If you're going to call about HR3: a script via Sady Doyle

With a crappy piece of legislation like this - where the hate and cruelty are almost too much to bear - it helps to have a script when you're calling. Luckily, Sady Doyle provides one:

Sady Doyle - Script for Calling the Democrats Who Support HR3

I think it's still a little too long (staffers appreciate brevity) so I would cut it a little shorter, after you ask for the staffer who handles healthcare or women's issues:

1. Mention the bill # right away so it's at the top of the message: Hi, I'm calling to leave a comment about HR 3.

2. Tell the staffer what you want the Rep to do (again, so it's at the top of the message): Please oppose HR3.

3. Then boil it down to your top 3 bullets so they can summarize it for the legislator or the main staffer on this issue:

Going beyond Hyde, in an unprecedented way, HR 3 strips current rights from rape survivors, women and girls who need abortions.

HR 3 redefines rape to mean only sexual assault involving 'force' will be covered, contradicting existing statutes that already defines sexual assault. Sexual assault statistics and rape victim advocates show that 70% of rapes aren’t “forcible.”

HR3 also makes it much harder for women to purchase private insurance that may include abortion services, harder for companies to cover women who need abortions, and strengthens “conscience” clauses, which means doctors can refuse to provide critical reproductive medical care to women at any time. It is discriminatory.

4. Then give your contact information and let them know you expect a response: I look forward to hearing from the Congressman on this matter.

5. Thank them and hang up.

Pass it on.

what the heck, carol?

Carol Moseley Braun Says Opponent Was 'On Crack' While She Was Starting A Business (VIDEO):

There are some things one shouldn't do, while running for office:

- be exposed as a girlfriend beating nutjob (hello, Scott Cohen)
- carry on with your filmmaker girlfriend while your wife battles cancer then pass off your love child as your campaign manager's (hello, John Edwards)
- throw your opponent's past drug habit in her face even though she kicked it, moved past it and became a better person despite it (what the hell, Carol?!?)

Carol is off the reservation. I don't know if she thinks she's emulating Daley's charming habit of saying whatever runs through his brain, like the crazy uncle at dinner, but this was just wrong.

And rude.
And tacky.
And graceless.
And .... bitchy.

And also didn't answer the question.

the first thing they do

The New Abortion Wars - A Highly Intrusive Federal Bill - NYTimes.com

The above link is to a very thorough round up of the scope of HR 3, a remarkably intrusive, burdensome piece of anti-woman and anti-choice legislation from the GOP (and a short but significant list of Dems.)

I find it very interesting that with unemployment still high and economic stability still tenuous, as well as several foreign policy hot spots flaring up here and there, what does the male-led GOP want to spend its time and treasure on?

Preventing women from creating the families we want and controlling our own fertility and family planning - and punishing rape victims, to boot, by redefining rape to the benefit of rapists.

Once again, the single-minded concentration they direct toward preventing women from exercising our autonomy blinds them - and endangers the stability of our country overall.

They need to be stopped.

Peacefully, civilly and non-violently, of course.

this is what i mean!

Via Capitol Fax.com » Can’t anybody play this game? (on Carol's befuddling mayoral strategery):

"For reasons unknown to mere mortals, Carol Moseley Braun extended the media coverage of her initial refusal to release her tax returns by dribbling out a bit more information yesterday. And she actually plans to keep the story alive by releasing more information sometime today…

Carol Moseley Braun on Wednesday released longer versions of her 2008 and 2009 tax returns, expanding on the two-page summaries she put online the day before.

Her disclosure brought her closer to matching two of her mayoral challengers: Rahm Emanuel and Gery Chico, each of whom has released five years’ worth of tax returns. Braun’s campaign indicated she plans to make her 2005, 2006 and 2007 returns available as soon as today.

This is just pure torture. Why would anybody operate this way?"

It's like peeling off a really stuck on band-aid. Do it quick and it's all over; the media will move on to something more positive. Do it sloooowly and the pain lingers.

wow.

