The filibuster is a threat to abortion rights 25SEP24

 AMERICAN women should be the ones who make any and all decisions regarding their individual bodies and that includes decisions regarding reproduction. The only time anyone else should be involved is when a woman ask them to be. Enough of this pro-birth hypocrisy. Please click the link and sign this petition to congress telling them to pass legislation to restore the reproductive rights American women had under Roe v Wade and to have the courage to reform the filibuster if that is what it takes to get this legislation passed. From the ACLU.....

If you've heard the words "filibuster" and "reproductive rights" together lately it's for good reason: Eliminating the filibuster is critical to passing protections for abortion rights nationwide – and a whole host of other fundamental freedoms. Every day, new stories emerge of people across the country suffering due to state abortion bans that deny them needed medical care – including reports just this past week of two Georgia women who tragically died because they couldn't get the care they needed. Meanwhile, almost two-thirds of Americans support abortion rights – yet the filibuster is a massive barrier in the way of the Senate passing bold legislation to protect our freedoms. From filibuster reform to abortion access to contraception, tell Congress to do whatever it takes to secure our reproductive freedom now. Take Action Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the attacks on our reproductive freedom have only gotten worse – with extreme abortion bans at the state level, attacks on IVF, and even birth control on the line. But Congress still has yet to pass meaningful protections for abortion rights at the federal level – despite overwhelming support from voters. The ACLU has been doing all we can in the courts, in statehouses, and at the ballot box to fight for reproductive freedom – but Congress must do its part to ensure abortion rights are protected nationwide. We must urge our representatives to do everything it takes to pass federal protections for abortion care, birth control, and more – and refuse to let the filibuster stand in the way. Sign our petition: Urge Congress to protect our abortion rights. With thanks for all you do, The ACLU Team

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THIS MONTH IN CIVIL LIBERTIES FROM THE ACLU: Trans Rights Are Women's Rights, West Virginia Lawmakers are Pushing Public Schools to Teach Creationism, Judy Heumann's Legacy Lives On, The Revolutionary Power of Teenage Girls, My Conviction Meant 40 Years Without A Vote. Not Anymore., No One Should Face the Death Penalty for Accessing Health Care, My Son's Hair is Part of a Thousand-Year-Old Tribal Culture. His School Called it a 'Fad', How Policy Hidden in an Algorithm is Threatening Families in This Pennsylvania County

 I am proud to be a monthly contributing member of the ACLU and thank God for the work they do defending our democratic Republic!

GENDER JUSTICE FOR ALL

Trans Rights Are Women's Rights As feminists, we reject efforts to appropriate the rhetoric of "women's rights" to inflict life-threatening harm on trans people, men, or women. Attacking trans people does nothing to address the real problems women face. On the contrary, limiting freedom for trans people worsens conditions for all women by re-entrenching the very gender stereotypes that have underpinned centuries of women's oppression and that the ACLU Women's Rights Project has worked for more than half a century to dismantle. Read more

CREATIONISM IN THE CLASSROOM

West Virginia Lawmakers are Pushing Public Schools to Teach Creationism West Virginia lawmakers should be devoting all available time and resources to protecting public school students' educational futures. Instead, they're working to pass a bill hat would exacerbate the crises faced by the state's public education system. If enacted, it would allow public schools to teach intelligent design – a form of creationism – as a "theory of how the universe and/or humanity came to exist." This is unconstitutional – and they know it. Read more

DISABILITY RIGHTS PIONEER

Judy Heumann's Legacy Lives On Judy Heumann, a civil rights titan who spent her life advocating and fighting for integration, accessibility, and dignity for people with disabilities, died on March 4. Her spirit and advocacy will live on in the generation of disabled activists she inspired and empowered to take up the mantle. Here, we remember her tremendous lifetime, and how she ushered forward sweeping changes for disabled people around the world. Read more

AT LIBERTY PODCAST

The Revolutionary Power of Teenage Girls Throughout history, teenage girls have stood on the frontlines for change. But so often, the achievements and contributions of teenage girls and young women aren't documented or are dismissed. A new book, “Young and Restless: the Girls who Sparked America's Revolutions,” by Mattie Kahn, interrupts this cycle of erasure. Kahn joined our podcast to talk about how teenage girls rise up consistently to meet the moment. Listen now  |  More episodes

