As UppityWoman says: The choice is death by drowning or death by burning.

Michigan Wimminz Lawmakers Brown & Byrum silenced for saying “vagina” and attempting to regulate vasectomies.
June 15, 2012 by Uppity Woman

Do you remember when Florida State Rep Scott Randolph (D-Uterus) said the obscene word “Uterus” in front of all of Florida’s God and Vagina-Fearing Republicans, and all hell broke lose when the leadership declared that this was an inappropriate and obscene word to say on the floor in front of young pages and visiting children? If you don’t remember that, then read That filthy, disgusting and obscene U-word.

Hell, that was nothing. Now women (you know, those creatures that own the vaginas all these legislators want to regulate) dare not mutter the word, “Vagina” on the same legislative floors where men try to regulate vaginas.

Yes that’s right folks. This is happening right here in the USA.

We have Congress and State legislators and other jerkoffs discussing  and probing our vaginas practically day and night. We have to listen to them discussing our menstrual periods as well (See Arizona regarding a woman being considered pregnant on the first day of her period, even if she hasn’t had any sex and doesn’t plan to; Just in case!). We’ve watched that dickhead Daryl Issa  conduct panel discussions on what to do with women’s reproductive organs while declaring that women are not qualified to testify;  And we’ve put up with about all we can take from the Vatican and their obsession with making as many babies as possible to keep women in that kitchen, in between increasing the flock–whether they want to or not. All of this is happening without input from the actual owners of the vaginas being regulated . This doesn’t seem to appear out of place at all to these  women-hobbling psychos straight out of a Monty Python skit with actors on steroids.

However, don’t one of you wimminz DARE say Vagina yourselves, you hear? Men will decide what to do with your vagina, ovaries and womb and don’t you dare mention it. Your personal parts and processes belong to your government now. Furthermore don’t you dare discuss  Boyz body parts or try to make any legislation that regulates them. Regulations are for you subordinate wimminz not boyz.

Well, Michigan House Rep  and obviously Uppity Bitch Lisa Brown got that all wrong. These damned bitches just are so hard to train, who let them in the chambers, dammit.
It seems that Brown…..sputter… referred to her ewwwwwy vagina on the floor and completely forgot that her vagina is not her own. To make matters worse, her co-conspirator, Rep. Barb Byrum, indirectly referred to men’s parts with Brown’s blessings, which is a definite bad thing because men’s body parts belong to men and women’s body parts belong to men. That was two strikes against this obviously audacious and aggressive woman.

As punishment for speaking out of turn and not submitting to their superiors, Reps Brown and Byrum were barred from speaking on the floor on any issue.

A Michigan lawmaker was blocked from speaking on the state House floor as punishment for referencing her private parts in an earlier speech.

In a Wednesday speech on a controversial bill that would further regulate abortions, Rep. Lisa Brown concluded, “Finally Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no’ means ‘no,’” according to The Detroit News. A day later, House Republicans refused to allow Brown, a Democrat, to weigh in on a school employee retirement bill.

This gets better.

Here you can see how Rep Brown created her own third strike against herself  by supporting regulating the Sacrament of Vasectomy, which incidentally, has to do with men’s reproductive parts and therefore is neither wimminz’ business nor government business in the same way that vaginas are. So she and Rep Barb Byrum were barred from speaking, a punishment akin to Go Stand In The Corner because you displeased the Principal. (And just wait till your father gets home, bad girl! Now fetch me a beer!).

A spokesman for Michigan Speaker James Bolger released a statement explaining that Brown and fellow Democratic Rep. Barb Byrum “will not be recognized to speak on the House floor today after being gaveled down for their comments and actions yesterday that failed to maintain the decorum of the House of Representatives.” (Byrum had tried to introduce an amendment to ban vasectomies except when one’s required to save a man’s life.)

The obviously insubordinate and fractious Reps. Brown and Byrum got pretty sick and tired of this crap, so they had the audacity to hold a press conference of their own. It also appears that some other citizens showed up to support them. But, coincidentally, unless I missed something in this video, none of the Michigan Legislative boyz are very supportive of the concept that vaginas belong to women and men have no right to Regulate them. I don’t see what appears to be one  male State House Democrat in this video. Or maybe they just all had a “prior commitment’ and couldn’t make it to this press conference:
Imagine the nerve of these two broads, fighting back against regulation of their bodies!

