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Jon Stewart ripped into Sen. Jon Kyl's 90 minute speech on the Senate floor where Kyl blatantly lied about Planned Parenthood.
In an effort to strip Federal funding to Planned Parenthood, Jon Kyl went on the Senate floor and claimed the organization spends 90 percent of its time performing abortions.
That cannot be right. Jon Stewart would like a fact check, please.
Bill Adair, editor of PolitiFact.com: "The number of procedures done by Planned Parenthood, the number of abortions only count for about three percent... Overall, it's just false."
But Kyl's camp had a defense.
"His remark was not intended to be a factual statement but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions of taxpayer dollars, does subsidize abortions."
Stewart asked why they couldn't "just make a compelling and honest argument?"
Chief political correspondent Wyatt Cenac had the answer.
"Because he doesn't want Planned Parenthood to get money and the true facts don't favor him, but the lie facts stack up very strongly in Kyl's favor."
That 3 percent of Planned Parenthood activity is very important to those women just as the other 97 percent of their activity is in protecting their health with important early cancer detection, access to birth control and other health services. After that EPT wand turned blue, it was Planned Parenthood that provided Ms. Carnacki with her first prenatal services for our first child. That's the way it is for many middle and low income people.
In their effort to control women's reproduction, the right wingers are willing to see increases in cancer rates and other health problems, increases in unwanted pregnancies, and increases in infant mortality rates.
Right wing plans to cut funding for Planned Parenthood are a sign they really don't care about women and use the issue of abortion as an excuse to hurt them.
There is no finding a "middle ground" with people who have no regard for women.
(Bumped as a reminder of today's rally - promoted by Carnacki)
Thursday, February 24
5:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: Robert C Byrd Federal Courthouse (300 Virginia Street, Charleston, WV)
Please stand with us at a rally in Charleston on Thursday, February 24! And please spread this event invite far and wide!
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to bar Planned Parenthood health centers from all federal funding for birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, and other lifesaving care. At the same time, they voted to eliminate the Title X family planning program which provides funding... to 144 free/low-cost family planning centers that care for 54,000 W est Virginians.
It is the MOST DANGEROUS legislative assault on women's health in our history, and it cannot go unanswered. We - Planned Parenthood, WV FREE, ACLU, CAG and the three million women, men, and teens who are at risk of losing access to basic care - need you to stand united with us now.
Join us this Thursday and tell West Virginia's Senators: protect Title X and Planned Parenthood's critical preventive services!
If you absolutely cannot join us, please call Senator Manchin at 304-342-5855 and ask him to oppose attempts to defund Title X and Planned Parenthood.
Update
If you don't think women's health and lives are at stake, think again.
I hope Sen.-elect Joe Manchin and Sen. Jay Rockefeller show them the love and vote for the Paycheck Fairness Act because our women deserve to make the same amount of money as a man when doing the same job.
Even now, women nationally make just 77 cents to every $1 made by a man, according to a 2007 Census Bureau report.
In West Virginia, the inequality is even worse, just 67 cents to every $1 made by a man.
Women voted for Manchin 56 percent to Florida Republican John Raese's 41 percent.
I hope Manchin remembers that when it's time to vote for the Paycheck Fairness Act and show our wild and wonderful women some fairness and love too.
Ledbetter's Case Led to Equal Pay for Equal Work Legislation
Flatwoods, W.Va. - Women's rights pioneer Lilly Ledbetter will be the keynote speaker at the West Virginia Federation of Democratic Women's Annual Meeting. Ledbetter became famous when she sued her employer, the Goodyear Tire Company in Alabama in 1998, for sexual discrimination after learning that her male counterparts earned greater wages for many years for the same work that she did. Her case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against her on a technicality because too much time had lapsed between her hiring in 1979 and her filing suit in 1998 when she learned of the discrimination. Ledbetter's cause became a political one and the fight for equal-pay-for-equal ensued. Congress later adopted the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009.
In addition to Ledbetter, the Federation of Democratic Women will have a full weekend of activities. Several statewide Democratic elected officials are expected to attend as well.
