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right wing extremism
Komen Swerve to the Right Great for Planned Parenthood...not so much for Komen
The Susan G Komen Foundation, under the blind guidance of their right wing extremist VP, Karen Handel, and the Bush Administration official Ari Fleisher, really screwed up by politicizing their message. Their biggest strength has always been their ability to appeal across the political spectrum. By taking a clear swerve to right wing extremism, thy have within a matter of days destroyed their support base and it could be years before they recover.
I got an email this morning from friend and blogger Sidnora, a LONG TIME supporter and activist for the Komen Foundation. From what I can tell, her response is typical of what Komen has created for itself. I am quoting by permission:
Dear friends and supporters,
Breast cancer has no politics.
For more than a decade, I have been known as an active supporter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. This commitment arose from deeply emotional personal events. I have solicited sponsorship from you for my annual participation in their Race for the Cure, and many of you have responded with great generosity. Over the years, we raised over $10,000 dollars intended for breast cancer research, screening and treatment.
While doing this, I was aware that the founder and CEO of Komen, Nancy Brinker, is a prominent Republican and Bush Administration appointee. I am an outspoken Democrat, but I always felt that this was a cause that transcended ideology, and willingly put my partisanship aside in the interest of pursuing a greater good together. I have no regrets for having made that effort, and I don't think you should, either. We can be reasonably sure that, on the whole, we did good, not harm.
Breast cancer has no politics.
What many of you may not know is that I have a far longer history with Planned Parenthood. As a teenage college student with little money or privacy, I had my first gynecological exam and received my first contraceptive prescription from Planned Parenthood. It was free and confidential, and I was treated with respect. For enabling me to make the transition to womanhood with confidence about my health and my future, I will always be grateful to them. 45 years later, they continue to pursue their mission, providing millions of women, mostly young and poor or uninsured, with a full range of women's health services. I wholeheartedly support that mission.
In light of the Komen Foundation's recent decision to defund Planned Parenthood, its obviously political motivation, and their clumsy and disingenuous attempts at managing the nationwide public outrage that followed, I find that can no longer associate myself with them. I make this decision despite the fact that Komen has reversed themselves and will continue to fund Planned Parenthood, at least for now. Revelations about the hiring of Karen Handel, former gubernatorial candidate from Georgia and avowed enemy of Planned Parenthood, and the involvement in that hiring by Ari Fleischer, George W. Bush's press secretary, have destroyed my trust in them. They also directly conflict with my commitment to the advancement of women's health.
Breast cancer has no politics.
I plan to continue that commitment, and will be researching to find a breast cancer organization that I can support with confidence. It is essential that my efforts, and your contributions, will be put to our intended purpose and no other. I will keep you informed of my progress, and I hope you will continue to support my advocacy. If you would like to discuss this decision with me in greater detail, I would welcome that. Feel free to contact me.
Breast cancer has no politics.
What is key here is the fact that this isn't a fight between right and left. This is a battle to stop the deliberate politicizing of breast cancer by right wing fanatics. This is a battle to prevent right wing fanatics from destroying the effectiveness of the Komen Foundation in the name of a right wing agenda. Keep in mind these are the same right wing fanatics who oppose science and research funding at every opportunity, so Komen is allying itself with the very people who hurt scientific funding year after year. The Komen Foundation HIRED A BUSH ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL in preparation for this policy. They were deliberately politicizing their agenda. The reaction was not a leftist reaction, it was a reaction against politicizing breast cancer. read more »
Mayor Bloomberg on why Cordoba House and Religious Freedom are important to New York City
You all know that I am not a fan of Michael Bloomberg. That is not going to stop me from applauding him when he is 100% right on an issue such as the building of Córdoba House two blocks Ground Zero.
Thank you Mayor Bloomberg, for voicing your opposition to the Islamophobe bigots with such a loud and clear voice.
From Mayor Bloomberg Stands Up For Mosque »:
Our doors are open to everyone – everyone with a dream and a willingness to work hard and play by the rules. New York City was built by immigrants, and it is sustained by immigrants – by people from more than a hundred different countries speaking more than two hundred different languages and professing every faith. And whether your parents were born here, or you came yesterday, you are a New Yorker.
We may not always agree with every one of our neighbors. That's life and it's part of living in such a diverse and dense city. But we also recognize that part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance. It was exactly that spirit of openness and acceptance that was attacked on 9/11.
No one should be asked to leave their neighborhood. This is our neighborhood and we've been part of it for 27 years. Our opponents are not from this neighborhood.
read more »
Rush Limbaugh's Nazi Rhetoric Must Stop
Rush Limbaugh loves to call Obama a Nazi. To me this shows either Rush has no concept of history or he is deliberately lying, because there is NO RESEMBLANCE between Obama's policies and Nazism. I seriously think Rush needs to read the classic history The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
The National Jewish Democratic Council is sick and tired of Rush's ignorance and/or deliberate deception and are demanding that Rush stop his irresponsible Nazi rhetoric. From the NJDC:
Rush Limbaugh has engaged in some wild right-wing antics over the years. But yesterday he compared President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Hitler and today his website has the logo of the president's health insurance reform plan morphing into a Nazi graphic replete with Swastikas. read more »
Desperately Seeking Status
Updated Dec. 6, with video link post jump.
Envy, we’re told, is a sin. I’m full of it. I lust for recognition as an enemy of the right. When, many years ago, Mr. Nixon’s enemies list came out, I and many of my cohort were were enraged. We were omitted from the list and we envied those who made it.
Recently events conspired to bring me back into touch with a former girlfriend. Catching up, complaining of the wear that time and children had worked upon us, she found something important to brag about.
Her brother – also a Jewish lawyer named Danny – active in favor of peace between Israelis and Palestinians, had been placed on a list of Self-Hating or Israel Threatening Jews (you can work out the acronym without help from me). read more »
Right Wing Idiocy: Obama as Muslim...and "exterminate Jew power"
In my continuing coverage of Republican racism and anti-Semitism, one of the stupidest Republican memes was "gee, uh, duh, isn't Obama a Moooslim?"
My first reaction was "so what if he was?" Why couldn't a Muslim be an American leader? But that is beside the point. There has never, ever been the slightest evidence that Obama was Muslim.
Those who listen to this lie and believe it are, quite honestly, abyssmally stupid or amazingly gullible.
But who originated the "duh...Obama is a Moooslim" lie?
Seems an unstable anti-Semite, named Andy Martin, started it. And Fox News let this unstable anti-Semite assert lies without questioning him...yet another connection between Fox News, lies, and anti-Semitism. read more »
