Hero of the Week Award: July 12, Judge William Conley

Hero of the Week

This week it is a pleasure to celebrate another judge standing up to the unconstitutional overreach of institutionalized misogyny.

Frustrated by the continued existence of women’s rights to make their own health and reproductive choices, Republican-controlled legislatures around the country are trying their best to create de facto abortion-free zones of their states. Invasive ultrasounds and needless waiting periods aren’t enough. The latest trick is creating cumbersome requirements for doctors at clinics that provide abortions as part of their services.

Wisconsin is the latest, with a new law — signed by charm-free Gov. Scott Walker — that requires hospital admitting privileges, something no other clinics require. Planned Parenthood challenged the law, and U.S. District Judge William Conley sided with them.  Let us remind our selves that Planned Parenthood provides greatly needed health care for women that could not other wise afford simple things like pap smears that test for cancer.

Noting that “there is a troubling lack of justification for the hospital admitting privileges requirement,” Conley placed a stay on the law until he can hold further hearings. Citing Roe v Wade, the judge added “Moreover, the record to date strongly supports a finding that no medical purpose is served by this requirement.”

Judge Conley will no doubt be accused by the so-called  family values crowd of “judicial activism” for actually doing his job. Insisting that access to care must be equitable is the right thing to do. Thank you, Judge Conley, for standing up against the War on Women in Wisconsin–not an easy battle when going up against the racist, homophobic, classist, neo-fascist, Scott Walker.  Mr. Walker, have you no decency?

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Bigot of the Week Award: June 8, Dr. Drew

Bigot of the Week

I need to thank my good friend Jay, a social rights advocate and LGBT ally, for inspiring me to write this article. This week’s bigot is a complicated celebrity doctor. Drew Pinsky, known to millions as Dr. Drew for his many regular media appearances and his shows about battling addiction, is a bit of a conundrum. He spoke out strongly against Prop 8 and allowing people to vote on civil rights. However he also served as an apologist for Tracy Morgan’s homophobic rant, accepting the lame apology while minimizing (although not accepting) the hate speech. He’s also had crazed homophobe Adam Carolla as a guest on his show for no apparent reason.

While he offers good advice about addiction, he is not particularly sex-positive, railing against anal sex and helping build the myth that it is medically harmful. He has also stated that gay men are either tops or bottoms and can’t change.

This week he went off the rails with “ex-lesbian” guest Janet Boynes. A proponent of ex-gay “reparative” therapy based on religion, Boynes is closely associated with the clinic of Marcus Bachmann. She also works with the Anoka-Hennepin school district which has had numerous LGBT suicides resulting from bullying. It’s curious why he had her on the show at all, given that she preaches change in a way that goes against all medical advice. Even worse, he was scheduled to include Jallen Rix, a survivor of ex-gay therapy and sexologist as a balance guest on the show. Instead, Rix was demoted to faceless call-in; Pinsky cut him off and gave Boynes the opportunity to play the religious oppression card as the last word.

REALLY? This is the kind of person that a doctor wants on his show? This is exactly like mainstream media giving hate group mouthpiece Tony Perkins airtime to spew his bile in the name of “balance.” What’s particularly confusing is that Dr. Drew himself made a case AGAINST ex-gay therapy in an interview with Anderson Cooper a year ago. While he was far too apologetic about the “legitimate treatments” that are used for false ends, he sounded opposed to this harmful practice. So now a practitioner of this damaging myth is worthy of airtime? What’s up, Doc?

Dishonorable mention this week goes to the majority voters in Wisconsin who refused to recall their loathsome governor, Scott Walker. His success seems to have hinged on two things. First, of course, is money. Thanks to the Fecal Five and Citizens United, Walker had ten times the war chest that his opponent had. Second, however, was the sense of many voters that a recall isn’t justifiable. If that’s the case, why is it allowed by state law? Badly done, Wisconsin, the state that gave us Sen. McCarthy and Rep. Paul Ryan…

Bigot of the Week Award: April 13, Glenn Grothman and Scott Walker

Bigot of the Week

The recent attention that the Republican War on Women has received sure has the GOP stirred up. They’re so nervous about the factual attention to their misogynistic policies that every third Republican politician and spokesperson seems to be trotting out an obfuscation, false denial, self-hating woman, or irrational explanation to try to distract the American public. That leaves us with an embarrassment of riches on the BWA nominee front!

Thanks to friend and regular contributor James Queale for this week’s winner. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gets the first half of the award for his recent repeal of his state’s equal pay act. Wisconsin women earn even less on the dollar (75 cents) than the U.S. average and, thanks to Walker, have lost a valuable tool in fighting unfair pay practices. Given Walker’s anti-woman and anti-worker behavior since taking office, this awful act is hardly surprising. As an added twist of the knife, the repealed act also provided pay protection based on race, age, and sexual orientation, so he got to smack down all his party’s favorite targets in one swipe of the pen.