I recommend the witch burnings proceed immediately. I suggest they tie bricks on these two wimminz feet, throw them in the river and check to see if they float. But first, let us preview a Committee On What To Do About Women In Our Chambers, led by Michigan House Speaker James Bolger.

(Article republished with permission.)

Margaret Thatcher in 1986, seven years into her 12 year stint as Prime Minister. (photo: Sven Nackstrand/ Agence France)

Was reading this morning in the NYT a preview of the new movie about Margaret Thatcher starring Meryl Streep. Looks like Ms Streep will have to find room on her Oscar shelf for one more statue if the buzz about her performance is true. But what struck me most about the interview with Streep and the director, Phyllida Lloyd (the screenwriter is Abi Morgan, making this a very woman-created film, yay!), was the end:

“Ms. Lloyd said: “So did Margaret Thatcher [hated to be criticized]. But that’s understandable. She couldn’t show weakness. Imagine what the men would have said.” She added: “In parts of England now it’s a transgression even to consider her as a human being. She’s that monster woman, the she-devil. For me the point of the film was to find the human side.” And though hardly a Tory, she said she vividly recalled the moment when Mrs. Thatcher came to power. “Just as I remember not voting for her, I remember sitting in my room at university when the radio announced that she had been asked to form a government, and I went ‘Yes!’ It felt like one for our team.”

Ms. Streep nodded and said: “I did the same thing. We all thought if it can happen in England, class bound, socially rigid, homophobic — if they can elect a female leader over there, then it’s just seconds away in America.”

Oops! It’s been 32 YEARS since Thatcher rose to the office of Prime Minister in England. That’s not a few seconds ago Meryl; it’s actually One BILLION seconds ago, literally (36,556,926 x 32 = 1,009,821,632). We have been waiting a billion seconds because women like you and Ms Lloyd (and Ms Fey and Ms Moore) have not been able to escape the mindless misogyny of  male-dominated liberal and progressive orthodoxy. The mind of the liberal man will always reach first for misogynistic hatred as a weapon against women with whom they disagree and who seem to have a shot at actually attaining power. Why? Because misogyny in our culture is as “natural” and acceptable as slut-shaming, worshipping Mad Men, and loathing Sarah Palin. Why? Because it WORKS.

Ms Lloyd points out that “In parts of England now it’s a transgression even to consider her [Thatcher] as a human being. She’s that monster woman, the she-devil.” Hmmm, sound familiar? (Sarah Palin is not a woman, but a cunt. Hillary Clinton is not a woman, but a big ole’ bitchety bitch. Michelle Bachmann is not a woman, but a crazed chipmunk. Michelle Obama is not a woman but a rabid gorilla (yep racism is the second weapon men will reach for against women with whom they disagree) etc etc etc)

I don’t know why it’s so hard for women to understand this simple concept. If you want a woman president (or senator or mayor or congresswoman) you have to VOTE for the darn women who are actually running for office. You have to give them money if you can, and volunteer time and support if you can. Here’s the hard part: You have to vote for women even if they are bitches, whores, nutjobs, monsters, lunatics, morons, retards, hysterical backstabbers, relentlessly ambitious soulless Stepford wife robots, and cunts. Because to the dudes who run the media and the world, that’s what they ALWAYS are.

UPDATE: I missed Uppity’s post yesterday about the 2 new scholarly studies that prove sexism is what doomed Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign. As Uppity says, duh! But it IS helpful that these studies were done in the first place AND that they are being reported on in mainstream media outlets. And yes, Tweety “Tingles” Matthews was the WORST.

One Year Later – Darragh Murphy

• May 31, 2008. The Day Democracy Died in the Democratic Party « Uppity Woman
And, coincidentally, on the same day, BHO threw his church and pastor under the bus when he officially left Trinity United Church of Christ after 20 years of hearing Goddam AmeriKKKa and similar uplifting spiritual sermons. It’s pretty much been his attitude towards the citizenry his subjects ever…

• Democratic Rules & Bylaws Committee Meeting - C-SPAN Video Library
The Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee considered two separate challenges concerning the seating of delegations from Florida and Michigan at the national convention in Denver. Formal presentations were heard from the challengers and representatives of the Florida and Michigan…

Ickes — Hi-jacked
Harold Ickes tells the Rules Committee just what he thinks about giving Barack Obama 55 delegates for an election in which he did not participate AND 4 of Hillary’s delegates, even thought she did not break any rule.

