Not Everybody Loves Patricia

The New York Times ran a story today about poor Patricia Heaton, the honorary co-chairwoman, for Feminists for Life.
Seems Patty got herself embroiled in mess over an anti-stem cell video she did against Missouri's Amendment 2.

But the video, which also included St. Louis sports figures, turned into a Mel Gibson-size nightmare when it got onto the Internet and, without her knowledge, was then shown as an advertisement on television during Game 4 of the World Series. It didn’t help that it looked so cheesy or that it began, inexplicably, with the actor Jim Caviezel (who had played Jesus in Mr. Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ”) staring weirdly at the camera and speaking in Aramaic.

“Oh my God, it was a disaster,” Ms. Heaton acknowledged. “And then there was the whole Michael J. Fox aspect.”

Also unbeknownst to Ms. Heaton, Mr. Fox, his Parkinsonian tremors clearly visible, had just appeared in an ad supporting the amendment. Because of the timing, her comments looked like a response to his and became associated with Rush Limbaugh’s suggestion that Mr. Fox was faking his symptoms for sympathy.

Ms. Heaton was appalled, she said. “Not only was the ad so bad, but why was it put on? It took the focus off of what we’re talking about, which is very serious, and made it look like a feud or something, a Hollywood tabloid subject, a media thing of pitting people against each other.”

The Internet floodgates opened. Web sites weighed in on “Fox v. Heaton” and generally eviscerated her. On YouTube.com, April Winchell, a California radio personality, posted a 38-second remix of Ms. Heaton’s clip. It starts out saying, “I’m Patricia Heaton, and I’m a religious zealot who thinks she knows what’s best for everybody” and gets uglier from there: “I could give you the whole story, but I’d rather beat you over the head with my Bible. And besides it’s not like stem-cell research makes you look younger. I mean, if it did, I’d be all over it.”

For more on FLM see Pandagon's Archive for the 'Feminists For Life' Category.

Why Patty is involved with a group that aligns itself with the National Fatherhood Initiative, an aggressive anti-motherhood group, I can't even imagine. But here's the video. Enjoy...

Suitably Flip's "Liberal Yearbook 2006"

Even though Suitably Flip is a rw geek, I just love his "Liberal Yearbook 2006" especially that pic of a genetically altered Hillary/Obama "Hillorama"



Most of SF's Researchroll is suitably annoying, but given his Phillips Academy background, what else should one expect from a fat cat from Andover [not Exeter]?
American Enterprise Institute
Brookings Institution
Cato Institute
Center for Immigration Studies
Center for Responsive Politics
Center of the American Experiment
Club For Growth
Competitive Enterprise Institute
Heritage Foundation
Manhattan Institute
UVA Center for Politics

Edwards on Hardball with Elizabeth

Yay! John Edwards is running for president in '08!

On this YouTube clip of Hardball he says he restrained himself while running as VP. Can't wait to see him in action in the coming months. It's going to be a lot of fun if this video is any indication.

After Matthews brings up the subect on John Kerry's failed joke, Elizabeth says that most politicians aren't funny, not even her husband, and after hearing him practicing a joke she wouldn't even attend the event because he was so not funny.

Chris Matthews: "I love it! Behind every great man is a woman trying to kill him.
Does she do this? Does she bite your balls like this when you come home?"

Elizabeth: "My children are watching!"

Matthews: "What's this with the equal marriages? Why do people marry their equals. It used to be different. What happened to the Stepford Wives. The good old days?"

Audience: Big boos & hisses.

Matthews: "Oh how PC. The freakin'hiss."

Anti-GAL/PAS Petition

With so many guardians ad litem (GAL) switching to other generic so-called alienation syndromes after Richard Gardner found himself in disrepute and stabbed himself to death, Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) is still being used as a sick excuse to switch custody from perfectly fit, protective, primary caretakers (usually mothers) in Illinois and elsewhere.

Here's an example of a PAS order in DeKalb County, GA.

http://nafcj.org/flakeshinglerpas.htm

Outraged yet? Then please do sign the petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/illinois/petition.html

Fairfax Town Council passes anti-PAS Resolution

THIS is going to spread. No doubt about it. Red State Feminist has it on her blog and undoubtedly others will join in. Enough already with faux syndromes designed to protect pederasts. Richard Gardner is gone and PAS will pass with him.

RESOLUTION NO. 2466

A RESOLUTION OF THE TOWN COUNCIL OF THE TOWN OF FAIRFAX CALLING FOR REVISION OF THE CALIFORNIA FAMILY CODE AND THE FEDERAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT

WHEREAS The Town Council of Fairfax CA is greatly concerned about the existence of domestic violence and child abuse in our society and community; and

WHEREAS legislators at all levels of government must do whatever possible to ensure that perpetrators of domestic violence and child abuse are prosecuted and punished for their crimes, and that abuse cases are adjudicated properly; and

WHEREAS legislators at all levels of government must review existing law to ensure that obstacles to the prosecution and punishment of those who commit domestic violence and child abuse are removed; and

WHEREAS such obstacles to the prosecution and punishment of those who commit domestic violence and child abuse have been identified in the California Family Code in Sections 1800-1852, The California Family Conciliation Court Law (See exhibit A), as follows:

1) The California Family Conciliation Court Law (hereafter referred to as the CFCCL) was enacted in 1930, in an era in which corporal punishment of wives and children was generally accepted by society.

2) Section 1812 of the CFCCL allows the Conciliation Court Judge to move any case to the Conciliation Court.

3) Section 1819 of the CFCCL allows for the destruction of records in Conciliation Court proceedings, at the discretion of the Conciliation Court, in cases involving child custody and visitation.

4) Section 1830 of the CFCCL empowers the Conciliation Court to take jurisdiction over all controversies that come before it in divorce, separation, child custody and visitation cases, even those involving domestic abuse.

5) Section 1830 (b) mandates that all divorce, separation, child custody and visitation cases involving domestic abuse be moved to the Family Conciliation Court.

6) Sections 1850-1852 allow for the use of government funding to handle domestic abuse cases as custody disputes, in violation of federal statute. And;

WHEREAS the above identified sections of the CFCCL have the effect of moving criminal domestic violence and child abuse cases out of criminal court venues in which they can be prosecuted and into civil/family court venues in which prosecution of perpetrators cannot take place, and where documented evidence may be altered or destroyed; and

WHEREAS the practice of moving domestic violence and child abuse cases out of criminal venues and into Family Conciliation Court has resulted in the formulation of nefarious legal strategies which deflect attention away from the behavior of batterers and sexual abusers, and shift blame to parents reporting abuse so as to do harm to abused parents and children; and

WHEREAS such strategies include the use of Parental Alienation Syndrome, which was
originally constructed as a legal defense of child molesters and to shield abusive fathers from prosecution, and has hence been used across the nation to justify granting abusive parents improper custodial rights, to remove children from the protective care of safe parents, to deny due process and parenting rights, and to otherwise punish parents, especially mothers, who complain about the abuse; and

WHEREAS the National Organization for Women has denounced the use of the Parental Alienation Syndrome strategy as unethical, unconstitutional and dangerous; and

WHEREAS the problem of the use of Parental Alienation Syndrome was noteworthy enough to be addressed in the original drafts of the federal Violence Against Women Act II of 2002 (hereafter referred to as VAWA II), specifically in Title ll, Section 201 Findings: Limiting the Effects of Violence on Children (17-20), (See exhibit B), which noted that the American Psychological Association has found no empirical data to support the so-called phenomenon of Parental Alienation Syndrome, that some courts and custody evaluators frequently use such terms to discount the reasonable fear and anger of children toward a violent parent, and that this ‘syndrome’ and similar ones are used almost exclusively against women; and

