It seems the Bush administration has developed an exit strategy — unfortunately the target is right here on our home soil.  The still-in-office Bush administration is trying to kill two birds with one stone, and those birds are named Health Care and Reproductive Rights.

It is proposing a complicatedly worded (the main clause has a triple negative) rule.  It would demand that any organization or institution that receives federal aid from the Department of Health and Human Services will not be eligible for aid unless it signs a written certification saying that it will not refuse to hire providers, doctors or nurses that refuse to provide abortion and even many forms of contraception.  

This means that hospitals would have to consider hiring people who will deny the full range of choices available to women or they will be denied federal aid. Furthermore, state and local governments will not be allowed to deny grants to hospitals and clinics if they refuse to provide abortion and many forms of oral contraception.

To use their kind of language, this isn’t not bad for women.

It never ceases to amaze me that those without the gift of reproduction, like President Bush, are endlessly trying to regulate those who can.  This is the key reason why electing women matters – women legislators are historically champions for the issues that concern women most.  In fact, nationally statistics show that the majority of women favor some degree of choice over their reproductive rights. Roe v. Wade is the cornerstone that makes that possible. 

 

Experienced legislative stonecutters know full well that once voters allow the small chipping away at that foundation, it won’t be long before the whole thing is a pile of rubble. You don’t need a magnifying glass to see this is just another veiled attempt to weaken laws protecting our reproductive rights.  Consequently, equal representation for women is not born of the desire to merely level the playing field, it is essential to protecting the rights of the feminine sensibility.

 

We at the CALIFORNIA LIST understand that women legislators are the backbone for feminine liberties.  This is why the decline of elected women here in California is so disheartening.  Women in the California legislature peaked during the 1996 to 2000 electoral cycle with a total of 46 women in both the Senate and Assembly.  Today there are only 28 Democratic women and come November we stand to lose another 2 or 3 women due to term limits.

 

We must reverse this slow decline, so that women can have a stronger voice in our legislative process. 

 

Bettina Duval is the Founder of CALIFORNIA LIST.  Visit their official site or join them on Facebook  and MySpace.

I mentioned this in the quick hits, but it’s expanded now. Via the New York Times:

Michael Savage, the incendiary radio host who last week characterized nearly every autistic child as “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out,” said in a telephone interview Monday morning that he stood by his remarks and had no intention of apologizing to those advocates and parents who have called for his firing over the matter.”

Many of the folks here are familiar with the constant stream of hate spewed by Michael Savage, and once again remotely reasonable people are fighting back yet again. Savage told the New York Times that his show today (3pm-6pm pacific) will be entirely devoted “to parents and other callers who wished to disagree with him, and to educate him.”

So beyond just continuing to stand up and demand he be removed from the air, we now have an opportunity to call him out on the show (even though the format will be stacked in his favor). As I mentioned in the QH, it’s important to always push back on this sort of vitriol because they’re never going to give up any ground that they’re able to grab because nobody’s looking.

(I’m under a mountain of work, so I have a lot on Netroots Nation stored up, but this from our pal Paul about the Pelosi/Gore session is good.  And BTW, I asked the Iraq question. – promoted by David Dayen)

From today’s Beyond Chron.

It’s no surprise that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got a tough reception at Netroots Nation – as bloggers asked about the Iraq War, impeachment and (of course) FISA.  Pelosi passed the buck on all of these issues – saying that she’s let House Judiciary Chair John Conyers handle executive contempt, blamed Senate Democrats for selling out on FISA and said that only electing Barack Obama will get us out of Iraq.  When Al Gore popped in to make a surprise appearance, the crowd gave a hero’s welcome to the ex-Vice President – posing a sharp contrast with Pelosi.  Bloggers cheered Gore’s ambitious environmental agenda to make the United States 100% free of fossil fuel energy by 2019.  But nobody bothered to ask Gore why he didn’t push for this 15 years ago when he could have done something about it.  Meanwhile, Pelosi’s excuses frustrated the audience – but they each have an element of truth to them.  On the other hand, if Pelosi says she “doesn’t have the votes” in Congress to get what we want, she should start being more supportive of primary challenges that bloggers wage against bad Democrats.

“God bless the impatience of youth,” said Pelosi as she kicked off the Convention’s main event on Saturday morning.  “That’s what gives me hope.  I share your frustration in not ending this War.  We need to be persistent, relentless and unsatisfied at pushing us to where we should be.  And there are only 107 days until the Election.”

Everyone expected Pelosi would get a tough crowd, and about half a dozen demonstrators from Code Pink were there to heckle her about the War.  But liberal bloggers aren’t about direct-action street-level theater, preferring the tactic of asking hard-hitting questions that put politicians on the spot.  Gina Cooper of Netroots Nation even warned attendees at the beginning that anyone who disrupted the forum would be ejected, and the crowd cheered.

At the forum, Pelosi was asked questions like: (a) is impeachment back on the table?; (b) if Karl Rove is still in contempt of Congress, will he be arrested?; (c) if the FISA bill was a compromise, what was the gain? and (d) why hasn’t Congress ended the War?

