investigator in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s review of the authenticity of Barack Obama’s birth certificate today unloaded a bombshell about the case: that he was told by sources members of the media were threatened with federal investigations should they continue to report on the birth certificate issue.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/03/did-threats-silence-media-on-obama-probe/

It looks like the Obama thugs are making a lot of threats lately.

BTW I know some of you don’t like WND, but that’s where the story is. So far no other site is covering it.

I think I would vote for this guy:
http://nelsonforsenate.com/action/rush/?utm_source=sp4434585&utm_medium=e&sc=sp4434585

It looks as if Leni Riefenstahl has come back to earth in the body of Davis Guggenheim.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/obamas-reelection-team-releases-campaign-video-trailer-narrated-by-tom-hanks/2012/03/08/gIQA4UVvyR_blog.html

And it is narrated by Tom Hanks. What a scumbag he turned out to be!

Bill Burton, the head of the Obama Super-Pac, argued that tw-t and c-nt were not as bad as being called a slut or prostitute.

Unbelievable – and Andrea Mitchell nods in agreement. OH.MY.GAWD!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3CWsMJov04

freddiebrown #92
I agree with you 100%. I have been going out door to door and the people are not talking about the spin of the day or the BS. They are asking me what I plan on doing about everything you wrote about. I see so many folks hurting it breaks my heart and makes me more determined to unseat my opponents!

Again thank you so much for your support. I think of you and one other friend every time I see a constituent hurting. I will work for the constituents of Missouri CD1 come January 2013. Thanks to you and others.

Louis CK withdraws as host of correspondents dinner:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/louis-c-k-withdraws-as-host-of-radio-and-television-correspondents-dinner/

Thanks Greta!

Recently, a bill introduced in Arizona’s House of Representatives proposed requiring advertisers to add a disclaimer on digitally altered photos. The proposed legislation is modeled after laws in Britain, where the Advertising Standards Authority monitors companies for egregious acts of Photoshopping. It also has the power to ban ads.
——

“We are hurting because we don’t have more female politicians. It’s very important for people to be aware of the connection between the degrading images around us and the fact that it’s so difficult for women to be taken seriously as politicians,” said Kilborne, whose renowned film series, Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women, has been remade four times since the 1970s.
——————

“It’s crazy to see how imbalanced it is. We have 87% of the buying power yet we still don’t really have a voice,” said Mullen, 18.
—————————

I have, unfortunately, had cause to be reminded how low the glass ceiling is. Women are coming out of the engineering schools at 20%, but less than 11% remain in the profession because it is so hostile to women.
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/career/employment/why-are-women-engineers-jumping-ship

It situation was very bad and the worse part about it were the women involved who exploited the sexist discrimination for their own special interests. I have seen this before. Alot of the time, I feel that women who are not in male dominated fields are low on empathy for women who are. I feel bad when I cannot help out other women, but I have such a hard time just doing the right thing and holding my own.

Well, I am going to get down in the trenches and fight. Let karma take care of those who sell out. I got some thing to get right and living well is the best revenge.

Ipotter :
Amazing Kilborne utube..thanks for sharing. I’m an advertising victim today.
And I watch this Kilborne video after I’ve put highlighter in my hair and painting my nails (I swear the last time I had painted nails was 20 years ago for a week or so for fun. Lightest lilac on one hand and beige on the other hand and no one is home to see it but my dog. Sheesh..

turndownobama 03.10.12 at 7:37 pm [edit]

@NikkisMom 03.09.12 at 10:12 am

Well, imo a sexist attack that actually accuses you of something (like accusing Palin of faking a pregnancy or mismanaging the delivery of her baby, or accusing Fluke of being a slut or prostitute by ‘asking for money for sex’ or ‘having more sex than she can afford’ or ‘knocking on your door to ask for money so she can have sex with three men that night’) is worse than just using some near-meaningless bad words for body parts that everyone has (t-t, c-t, prick, dick, asshole, etc).
———————-
‘cept, those words cunt, twat, bitch, are not near-meaningless, just as nigger, jungle-bunny, (to my credit, thse are the only insulting words I remember for African Americans, and, no, I’m not asking anyone to volunteer to expand the list.), are not near-meaningless just because they’re, on their face, equivalents for caucasians, cracker, blue-eyed devil, etc., because words carry weight and represent histories of oppression. Calling a dude a prick, doesn’t reinforce the power, depth, nor breadth of the ruling class’s (male) dominance / oppression of women.

It’s the same reason men will degrade men by calling other men ‘bitches’ but you never hear men call women ‘pricks’? To refer to a woman as a ‘prick’ would intimate that women are part of the privileged caste.

You gotta wonder, too, why and when, genitalia came into use as “curse” words. I’m thinking those words, gender divisions, reinforce the gender based power hierarchy. I’m also thinking obne can tell alot about a persons sexual fantasies and or sexual fears/traumas based on the sex based ‘curse’ words they use; motherfucker, being one.