WHEREAS the above reference to Parental Alienation Syndrome was inexplicably removed from VAWA II.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED by the Town Council of Fairfax California, speaking for itself as a body and for those residents of Fairfax who agree, that the California Legislature be urged to address the above referenced defects in the CFCCL to ensure that domestic violence and child abuse cases are prosecuted and that records that might serve as evidence in the prosecution of such cases cannot be destroyed; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Town Council of Fairfax CA calls upon the United States Congress to reinsert Section 201 Findings 17-20 of the November 3, 2000 draft of VAWA II; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Town Council of Fairfax California, in making these requests of the California Legislature and the U.S. Congress, in no way intends to interfere with the enforcement of Family Code 3027.1, which provides that if a court determines that an accusation of child abuse or neglect made during a child custody proceeding is false, and the person making the accusation knew it to be false at the time the accusation was made, the court may impose reasonable money sanctions. However, the intent does extend to the proper enforcement of Family Code 3027.5, so that no parent shall be placed on supervised visitation, or be denied custody of or visitation with his or her child, and no custody or visitation rights shall be limited, solely because the parent lawfully reported suspected sexual abuse of the child, otherwise acted lawfully, based on a reasonable belief, to determine if his or her child was the victim of sexual abuse, or sought treatment for the child from a licensed mental health professional for suspected sexual abuse; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the Town Council of Fairfax California joins the National Organization for Women in denouncing the use of the Parental Alienation Syndrome legal strategy.

DFACS keeps stabbing/rape victim's daughter and won't give her back

A young Ball Ground mother was raped by a meth crazed man, Gerald A. Lee, and fought back with a kitchen knife after he threatened to rape her 7-year-old daughter and killed him. Now Cherokee County DFACS are deliberating as to whether she can have her daughter back! Their alleged excuse: She made some bad choices in the past.

DFACS has made some sick choices in the past and bad publicity hasn't seemed to hamper them from stealing
"babies yet again. There's an upcoming hearing on custody this week where a panel of DFACS officials will decide on who gets this mom's daughter. She's being represented by DFACS' contract attorneys. Anyone feeling queasy?

What's so perplexing about the rape is that the cops could have/should have arrested Gerald A. Lee the night before. Atlanta area cops make it a priorty to shoot down a 92-year-old woman in a no-knock drug raid when it is obvious that she was NOT involved in illegal drug distribution. Georgia authorities routinely punish innocent women and let 'teh' dude offenders off the hook. Enough already!

"It was one of a series of episodes that shed light on some of Lee's last hours before he grabbed a shotgun and broke into a house in the woods of Cherokee County.

"The woman he raped and seriously injured was recovering Thursday in a hospital in Atlanta.

"This guy was kind of active prior to this incident," Capt. Ron Hunton of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. "He certainly acted strange."

"Investigators got their first hint of trouble with Lee after Albertson told a Cobb County police officer that Lee kicked her outside a Waffle House about 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

"They asked me if I wanted to press charges. And I said 'Hell yeah, I want to press charges," the 21-year-old said. "I didn't want someone else getting hurt."

"By the time a patrol car arrived, Lee was gone. An officer took Albertson's statement and told her she could later ask a magistrate to issue an arrest warrant.

"Albertson disputes that, but police say it's standard procedure except in cases of domestic violence, felonies or incidents where an officer can talk with both parties involved and determine if a crime has been committed.

"In those cases, officers can obtain a warrant on their own.

"About an hour after Albertson says Lee kicked her, Officer S.S. Ladner of the Canton Police Department spotted Lee at another Waffle House, on Marietta Highway.

"Lee was bloody and incoherent and said he had been in a bar fight, according to police reports.

Ladner handcuffed Lee after learning about the assault on Albertson but let him go because Cobb police had no charges against him."

Bill Maher: A re-look-see at the Constitution

Ah yes, the 'living constitution' just what the Federalist Society jerks partying down at the Mayflower Hotel hate.

Just love this quote from Chertoff:

"Some people now have taken up the idea that, really, the Federalist Society is kind of like a modern-day da Vinci conspiracy, a secret society that controls all the legal jobs and all the legal decision-making in the administration," Chertoff quipped. "And of course that is nonsense."

And better yet, Washington Post reporter David Montgomery's response:

Except, um . . . what about all those Cabinet secretaries, White House lawyers, Justice Department memo writers and appeals court nominees who are so tight with the society? Not to mention Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, a longtime Federalist and Thursday's dinner speaker.

NOW President Kim Gandy has an excellent analysis on the Federalist Society kooks. They want to ruin our lives.

Thanks Bill! I'm sure Scalia is seething over this. No doubt he'll issue an angry retort.

There's no out-of-the-box thinking in this country. If we were really looking for a new direction, we'd not just change Congress, we'd have another Constitutional Convention, as Jefferson suggested we do. Jefferson said: "Let us provide in our Constitution for its revision. . . every 19 or 20 years. . . so that it may be handed on, with periodical repairs, from generation to generation." He himself was saying, "I'm a bright guy, but even I can't foresee the iPod." Or the assault rifle.

But that's Jefferson's phrase: periodical repairs. This thing needs periodical repairs, but it hasn't been in the shop for 219 years. Of course it's belching oil. Literally. And that's because one of the glaring flaws a Constitutional Convention might correct is something called corporate personhood, which means somewhere along the way, stupid or corrupted courts gave corporations all the rights of individuals, with none of the liability. If some person defecates on your lawn, we throw him in jail, but if a corporation does it, they get a tax break. Somehow "we the people" got to be defined as Halliburton. This thing needs to go in the shop!

And I know traditionalists are saying, "But Bill, it's a sacred document!" Please, it's full of crap about pirates, for God's sake. And I don't mean the kind that copies Justin Timberlake CDs. I mean peg legs and parrots. "The founders were so brilliant." Yes, they were: the proof being, the government they designed keeps functioning even with cement-head doofuses like you in it.

[...]

How about this: You can own any gun you want, as long as it works on technology developed before 1787. This is what conservatives call "original intent," you can look it up. By candlelight. If Robert Blake wants to allegedly kill another wife, he has to use a musket. Or burn her at the stake, but who has the time?

And how about getting rid of the Electoral College? We don't have to protect the farmer in his sparse state anymore; let the votes count from where the people are. And besides, the farmer is now a huge corporation called Monsanto.

And if we got rid of the 22nd Amendment, not that I agree with Bill on this one, but how cool would it be if Hillary and Bill could run against each other for president in 2008?

Good Riddance To The Gingrichites

Mea Culpa this: CBS's Dick Meyer apologizes 12 years later for the stinking mess the press made on not calling a 'duck a duck' thereby legitimizing the newtonion narcissists -- weirdos he calls them -- of K Street.

Really, it's just a simple thesis: The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. Together, they comprised one of the oddest legislative power cliques in our history. And for 12 years, the media didn't call a duck a duck, because that's not something we're supposed to do.

Buh Bye...

Parent's Imprisonment Tough on Kids

One in 10 children in America have a parent in prison and I bet a lot of their parents are there on nonsense charges.

Seven million children! And 90% of the women in prison are single mothers with 54% of them women of color. An increase of 138% convictions in the past 10 years. The majority of their crimes are property related, forged checks and credit cards, victims of the war on drugs and domestic violence. These are poverty stricken families and the justice system metes out hefty prison sentences to them.

It's no wonder why we have a high drop-out rate in Georgia.

I've been watching a case in Gwinnett County, north of Atlanta, and was shocked, shocked I tell you, at what little regard law enforcement, prosecutors and the courts had for a mother who was clearly innocent of the idiotic charges leveled against her.

Thanks to BuzzFlash.com linking this story on their website, I see the problem is widespread.

So much for getting tough on crime. We're only making it worse.