For the most part, Pelosi passed the buck – saying that she agreed with the frustration of bloggers, but blamed others for why no action has been taken.  On the first two points, she deferred to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers – who is leading investigations of the Bush Administration.  “We passed a resolution of contempt on the House floor,” she said, “and I’m proud that we got every Democrat to vote for it.  But Mr. Conyers is in charge of the investigation, and we’re in good hands with him.”

On FISA, Pelosi blamed the Senate – where 17 Democrats voted with all the Republicans – for sending them a bad bill.  “Our options were limited,” she said.  “It was a moment of taint.  Was the final bill [which passed both houses] a bill that I would have written?  No.  Was it better than the Senate version that had passed?  Yes.”

Pelosi added that as House Speaker she has only had “two major regrets”: (a) the Senate version of the FISA bill that they had to work with, and (b) failing to get 60 votes in the Senate to end the Iraq War.  Later on in the forum, she added that the only way to end the War will be to elect President Barack Obama.  Eventually, moderator Gina Cooper turned to Pelosi and said what was on a lot of peoples’ minds: “it sounds like some of your colleagues must get with the program with the American people.”

There’s certainly truth to what Pelosi said: any effort to impeach Bush or Cheney will start at the Judiciary Committee, Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate, and even voting to defund the War won’t end it until a Democratic President brings the troops home.  But while Pelosi says she is on our side, one conclusion we can draw is that she hasn’t kept her colleagues in line.  The netroots have always tried to hold bad Democrats accountable – and in recent years have waged primary challenges against entrenched incumbents who vote the wrong way on issues.  The bloggers could work with Pelosi.

But Pelosi has not generally supported these challengers, actively working against the netroots.  For example, Pelosi held a fundraiser for Congressman Al Wynn – while he was getting a primary challenge from netroots favorite Donna Edwards.  Edwards won that election, and attended Netroots Nation as a newly minted Congresswoman.  In what must have been an awkward moment, Pelosi acknowledged Edwards at the beginning of the forum.

It wasn’t the first time that a powerful Democrat came to a netroots Convention and faced a tough audience.  But unlike Hillary Clinton (who at last year’s Yearly Kos sarcastically mocked the crowd when they booed her), Pelosi kept her grace while saying much of what the bloggers didn’t agree with.  Whatever you think of her answers, she did not condescend.

While bloggers gave Pelosi a chilly reception, they enthusiastically cheered former Vice President Al Gore – who made a surprise appearance during Pelosi’s forum.  “We have a historic climate crisis,” said Gore.  “It’s connected to an economic crisis, and the national security threat it creates. Drilling oil we won’t use for 15 years to deal with gas prices now is like responding to an attack from Afghanistan by invading another country.”

Gore has always been a sentimental favorite of the netroots (“I feel right at home here,” he said), and the crowd eagerly responded to his challenge to eliminate fossil fuel dependency by 2019.  “I need your help,” he said. “You seek to influence, and I respectfully ask for your help.”  And with only 11 years to get there, we don’t have much time.

But nobody asked the former Vice President why he didn’t agitate on these issues in the mid-1990’s, when he was in a position to get things done.  If we had started this 15 years ago, eliminating fossil fuel dependency would be far more doable.  No doubt Gore is now using his “elder statesman” role to fight global warming – but the Clinton-Gore Administration was lackluster in responding to this climate crisis, such as reneging on their pledge to shut down an incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio.  When Gore ran for President in 2000, Friends of the Earth endorsed Bill Bradley in the Democratic primaries.

If the netroots insisted on giving Nancy Pelosi a hard time, why didn’t they challenge Gore as well?

With only three and a half month left before election day, Nevada bloggers have joined forces and today announce the creation of the “Nevada Bloggers for Jill Derby and Dina Titus” ActBlue fundraising page.  

Dean Heller and Jon Porter were almost beaten in 2006 in what were the closest races the 2nd and 3rd Nevada Congressional Districts have seen to date. Considering that Democratic voter registration has significantly increased since 2006 and that Nevada will be a battleground state in the presidential contest both Jill Derby and Dina Titus have a big chance of beating the Republican incumbents this fall.

However, both have one disadvantage: they have significantly less cash-on-hand than the incumbents. While they both reported good fundraising numbers in the last quarter it will be hard to make up the time and incumbency advantages of Heller and Porter. Therefore, Jill Derby and Dina Titus need all the help they can get. Whether you can give $5,$20 or $100 – anything helps!

The following blogs have been and will continue to cover one or both of these contests and today we are announcing that we stand together to help elect Jill Derby and Dina Titus: Blue Sage Views, Desert Beacon, Helluva Heller, My Silver State, Nor’Town, Nye – Gateway to Nevada’s Rurals, Reno and Its Discontent, and Vote Gibbons Out.

We support Jill Derby and Dina Titus for Congress! Help us in our effort!