About asking FCC and Armed Services Radio to stop Limbaugh.

http://us.cnn.com/2012/03/10/opinion/fonda-morgan-steinem-limbaugh/index.html?hpt=hp_bn9

Thanks for the Beyonce ad, Freddie. We are so accustomed to products being sold in this way that I’m wondering if it might have a numbing effect on some of us who are older and have been fed a steady diet of it for as long as we can remember. But it is nothing short of soft porn and oh so degrading to women. It becomes embedded in the subconscious that women are only good for one thing, which keeps that glass ceiling in its place.

Received this via email. Sender knows I no longer read comments at hillaryis44.
“Mrs. Smith
March 11th, 2012 at 7:42 am
ShortTermer
March 10th, 2012 at 7:40 pm
Re: Mrs. Smith
March 10th, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Is this not proof postive that the TROLL is an ObaMAO supporter from WAAAAAAAAAYYYYY back? roflmbo
______________
You bet she is.. and she’s NOT even American. She uses Google for historical information regarding Bill and Hillary and anything related to US History. Turndown is NOTHING more than an Obama mole getting paid by the post. She infiltrated Pumapac using them as her vehicle for authenticity and they in turn, use her as their chief disruptor of this forum to advance their misplaced agenda.

OWS is an example of their last failed agenda. Supporting the wrong causes for the right reasons it typical when they step out of their element of expertise… Research is not their strong suit!”
—————————
Can you imagine? Turndownobama rarely comments here, yet pumapac is accused of using her as an agent to disrupt the His44 blog, for which, by the way, Murphy has the greatest respect! Typical spewing of the paranoid “everything is a conspiracy” right-wing freaks.

Seems some of the commenters at His44 need to rationalize almost everything that counters or questions their fallacious claims with facts or a different points of view.

This is a fair example, albeit a relatively mild one, of the reason I stopped reading comments over there. A few loud mouthed chicken little right-wing ignoramuses holding court 24-7 (blog hogs). That, in an of itself, isn’t too unusual, but on a site with Hillary’s name attached to it populated by the antithesis of what Hillary is and stands for, is, in the least, bizarre, and damages the intent, good work of His44 admin, and credibility of the the Hillaryis44 blog.

I rarely agree with turndownobama but I admire her scholarship and, even moreso, her principled stance and stick-to-it-ness in light of the barrage of insults she constantly receives from the lackwitted.

If the bulk of the commenters over there represent those who support Hillary, I can 100% understand some of the reasons the obots ridiculed them, and indirectly, us.

Imo, Hillaryis44 should consider closing comments completely in order to preserve their good standing / credibility. The loudest among their commenters are truly whackadoos and drown out the voices of the moderate and rational commenters.

What a downright shame.

DancesWithPumas 03.11.12 at 1:44 pm
I no longer read comments at hillaryis44.

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

You don’t have to read the comments in order to post a comment. Just go to the bottom of the comments (Ctl-End or just End) and there’s the box. Don’t have to engage with the loudmouths: posting informative articles from elsewhere can restore the balance.

The loud Limbaugh and Gingrich fans post a lot more words, but there are a lot of people reading and occasionally posting that still support Hillary’s issues. Imo it’s worthwhile to keep some liberal/Hillary presence there.

gojoy
Thanks. I haven’t found that to be the case with turndownobama at His44. At least not in the context of countering some of the waaaaaaay far out statements put out there by just a few, albeit the few who dominate that blog. Seriously, it’s as if she’s discounted based solely on the act of posting a link with title; or providing additional info with references. It’s really bizarre, but mostly it’s counter productive.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/10/rush-limbaugh-scandal-proves-contagious-for-talk-radio-advertisers.html
Premiere Networks, which distributes Limbaugh as well as a host of other right-wing talkers, sent an email out to its affiliates early Friday listing 98 large corporations that have requested their ads appear only on “programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity).”

This is big. According to the radio-industry website Radio-Info.com, which first posted excerpts of the Premiere memo, among the 98 companies that have decided to no longer sponsor these programs are “carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm), and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway).” Together, these talk-radio advertising staples represent millions of dollars in revenue.

Valerie Geller, an industry insider and author of Beyond Powerful Radio, confirmed the trend. “I have talked with several reps who report that they’re having conversations with their clients, who are asking not to be associated with specifically polarizing controversial hosts, particularly if those hosts are ‘mean-spirited.’

http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/uswire.asp
3/9/2012 – Update: Number of Companies Pulling Ads from Limbaugh Show up to 50
The internet is on fire with thousands of supporters tweeting, blogging, and Facebooking in support of campaigns to #FlushRushNow. See the Feminist Majority Foundation Campus blog http://feminist.org/news/newsbyte/%E2%80%9C_http://feministcampus.org/blog/index.php/2012/03/02/flushrushnow/%E2%80%9D for an updated list of current advertisers who have not yet pulled their ads for the Rush Limbaugh show.