Having a parent locked up in prison can be devastating for a child, particularly if it’s the mother, who most often is the primary caretaker, says task force member Gail Smith, executive director of Chicago Legal Advocacy for Incarcerated Mothers.
[...]
Typically, women have shorter sentences, “but it can have a huge impact on their child.” Smith says. “It’s hard [for them] to concentrate in school. Most children grieve by getting angry. A teacher may read that as something else.”
[...]
Worse yet, Smith notes, are instances when teachers and other school staff know that a child is dealing with a parent’s incarceration but stigmatize rather than support them.

“We have had situations where a caretaker has shared [information about a parent in prison] and really regretted it,” Smith says. “If something is missing, everybody looks at that child first.”
[...]
“Of course it’s a big deal,” says Jackson, noting the impact of Jordan’s mother and father being in prison. Teenaged boys, like Jordan and his younger brother, often assume an I-don’t-care attitude about their parents, but it’s just a cover, she adds.
>r>

Ode to Bobby Franklin

A clip from 'The Meaning of Life'

Franklin bill urges felony for abortion

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT

Bobby now 'Feminist' Franklin is trying to hoodwink the public with junk science in hand claiming that abortion is public enemy number one. Sheesh. I thought that fatherless families were the du jour culprit of choice. It's the cause of all of our contemporary social problems dag nab it!

South Dakota's abortion ban was rejected by voters and in Kansas, where Bobby's not in anymore, the Attorney General's plan for obtaining abortion records was trounced as was the California ballot initiative for parental notification. Yet, this is Georgia, sigh, and we're not in Kansas, South Dakota or California. Democrats won big across the country, but not here. No telling how successful Bobby's bill will be.

ATLANTA - A Cobb lawmaker is trying - again - to outlaw abortion in Georgia.

State Rep. Bobby Franklin (R-east Cobb) filed the first bill Wednesday for the upcoming legislative session that begins in January. If passed, the bill would make it a felony to perform an abortion in Georgia in nearly all cases.

[...]

In the previous year, he proposed a bill that would require a woman to receive a "death warrant" from a judge before getting an abortion. He also filed an anti-abortion bill in 2005.

Some members of Franklin's own party didn't show support for the new bill, despite having not reviewed it Wednesday evening.

"As in the past, this bill has not moved through the legislative process and I believe that will be its fate again," said Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-east Cobb).

[...]

Rep. Judy Manning (R-Marietta) said she supports the right to abortion in cases involving rape and incest. She added that the bill would only create problems for the state's already crowded jails.

"I'm pro-life. But as a woman I have some reservations with a felony conviction," Ms. Manning said.

Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan (D-Austell) said she thinks Franklin's bill is far-fetched and unconstitutional.

"You are punishing someone because of a private decision they have made between their doctors and their mate," Ms. Morgan said.

She added that the bill infringed on personal and privacy rights like those established by the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. "It is important to have a woman's right to choose," she said

.

LC 18 5850T

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT

To amend Chapter 12 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to crimes against public health and morals, so as to make certain findings of fact; to define certain terms; to provide that any abortion shall be unlawful; to provide a penalty; to provide for severance; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:

SECTION 1.
Chapter 12 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to crimes against public health and morals, is amended by revising Article 5, relating to abortion, in its entirety as follows:

ARTICLE 5

16-12-140.
(a) The State of Georgia has the duty to protect all innocent life from the moment of conception until natural death. We know that life begins at conception. After three decades of legal human abortion, it is now abundantly clear that the practice has negatively impacted the people of this state in many ways, including economic, health, physical, psychological, emotional, and medical well-being. These, too, are areas of legitimate concern and duty of the state. The General Assembly therefore makes the following findings of fact:

After three decades of legal human abortion, it is now abundantly clear that the practice has negatively impacted the people of this state in many ways, including economic, health, physical, psychological, emotional, and medical well-being. These, too, are areas of legitimate concern and duty of the state. The General Assembly therefore makes the following findings of fact:

Findings of fact? Whoa. More like Findings of fulsomeness...
[Every Sperm/Embryo is Sacred]

(2) A fetus is a person for all purposes under the laws of this state from the moment of conception;
(3) Even if the answer to the question of when life begins were unclear, the Georgia Constitution, at Article I, Section I, Paragraph II, provides: 'Protection to person and property is the paramount duty of government and shall be impartial and complete. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws.' Because a fetus is a person, constitutional protection attaches at the moment of conception. It is therefore the duty of the General Assembly to protect the innocent life that is currently being taken;
(4) As a direct result of three decades of legalized abortion on demand, the nation has seen a dramatic rise in the incidence of child abuse and a dramatic weakening of family ties, with the infamous Roe v. Wade decision pitting mothers against their children and women against men;

[C’mon Bob. You know that isn’t true. Where’d you get your stats from, the angry fathers’ rights organizations? It’s the FROs/MROs' theme song. I looked up the pro-life women’s groups and they’re funded by pro-life men. And who would have thought that the Feminists for Life have fathers' rights stories on their website?]

(5) Studies of the three decades since Roe v. Wade have revealed that women have been deeply wounded psychologically, with one researcher reporting that 81 percent of the women who have had an abortion had a preoccupation with an aborted child, 54 percent had nightmares, 35 percent had perceived visitation with an aborted child, and 96 percent felt their abortion had taken a human life;
(6) Studies have shown that women who have had an abortion require psychological treatment of such symptoms as nervous disorders, sleep disturbances, and deep regrets, with 25 percent of one test group of women who have had abortions visiting a psychiatrist while only 3 percent of a control group did so;
(7) Another random study showed that at least 19 percent of women who have had an abortion suffered from diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, with 50 percent suffering from many, but not all, symptoms of that disorder, and 20 to 40 percent of the women studied showed moderate to high levels of stress and avoidance behavior relative to their abortion experience;
(8) Approximately 60 percent of women who have had an abortion and who reported post-abortion trauma also reported suicidal tendencies with 28 percent actually attempting suicide, of whom half attempted suicide two or more times;
(9) Abortion results in increased tobacco smoking, and women who have had an abortion are twice as likely to become heavy smokers and suffer the corresponding health problems as women who have never had an abortion;
(10) Abortion is linked to alcohol and drug abuse, with a two-fold increase in the risk of alcohol abuse among women who have had an abortion and a significant increase in drug abuse;
(11) Most couples find abortion to be an event which shatters their relationship, causing chronic marital troubles and divorce;

imnotsorry.net disagrees with you Bobby.

[And oh just great. Stats from an electrical engineer! David ‘Rear-don’ who coined the term post-abortion syndrome or PAS and founded the Elliot Institute. Hah! As in the case of Richard Gardner’s – and oh by the way he stabbed himself to death -- parental alienation syndrome the other PAS leading scientists have panned it both PASs has being downright sloppy science, basically not peer reviewed, crappy methodology, corporate junk science and downright dangerous to women.]

Just loved Reardon’s study on Lorena Bobbit.Reardon analyzed the trial in 1996 and came upon the idea that her abortion led her to cutting off her husband’s penis. Never mind that she was repeatedly raped, battered, had numerous affairs and severe financial problems. But then there’s the traumatic consequences of abortion, in Reardon’s peevish world, abortion trumps overwhelming evidence that Lorena Bobbit was a battered woman.

Other witnesses provided supporting testimony, saying that they had seen the results of Lorena's abuse, such as bruises and cuts on her body. Even John's friends said that he often bragged "about how he liked to force Lorena to have sex and how he controlled and dominated her," Pershing reported. The defense suggested it was only a matter of time before Lorena snapped. At the time of the wounding, psychologists claimed that she was suffering from clinical depression and possibly posttraumatic stress disorder.