How to bounce back | Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist

In all my years of blogging, even at Bitch Ph.D., there may have been a few moments where my sharing approached a certain line. I've written about getting my period, mom's death, weight (even giving my actual weight!), race, sex, boys, my new relationship, hooking up and God, but I've really tried to maintain some distance between a public and private persona. Mostly, I've created this line because I just don't want to deal with judgmental assholes.

In other words, there are some things I will never write about.

(Last month, I tried to write about something I'm still trying to process and the post still sits in the draft box. It's too much for here, for me.)

Brava to Trunk for sharing and being brave enough to share like this. I think writing, even for a blog, requires a level of self-honesty and bravery. But -- yikes.

I don't think I could endure this kind of comment.

oh, carol. you're losing me.

Just because I have brown skin (and breasts) does not mean I'm voting for Carol Moseley Braun for Mayor.

I think I'm even supposed to be one of her target demographic: woman of color, professional, educated, tired of old boy politics, pro choice, progressive, feminist-y, and modern. But I'm not digging Carol's style right now. Her campaign style is definitely not...modern. It's a mish mash of crankiness, recalcitrance, bull-headedness and iron-fisted charm. If her campaign was a CEO, I'd hate to work for her.

Am I supposed to be impressed she convinced Meeks and Davis to drop out? I wonder if their capitulation was due to her directly or the result of inevitability? Rev. Meeks insulted gays, women, Latinos, Asians, and people who knew gays, women, Latinos and Asians. Danny Davis is old (this isn't me being ageist; he's seriously old. Grandfather old. He won't make it!). And he's a demigod in his district. Why would he trade in his demi-deity to paint a target on his back as Mayor of a city with a huge deficit and mounting infrastructure issues? Does the fact she's the last black woman standing mean I'm ready to vote for Carol?

Not really.

To be honest, her reliance on tired Old Black Dude (OBD) traditions makes me, a modern brown woman, even more tired. The OBD circuit is not where I come from. For once, can't we ignore that old dog/pony church circuit show? As the daughter of a pastor, I don't know what's more insulting: politicians polluting a church with their shilling, or pastors allowing them to do it. And watching her play 'gotcha' games (like the flip flop about the tax return) with the media is not helping me. Neither is her futile crusade against the parking meters. (She want to sue because it was a bad deal? They didn't pay enough? I think that milk is spilt.) Her comfort with the OBD circuit ages her - and alienates me.

Is the OBD circuit emblematic of what her administration would be?

Chicago is a city of neighborhoods, but has Braun left hers? Perhaps that's a little unfair of me, but I see a woman in her very well kept Hyde Park home, occasionally venturing out to give a few speeches and raise some money during a luncheon. She's a genteel lady who lunches -and I'm not.

The communicator in me believes in stories - not so much campaign cliches - but narratives of a vision. But what's Carol's story? What's her vision? Will she put Chicago on the path of something new or does she think it's good enough just to maintain the status quo? Where does she see Chicago going and how will she steer it? And why her? What's her value proposition? I've read her site (after weeks of searching for it) and all I can think of is blah blah blah.

On Christmas Eve, M- and I were having lunch somewhere in the art gallery district and overheard some regular guys talking about the Mayoral race. One of them said, 'She's a nice lady. But she just wants a job.'

Ouch.

Folks like me want to know what's inside the package. Black ministers don't do it for me. Neither do the unions. Who are the thinkers, the doers, the innovative creatives who are going to help you get Chicago back on track (if you think the wheels have come off.) When Chicago is threatening to fracture into sectarian groups again, how is she going to engage the whole public to rally around her, as the symbol of this city?

I'm the public, Carol, and you're losing me.

i seriously pulled this day out of my ass and made it gleam like a turd covered in gold.

asshat of the day: MABIL

He didn't show at his and my sister's divorce hearing today. They waited THREE hours for his drag-ass to show up. So now she has to remain married to his janky ass another month and a half! I bet he's trying to find another lawyer to help him recoup from the mediator last month.

Guess who I could kick in the balls right now?