Turndown…I prefer the free market approach. Yes, don’t buy a product if you disapprove, but a computer generated empty threat endangers free speech, IMHO.

turndownobama 03.11.12 at 4:15 pm
DancesWithPumas 03.11.12 at 1:44 pm
I no longer read comments at hillaryis44.
=================
You don’t have to read the comments in order to post a comment. Just go to the bottom of the comments (Ctl-End or just End) and there’s the box.
************************************

Thanks. I never knew that trick about Ctl-End.
I’ve been on the computer for years now, but I am obviously still learning.

While I think Rush Limbaugh needs to be put in his place harshly and receive what he deserves, I wonder why nothing much was done about Bill Maher calling Sarah Palin a Cunt.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/bill-maher-calls-sarah-palin-the-c-word-during-his-stand-up-act/

I don’t know about you Puma’s here, but I see women as women, not Democrat or Republican. Just Women. If we are to hunt down these egotistical misogynistic men who think it is OK to call us the worst kind of names, we need to do it ALL across the board. It is NOT ok or less offensive if a Democrat calls a Republican woman horrific names because a Republican woman deserves it. NO woman deserves it. FYI, I don’t like Limbaugh and while I think he is a closet woman hater, I think there are others on the Democratic side that seems to get away with it because they are “comedians”.

******BREAKING NEWS******

Hoping to stop the avalanche, the show Syndicator has suspended ALL national advertising for the Rush Limbaugh show for two weeks.

For those that took part and made your voice heard,
congratulations and well done.

DancesWithPumas 03.12.12 at 11:42 am
“Seems to me it would be disruptive, impersonal, and possibly repetitive, to just drop comments / links without reading the existing comments.”

Woops, I’ve been doing that here, sorry. It’s okay at H44, becasue there’s so much traffic.

TDO
I was commenting generally on your suggesting that I drop comments/links at His44. Hadn’t noticed you doing that here, least not anything that caused whiplash.

Third female lawmaker introduces bill to limit men’s Viagra access

Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner is the third female lawmaker to introduce a bill that would limit men’s access to Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs to make a statement about the dozens of anti-abortion bills that have passed statehouses around the country over the last year.

Turner is opposed to a proposed bill that would prohibit abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The Dayton Daily News reports that Turner’s bill would mandate that men seeking Viagra be “tested for heart problems, receive counseling about possible side effects and receive information about ‘pursuing celibacy as a viable lifestyle choice.’”

Turner said on MSNBC Monday that the bill is about showing “men as much love in the reproductive health arena as they have shown us over the years. My Senate Bill 307 is all about the love and making sure we look out for men’s sexual health.”…

According to the abortion rights group the Guttmacher Institute, a record-breaking 92 new abortion-restricting laws were passed in 2011. Two of those laws mandated that women have ultrasounds and look at the images before being allowed to get an abortion.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/third-female-lawmaker-introduces-bill-limit-men-viagra-204340160.html

(((((PUMAs)))))

Work is keeping me busy, but I read the blog everyday! As soon as I get back in a routine I’ll be here.

Miss ya all !!!

Add a line and pass it on….

Some people say that by boycotting Limbaugh’s advertisers we’re depriving him of freedom of speech. No, not at all…. And why not?

10. He can talk all he wants to, just don’t ask us to subsidize his microphone.

9. It’s a conscience issue.

8. He’s knocking on my door asking for chalk to draw dirty pictures with.

7. He can talk all he wants to in a mens’ restroom.

[ Add more please ]

For inspiration, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_Limbaugh%E2%80%93Sandra_Fluke_controversy#Remarks_by_Limbaugh

turndownobama 03.14.12 at 1:30 am

He had/has his freedom of speech when he said/says what he did/does.
We had/have our freedom of speech when we spoke/speak to his advertisers.
The way I see it… it is freedom of speech all the way around.

Surely he would not want to curb our freedom of speech, in response to what he says… right???

invalidresponse 03.14.12 at 5:29 am
He had/has his freedom of speech when he said/says what he did/does.
We had/have our freedom of speech when we spoke/speak to his advertisers.

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

And we have our Free Market rights to buy or not buy from his advertisers.

Dances…Compassion, kindness, inclusiveness, humor, stealth? It’s obvious strongarm tactics have worked for the talented and the connected, not for the average woman trying to survive in this culture. I wish I had the answer to your question.

gojoy
What Freddie said.
and,
gojoyknocks 03.15.12 at 8:37 am
Dances…Compassion, kindness, inclusiveness, humor, stealth?
——————-
With the exception of a few raucous years way back when, women have tried all of what you’ve suggested above, and the powers that be almost depend on us being that way. You see where that has gotten us over the past 40+ years. FORTY PLUS YEARS… and that’s just in my lifetime. Two thirds of my lifetime, as a matter of fact.

I’ll be damned if I want women who are 50 and under, and girls, all girls, to have to keep on fighting these tired old battles. I want them, all of them, to live up to their fullest potential, without being fettered, blocked, and challenged every step of the way by the lesser among us.

