[cranky] goodbye Boehner

I have NOTHING positive to say about Speaker of the House John Boehner. He just announced that he is not only resigning his position as Speaker but he's retiring from roughly 20 years in Congress. His home district in Ohio is solidly Republican, so the Republican Governor John Kasich (yep, that one running for the Presidential nomination) should face no opposition to appointing another party line Republican to replace him.

While I won't miss the fake spray tan sour face of Boehner standing in the back of countless photo-ops, I am worried abut what face will replace his. Boehner originally planned to give up his Speakership at the end of 2014, but Eric Cantor's humiliating loss at re-election prompted him to stay on. (Remember -- Eric Cantor so arrogantly neglected to campaign in his run off that he lost his nomination and wasn't even n the final ballot.) Boehner once compared being Speaker to being a prisoner in an interview with Politico. Clearly, he won't be shedding any tears on November 1st when he walk out of Congress for good.

But why leave now?

[feminist] DNC- wednesday: where were you four years ago?

I'm hanging out with the four Unite Women national directors and a regional director, screaming and yelling at the TV and our computers. Right now its several small business speakers, but last night we had the tissues out for Lilly Ledbetter, Julian Castro, and Michelle Obama. (our mom-in-chief). I was floored by Nancy Keenan (president of NARAL, ProChoice America) being given prime time national coverage-- is this what progress looks like? Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood spoke earlier tonight, which was also incredibly exciting, but for NARAL/Democrats/Obama to be so publicly affiliated seriously just about knocked me over. Maybe we're seeing the end of abortion-shaming and more general woman-shaming.

Like Sandra Fluke just said, its time to choose which America we are going to live in-- Paul Ryan, redefining rape, advocating fetal Personhood; or Barack Obama, advocating affordable or free birth control for all women. Elizabeth Warren is on now, and we're sitting in awe. I'm attempted to tweet from the national account @UniteWomenOrg (cough, you should follow) while paying attention, while smelling brownies baking in the kitchen. I don't know which is most distracting, haha!

I want to know, where were you four years ago? What did you think about your reproductive rights, health care, jobs, education, debt, etc four years ago? I was just beginning my first semester of undergrad, with no concerns for how my meds would get paid for every month, or how my co-pays would be paid-- not to mention what would happen when I turned 22 and was out of school. Life is scarier for me now, the future is scarier, but without Obama I have no doubt in my mind that I'd be on Medicaid and without all of the medicines that I need. I would lose my left ovary through an emergency room trip and several ovarian cysts. It would mean I'd be out of work for several weeks. It would mean I'd lose my job. I'd go back to waiting tables for $2.13/hr and wondering how I'd eat. But instead, I'm still going to wait tables for $2.13/hr, but I'm going to have my medicine, I'm going to have a whole body and a healthy mind-- and that is priceless. I'm ready to go forward, and I'm ready to fight for it. Where were you four years ago? Are you ready to fight for progress?


NARAL
Planned Parenthood
UniteWomen

[feminist] birth control is a right in america

from Naral Pro-Choice America Facebook page

Suddenly Republicans care about the separation of church and state-- because Catholic women don't deserve access to birth control because it's against the beliefs of the celibate priests. We should have prayer in school and we should teach creationism and evolution in public schools. But we shouldn't allow all women the same access to birth control, because THAT would be church and state hopping in the same hay wagon to go ride around for a spin. Make a choice, and stick to it-- if you want kids to pray in public schools then you better allow every single woman in America get the birth control she needs for her body, if she so chooses, at a price she can afford. Today, a lot of people don't work at their ideal job. They work at a job which pays the bills. If it so happens to be a Catholic-run institution, then who is to say that Protestants, or atheists, or Muslims couldn't work there? And who is the government or the church from denying these people birth control? The church can preach all it wants about "sex is only for procreation"-- but the reality is that all women don't want to have ten children after marriage. Birth control is common sense. If the people making laws had uterus's, they might be more inclined to promote equal rights for all citizens of the United States. In this day and age, access to birth control is a right in America. It should not be a privilege. Until it becomes widely popular that men are willing to undergo some mild pain and discomfort themselves as a form of birth control, we as human beings need to stand up for the rights of women and not let us progress back into the dark ages of fear and unwanted pregnancies.

[cranky] mitt wasting money... lots of money

I've been seeing Mitt Romney ads EVERYWHERE, and the Newt ads have been popping up too. Just now, "what is a one term Obama presidency worth to you?" popped up as the ad next to my blog.

I'm from South Carolina (and I'm not so proud of it, cough Nikki Haley cough) and one night right after the primary I was laying in my dorm room bed and I suddenly had this silly epiphany, and I laid awake staring at the protein shake stain on my wall and ceiling. (the protein shake story is for another day) This 2am epiphany was "what if Romney hadn't spent $1.9 million in SC for crappy attack ads during Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy? what if Romney had bought a pencil (with his name on it of course) for each and every elementary school student in SC, to use and keep and bring home and share with their parents?" From there it became Romney-nalgenes and Newt-lunchboxes, and ending pollution until I finally fell asleep.

Why can't the candidates spend money on something worthwhile instead of throwing it at the television, and at websites and blogs which clearly are liberal? Honestly, every time I see a Romney ad on addictinginfo.com I click on it so that Romney has to pay out his pennies for my click. It takes me straight to "how much do you want to donate today?" "will this be a recurring donation? how about monthly auto-deduct?"

Hey, Romney. How about, you don't speak for the people! You speak for the people scared shitless that Newt might win the nomination. And the more shit you manage to talk about each other, the more you tarnish each others reputation, the more you just open your mouths and sound comes out, the more people realize that they're going to vote to keep Obama right where he is. No president is perfect, no man is perfect, no presidency with its millions of tasks to accomplish can be perfect. But the more talking y'all do, the more we realize that he's a hell of a lot more perfect than either of you could ever be.

And now, go Google "Santorum" if you haven't already. Enjoy!