"Abortion Rights Without Apologies"

Nicely put.

Santa Barbara

Lots of horrible people who are, in the immediate aftermath of this tragedy exclaiming how we shouldn't restrict guns at all.  I don't really have anything to say except go read Echidne.

I Don't Think They Get It

Emily's list has a good goal, but they do stupid shit like this often enough that I just don't think they get it.  If you look at the overall picture, Carl Sciortino is probably the best candidate running in MA's 5th for women's issues (and, frankly, America), but he has a penis, so Emily's List is endorsing a conservative, anti-civil liberties woman instead.  Really, I understand that they are only going to put their money to support pro-choice women, but in a race where the nominally pro-choice woman is not the best candidate for women, they should just stay out.

Or maybe they think Michelle Bachman being in office is good for women just because she has a vagina?  I would love to see more women in office, but it is self-defeating to just look at gender and ignore the actual positions of the candidates.

Yes, Pathetic Is Correct

I think this goes into the category of "The Obama administration can be as horrible as they like, so long as they are 'Better than Republicans', and they'll get a pass."

...not only has Obama appointed fewer women than Clinton did two decades ago, he has no excuse for not appointing a lot more...It has been obvious for some time that this administration is only tepidly interested in advancing women's equality, at least to the extent that it might cost them something to do it. The president only wants to work closely with people with whom he feels "comfortable" (whatever that means) and very few women seem to fit that bill for some reason. Odd.

This is an issue that is actually very surprising to me. There really is no excuse for any Democrat to not be very good on women's issues, but this administration just isn't.  They can say that they are better than Republicans, but so could Henry VIII--talk about a low hurdle to clear, it's like stepping over a piece of string.  And the thing is, there is really no downside to being very good on women's issues: more than 50% of this country (and of registered voters) is female.  There are lots of competent and capable women (at the cabinet level that is in no small part due to Clinton).  Obama has just done a really shitty job.