And I want boys to learn that there are other ways to live, cooperatively, for one, to co-exist with girls and women. I want both boys/men and girls/women to support and celebrate each other instead of competing with, blocking, defeating, and obstructing girls/women in order to secure some imaginary proof of “manhood” and “superiority” over girls and women. I mean, it’s obviously over-compensating for what they know they lack, but it has a restictive effect on all of our lives.

LOUD AND PROUD! Make noise. Call them out on every sexist / misogynist act, statement, law, etc. That’s my preference.

Barbara Boxer puts together a video in support of electing more women to office. “It is so crucial to elect more women who will stand up for our rights and for the respect we deserve.”

Amazing music by Marvin Hamlisch and Alan & Marilyn Bergman

“A woman’s voice”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2BWEr2S43U

http://www.winwithwomen2012.com

For the past five months my tv has been on 24 hours a day. The 4 hours that I’m on the computer, I listen to talk radio while 2 DVRs are recording, My only respite the 25 books I’ve read. I’m afflicted with bitching and carping overload.
Tomorrow I head back to work knowing I will literally work my ass off for no profit due to the gas prices. I will take solace in the beauty of Mt Desert and the opulence of my clients properties. Unless I am unable to bull my way past the panic attack that is already stating to build.

gojoy,

I abandoned my boycott of TV and began watching several months ago, although I limit myself to weather reports and The Big Bang Theory. Occasionally I watch TMZ (one giant circle jerk) and Law and Order.
On my commute home (two miles) I tune into a conservative station and listen to that for the 15 minute commute. I consider that my cardio-vascular exercise for the day. Once in a while I catch Rush Limbaugh… but I can tolerate him for only 2 or three minutes in any given month.

Even with this minimal amount of exposure I tend to overdose on the arguing, manipulation, half-truths, propaganda. I can’t imagine it as a steady diet for any length of time. To some degree, I understand how it must feel from your point of view.

For Lent, in a non-religious way, I tried to give up politics/political news. I failed, of course, but I have cut way back, and I’m no longer as involved in the frustration and anger of mainstream politics, save as it effects women’s rights and equality. I feel better on many levels and I’m not quite as instantly excitable now.

Best wishes to you for a creative, prosperous, serene season working season.

Dances,

#148 – Excellent point. Many womens voices raised for all women. How does it happen outside blogs? Can’t be BTR either, has to get their attention and in a big way.

Writing is passive and can be easily ignored. An occasion movie doesn’t get viewed, it’s not hip enough for all. I’ve been wracking my brain for an idea.

The message has been diffused and muted. To many ways to communicate that aren’t face to face and the humanity of women becomes a line on a blog that is ignored. Makes me grumpy.

We don’t need men to join our cause, we need women too. Sigh…

May you live a long life Full of gladness and health,

With a pocket full of gold As the least of your wealth.

May the dreams you hold dearest, Be those which come true,

The kindness you spread, Keep returning to you.

-Irish Blessing

HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!

Remember November – Thanks for posting the link # 150. I wish we could post the entire article here.. but it is long. I like that Megan Kelly was quoted as saying in relation to these anti-women pigs ” would they still have a job if they said things that are anti-jews, anti-blacks?” I think not.

Delle #156

I shared your link on Facebook. Thanks.

{ Dances }

Well, her Mall comment was milder than her usual; maybe she’s cooling down. And a couple of the others are about to go away on cruises.

The last day or two, several good lurkers all happend to post on the same day. Now if they’ll just keep that up, the overall atmosphere will be much improved.

DWP,

I know what you mean. H44 has some great posts, but I do not usually comment there and generally do not read the comments.

Turndownobama – Thanks for sharing the link to Bristol Palin:
I wanted to put it out here in case folks don’t click on it and it would be a shame because I feel it is all too true:

Dear President Obama,

You don’t know my telephone number, but I hope your staff is busy trying to find it. Ever since you called Sandra Fluke after Rush Limbaugh called her a slut, I figured I might be next. You explained to reporters you called her because you were thinking of your two daughters, Malia and Sasha. After all, you didn’t want them to think it was okay for men to treat them that way:

“One of the things I want them to do as they get older is engage in issues they care about, even ones I may not agree with them on,” you said. “I want them to be able to speak their mind in a civil and thoughtful way. And I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens.”

And I totally agree your kids should be able to speak their minds and engage the culture. I look forward to seeing what good things Malia and Sasha end up doing with their lives.

But here’s why I’m a little surprised my phone hasn’t rung. Your $1,000,000 donor Bill Maher has said reprehensible things about my family. He’s made fun of my brother because of his Down’s Syndrome. He’s said I was “f—-d so hard a baby fell out.” (In a classy move, he did this while his producers put up the cover of my book, which tells about the forgiveness and redemption I’ve found in God after my past – very public — mistakes.)

If Maher talked about Malia and Sasha that way, you’d return his dirty money and the Secret Service would probably have to restrain you. After all, I’ve always felt you understood my plight more than most because your mom was a teenager. That’s why you stood up for me when you were campaigning against Sen. McCain and my mom — you said vicious attacks on me should be off limits.

