"You've come a long way, baby."

Okay, I know that I'm going to get a lot of shit for posting this, I just want everyone to know that I, in no way whatsoever, support the big tabacco industries, nor do I support the exploitation of women or their liberation movement for corporate profits. But, I thought I would post an old Women's Liberation era Virginia Slims cigarette advertisement to show you that, well, we have come along way from the time this ad was put out, yet, with the continued exploitation of women to sell products, ideas, etc. we still have a long way to go, just as many people grew complacent during this era that they had come a long way, which is true, I feel that we have also grown to complacent and must continue speaking out for women.

Gotta love the 70s advertising though, it's sassy aint it?

A Sad Day

In the early morning hours Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass) passed away. Sen. Kennedy is the last of the famed Kennedy siblings and follows closely behind the death of his sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Sen. Edward Kennedy was described as the "liberal lion" for the progressive reform he was involved in during his 46 years in congress. Kennedy played a major role in passing many laws that have affected the lives of all Americans, including the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the National Cancer Act of 1971, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act in 1990, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Mental Health Parity Act in 1996 and 2008, the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997, and the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act in 2007. Kennedy's major legislative goal had been enactment of universal health care, which he continued to work toward during the Obama administration.

How about in memory of Sen. Edward Kennedy people stop making things up about health care reform (that it is a nazi/socialist/communist/evil/grandma killer/slippery slope, etc.) and put politics aside to allow meaningful and valuable health care reform to happen?

On a happier note, happy National Women's Equality Day everybody. 89 years ago women were granted the right to vote, still reform is needed to give women an equal footing in our society.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), is always fodder for Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's Countdown and for good reason, the woman has proven to be no the brightest bulb in the box, you can call her Palin-esque, she stated that it was coincidental that the two swine flu outbreaks occured during a period in which there was a Democrat President in office, currently and "in the 1970s with President Carter" when in fact the swine flu outbreak in the 1970s occurred in 1973 when Gerald Ford was in office.

Also, she has proven herself to be, well, a paranoid mega-bitch. She stated that the AmeriCorps, a benevolent, non partisan organization, is like "re-education camp" in which young impressionable minds are indoctrinated in Obama's close-to-marxist ideology (little did she know that her own son was preparing for, and would join the AmeriCorps a few months later!) She helped establish a charter school in Stillwater, Minnesota in which money from tax dollars went to operating this school which is essentially a "re-education camp" for radically conservative Christians ideology (Disney movies like Aladdin are banned on the grounds that they supposedly promote witchcraft and paganism and Creationism is taught as legitimate science).

And who could forget her infamous appearance on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews (October 17, 2008) in which Matthews asked her, "How many people in the Congress of the United States do you suspect as being anti-American?" she replied "What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating expose and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an expose like that." Her idea "anti-american" is that it is another word for "liberal".

Anyway, now this women is taking on the language of pro-choice activists in her attempt to demonize health care reform. On Sean Hannity's radio show, she said, "... people need to continue to go to the town halls, continue to melt the phone lines of their liberal members of Congress and let them know, under no certain circumstances will I give the government control over my body and my health care decisions."

Yeah, you heard it right, staunchly pro life advocate, Michelle Bachmann, doesn't want the government taking control of her body. Makes you wonder, what Bachman would have to say if she was somehow in the un-Christian position of having an unwanted pregnancy. Clearly, when it comes to her body Bachmann is all for preventing the government from making decisions, yet when some wicked women gets knocked up, on planet Bachmann, the government should step in and prevent any abortion from occuring to "maintain a Christian nation."

Bottom line is don't adopt the language of a movement you are staunchly opposed to in order to speak out for your own movement, it makes you look like a hypocrite.

By the way, heres a little "What Would Jesus do?" for Ms. Bachmann:

Would Jesus support quality health care for everyone or would he prefer to allow private for-profit insurance companies to rake in huge profits by denying insurance claims of people in dire need of health care? I think the answer is obvious, but planet Bachman is a parallel universe.

Welcome to bodypolitic

We're living in an age in which a fairly elected President, with a clear majority of votes, faces irrational allegations that he is a treasonous, communist, nazi, illegitimate, non-American. traitor. And in which the right wing (often corporate sponsored) propaganda machine wants to manipulate the uneasiness that older more conservative Americans have with America having a black somewhat liberal President, into a rage funneled by the conservative establishment and fueled by lies about a supposed threat of communism, euthenasia, mandated abortions, etc. in order to block any thing that the majority of Democrats in congress want to pass as a law. This my friends is robbery, robbery of the body politic of Americans with progressive values who voted in congress people and a President that represented their progressive values and expected to see an increase of progressive legislation. This body politic is being robbed of their political power in this country and the worse part is that many members of the progressive body politic are in a slumber. Many are so content with the way the 2006 and 2008 elections went in their favor and so exhausted from activism during the Bush era that they are under the illusion that everything is going the way they voted for and they don't realize that their political power is being undermined by conservative and corporate interest groups. Often times it is the very politicians they put into power that make concessions to the other side, concessions that the body politic which voted the politicians into office would be completely disgusted with. this blog is a wake up call to the progressive body politic America. And a center for progressive policy and culture.