WHAT: WV Federation of Democratic Women's Annual Meeting
WHEN: September 17-19
Dinner with Lilly Ledbetter as the keynote speaker is 6:30 pm Saturday, Sept. 18.
Fayette County Women for Obama and Doctors for Obama
to Sound the Alarm Over John McCain's Health Care Plan
Obama supporters to hold health care rally Thursday night, October 9th, as Joe McCain addresses Fayette County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner
Oak Hill, WV - The Fayette County Women for Obama and Doctors for Obama will hold a health care rally TOMORROW, Thursday, October 9, 2008, at 5:30pm across from the Lewis Community Center in Oak Hill, WV, ahead of the evening's Fayette County GOP Lincoln Day dinner. Joe McCain, brother of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, will address the Fayette County GOP during their Lincoln Day Dinner. Obama supporters are gathering ahead of the dinner to sound the alarm over John McCain's radical health care plan.
According to the nonpartisan organization Factcheck.org, "McCain's plan to tax workers on the value of their employer-provided health care plans and provide tax credits would encourage some employers, mainly small businesses, to drop health benefits, say experts, and the proposal could eventually eliminate job-based insurance altogether." Factcheck.org,
Fayette County Women for Obama, Doctors for Obama, and Fayette County Obama supporters will also blast McCain's plan, which would make it harder for those who most need health care coverage to receive it, and which would wipe out important protections in West Virginia such as requirements to cover emergency care.
WHO: Fayette County Women for Obama, Doctors for Obama, and Obama supporters
WHAT: Rally to sound the alarm on McCain's plan to tax health care benefits and leave American's uninsured
WHEN: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2008, at 5:30pm
WHERE: Opposite the Lewis Christian Community Center (Old Armory)
469 Central Avenue
Oak Hill, WV
Statement from Dr. Clint Curtis and Dr. Dan Doyle, Fayette County physicians: "John McCain is NOT what West Virginia needs: four more years of reckless government that ignores the plight of the middle class. Barack Obama and Joe Biden WILL provide the kind of responsible and compassionate government that we DO need. We see people every day, uninsured people, who cannot get the healthcare or the medicines they need. John McCain's health plan will tax, as income, employee health benefits. He wants to TAX our health benefits! That is robbing the middle class and cheating the poor. President Obama will leave our health benefits alone AND provide Medicare-type health coverage for the uninsured. And, he will do it without raising taxes for families earning under $250,000. We think this plan can work!"
Statement from Sue Lessman, Fayette County Women for Obama and the President-Elect of the Fayette County Democratic Women: "November 4, 2008, is the most important election since FDR. This election is of monumental and historical note which will set the future course of both the United States and our closely allied countries. At stake are all the issues which women and their families hold close to their hearts: the economy, the war, health care, the right of choice, and our security for a life free of worry, hunger, and death of our children. The Democratic Party is respectful of women's rights and their intellect to make the right choices. The Democratic Party views women as worthwhile partners in matters of the family and the government. By choosing Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential Candidate, John McCain and the Republican Party show their willingness to trivialize women's issues and treat us in a patronizing manner. We, the women of the Democratic Party, demand a change in the way we and our families have been disenfranchised during the past eight years...we demand a President who cares for us and our families. We demand Barack Obama as our next President."
**For more information about the rally and to confirm participation, please contact Jenny Rosenberg, Obama for America, (304) 807-0450 or jrosenberg@barackobama.com.
Senator Clinton is one of those rare individuals that everyone feels strongly about- love her or hate her but you have to tip your cap at her ability to invoke emotion in people. She is, in and of herself, a cottage industry and many a columnist, Left and Right, have based their careers around her polarizing life. Hell, there have already been over 50 books written about the woman and she has yet to even reach the apex of her life.
So instead of me spending another hour trying to think of new ways to word my admiration, agitation and deep found respect for Hillary Clinton let me just cut the fat and pose a question to all of you- is Hillary Clinton ALREADY the most notable woman in American history?
First the parameters of how I am defining notable. A notable person is someone of prominent importance, distinguished, influential, widely known and memorable. Another barometer would be if the history of the United States could be written without this person.