RESTORING THE VOTE

My Conviction Meant 40 Years Without A Vote. Not Anymore. When Jennifer Schroeder was convicted of a felony, she got 40 years of probation – which meant 40 years without the right to vote. She became the lead plaintiff in an ACLU of Minnesota lawsuit and a leading advocate for legislation that passed this month, restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions like her. Here, she shares her story. Read more

PROSECUTING PREGNANCY OUTCOMES

No One Should Face the Death Penalty for Accessing Health Care It was one of the first things anti-abortion politicians bellowed in the immediate backlash to Roe v. Wade being overturned: Women won't face prosecution for seeking an abortion. They said it because they know that punishing people for making the best decisions for themselves is deeply unpopular. And yet, less than a year later, they are introducing bills that would do exactly that – bills that would allow prosecutors to send women to jail for ending their pregnancies Read more

HAIR AS HERITAGE

My Son's Hair is Part of a Thousand-Year-Old Tribal Culture. His School Called it a 'Fad' Ashley Lomboy's son, a member of the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe of North Carolina, wears his hair long just as male members of his tribe have for thousands of years.. Now, his school says his hair violates their “grooming standards” and is asking him to cut it. With Ashley, the ACLU sent a letter to the school's board of trustees to again explain the importance of her son's hair to his religion and culture, and to ask that he be allowed to continue his schooling as the proud Waccamaw Siouan boy that he is, braid and all. Read more

DISCRIMINATORY DATA

How Policy Hidden in an Algorithm is Threatening Families in This Pennsylvania County Two years ago, the ACLU requested data and documents from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania related to an algorithmic screening tool used by the county's child welfare agency so we, together with researchers from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, could evaluate its design and practical impact. Our analysis revealed startling inequities, finding the tool flagged Black families and households where people with disabilities live could be labeled as higher risk. Read more

CAN YOU FIND WHAT DOESN'T BELONG IN THIS PICTURE?

Personhood now has a 0-5 win-loss record in elections 5NOV14

THE hypocrisy on this issue is very clear. The so called "religious" groups pushing personhood amendments claim to be pro-life. Their policies do not include adequate funding for SNAP (food stamps), health care, education, day care, housing subsidies, job training, unemployment insurance and all the other social safety net programs needed by so many in our country. They do not support raising the minimum wage, a living wage and fair pay for women. These are all pro-life issues benefiting children, women, families, and they are either opposed by or are not supported by these groups. So they are hypocrites. These people and the politicians they support, mostly gop / tea-baggers and some democrats are doubly hypocritical because they also claim they want the government out of their lives except for controlling the reproductive aspects of women's bodies. Fortunately, for now, the American people in every region across the country, regardless of the politics of their state, have rejected by solid majorities every "personhood" amendment put before them on election ballots. Pro-life politics don't end at birth and the American people understand this. So while they may not be voting for funding and doing all the things listed above needed to be pro life they are also rejecting the hypocrisy of the groups and politicians to legislate children being born into poverty, neglect and abuse. This from +Daily Kos .....

Wed Nov 05, 2014 at 07:37 AM PST

Personhood now has a 0-5 win-loss record in elections

by Laura Clawson

Voters rejected personhood measures in Colorado and North Dakota Tuesday night, doing so for the third time in Colorado. In fact, these extreme anti-abortion measures, which put fetuses above women, have accumulated a serious record of rejection:

Before this year's failed initiative, Colorado voters rejected two other personhood ballot initiatives, once in 2008 and again in 2010. In both years, the measures failed by double-digit margins. Mississippi voted on a personhood ballot initiative in 2012. It failed, too, with more than 55 percent opposing the amendment. Legislators have introduced personhood bills in Oklahoma and Virginia but neither passed.

But while personhood has never had an actual life as a law, it's likely to keep rising out of the grave as a zombie, lurching around chasing us on rotten legs. That's because there are a few dedicated extremists who will keep dedicating their lives to this, no matter how soundly their cause is rejected by voters who don't want to see all abortion, in vitro fertilization, and some forms of birth control criminalized. So be ready to see a similar measure resurface in at least one state over the next election cycle or two.

Originally posted to Laura Clawson on Wed Nov 05, 2014 at 07:37 AM PST.

Also republished by Good News and Daily Kos.