[…]

John also managed to wrack up a considerable criminal record. Tanith Carey reported for The Mirror that, "he was arrested seven times for offenses ranging from assault to grand larceny." Some of the charges included domestic violence, such as when he allegedly beat his ex-fiancée, Kristina Elliott, and punched his third wife, Joanne Ferrell, on two occasions. To date, John continues to live in Nevada where he is trying to eke out a new life and stay out of trouble.

More evidence against Bobby, Brind and Reardon

Anti-abortion advocates like Brind and Reardon, ones who wear the lab coats but not the respect of scientists, have not been deterred by the response of the scientific community. Even though a panel at the National Cancer Institute has concluded, "Induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk,"21 and the American Psychiatric Association does not recognize PAS as a legitimate syndrome, such high status pronouncements are irrelevant to the followers of B.A.D. scientists. The success of their performances relies on volume before a general audience, not on the fidelity of their technical merits.”

(12) Abortion exploits women, treating them and their children as mere property, and abortion is contrary to feminist values, and the great suffragette Susan B. Anthony referred to abortion as 'child murder';

Bob you're taking this out of historical context. Abortion was legal in the 19th century. Some fathers forced women to have abortions against their will. It was MALE doctors who fought against so-called 'untrained practioners' ergo midwives mid-1800s to out of business by criminalizing abortion.

As in the New York Times article Deperately seeking Susan Stacy Schiff explores the question on what Susan B. Anthony and her colleagues would respond to 21st century debates. Since most women aren't forced into abortions now, taking away the right of self-determination probably wouldn't set none to well with them.

What Susan B. Anthony did say: “We demand that woman shall be given the means to assert herself, regardless of whether she ever uses it or not..."

And this: "I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."

And this: “For a people is only as great, as free, as lofty, as advanced as its women are free, noble and progressive.”

There's absolutely nothing in anything that she [Susan B. Anthony]ever said or did that would indicate she was anti-abortion," said Gloria Feldt, an activist and author who formerly served as head of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

She [Susan B. Anthony] never voiced an opinion about the sanctity of fetal life," Gordon said of Anthony. "And she never voiced an opinion about using the power of the state to require that pregnancies be brought to term.

(13) Thirty years of abortion on demand have resulted in an increase in breast cancer, and a study has shown that women who had an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy before experiencing a full-term pregnancy may be at increased risk for breast cancer;

[No. No. No. & Not. Bob. The National Cancer Institute says otherwise. You must have found these specious stats from reading the fundy-neocon National Review Online.]

(14) The practice of abortion has had a profound detrimental effect on the health and well-being of the citizens of this state as well as the health of the economy; and

[Abortion hasn’t affected me or anyone in my family either positively or negatively. And please do tell us how abortion affects the economy? I would just love to learn about that.]

(15) The practice of abortion has caused the citizens of this state an inestimable amount economically including, but not limited to, the costs and tax burden of having to care for individuals and their families for the conditions cited above, as well as a significant reduction of the tax base and of the availability of workers, entrepreneurs, teachers, employees, and employers that would have significantly contributed to the prosperity of this state.

[WTF? A financial and tax burden for non-existing syndrome? Okey-dokey Bob, you’re presuming that more children would be born into financially stable circumstances – a father in every pot syndrome – and all said children, even those poverty stricken, would grow up and get great jobs, et rich and pay taxes. Maybe we should have someone sponsor a bill requiring legislators to take I.Q. and competency testing?]

b) As used in this Code section, the term:
(1) 'Abortion' means the intentional termination of human pregnancy with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus; provided, however, that if a physician makes a medically justified effort to save the lives of both the mother and the fetus and the fetus does not survive, such action shall not be an abortion. Such term does not include a naturally occurring expulsion of a fetus known medically as a 'spontaneous abortion' and popularly as a 'miscarriage' so long as there is no human involvement whatsoever in the causation of such event.
(2) 'Fetus' means a person at any point of development from and including the moment of conception through the moment of birth. Such term includes all medical or popular designations of an unborn child from the moment of conception such as zygote, embryo, homunculus, and similar terms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygote

Zygotes are people too!

(c) The practice of abortion is contrary to the health and well-being of the citizens of this state and to the state itself and is illegal in this state in all instances.
(d) Any person performing an abortion in this state shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be punished as provided in subsection (d) of Code Section 16-5-1. The license of any physician indicted for an alleged violation of this Code section shall be suspended until resolution of the matter. The license of any physician convicted of a violation of this Code section shall be permanently revoked. The provisions of this Code section shall be in addition to any other provisions relating to the killing of a fetus or any other person.ʺ
SECTION 2.
If any portion of this Act is found to be unconstitutional by the courts, the remaining portions of this Act shall remain in full force and effect.

SECTION 3.
This Act shall become effective upon its approval by the Governor or upon its becoming law without such approval.

SECTION 4.
All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.

Maureen Dowd: The Drapes of Wrath

This is too precious. America heading to a matriarchy. Thanks Pottersville!

Because of the power of female consumers, some marketing experts predict we will end up a matriarchy. This year, women also flexed their muscle at the polls, transformed into electoral Furies by the administration’s stubborn course in Iraq.

[...]

According to The Times’s exit polls, women were more likely than men to want some or all of the troops to be withdrawn from Iraq now, and 64 percent of women said that the war in Iraq has not improved U.S. security.

Carville trashing Dean

DNC RESPONSE TO CARVILLE:
Howard Dean spokeswoman Karen Finney emails the following in response to James Carville's comments below:

After the Republicans have admitted to a thumping, why is it that the only one complaining on the Democratic side is James Carville, who today in addition to trashing Howard Dean, praised the RNC, the outfit that brought us the racist ad that defeated Harold Ford, James' supposed candidate for Chair? ...

Now why would he do this? Seems to me that Howard Dean has done a smash up job raising money for the DNC. Wait, wait, I forgot Carville is Zell Miller's lap dog.

Just loved this post on dailykos.com.
Thanks decon

Three strikes (14+ / 0-)
Strike One: Elected Zell Miller
Strike Two: Married a Republican operative
Strike Three: Dissed Howard Dean.

Bye bye.

Carville & Paul Begala were/are Zell's political advisers. Thanks for reminding us blogfordemocracy!

"The reporter questioning miller said that Miller had slammed Johnson for supporting civil rights, accusing him of "selling his Southern heritage for a mess of dark pottage."

[...]

"when the Atlanta Constitution had printed that so-called quote he'd marched down to the paper's offices and demanded and received a correction. He'd never say a thing like that.

"The next day that great moment became one of our greatest nightmares. Al May, the veteran political reporter for the Atlanta Constitution, interviewed Miller as Paul [Begala] drove them and Shirley Miller to an event in rural Georgia. May made small talk for a little while. Then he sprang the trap. "Zell," he said, "I've talked to all the editors who were around back then, checked the morgue and the archives, and you never asked for a retraction and the paper never printed one."
"I know," Miller said, biting the words off the words like they were bitter herbs.

"So why'd you say all that in the debate last night?"

"Miller leaned in close to May and said, "Because, Al, I was trying to mislead the people of Georgia."

So Carville claims the GOP drugged Zell

When Imus noted that the Georgia Democrat sounded "fine" when he interviewed him the next morning," Carville shot back: "They probably shot him up with something, you know. He just likes screaming at people."

Fatehi 'The Discriminator' on Kazakhstan

Now Fatehi is a movie and travel critic. Maybe he'll do the women at Kennesaw State University a favor and move to Kazakhstan soon...

Depiction in 'Borat' doesn't do Kazakhstan justice

By KAMAL FATEHI
HASH(0x6208a0)
Published on: 11/08/06

Often, when people in the entertainment business want to tell a story about an overseas country, they will make one up. A good example is "Syriana," a story about Middle Eastern oil, which was set in a fictional country with a name that sounded something like Syria.