• Anniversary Wishes to my Fellow P.U.M.A. s « Still4Hill
This beautiful anniversary tribute from Boowitch simply cried out to be shared. On this sad anniversary of the Rules and Bylaws Committee’s flawed, unfair, and undemocratic ruling on 05.31.08, we celebrate P.U.M.A. Solidarity! In all of my many years of witnessing campaigns both victorious and defeat…

• Draft Hillary Clinton as the 2012 Democratic Presidential Nominee– The New Petition
UPDATE: If you signed this Petition prior to Thursday, May 5, 2011, please sign again

• Clinton Favors Female Leadership in the Wake of Male Failure « The Department of Homegirl Security
After a week plus of news littered with sexual misbehavior of prominent and powerful members of the male of the species, refreshing news arises regarding a possible replacement for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former director of the IMF, in the person of Christine Lagarde.

"A Mubarak supporter threw a gasoline bomb during clashes with anti-government protesters." photo: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters

From Nicholas Kristof, who has been in Cairo for the last week:

“Today President Mubarak seems to have decided to crack down on the democracy movement, using not police or army troops but rather mobs of hoodlums and thugs. I’ve been spending hours on Tahrir today, and it is absurd to think of this as simply “clashes” between two rival groups. The pro-democracy protesters are unarmed and have been peaceful at every step. But the pro-Mubarak thugs are arriving in buses and are armed — and they’re using their weapons

In my area of Tahrir, the thugs were armed with machetes, straight razors, clubs and stones. And they all had the same chants, the same slogans and the same hostility to journalists. They clearly had been organized and briefed. So the idea that this is some spontaneous outpouring of pro-Mubarak supporters, both in Cairo and in Alexandria, who happen to end up clashing with other side — that is preposterous. It’s difficult to know what is happening, and I’m only one observer, but to me these seem to be organized thugs sent in to crack heads, chase out journalists, intimidate the pro-democracy forces and perhaps create a pretext for an even harsher crackdown.

I have no idea whether this tactic will work. But the idea that President Mubarak should make the case that he is necessary for Egypt’s stability by unleashing violence and chaos on his nation’s youth — it’s a sad and shameful end to his career. And I hope that the international community will firmly denounce this kind of brutality apparently organized by the government..”

CNN is reporting at least one person killed and more than 400 wounded in today’s clashes. This picture from the NYT is positively medieval in its illustration of how much violence angry men are capable of, and of how profoundly frightening it is.

"Pro-Mubarak demonstrators, below, clashed with anti-government protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Wednesday." Ben Curtis/AP

The attackers, in this image at least, appear to be the anti-government protestors, not the pro-Mubarak “thugs” that Kristof refers to above. If the government was looking for an excuse to order the military to start using violence against the protestors, which I’m confident it was, it looks like they’re all set now to start moving the tanks in.

Violet Socks really hits it home here:

“It’s funny, isn’t it? Men run the world, own almost everything in it, hold almost every position of power, and yet these two women [Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton] —each the first in her party to become a serious contender for presidential office—are somehow responsible for everything bad. Somehow they’re in charge, somehow they’re the worst, somehow they are the fount of evil.

This, kids, is our old friend Patriarchy at work. Or, to be more specific, it’s the remnants of the thousands of years of cultural patriarchy we inherited and are only now beginning to change. Women in a patriarchy must be kept under control at all times. Any woman who escapes that control is, automatically, dangerous. Far more dangerous than any man can ever be, because a) she’s threatening to subvert the proper order of things, and because b) uppity women are unnatural and morally depraved.

This is not top-of-mind stuff; it’s not rational or logically derived. It’s deep-seated, incoherent, gut-level Fear of Women. It’s why the junior Senator from New York was personally blamed for the deaths of thousands of Iraqi babies. It’s why the former Governor of Alaska is now somehow personally responsible for the behavior of a schizophrenic shooter in Arizona. It’s why, in a world still owned and run by men, somehow the most terrifying figures are the handful of women who have crawled to the top.”