Jeb Bush: "What's the Paycheck Fairness Act?" 15OKT14

jeb bush doesn't know what the Paycheck Fairness Act of 2014 is, but why should he? That is not an issue in the circles he move in....well, actually it is, but only in discussions on how to keep defeating it, like it was by filibuster on 15 OCT 14. The 1% crowd, corporate America have a vested interest in keeping women's pay low, they can keep hundreds of millions for themselves doing so. Yet for some unexplainable reason many women, in an act of political masochism, will vote for the very people who are committed to deprive them of earning a fair and equal wage and who are also committed to denying them and their families any social safety net benefits. It just boggles the mind. Maybe this piece from +Mother Jones will change more than a few minds. R emember, it was jeb's mother, barbara "babs" bush who said while visiting the Super Dome in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina who said " everyone I've talked to says, 'We're going to move to Houston.' What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality.

And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them. " It is no wonder jeb doesn't know anything about the Paycheck Fairness Act....
***** UPDATE 17OKT14 I have drawn the ire of a repiglican tea-bagger for my comments posted on Mother Jones via Discus, see the exchange at the end of this post. I think he's just jealous  of my hair....*****

Jeb Bush: "What's the Paycheck Fairness Act?"

—By Andy Kroll

| Wed Oct. 15, 2014 3:01 PM EDT

 Jeb Bush at American Polish Cultural Center in Troy, MI 10 13 14 (VIDEO)

Jeb Bush, one of the GOP's top 2016 presidential prospects, campaigned Monday for Terri Lynn Land, the Republican running for Senate in Michigan. At an event in the Detroit suburbs, a staffer for Progress Michigan, a liberal advocacy group, asked Bush whether he thought Land should support the Paycheck Fairness Act.* Bush appeared not to know what the proposal is.
The high-profile legislation, much touted by Democrats, aims to close the wage gap between men and women. It would beef up legal protections for workers who ask about the wages of co-workers or share information about their own earnings while directing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to gather information on wages from employers. In September, the bill died in the Senate after Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), filibustered it.
The bill has been part of a national debate about the GOP and women, and it has played a prominent role in this Senate campaign, in which Land is running against Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.). Land, who served as Michigan's secretary of state from 2003 to 2010, has been criticized by Democrats—including President Barack Obama—for saying she did not support the Paycheck Fairness Act. Yet Bush didn't seem to know anything about this bill when the Democratic tracker asked about it:

Progress Michigan: Do you think Secretary Land should support the Paycheck Fairness Act?
Jeb Bush: Excuse me?
Progress Michigan: Do you think Secretary Land should support the Paycheck Fairness Act?
Bush: What's the Paycheck Fairness Act?
Progress Michigan: The Paycheck Fairness Act is a piece of legislation that would ensure women receive the same pay as men...equal pay for equal work.
Bush: Equal pay for the same work, not for equal work—I think that's the problem with it. I think there's a definition issue.
Progress Michigan: So you don't think Secretary Land should support it?
Bush: I don't know. You'd have to ask her.

Correction: The original version of this article stated that the tracker who questioned Bush worked for American Bridge 21st Century, the Democratic oppo research outfit.

Andy Kroll

Senior Reporter

Andy Kroll is a senior reporter at Mother Jones. For more of his stories, click here. Email him with tips and insights at akroll (at) motherjones (dot) com. Follow him on Twitter here. RSS | Twitter

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  THE POSTING EXCHANGE NOTED ABOVE
  
  

  

  john silva Craig • 18 hours ago

  You people just strike at the first shiny thing. The act is nothing but political garbage, just before the election! Nobody's falling for this, that's why it's in Mother Jones! you can't go any lower, well, maybe MSNBC, but, still you must be really desperate. Why don't you bring up save the whales and run on that too! Tell us how Republicans hate the Whales, it's true!! I went to a republican meeting, and, they were sitting around counting their money, and, throwing darts at pictures of women going "man I hate them whales!" darn Republicans!!
  

  

  Craig john silva • 2 hours ago

  My, how uninformative your rant is. Nothing disputing the gop / tea-baggers are opposed to equal pay for women, so you are just upset because this is a legitimate issue that the electorate should be aware of and Mother Jones is getting the word out?
  Concerning whales, you be very glad to know I have posted on my blog a call from the NRDC to revoke the permits for oil and gas exploration along the U.S. East Coast, for your reading pleasure http://bucknacktssordidtawdryb...
  

  

  john silva Craig • an hour ago

  You're too stupid to see the sarcasm! I far as the link? no thanks! Your picture is worth a thousand words!
  

  

  Craig john silva • 25 minutes ago

  Oh John, don't hate me because I'm beautiful!!!!!!