Yet I wonder if the Presidency has changed you. Now that you’re in office, it seems you’re only willing to defend certain women. You’re only willing to take a moral stand when you know your liberal supporters will stand behind you.

But…

What if you did something radical and wildly unpopular with your base and took a stand against the denigration of all women… even if they’re just single moms? Even if they’re Republicans?

I’m not expecting your SuperPAC to return the money. You’re going to need every dime to hang on to your presidency. I’m not even really expecting a call. But would it be too much to expect a little consistency? After all, you’re President of all Americans, not just the liberals.

From : Bristol Palin

How much longer do we have to look at those ugly, stupid men in the top post picture?

here is on for my record book. I was fired last night 20 minutes before quitting time. He actually said that when he hired the 4 “young ones”(4 21,22 year old males)He decided after they were trained they would let me go. then quickly added the internet sales were not what they expected….

okay I was salesperson of the month 9 out of 12 months and sales person of the year…… and to top it off I sold 2 cars yesterday. No one else sold anything. I am in such shock, I cannot even move. It is like I am paralyzed. I guess I am officiall too old to be of any good to anyone.

prplvette85 #167

Sorry prplvette85! What they did is just wrong! There are laws about work and age discrimination. They can’t fire you for your age! Your not to old that company is in the wrong!

I have $20.00 I could spare if you need any help.

Email me at candicebritton@candicebritton.com if I can do anything.

Again so sorry. Candice

Haven’t read this but for those who may be interested:

From the author:
“I haven’t posted here in a while, but I just wanted to let you know my novel/political thriller based on the 2008 election is available on Amazon and should be on Barnes & Noble soon. The e-book is $5.99. You might also see it advertised on Daily Caller, Town Hall, NoQuarter and other sites. If you would check it out, and spread the word to other HRC supporters I would really appreciate it. Here’s the description:

“Set against the background of epic dislocation in the financial markets and a supine media, “Admit The Horse” is a gripping political thriller about a dark-horse political candidate whose meteoric rise to the pinnacle of power is engineered amidst illegal campaign contributions, voter fraud and murder. The story’s unlikely players–an honorable Chicago detective, a retired DEA investigator, an idealistic venture capitalist, an African-American congresswoman and a suburban mom volunteering for his opponent–all begin to wonder: was his opportunistic rise to the Presidency all just coincidence…or conspiracy?””

http://www.amazon.com/Admit-The-Horse-P-Abeles/dp/098403143X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332259226&sr=8-1

prplvette85 – I’m so sorry to hear that. It is SO Fricking wrong and I would pitch in $100 to help you get a lawyer if you want to go that route. I think first try your local labor office and see what they say. Age discrimination is what you were handed … especially when he told you that crap. You did nothing wrong and I would also go to the un-employment office to file so you have some income ASAP. Sometimes they last as long as 1 1/2 years to 2 years if you file for extension. I learnt a thing or two from listening to people I try to hire – but depends on your state.

Working in the corporate world in the past, I have seen so many of these cases. Older co-workers let go after many years of service when they’re in their 50′s. That was why I made it my goal to have my own business by age 45, come hell or high water.

freddiebrown 03.20.12 at 9:53 pm
prplvette85

Good thinking. Might talk to some advocates, lawyers, etc first, to get some ideas what questions to ask. The lawyers who advertise a lot in the phone book will often give a lot of general background and advice over the phone — probably on their cells while commuting.

I bought a great little recorder a few years for secretly recording a confrontation, and it worked great. A tenant had a stroke and started accusing me of crazy stuff, so I got this and put it in my pants pocket. Right in the middle of a community center luncheon he stood up and accused me of poisoning the well, cutting his brake lines, and carrying a gun! And I got every word, loud and clear, and transferred it to a CD and played it for the judge.

Good Morning. Thank you all for your help. I was awake all night thinking of what to do. I am taking all of your advice. I am on my way to file a claim at the EEOC this morning. I am also calling my lawyer to see what steps to take. I am also going to all the Ford dealers that were my competitors to see if they have an opening. I have every single newspaper that my picture was in as salesperson of the month. They do an auto section once a month, with the top salespeople from the 12 local car dealerships. I might just go to a competitive brand too. I have sold other brands in the past so I will do whatever it takes. I just cannot be without a job again. It took a year last time to find a job. I cannot let that happen as I used all my savings last time to make it through.

I will let you know how it goes. Thanks to you all for your support. It’s nice to talk to someone who actually cares and knows what it’s like as a woman to go through this.

prplvette85 – If you have such a good track record and you know you have done nothing wrong I hope you take them to task. Keep all your newspaper cuttings. Where I go get my auto is a very large lot and I don’t believe I have ever seen a woman sales person – it is very male centric. Hopefully, they have paid you. If they have not..don’t say anything until before 30 days. Then go to the labor office. Good Luck and don’t back down.

Prplvette85,

Gee, it sound like they are firing a high performing senior female. I sure hope they do not intend to replace you with men of lesser qualifications.