Here is my top five list of notable American women:
1) Hillary Clinton
2) Eleanor Roosevelt
3) Sandra Day O'Conner
4) Susan B Anthony
5) Rosa Parks
Others I considered:
*Elizabeth Cady Stanton
*Georgia O'Keefe
*Abigail Adams
*Jane Adams
*Billy Jean King
*Sojourner Truth
*Harriet Tubman
*Sacajawea
*Amelia Earhart
*Emily Dickinson
*Rachel Carson
*Harriet Beecher Stowe
*Marylyn Monroe
*Jackie Kennedy
*Nancy Pelosi
West Virginia Women Announce Endorsements for Obama
Leaders praise Obama's ability to unite people for change
CHARLESTON, WV-The day after his decisive win in North Carolina and a tight finish in Indiana, women across West Virginia have announced their support for Senator Barack Obama citing his advocacy of women's issues, successful record of fighting for working families and unique ability to bring people together for change. From the mountains to the Capitol, in small towns and large cities, women are working hard to galvanize support for Senator Obama. Endorsers include Sharon Rockefeller, wife of Senator Jay Rockefeller and Melinda Rahall, wife of Congressman Nick Rahall.
The West Virginia Women for Obama held a kick off reception this week in Charleston, where women gathered to talk about why Obama is the best candidate for women in West Virginia and throughout the country.
"Across the country, we've seen Barack Obama's ability to bring all types of voters together," said Sharon Rockefeller. "Come November, we will need a candidate who can and will unite this country, not divide it. Barack Obama has proven that he is the right leader for the voters in West Virginia and in America."
Senator Obama has a long record of standing up for women. As a State Senator in Illinois, Obama co-sponsored and passed the Equal Pay Act, which provided that no employer may discriminate between employees on the basis of sex by paying ages solely on the basis of the employee's gender. Addressing the needs of more than 19 million women who are uninsured in the country, Barack Obama is committed to ensuring that all Americans have health care coverage by the end of his first term in office as President. In addition, Barack Obama is an original co-sponsor and passed Johanna's Law, which educates women and increase awareness of ovarian cancer -- the fourth-leading cause of cancer-related death among women in the United States.
West Virginia Women for Obama, consisting of elected officials, activists, local community leaders, teachers, attorneys, doctors, mothers and grandmothers, will continue to help organizing support for Senator Obama in the days leading up to the May 13 primary. The women will hold Women for Obama phone banks and will feature a "mother daughter" canvassing events on Mother's Day.
The following list is more than 130 West Virginia women who today announced their support of Obama, joining thousands of other women across the country who proudly support Barack Obama: (see jump)
Call your senators immediately to urge them to vote yes on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act! The vote is expected Wednesday, April 23. There is not a moment left to lose! This toll free number, 866-338-1015, will be available Monday through Wednesday. Call now!
The House has already passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to correct the recent Supreme Court decision that guts the ability of women workers to sue for wage discrimination. Celebrate Equal Pay Day by calling your senators toll-free at 866-338-1015 today!
Lilly Ledbetter worked at Goodyear for nearly 20 years before she discovered that men in the same job were paid more. The Supreme Court ruled that wage discrimination complaints must be filed within 180 days of the initial discriminatory salary decision, even if the victim is unaware of the discrimination until much later. This 5-4 decision by the Bush Supreme Court reversed decades of precedent on wage discrimination cases decided under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
It is imperative that the Senate pass the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Call your senators toll-free at 866-338-1015 today! Tell them to reverse the Supreme Court's assault on women's right to sue by voting for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
I want to highlight something lower down in the article first:
A former gymnast, Stokke had tried pole vaulting as a lark as a freshman in high school. Two months later, she set a school record. She won the 2004 state championship three months after that. Stokke had augmented her natural, pole-vaulting disposition -- speed, upper-body strength and courage -- by lifting weights three times each week. College programs including Harvard, Stanford and UCLA also recruited her.
During her meet at Cerritos College, Stokke cleared 11 feet, then 12 feet, then 13 feet and qualified for the state meet. By the time she stared ahead at a bar set 13 feet 6 inches, all other nine pole vaulters had maxed out. Stokke warmed up by herself, the only athlete left.
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