Perhaps more nefarious (in this case) is Wisconsin state Senator Glenn Grothman. He led the efforts to pass the repeal bill in the legislature so that it could get to Walker’s desk. Celebrating its passage, Grothman demonstrates his malice and ignorance in a horrific blame-the-victim approach:

Take a hypothetical husband and wife who are both lawyers. But the husband is working 50 or 60 hours a week, going all out, making 200 grand a year. The woman takes time off, raises kids, is not go go go. Now they’re 50 years old. The husband is making 200 grand a year, the woman is making 40 grand a year. It wasn’t discrimination. There was a different sense of urgency in each person… You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.

What a great way to avoid looking at all the societal factors that lead to this hypothetical scenario, not to mention the absurd notion that all men are working 60 hours a week while women wimp out and stay home. Oh, and men have more financial sense than all those silly women! He also is flat-out wrong about the breadwinner scenario — despite pay inequity, 2/3 of American households have women as primary or co-breadwinners. Can’t let a little thing like facts get in the way of rolling back rights, though, can we Glenn?

Hero of the Week Award: January 20, One Million Strong in Wisconsin

Hero of the Week

This week we are happy to celebrate people power in the face of oppression from elected officials.  Just when I was losing faith in Americans with all this bashing of President Obama and the celebrating of bigoted millionaire Republican presidential candidates, we see a glimmer of hope in Wisconsin. Activists in that state have compiled 1,000,000 signatures on a recall petition for Gov. Scott Walker after his relentless efforts to destroy collective bargaining and crush public employees. This is nearly as many signatures as there were votes cast for Walker in 2010 and 185% of the number needed to move forward with the vote. Simultaneously, petitions were filed with generous numbers of signatures to recall the Lt. Governor and four Republican state senators. Only two other Governors have ever faced recalls in American history. Both of them lost their offices. Let’s hope Scott Walker makes it three for three. You can find a good overview of the recall efforts at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Honorable mention this week goes to the great Internet blackout efforts in protest of SOPA and PIPA. Wikipedia, one of the most aggressive participants in the blackout, has a great overview. Because of the attention this work drew, Senate support of PIPA has totally eroded and the House has temporarily tabled SOPA. What a great week for activism!

Number 3 Bigot of the Year Award 2011: The Ruling Class

Number 3 Bigot of 2011

The Ruling Class or what is now better known as the 1% of Americans who control both the power and distribution of wealth in the United States received many nominations.  I think Sara, a regular TSM reader, put it best when she said:

…the U.S. Ruling Class, which upholds and promotes white, male heterosexual patriarchy throughout the world — at the point of a gun where it can get away with it and with pious proclamations of patriotism and self-righteousness at home. Shamelessly!

I will add to what Sara said and talk more specifically about the distribution of wealth and power in the United States and disproportionality.

ONE % of the population controls 47% of the net financial wealth of the country; the next 19% control another 44% of the wealth, which leaves 80% of the population of the country to try and get a share of the only 9% remaining wealth and resources available–not exactly a wise distribution of power.

The grossly disproportionate distribution of wealth aligns directly to the distribution of power. It is not a great surprise that the 1% is composed of mostly white, heterosexual men who identify as Christian. What is sad is that this 1% is clearly out of touch with at least 80% of the population of the country.  What is worse, is that there is a growing trend of much of the 80% voting against their best interest, due to fear rooted in religion.

It is not a big surprise that our current House of Representatives is composed primarily of the top 2% that hold wealth and power and continue to vote against women’s rights, LGBT rights, immigration rights, and yet call themselves patriots.  The currently Republican-controlled House of Representatives also put up barriers for average Americans by trying to block President Obama’s payroll tax cuts.  These are the same group of avarice that threw temper tantrums to protect the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% of Americans and demanded full health care–damn the rest of Americans who cannot afford health insurance.

The Ruling Class should be known as the class of  “I have mine–I don’t give a damn about anyone else,” now that is the American way!  It is easy to see why the Ruling Class in the United States earns the #3 Bigot of the Year Award for 2011.

Flashback to 2010:The Number 3 Bigot of 2010 was shared by NOM and Iowa Voters.

Stand For Children Turns All Scott Walker on Youth and Teachers

Jonah Edelman: "I Love A Tea Party"

Thank you to my friend Allen for sharing this sad and disappointing news regarding the turn of events at Stand For Children.  I have always been a strong advocate for Stand For Children.  Now I fear the leadership, or lack thereof, by Co-Founder Jonah Edelman proves at odds with the mission of Stand For Children:

Our mission is to use the power of grassroots action to help all children get the excellent public education and strong support they need to thrive. Our members believe we need to stand up for our children now – particularly for their education from pre-school through high school – to create a better future for America.