I had quite an experience with our judicial system on discrimination. Of course, that was in Texas during the Bush years. Not only did I have to get my lawyer and play a tape of my supervisor sexually harassing me to get it through the EEOC there, but after a year or so of having the case scheduled for trial, the judge, out of no where, threw the case out on “summary judgement”. Half the federal judiciary there has an interest in the business of the opposing party (Oil&Gas), but there is bubkis you can do about it. None of them recuse. And, by law, they do not have to. I filed misconduct complaints and went to the USSC twice.

My advice on all this is: Check out your judges and make sure they do not have interests in the opposing party. I mean, these guys are so blatant that they list it in their Financial Disclosure Reports. If you have trouble getting reports, these people can help: http://www.judicialwatch.org/courts/us-court-appeals-9th-circuit/

And I left the engineering/petrochemicals industry because it was so hostile to women and returned to a more friendly sector about 5 years ago. Guess what? Although the organization is diverse, my department is male-dominated. And I have multiple kinds of lawsuits against them, too. It is a shame that a woman cannot keep a good job without hiring a lawyer.

Keep fighting. Document. Speak up. And if you don’t get a fair deal, sue the fuckers. Win, lose or draw. I think of my daughter. All my daughters.

As the title at the top of the thread says, ‘Time to get angry’ prplvette85.

HI BillieJO,
Warms the cockroaches of my heart to see you here
How is it going?
I will click on your link later.
Fred wants a walk NOW.

Freddie – love back at ya girl.
Life is tough these days but I still have my job and hoping we get Baracko out of DC no matter what.
I don’t drop by the pac much but I think of you and my PUMAS often.
Hugs to all and Murph.

Purplvette!!!
I am so sorry to hear of your plight, you keep getting knocked down, only thing worse is not getting up. You go get that rat bastard. Fucking men are truly the armpit of the world!

To prplvette85

I tried to send you an email back and it failed. It said address no longer available. If you have a new email address can you send it to me. Email me at
candicebritton@candicebritton.com

Thanks a bunch Candice
—————————————————————

If any one can spare a few bucks I still need donations. It will be used to get my name out to the voters.

The State Democratic Party will not give me the phone numbers or email lists due to them wanting to hand pick their puppet for the voters in CD01 Missouri.

$5.00 adds up. It doesn’t have to be huge amounts.
Please help if you can.
Thank you

Candice,

In some states, the Voter Registration Office (not party affiliated) will have such lists available.

Good luck!

Back to the contraception issue, here’s a VIDEO OF HILLARY at
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2012/02/boom-goes-secretary.html
with transcript by the blogger. Here’s an excerpt:

Text Onscreen: At Senate Hearing, Lautenberg Exchange with Secretary Clinton on International Family Planning | February 28, 2012.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Well, the cost [of cutting aid to contraception] is financial, the cost is in women’s lives, the cost is to undermine what many of the very same opponents claim is their priority, namely to prevent abortions
[....]
Family planning is the best way we have to prevent unintended pregnancies and abortion [....] numerous studies have shown that the incidence of abortions decreases when women have access to contraception.

Candice too bad you don’t live in Lake County Indiana, voter lists abound lol I sent the correct email address, leave off the 85 and add att.net!

I see the idiot is up to no good in Russia, making back room deals with the devils
http://news.yahoo.com/president-obama-asks-medvedev-space-missile-defense-election-101729176–abc-news.html

I am hoping my background check comes through today and I get a new job at a competing Ford dealer, I will actually be able to sell Ford/Lincoln and Mazda, they have 3 dealerships next to each other! Better commission, demo, medical.
I am starting to panic, I don’t like being unemployed!

Dirty Words on Clean Skin: The Real War on Women
Posted on March 27, 2012 by Anita Finlay (“Ani”)

“In 2008, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama waged an epic battle for the presidential nomination that captured the imagination and hopes of millions, but the joy of watching a qualified woman vie for the presidency was marred by newsmen and pundits calling Hillary Clinton a hellish housewife, Nurse Ratched, she-devil and bitch. What I witnessed made the bile rise in my throat from such a deep place, I had to get off the sidelines and take action. I transformed from actor and fearful news junkie to determined campaign grunt and citizen journalist.

DIRTY WORDS ON CLEAN SKIN is my shocking exposé about the real war on women…who’s buying, who’s selling, and why they get away with it.”
::::snip::::
DIRTY WORDS ON CLEAN SKIN transcends party politics and goes far beyond the treatment of one woman to examine the cost of denying equal respect to all women.

DIRTY WORDS ON CLEAN SKIN is available for purchase today on Amazon and soon on Kindle as well. The official book launch will be April 24th. I am so pleased to make it available early for my readers. You have encouraged me, taught me to stand up, to make an argument, and most of all, to understand that my principles are more important than being liked.

I am grateful to you all. Thank you so much for your support of my work!

Article continued at:
http://uppitywoman08.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/dirty-words-on-clean-skin-the-real-war-on-women/

The Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Words-Clean-Skin-Supporters/dp/0615615066/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1332861430&sr=8-1

Heya Caspie!!!
I was just aboput to email you! I’m going RVing at Caspers Wilderness Park and, of course, “Caspers” brought you to mind!
Hope all is well with you and yours!!