But when Sasha Baron Cohen invented his character "Borat," he didn't make up a country. He decided Borat should be from the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.

Kamal Fatehi visits a marketplace during his stay in Kazakhstan as a Fulbright scholar. 'None of what is portrayed in the movie is what I have seen,' he writes.

Now this is brilliant...

[...]

"Why call them 'stan' countries?" I asked. "You don't say all of those 'land' countries. We have Holland, Poland, Switzerland, Iceland, Finland . . . you differentiate among those countries."

After all, the terms "stan" and "estan" mean "land."

Going to Kazakhstan soon to be a university tycoon?

Kazakhstan's economy is improving rapidly. I had a colleague, a Harvard graduate, who was working in one of the country's more recently established universities. He told me several years ago he planned to convert all his savings from dollars to tenges, Kazakhstan's currency. He said the tenge was appreciating, so he would benefit from it. In the last few years I could see he was correct; the currency had appreciated 20 percent.

If there is one thing I want people to know about Kazakhstan, it is that it is filled with smart, highly educated people who are modernizing the country quite rapidly, much faster than Russia. I tell people that if I were a citizen of the former Soviet Union, of all the republics I could choose, I'd want to live in Kazakhstan.

The real Kazakhstan may not be as funny as Borat's Kazakhstan, but it would be a shame to consider it one of those "stan' countries, and nothing more.

• Fulbright scholar Kamal Fatehi, originally from Iran, is a professor of international management at Kennesaw State University.

And he used to be the chair of the Kennesaw State University Department of Management and Entrepreneurship.

Law Reform Measure Fails in South Dakota

South Dakota's "J.A.I.L for Judges" Measure Fails according the the WSJ.com's Law Blog

There's no update on J.A.I.L's website though, at least not that I can find.

But wait there's more. Newly elected New York Governor Eliot Spitzer has plans as noted in today's New York Times Editorial The Task for Mr. Spitzer.

Mr. Spitzer has repeatedly promised to do in Albany what he did on Wall Street as attorney general. That means cleaning up cronyism and the culture of secrecy. But his plans for reform are by no means limited to the way the political game is played. He promises Medicaid reform, debt reform and court reform — each one involving entrenched interests that benefit from the status quo. At the same time, he vows to make New York a national leader in the areas where leadership has failed in Washington, like education, civil rights, the environment and housing.

And wait, wait, there's still more in Colorado's Amendment 40 on DenverPost.com Performance reviews proposed for judges</span>.

A 120-page study done at a think tank Kourlis set up at the University of Denver concluded that "the time has come to implement judicial performance evaluation programs in every state and federal jurisdiction in the United States."

Even though Amendment 40 lost by 56.87% of the vote, it's amazing that it even came up for a vote and shows growing discontent on judicial accountability across the nation.

That independence, said federal Judge Thomas Hogan of the Washington, D.C., area, who leads the executive committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, "is a foundation of our system of justice which has made our system of justice, certainly the federal system, the envy of the world."

But mishandled cases nationwide "are breeding converts" for those who support reform, said lawyer Gary Zerman, a lawyer who runs JAIL 4 Judges, a Los Angeles-based group that has branches in 50 states.

Judges "have never been apolitical," he said. "They have to be held accountable. No man is above the law."

For more on how the courts fail women read here, here and here.

Gender Bias: Women Lawyers Like the Rest of Us

Just went through this at my last job. Damn those qualifiers...

"Women attorneys are criticized for being too little of this or too much of that; not confident enough or too confident; not aggressive enough or too aggressive; not ambitious enough or too ambitious. But women are seldom just right," said Ms. Luce, who also chairs the "Hidden Brain Drain," a task force that helps employers retain women.

[...]

When a woman seems uncertain, speaking softly or using qualifiers, her behavior may reinforce the belief that she is not sufficiently assertive or confident. Supervisors may even begin to question her competence, interpreting a hesitant style as questionable ability.

"My friend was told during her review [at a New York City firm] that her work was excellent but her speaking style made her sound 'unintelligent,'" said an attorney who has worked at two national firms. She explained that her friend frequently uses qualifiers and couches her statements as questions.

Killer Women's Beauty Trends

From The Guardian, just in time for Halloween, literally a scary look at torturous trends in women's fashion throughout history.

Looks pretty svelte eh?


Here's what it does to a woman's body. Gasp!

Only Way to the Truth---Torture Hastert

Just loved this novel idea put forth by Tom D'Antoni on The Huffington Post writing on the Foley ped investigation.

There's only one way to get this information. Send Foley, Hastert, Boehner, and the rest of them to Guantanamo and torture the information out of them....Habeas Corpus? Pfaff! If President Bush can waive it for Muslims, he can waive it for those who prey on our children, right?

Bush Threatens World

Bush Parody State of the Union Address…Bush to Iraq: Go Home and Die!
Every year we meet here by law and by custom to threaten the world…

Fathers' Rights media propaganda

Demand that the Orlando Sentinel and Detroit News cease running Kathleen Parker's columns.

Orlando Sentinel Columnist editor Mike Murphy
mjmurphy@orlandosentinel.com

direct ph # 407/420-5168

Murphy's Supervising editor - Manney Pynn 407/420-5715

To the Editors:

Please ban Kathleen Parker from publishing any more articles on custody litigation and fathers issues, unless she prints an apology and retraction of her recent article which included mention of Maine Governor Baldacci and Parental Alienation.

We have talked at length with Governor Baldacci's office and he was very unhappy to learn of Parker's reference to Governor Baldacci in this article:
K. Parker "Let's not alienate parents in custody... " 5/13/06/ Detroit News

The Governor's office was not aware, when a low level staff person had a recent telephone discussion with a fathers’ rights representative, that they would be endorsing Parental Alienation. The staff person was not authorized and probably did not confirm the Governor's endorsement of Parental Alienation or a special Parental Alienation Awareness day. Upon learning more about the fathers’ groups who promote Parental Alienation and Richard Gardner, they definitely do not endorse it. [Interesting to note that Baldacci's website does not have a link to the to the 4/25/06 Parental Alienation Proclamation.]

We have followed Parker's writing on the subject of the fathers’rights/custody movement for many years and find her writings to be very irresponsible, malicious and sometimes dishonest. She does not separate 'fact' from her own personal subjective opinions about the virtuousness of men, and does not check the "facts" she does use in her opinion writings.

Parker doesn't appear to be cognizant of the fact she is writing about the legal outcomes other people's court cases, when insisting that those outcomes have not been fair to the same group of people [i.e., the father's groups] which she does not disclose to her general readership that she has been closely associated with.

She continually infers that legal adversaries of her patrons have won these court cases by perjury and deceit, in addition to being malicious parents.

We are the people Parker has been slandering for years. Yet, she will not communicate with us, or cite any specific cases or court orders to support the claims she makes, or verify facts by checking the court orders. Instead, she relies solely on the word of the fathers she has been patronizing for years - and who most people in protective parent custody circles know to be a "gang" of violent sociopathic liars who have been kicked out of many Congressional offices and state legislative hearings because of their crude and threatening conduct.

The Baldacci incident is one of many such dishonest involvements on their part.

We know who these men are - they are our ex-husbands - and many of them are seriously disturbed and violent men who are organized for the sole purpose of getting revenge against the mothers of their children so they don't have pay child support. Some have even killed their own children and the mother, out of sheer vengeance, per many news reports. Parker seems oblivious to these disturbing facts and continues to represent their community as totally innocent victims of malicious mothers who lie in court to get sole custody.

Parker and her editor have the mistaken notion that her writings are 'opinions' subject to different interpretations. However, this is not just an opinion in which a party in a domestic litigation was awarded custody or ordered to pay child support. Court orders are legal facts.