Exactly how does one advocate for teachers and children when one takes away collective bargaining rights?  How can one be advocating for children while putting so much power with corporations and school boards that take away the voices of teachers?  Edelman seems to have observed Scott Walker and was inspired rather than disgusted.

Sorry Edelman, but you can’t run an organization based on advocacy of civil rights for youth, and deny civil rights for teachers. Dismantling unions and putting all power with the school board runs contrary to the civil rights movement. How very sad that what was a great agency is now in bed with the Tea Party. While Edelman has apologized for his arrogance, he has not altered his views! Click here to see the entire video.  I know it is long, but it is worth seeing and shares some rather disgusting and unfortunate information.

GOP’s Family Values: Bribe Them with Booze

Booze, Bribes, Moral Bankruptcy

Those whacky madcap Republicans in Wisconsin turning to “the drink” to solve its problems.  Yes, Scott Walker and his little tea party are getting nervous, as they should.  Recall protests continue and it does not look as though even the Koch Brothers will be able to control the civil unrest of the oppressed unions and laborers of Wisconsin.  In a desperate and feeble attempt to turn the tables, the lobotomized Walker supporters have collected enough signatures to try and recall three Democrats as well–let us know how that goes: Republicans apparently had to give out free shots of booze to get enough signatures against the Democrats. Now that is Democracy at work–let me buy your support with a drink.  I wonder if that will be the new GOP slogan for 2012?  Click here to see the article and the video on Rachel Maddow’s show.

Walker and Koch Brothers: Pollute Wisconsin

Walker and Koch: Polluting Wisconsin

Just when you think you can not despise Scott Walker and his bed fellows: the Koch brothers and David Prosser anymore than you already do, we continue to find out information that makes them even more nefarious. At this point, most people are painfully aware of the deals Walker made with the Koch Brothers to crush public employee unions, but now we also know that Prosser and Walker worked to allow Koch’s  Georgia Pacific paper plants to pollute Wisconsin by pouring thousands of pounds of phosphorus into the water.  A report by the state government showed that Georgia Pacific is responsible for about 9% of total phosphorus pollution in the Lower Fox River near Green Bay. People of Wisconsin, let us all hope you can recall Walker.  Click here to see the full article.

Women’s History: April 10

Celebrating Dolores Huerta

Happy Birthday, Dolores Huerta.  Huerta is best known as a labor leader, social activist, and social reformer.  Huerta and Cesar Chavez together formed the Farm Workers Association, which eventually became United Farm Workers (UFW). I would specifically like to highlight the 1965 Grape Boycott, where Huerta took the plight of the farm workers to the consumers. The boycott resulted in the entire California table grape industry signing a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the United Farm Workers in 1970. Yes, that’s right the power of collective bargaining!  Stripping workers of any collective bargaining rights is simply unconscionable–Scott Walker, Paul LePage, and John Kasich.  Is it a coincidence that all three are white wealthy men living off the sweat of the workers?

Huerta has always been a political activist and became a strong Latina feminist voice in the late 1960 and early 70’s. While attending a peaceful protest against President Bush Sr. in 1988, she was severely injured when police clubbed the demonstrators. I celebrate Dolores Huerta today and hope we have a new generation of laborers and social activist that will drown out the voices of the pigs that are the Koch Brothers and their ilk.

Bigot of the Week Award: March 25

Bigot of the Week

The Tea Party Brew grows more bitter with each passing day. Unfortunately, Scott Walker and Rick Scott have shared some tea/Kool-aid with Maine Tea Party Gov. Paul LePage (R).  LePage’s latest move to order the removal of of a 36-foot mural depicting Maine’s labor history from the lobby of the state’s Department of Labor offices, claiming they received “some complaints” from business owners, earns him this week’s BWA.

But wait! It gets worse. LePage goes even further to prove that this is now Corporate America and workers are immaterial–slaves really, if you will.  Yes, LePage also ordered eight conference rooms named after labor leaders — including Cesar Chavez— to be renamed. Perhaps we can call one of the conference rooms Koch Industries or Haliburton.  LePage is the same governor that supports rolling back child labor laws.  Bravo!  We don’t need to educate our youth.  Better they learn a trade. I hear 10 year olds make perfect coal miners. Here is a great quote from the Portland Press Herald:

This is political payback, the opposite of putting people first. It’s a spiteful, mean-spirited move by the governor that does nothing to create jobs or improve the Maine economy.

Is anyone paying attention out there?  Wake up America. The Tea Party is not about creating jobs or helping Americans; it continues to prove it is the party of Rich White bigoted Christians!  Time for a recall!  Here are two sources to read for further information. Click here and click here.