Here is the latest press I received from STLToday . Not flattering compared to my other two opponents. I wonder if it is because I am a woman or because I am not rich?

“A third Democrat, Candice Britton, who lost to Clay by a wide margin in the 2010 primary, also has entered the race to represent the merged district.”

They forgot to mention my name is first on the ballot! I thought 20% was great for an unknown first time out candidate!

Link below to full story.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/field-is-set-in-missouri-elections/article_468ed277-9ace-5a8a-92d5-8eb4c07ce05c.html#ixzz1qPxRCUcf

Please donate lets show them what the peoples campaign can do! All money will be used for advertisement to get my name out. Thank you.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/field-is-set-in-missouri-elections/article_468ed277-9ace-5a8a-92d5-8eb4c07ce05c.html

- The woman who always told me “I have your back” tried to give me a bad reference!
-and they told him I quit!
=
Two more items to add to your lawsuit!!

Meanwhile, CONGRATULATIONS on the new job!! It’s super that your stellar reputation preceeds you! You won’t have to kill yourself trying to prove yourself. All in all the new job sounds so much better (and potentially more lucrative) than the last one. Go sell ‘em, girl!!

Please, please, please, can we have a new thread without those ugly stupid men?

prplvette85 #204

Yahoooooooooooo!! Congratulations!! Way to go.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2107952_2107953_2109579,00.html?xid=rss-specials-mobile

Vote for Hillary in a Time Mag. poll.

March 28, 2012
A Poet of Unswerving Vision at the Forefront of Feminism
By MARGALIT FOX

Adrienne Rich, a poet of towering reputation and towering rage, whose work — distinguished by an unswerving progressive vision and a dazzling, empathic ferocity — brought the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse and kept it there for nearly a half-century, died on Tuesday at her home in Santa Cruz, Calif. She was 82.

The cause was complications of rheumatoid arthritis, with which she had lived for most of her adult life, her family said.

Widely read, widely anthologized, widely interviewed and widely taught, Ms. Rich was for decades among the most influential writers of the feminist movement and one of the best-known American public intellectuals. She wrote two dozen volumes of poetry and more than a half-dozen of prose; the poetry alone has sold nearly 800,000 copies, according to W. W. Norton & Company, her publisher since the mid-1960s.

Triply marginalized — as a woman, a lesbian and a Jew — Ms. Rich was concerned in her poetry, and in her many essays, with identity politics long before the term was coined.

She accomplished in verse what Betty Friedan, author of “The Feminine Mystique,” did in prose. In describing the stifling minutiae that had defined women’s lives for generations, both argued persuasively that women’s disenfranchisement at the hands of men must end.

For Ms. Rich, the personal, the political and the poetical were indissolubly linked; her body of work can be read as a series of urgent dispatches from the front. While some critics called her poetry polemical, she remained celebrated for the unflagging intensity of her vision, and for the constant formal reinvention that kept her verse — often jagged and colloquial, sometimes purposefully shocking, always controlled in tone, diction and pacing — sounding like that of few other poets.

All this helped ensure Ms. Rich’s continued relevance long after she burst genteelly onto the scene as a Radcliffe senior in the early 1950s.

Her constellation of honors includes a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 1994 and a National Book Award for poetry in 1974 for “Diving Into the Wreck.” That volume, published in 1973, is considered her masterwork.

In the title poem, Ms. Rich uses the metaphor of a dive into dark, unfathomable waters to plumb the depths of women’s experience:

I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair
streams black, the merman in his armored body
We circle silently about the wreck
we dive into the hold. …
We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to the scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear.

Ms. Rich was far too seasoned a campaigner to think that verse alone could change entrenched social institutions. “Poetry is not a healing lotion, an emotional massage, a kind of linguistic aromatherapy,” she said in an acceptance speech to the National Book Foundation in 2006, on receiving its medal for distinguished contribution to American letters. “Neither is it a blueprint, nor an instruction manual, nor a billboard.”

But at the same time, as she made resoundingly clear in interviews, in public lectures and in her work, Ms. Rich saw poetry as a keen-edged beacon by which women’s lives — and women’s consciousness — could be illuminated.

She was never supposed to have turned out as she did.

Adrienne Cecile Rich was born in Baltimore on May 16, 1929. Her father, Arnold Rice Rich, a doctor and assimilated Jew, was an authority on tuberculosis who taught at Johns Hopkins University. Her mother, Helen Gravely Jones Rich, a Christian, was a pianist and composer who, cleaving to social norms of the day, forsook her career to marry and have children. Adrienne was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church.

Theirs was a bookish household, and Adrienne, as she said afterward, was groomed by her father to be a literary prodigy. He encouraged her to write poetry when she was still a child, and she steeped herself in the poets in his library — all men, she later ruefully observed. But those men gave her the formalist grounding that let her make her mark when she was still very young.