Parker has been in error on this point and similar points she has been making in her columns. She wrongfully reports that the fathers as a "class" have been unjustifiable losers in custody litigation - without defining the class or citing the relevant court orders as evidence.

We know the truth, because we are the parties in that litigation and not Kathleen Parker. These are OUR court cases and not hers.

The truth is that the fathers are winning most of the issues and motions and mothers are the ones victimized by loss of all custody rights, loss of most or all contact with their children, loss of income because of unreasonable court ordered child support obligations and most importantly – we are the victims of parental alienation misconduct that the fathers complain about. It is the fathers Parker patronizes who are the parental alienators - not the mothers - because most of the litigating mothers have little contact with their children, even ones with joint custody.

The fathers have been feeding Parker a bunch of lies for years to which she has printed lock, stock, and barrel without any verification attempts.

They don't tell her (and she has shown no interest in learning)that they are in control of specialized federal HHS program funds which are used to pay their custody attorneys. They are in the business of generating domestic dispute litigation for the benefit of crooked attorneys and court evaluators. The fathers need to create a climate of fear among the prospective litigating-father community in order to pull in more business for their litigation scam. Parker's collaboration with their disinformation campaign is tantamount to collaboration in an illegal litigation solicitation scheme.

The funds being used for fathers’ cases are not authorized for these purposes, which is why several Congressional committees are reviewing the matter, in addition to high level HHS legal officials.

Parker is so self-righteous about her crusade to advance the rights of fathers, that she obviously failed or didn’t care enough to check out Richard Gardner's Parental Alienation Syndrome(PAS)- which she also mentioned in this recent column.

She apparently has never done a Google search on Richard Gardner, or she would have learned he is an incest advocate with many published statements which blatantly endorse father-child incest as a positive experience, with severe punishment for mothers who interfere. Parental Alienation is nothing more than a semi-dignified way to normalize father-child incest by preventing mothers from complaining by keeping them away from the affected children.

This is why every professional organizations involved in family and child litigation has condemned Gardner and PAS – including:

National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse

NCPCA Update Newsletter Volume 16, Number 6, 2003

NCPCA Update Newsletter Volume 16, Number 7, 2003

The NCPCA has published a double edition report saying it should not be used in court because it is harmful to children.

Yet Parker talks about Gardner and PAS in her recent column as if it were a great advance in social research whose time as come.

Parker must inform her readers that PAS is not acceptable and is harmful to children and that the fathers' rights men she patronizes are not custody court victims.

Liz Richards
nafcj.org

Save the Internet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5RQrxkGgCM

NSA spying on us & Cheney reviving cold war

Did anyone else see Cheney on the news tarring Russia for human rights' abuses? What an idiot. Who would fall for this stuff? Certainly not Putin who compared him to "Comrade Wolf."

Now, today we learn that Comrade Wolf et al. are spying on all of us. Whoa! Wonder what this will do to the Bushies' approval ratings? Or will the wingnuts keep supporting him? I've already read it on blogs..."I don't have anything to hide/ I'm a patriot, so go ahead and tap my phones!"

Meanwhile, an ex-Homeland Security aide is freed on bail and Hillary Clinton thinks Bush is charming and has charisma!

Feds Create Massive Database of Phone Calls
Companies Turn Over Domestic Records to National Security Agency
By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
v:shapes="_x0000_i1025"> v:shapes="_x0000_i1026">
"The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
"The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.
"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.
"For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.
[…]
"Among the big telecommunications companies, only Qwest has refused to help the NSA, the sources said. According to multiple sources, Qwest declined to participate because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants.
"Qwest's refusal to participate has left the NSA with a hole in its database. Based in Denver, Qwest provides local phone service to 14 million customers in 14 states in the West and Northwest. But AT&T and Verizon also provide some services — primarily long-distance and wireless — to people who live in Qwest's region. Therefore, they can provide the NSA with at least some access in that area.
[…]

"The sources said the NSA made clear that it was willing to pay for the cooperation. AT&T, which at the time was headed by C. Michael Armstrong, agreed to help the NSA. So did BellSouth, headed by F. Duane Ackerman; SBC, headed by Ed Whitacre; and Verizon, headed by Ivan Seidenberg.

[…]

"Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.

"In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.

"Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

Robert Scheer: Hayden: The Spook in Your Phone
Michael V. Hayden, nominated by President Bush to head the CIA, is the man responsible for the most extensive attack ever on the privacy of U.S. citizens. As USA Today reveals, it was during the six years that Hayden ran the ultra-secret National Security Agency that the Feds gained access to the phone calling records of most Americans.
By cross-checking those phone record against other readily available databases, the Feds are now in a position to profile the intimate daily lives of the citizenry--providing a tool that no Big Brother could ever have dreamed of obtaining before the advent of modern telecommunications technology. Yet this assault on our freedom was never disclosed to the public, debated by our elected representatives or tested by the courts.
Most disturbing is the revelation by USA Today that leading members of Congress-- Democrats as well as Republicans--had been told of this ghastly assault on our freedom but did nothing to thwart it. They must now be held accountable. So too General Hayden, who obviously should not be trusted with running the CIA spy agency after having engineered such massive spying on the American public. As my Wednesday column, reproduced bellow indicates, there were already sufficient reasons to reject this nominee, but the latest charge dwarfs previous concerns.

Posted to the web on: 11 May 2006
Putin warns on ‘fortress America‘
Richard Balmforth

Reuters
"MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin appealed to nationalist sentiment in his annual Kremlin address yesterday, saying Russia faced growing military competition with “fortress America”, and offered financial incentives to boost Russia’s falling birthrate.
"In his seventh annual keynote address to the nation, Putin said Russia would develop a stronger army and that the US cared more about its own interests than for democracy or human rights.
"Russia, which has amassed almost $300bn in savings in the past eight years, was rearming its military to meet growing global threats as defence spending by former Cold War foes soared, Putin said.

[…]
"US-Russian relations hit their coldest moment last week when US Vice-President Dick Cheney, speaking in Vilnius, Lithuania, accused Moscow of backsliding on democracy and using its vast energy resources as a tool for “intimidation and blackmail” against its neighbours.
"Putin went on to take a swipe at US foreign policy and Washington’s criticism of Russia’s human rights record. He said Washington’s commitment to human rights was secondary to US national interests.
“We see what’s happening in the world. As the saying goes, comrade wolf knows who to eat and he eats without listening to others,” he said.
"US President George Bush, due to meet Putin in St Petersburg in July at a Group of Eight summit, stepped in to the fray, telling a German newspaper recently that Russia was sending mixed signals on democracy.
"Turning to Iran, Putin sidestepped open criticism and issued a veiled warning to Washington not to take military action against Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/05/04/dhs.sex.charge/index.html
Ex-Homeland Security aide freed on bail
Official to return to Maryland after hearing on child sex charges
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Posted: 4:18 p.m. EDT (20:18 GMT)
Defense attorney Barry Helfand said Doyle will return to his home in Maryland to be examined by two psychiatrists who specialize in sexual dysfunctions.
Helfand said Doyle remains "very depressed" since his April 4 arrest at his Silver Spring, Maryland, home as he allegedly communicated with a Polk County detective posing on the Internet as a 14-year-old girl. (Full story)
The detective, Sandy Scherer, testified during Thursday's hearing that authorities moved quickly on arresting Doyle because of his position and high security clearance. She also said that Doyle indicated he had spoken to other

Hillary Clinton Says Bush Has Charm and Charisma
By DEVLIN BARRETT, AP
"He is someone who has a lot of charm and charisma, and I think in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, I was very grateful to him for his support for New York," Clinton said Tuesday night during a talk at the National Archives about her life in politics.
"Clinton, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, said that despite their "many disagreements about many, many issues," she has always had a good personal relationship with the president."