Read the whole thing. It’s an excellent reminder of the forces at work here; forces so strong that, less than three days after a violent and deranged man with easier access to a locker-full of automatic weapons than I have to reliable cell service brazenly opens fire on innocent, unarmed people, (mostly elderly women and several children) the national conversation is about how INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS Sarah Palin is.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia leader of the court’s conservative wing, and longest serving justice, told a group of students at Hastings College of the Law (San Francisco), the the US Constitution does not outlaw sex discrimination or discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, you have legislatures,” Scalia said
Forget about the 14th amendment of equal protection because in his opinion women being included was not intended by the authors of the amendment that was ratified in 1868.

“Nobody thought it was directed against sex discrimination,” he said. Although gender bias “shouldn’t exist,” he said, the idea that it is constitutionally forbidden is “a modern invention.”
Read here.

There are far reaching consequences in electing and appointing bigots, I pray that fact is remembered come election day. Revenge may be sweet, but it has an after taste that can stick with you and this country for far too long. Vote in only full equality candidates, and if the party you want in power doesn’t offer them, use your voice and your money to FORCE that party TO OFFER THEM. Is it freedom and justice for all, or just for some?

In strategizing with his fellow (and I do mean “fellow”) members of Journolist, Spencer Ackerman, then of the Nation, was arguing with the group against rising to the bait and either defending or criticizing Jeremiah Wright. He said:

“If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.”

There you have it, Folks. Right out in the plain light of day. Spokespeople and actual journalists, being paid salaries by legitimate news organizations, calling people racists, simply as a STRATEGY. Explicitly. What a bunch of stupid idiots. And lord are they fond of their pretentious cliches: “It’s not necessary to jump to Wright-qua-Wright’s defense,” and “And I think this threads the needle.” Read any of their emails over at the Daily Caller and you can’t help but laugh at their hopeless affectations and their juvenile need to impress the other members of their Super Double Secret Club of Smarty Pantses with their lofty erudition, or at least their familiarity with the most popular cliches of those who want to be seen as lofty, and erudite.

Yuck, yuck, yuck

The caption on this photo (click on the image to see more) reads: : "My grandmother in 1937, cooking breakfast on her honeymoon." I bet the food was delicious and I am a MAJOR fan of grandmothers, as well as eating good food, BUT the picture and the caption illustrate perfectly my deep apprehension about the new "local, organic, whole food" craze. Who the hell is going to shop for, store, cook, and clean up after all this REAL food?

I’m reading Michael Pollan’s new book, Food Rules, whereby he lays out 64 “personal policies” to help wean readers from the deadly Western food diet. I’m a major fan of Pollan; gave copies of The Omnivore’s Dilemma to my family for Christmas a couple years ago, and I completely agree that the over-processed, over-sweetened “edible foodlike substances” that line the supermarket shelves in the United States and fill our shopping carts every week are giving us and our children heart disease, life threatening allergies, cancers, and diabetes. BUT, the basic point underlying Pollan’s bedrock formulation (Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.) is that we should shop, cook, and eat like our grandmothers or great-grandmothers did (especially if our grannies happened to hail from France or Sicily). Which is great and all, but first of all, following this logic to its end will lead most women right back to the kitchen where a 24/7 apron is awaiting us. And secondly, leave it to a damn man to become a multi-millionaire by impersonating a woman and marketing imparting the wisdom of grandmothers. Sigh.

Here’s a bonus picture of a grandmother to perk you back

She looks like an Italian grandmother to me. What did you call your grandmas? What are YOU called by the grandkids? My grandmothers were Gingy and Nana. My mother is Mimi and my stepmother is Nanny to our kids. I will be RaRa when I have grandchildren. How about you?

up.

• Karen Leduc was shot to death by her husband last month because he didn’t like his bank balance.
• A few weeks later Brian Marchand shot and killed his innocent 17 year old daughter because he didn’t like his bank balance. He also shot his wife, Olivia’s mother, but she didn’t die (though she probably wishes she did).
• Michael Khoury shot his horse and then his sick wife hours before their home was to be auctioned. He just couldn’t take the pain.
• Eight women have been murdered since January 1st in Massachusetts alone. (Three more were killed after the article at the link was published).

That list is only for Massachusetts. It doesn’t include this, or this, or this.

Follow the IVProject on Twitter (it’s really excellent) to stay abreast of the daily bulletins from Planet Dude wherein they show us Bitches what’s what.

You may ask, what does this have to do with politics. My answer is: Everything. And until we realize that we’ll continue to be treated like the janitors, social workers, and silent sufferers the dudes expect us to be.