When Ms. Rich was in her last year at Radcliffe (she received a bachelor’s degree in English there in 1951), W. H. Auden chose her first collection, “A Change of World,” for publication in the Yale Younger Poets series, a signal honor. Released in 1951, the book, with its sober mien, dutiful meter and scrupulous rhymes, was praised by reviewers for its impeccable command of form.

She had learned the lessons of her father’s library well, or so it seemed. For even in this volume Ms. Rich had begun, with subtle subversion, to push against a time-honored thematic constraint — the proscription on making poetry out of the soul-numbing dailiness of women’s lives.

A poem in the collection, “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” depicting a woman at her needlework and reprinted here in full, is concerned with precisely this:

Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.
Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

Once mastered, poetry’s formalist rigors gave Ms. Rich something to rebel against, and by her third collection, “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law,” published by Harper & Row, she had pretty well exploded them. That volume appeared in 1963, a watershed moment in women’s letters: “The Feminine Mystique” was also published that year.

In the collection’s title poem, Ms. Rich chronicles the pulverizing onus of traditional married life. It opens this way:

You, once a belle in Shreveport,
with henna-colored hair, skin like a peachbud,
still have your dresses copied from that time. …
Your mind now, mouldering like wedding-cake,
heavy with useless experience, rich
with suspicion, rumor, fantasy,
crumbling to pieces under the knife-edge
of mere fact.

Though the book horrified some critics, it sealed Ms. Rich’s national reputation.

She knew the strain of domestic duty firsthand. In 1953 Ms. Rich had married a Harvard economist, Alfred Haskell Conrad, and by the time she was 30 she was the mother of three small boys. When Professor Conrad took a job at the City College of New York, the family moved to New York City, where Ms. Rich became active in the civil rights and antiwar movements.

By 1970, partly because she had begun, inwardly, to acknowledge her erotic love of women, Ms. Rich and her husband had grown estranged. That autumn, he died of a gunshot wound to the head; the death was ruled a suicide. To the end of her life, Ms. Rich rarely spoke of it.

Ms. Rich effectively came out as a lesbian in 1976, with the publication of “Twenty-One Love Poems,” whose subject matter — sexual love between women — was still considered disarming and dangerous. In the years that followed her poetry and prose ranged over her increasing self-identification as a Jewish woman, the Holocaust and the struggles of black women.

Ms. Rich’s other volumes of poetry include “The Dream of a Common Language” (1978), “A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far” (1981), “The Fact of a Doorframe” (1984), “An Atlas of the Difficult World” (1991) and, most recently, “Tonight No Poetry Will Serve,” published last year.

Her prose includes the essay collections “On Lies, Secrets, and Silence” (1979); “Blood, Bread, and Poetry” (1986); an influential essay, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” published as a slender volume in 1981; and the nonfiction book “Of Woman Born” (1976), which examines the institution of motherhood as a socio-historic construct.

For Ms. Rich, the getting of literary awards was itself a political act to be reckoned with. On sharing the National Book Award for poetry in 1974 (the other recipient that year was Allen Ginsberg), she declined to accept it on her own behalf. Instead, she appeared onstage with two of that year’s finalists, the poets Audre Lorde and Alice Walker; the three of them accepted the award on behalf of all women.

In 1997, in a widely reported act, Ms. Rich declined the National Medal of Arts, the United States government’s highest award bestowed upon artists. In a letter to Jane Alexander, then chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts, which administers the award, she expressed her dismay, amid the “increasingly brutal impact of racial and economic injustice,” that the government had chosen to honor “a few token artists while the people at large are so dishonored.”

Art, Ms. Rich added, “means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage.”

Ms. Rich’s other laurels — and these she did accept — include the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, the Academy of American Poets Fellowship and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

She taught widely, including at Columbia, Brandeis, Rutgers, Cornell and Stanford Universities.

Ms. Rich’s survivors include her partner of more than 30 years, the writer Michelle Cliff; three sons, David, Pablo and Jacob, from her marriage to Professor Conrad; a sister, Cynthia Rich; and two grandchildren.

For all her verbal prowess, for all her prolific output, Ms. Rich retained a dexterous command of the plain, pithy utterance. In a 1984 speech she summed up her reason for writing — and, by loud unspoken implication, her reason for being — in just seven words.

What she and her sisters-in-arms were fighting to achieve, she said, was simply this: “the creation of a society without domination.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/books/adrienne-rich-feminist-poet-and-author-dies-at-82.html

Dances,

Thank you for sharing Ms. Rich with us. I was humbled when I read this statement:

“What she and her sisters-in-arms were fighting to achieve, she said, was simply this: “the creation of a society without domination.” ”

RIP Ms. Rich.

Goofsmom – Congratulations on your first sale !!!
It must be so good.

When I was about 23, a gazillion years ago, I took a job selling Brittanica encyclopedia’s. I sold ONE set to a lawyer. I thought it was a very difficult job but so proud that I convinced someone to shell out the money.

So glad you did it.

“Rest in Power, Adrienne”
upstairs