From NOEBIE.net
In 1920 these suffragettes from the National Woman’s Party unfurled a banner at the Republican National Convention in Chicago.
The banner displays a quote from Susan B. Anthony. “No self respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her sex.”
On this International Women’s Day 2012, perhaps it’s appropriate to reflect on what progress, if any, has been made over the past century.
Another reason I won’t be voting for Obama in 2012:
White House gives blessing to partial Keystone XL pipeline construction. [The Hill’s E2-Wire] – The White House backed TransCanada Corp.’s bid to build a major portion of the Keystone XL oil pipeline Monday, a move that could shield President Obama from growing GOP attacks over the project.
On September 12th, 1960, Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy addressed a group of Protestant ministers at the Rice Hotel in Houston, Texas. Many Protestants in the United States (particularly in the South) had expressed concern that a Roman Catholic President would be a mere puppet of the Vatican. Senator Kennedy went into the lions’ den to address the issue directly.
Here is a short excerpt.
I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end – where all men and all churches are treated as equal – where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice – where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind – and where Catholics, Protestants and Jews, at both the lay and pastoral level, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.
That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe – a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.
This speech is getting some attention once again in the 2012 Presidential campaign, as Republican contender Rick Santorum (also a Catholic) has condemned the sentiment in some very strong terms.
Thank you, Rick, but I hold with JFK.
You can watch a video of the entire speech at the following link.
Address of Senator John F. Kennedy to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, September 12, 1960. [John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum]
Experts Say Iran Attack Is Irrational, Yet Hawks Are Winning the Debate. [Peter Beinart | The Daily Beast] – From the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to the head of Mossad, the experts are speaking out against attacking Iran over its nuclear program, but hawks like the GOP presidential candidates are drowning out the warnings.
Julie Rovner writes on the NPR Health Blog:
There’s been no let-up in the debate about the Obama administration’s rule requiring most employers to provide prescription birth control to their workers without additional cost.
Here’s the rub: The only truly novel part of the plan is the “no cost” bit.
The rule would mean, for the first time, that women won’t have to pay a deductible or co-payment to get prescription contraceptives.
In fact, she notes, employers have for the most part been required to provide contraceptive coverage as part of their health plans since December of 2000.
Read More: Rules Requiring Contraceptive Coverage Have Been In Force For Years : Shots – Health Blog : NPR.
So, can someone please explain to me how providing coverage with a deductible or co-pay doesn’t violate “conscience” but providing it without a deductible and co-pay does?
From Gung-Ho to Uh-Oh: Charting the Government’s Moves on Fracking. [Lena Groeger | ProPublica] – Fracking has only recently become a household word, but government involvement with the drilling technique goes back decades. ProPublica’s chart traces officials’ moves, and levels of caution, over time.
For those who don’t mind profanity-laden political analysis:
Rick Santorum Primary Victories – Rick the Dick’s Delegate-Deprived Embrace by the Base. [Charles Pierce | Esquire] – Last night, with no delegates to their national convention on the line, and with the attention of the country largely elsewhere, the Republican base arose in Missouri, and in Minnesota, and in Colorado, and it delivered one unmistakably clear message to the party, and to the nation at large.
The Jane Addams Hull House Association, one of the largest non-profit social service organizations in Chicago, abruptly shut down on Friday, January 27th.
Shane Feratu and Scott Martin (for the website of the Fourth International) write:
Millionaires and billionaires abound in the Chicago region, but not even a few million could be raised to ensure an orderly closure of a historic charitable institution, let alone sufficient funds to sustain it. The era when the bourgeoisie and its institutions sought to veil social problems through reform has passed into one of austerity, when social spending is seen as a drain on the wallets of the wealthy and will no longer be tolerated.
Read More: Chicago’s Hull House closes after 120 years of service. [WSWS]
January deficit fell sharply to $27 billion: CBO. [Reuters] – The budget deficit shrank by nearly half in January compared to a year earlier as tax collections from individuals rose and outlays fell, the Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday. The CBO said it expects the Treasury Department to report a $27 billion deficit for January, versus a $50 billion deficit in January 2011. The January budget gap will bring the total deficit for the first four months of fiscal 2012 to $349 billion, a decrease of about $70 billion from the same period of fiscal 2011.
‘Secret money’ is funding more election ads. [Dan Eggen | The Washington Post] – More than a third of the advertising tied to the presidential race has been funded by nonprofit groups that will never have to reveal their donors, suggesting that a significant portion of the 2012 elections will be wrapped in a vast cloak of secrecy. The bulk of the secret money spent so far has come from conservative groups seeking to propel a Republican into the White House, advertising data shows. Read more.