Where's the JQC when 'ya need them?

"I get real excited about things because I see myself as a conductor or an actor, and I realize that it's very powerful."
-- T. Jackson Bedford, Atlanta lawyer in a three-attorney firm

Verdict is in: Fulton judge way over line
Bob Barr - For the Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, April 26, 2006

"The recent incident in Fulton County Superior Court when Judge T. Jackson Bedford ordered District Attorney Paul Howard handcuffed and detained in a holding cell is not only unseemly and bordering on bizarre, but also highly corrosive of the respect for the law and for our judicial process that is essential to the proper functioning of civil society.
[...]
"The roots of the dispute between the judge and the DA go back even before January, when Bedford suppressed an incriminating statement by a defendant charged with a violent murder over the objections of the assistant district attorney trying the case on Howard's behalf. The judge, in refusing to allow the DA's office to appeal his ruling (as is allowed), berated Howard for questioning the court's decision. The defendant was subsequently acquitted.
[...]
"Discussing a case with jurors, especially a case you've lost, is a long-standing and common practice in courtrooms throughout Georgia and across the United States. Indeed, for a district attorney who has just lost a case --- especially one that will be followed by others involving the same defendant --- not to seek insights from such a jury would be highly irresponsible.
"Yet, apparently based on prior bad blood between these two elected officials, Bedford tried to prohibit the district attorney himself from speaking with jurors, insisting that only the assistant district attorney who actually tried the case could do so.
"While a judge, based on sound rules of procedures as well as common sense, is responsible for the proper administration of all official proceedings in his or her courtroom, there are --- or ought to be --- limits to such power.
[...]
"Employing the power of sheriff's deputies to forcibly handcuff and detain an elected district attorney for doing nothing more than what he not only is allowed to do, but essentially is obligated to do, raises serious questions about personal judicial power that truly must be addressed by higher and more temperate authorities. (Furthermore, deputies' allegiance ought to be to the system of ensuring order and safety in the courtroom, not to a judge who seeks to use them as personal Praetorian Guards.)
"Although Bedford apparently has enlisted the public support of at least one former judge to defend his actions and to explain publicly that a judge's power to control everything that takes place in "their" courtroom is absolute, those tasked with addressing the fallout from this latest incident probably will take a more learned and reasonable approach."
Former congressman and U.S. Attorney Bob Barr practices law in Atlanta. Web site: www.bobbarr.org.

Judge reverses his decision to arrest Fulton DA

By RHONDA COOK and BILL MONTGOMERY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/28/06
"The arrest warrants against Fulton District Attorney Paul Howard were stayed, less than 24 hours after a Douglas County judge signed the papers allowing a deputy to move forward with her attempts to have the prosecutor face criminal charges for a courtroom altercation.
"Former Gov. Roy Barnes, one of Howard's lawyers, confirmed that Douglas County Judge David Emerson had reversed himself.
[...]
"Barnes called the issuing of the warrants "outrageous" and accused the deputy, Levoular McCray, and her lawyer, Dennis Scheib, of "judge shopping."
"I've never heard of anybody arresting a district attorney in my 35 years of practicing law," Barnes said."

Opening the Mind's Eye
With clients demanding more and competitors cutting in on lawyers' turf, any practice can thrive by dumping rote thinking and getting creative
By Steven Keeva
"A Houston law firm with a nonhierarchical structure constantly reinvents firm processes, making change the firm's lodestar. The firm operates under the principle that doing work and learning to do it better can be one and the same thing, and that they must happen simultaneously. For example, the firm recently completed a case that required six months of relentless work, ending in trial. As the case was concluding, the lead attorney asked all the lawyers involved to spend billable time reflecting on how they worked and what could have been done better. Rather than doing a post-mortem, the emphasis was on getting the freshest possible perspective by looking at the work while it was still in progress.
[...]
"As a springboard for discussing a problem, Couger copies a page from an encyclopedia and distributes it. "For example, we were looking at the problem of meeting project deadlines, something every company has wrestled with over the years. I copied an entry on ant colonies and how they are established and organized, and how the ants keep them going successfully," he says. "Then I tried to do a direct translation to the problem at hand: Does the way ants do this lend any insight into how we might tackle the problem? I usually borrow from nature as my starting point."

"I get real excited about things because I see myself as a conductor or an actor, and I realize that it's very powerful."
T. Jackson Bedford
Atlanta lawyer in a three-attorney firm

"UCLA law Professor Gary Blasi, who is known as a creative lawyer himself, is currently doing research on creativity in public interest law. Some of his suggestions are valid for any kind of practice:
* Think about what tools you have, then try using them. Earl Rogers, a well-known lawyer in turn-of-the-century Los Angeles, was astute enough to realize he had a powerful tool in the unjaded mind of his 8-year-old daughter, who often accompanied him to court. Sometimes her "child sight," as he called it, suggested solutions that his adult, legally trained mind consistently overlooked.
* Develop the habit of running through several different perspectives. "It doesn't take long to say, 'What would an economist say about that? What would a doctor say? What would a single mother on welfare say? It can be liberating to bor-row someone else's prism and look at the world through that for a while."
* In meetings, make sure people are not afraid to express ideas, even off-the-wall ideas. Some big organizations, Blasi says, develop the antithesis of an idea-friendly culture. In the end, they pay for it. [emphasis added]
* Read broadly. "My experience is that everything helps." For example, reading literary criticism on what makes a good story or what makes a detail more compelling can help a trial lawyer structure an argument.
* Resist the temptation to seize immediately on what you already know. Don't just accept the way a client frames a situation or the interpretation your own experience superimposes on it. Look for other possibilities.
* Keep in mind that anything can be questioned and reconsidered for a more creative approach. "Why didn't I offer that client coffee when she came in?" is a worthwhile question.

On monstersandcritics.com's Water Cooler Stories, "Terry Sullivan, the jury foreman, described the scene as 'two stubborn mules.'"

And on ajc.com:

"State Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), former Atlanta City Councilman Derrick Bozman and Michael Langford of the United Youth and Adult Council said Monday they planned to file a complaint against Bedford with the state Judicial Qualification Commission.
"We're concerned that Judge Bedford's actions in putting Paul Howard in custody [were] excessive. It just seems something could have been done so that the situation didn't get to that point," Fort said.
"Fortunately, Judge Bedford isn't taking any of this personally," Brogdon said."

Trash Talk Culminates in Judge's Recusal
"Bedford appointed Thomas' co-counsel Thomas M. West, but he denied Thomas' petition. Bedford said in a prepared statement that his decision was "prompted by what I believed to be unfounded and unprofessional derogatory comments that he made about me in the Daily Report several years ago." Bedford said he was afraid Thomas' attitude might affect his conduct in his courtroom."

White justice treats all Blacks equally
by ALTON H. MADDOX JR.
Originally posted 4/5/2006

"Can you imagine any judge in New York ordering court officers to handcuff Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau and put him in a holding pen with murderers and rapists for legally discussing an acquittal with a willing jury after it had rendered its verdict? No.
"This happened to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard in Atlanta. Howard is Black. The judge, T. Jackson Bedford, Jr., is white. Howard replaced legendary District Attorney Lewis Slaton, who was able to nail Wayne Williams on questionable, voodoo evidence for the ''Atlanta Child Murders.''

Superior Court, Fulton County, GA
The Atlanta Constitution
12-04-1997
"Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford gave Casey Carpenter an unusual sentence, to say the least. Instead of the 15-year prison term Carpenter could have gotten for vehicular homicide, Bedford ordered an 11-year probation with conditions including no rock concerts or football games, period, and no dating or marriage unless the judge gives his permission."

Abdullah Boortz & The Pentagon Club

Does Boortz give cover to terrorists?

"I pulled records from PDK and found that on one day alone, about half the flights were "unknown." The last time I'd written about general aviation airports was in Miami -- where private planes formed the Drug Runners Squadron. I've sat on my sailboat in the Keys and watched smugglers toss "square grouper" from their planes as cops chased them." -- John Sugg

Mixing booze and big 'unknown'planes at Peachtree DeKalb Airport

"Here's the scoop "In 1992, a squadron of partying private pilots who buzz in and out of PDK landed a cushy deal. For $250 a month, they rented the old control tower at PDK and converted it into the mucho private Pentagon Club."

Hooray for Feminista! For outing Wendy McElroy, the faux feminist at ifeminists.com, which is a project of the Independent Institute and a contributor for Intellectual Conservative. Here’s what she has to say about Castle Rock v. Gonzales:

"Responsible adults—both male and female—have both a right and a need to defend themselves and their families, with lethal force if necessary. If DV advocates had focused on putting a gun in Jessica’s hand and training her to use it, then the three Gonzales children might still be alive."

So now Betty Friedan is a communist?

A Different Look at Betty Friedan’s Legacy by Wendy McElroy

McElroy has a nasty habit of attacking mothers who have lost custody of their children to abusive fathers. When California NOW released a study on women who lost in California family courts, McElroy had absolutely no sympathy for them and refused to look at evidence including court and medical records accumulated by CA NOW and by the National Alliance for Family Court Justice (NAFCJ). She simply did NOT want to see the documentation. She went on a rampage accusing all of us as being liars. She then had the audacity,"waiving her usual fee, asking only for expenses" to write that she accepted the challenge.

"McElroy is right, this is news, not a university study. I challenge her as
a "feminist" to sit in a room with the hundreds of women who have had their
rights to contact with their children denied on the whim of a sexist judge,
or tried desperately to get her child out of the home of a man who has been
sexually molesting that child, or who has had her teenage son commit suicide
rather than go live with his father, and tell them their stories don’t
count." -- Rachel Allen

And here's McElroy's pot calling the kettle black, as if she doesn't work for an advocacy group with a vested interest:

"My column clearly stated that data is not invalidated by being advanced by an advocacy group. But when reports and studies are released by those with a vested interest in reaching certain conclusions, the data should receive extra scrutiny. To quote the column, "Although CANOW’s self-description as a ’political action organization’ does not invalidate the report, it should raise red flags emblazoned ’extra scrutiny required.’"

In her Put UP or Shut Up column for Fox News, she admits that she didn't bother to look at documents supporting abuse allegations. All she wants us to do is shut up!

"In another e-mail — Ms. Pierce also makes serious accusations against an individual by name. It is time for PC feminists to prove their concern by going public with solid proof of criminal activity against children and women — not merely allegations.

"If NAFJC and NOW care about abused women and children, they will publicize whatever hard evidence they hold in their hands. Let the "facts" be aired and not just alleged in what appears to be a cowardly attempt to destroy the reputations and lives of people who disagree."

More from Feminista! On how war is not just murder it’s also rape. Literally. Get this:

“'90 per cent of war casualties are civilians, 80 per cent of which are children,' claimed leading women's rights advocate, and member of the Women's National Commission in England, Indira Partel claimed earlier this year. Partel also claimed there is evidence of 'women being used as deliberate targets of war,' for 'sexual torture', specifically in order to attack the 'honor and culture' of the men belonging to that society(1). Sexual exploitation/slavery, rape and violence against women is a defining feature of any war, and a means for feminizing/degrading the enemy. Women in many cultures are often viewed as a possession of men, and attacking this possession is like attacking men, raping these women is seen to be raping and effeminizing men.”

And this:

“Hatred of women and what is seen to be traditionally feminine often characterizes most military training. In 1978 radical feminist Mary Daly quoted George Gilder on training in the U.S. military corps- 'When you want to create a solidary group of male killers, that is what you do, you kill the women in them,' and that 'the female anatomy provides a rich field of metaphor for every degradation,' and that despised men are those that are seen to be 'feminine and individual.'”

Cynthia McKinney and Selective Prosecution

“[The Senators and Representatives] shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same;
“Commenter Gunner brought that one to our attention. Now, one of us went to Law School, and the other one used to see Law & Order cast members around town, so we know our Constitution. Initially, we read it the same way as Gunner — Rep. McKinney was ABOVE THE LAW. But once our lawyer half busted out his pocket constitution, desperately tried to remember 1st year Con Law, and eventually gave up and called someone who knew, we figured that that provision (called the Speech and Debate Clause) does not give a Representative immunity. The important bit comes later, about how Reps “shall not be questioned in any other Place” about speech on the floor. So, in other words, Cynthia can still be booked by the po-po, as long as she’s not on her way to or from a House session (stay at your desk! Don’t leave the floor!).
“Oh well. We still think she’s awesome.”


“I like my congresswoman, so leave her alone. She has the courage to speak truth to power and hasn't gotten into any truly revolting trouble. At least Cynthia McKinney stood in opposition to a runaway administration. Last time I checked, she certainly didn't start an ill-advised war that has led to the deaths of 2,400 military personnel.”
DERRICK LYLE COLEMAN, Decatur
What? No taser?
“I agree with Rep. Cynthia McKinney. The Capitol Hill police officer acted improperly. After he was assaulted, he should have subdued her with a taser gun or flattened her to the ground before leading her away in handcuffs --- just like any other reasonable citizen would expect to be treated.”
PAT FANTIS, Marietta
Whites don't see blacks as equals
“I moved into my present neighborhood in 1987. During the first four to five years, when I was out mowing my lawn, whites driving by would stop to ask me what I would charge them to do their lawns. Apparently, it never occurred to them that I was mowing my own lawn. One day, I was fed up and really gave the next guy who asked a good piece of my mind, profanity and all.
I have been a guest at five-star hotels and had whites ask me for directions to their rooms. I have entered corporate meetings and been asked to replenish their coffee or a pitcher of water. While attending a conference at a major hotel, I have even had other hotel guests ask me to get their bags out of their car. Apparently it doesn't matter how I am dressed; I am never perceived as an equal. It just makes me wanna holler!”
HANK THOMAS, Stone Mountain
Arresting question
“Why is there an arrest warrant being issued for Cynthia McKinney for "assaulting" a security guard by snatching her arm out of his hands, but ol' Dick Cheney was actually hunting without a valid hunting license (since hunting season was over) and shot a man, without any repercussions whatsoever? Boy, I know what I want to come back as in my next life.”


by Rep. Cynthia McKinney
[This is a transcript of Rep. McKinney's remarks on September 14 at the reception for the Congressional Black Caucus.]
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/31/mckinney.police/

The Red Burka for a Red America

The Red Burka for a Red America, from the Tennessee Guerilla Women, and it’s coming to Georgia soon…

Fathers Rights myths

Fathers Rights myths blown apart… So there!  Thank Goddess that there are people out there that don’t fall for their b.s….
 
Our family mythsStaffSunday, March 26, 2006
Families have never been perfect, says Stephanie Coontz, author and director of research at the Council on Contemporary Families in Chicago.
Yet many of us still perpetuate the myths, says Coontz, one of several family scholars scheduled to speak at a free public conference Thursday and Friday at Emory University.
In a different place, in a different time --- we believe --- we were closer, kinder, more organized and self-sufficient. Truth, however, tends to be air-brushed with time.
And Coontz --- who cites seven key family myths --- hopes that parents will re-evaluate what they see in their own homes against a more accurate portrait of life through the ages.
1. Families used to be harmonious and stable until modern individualism undermined their solidarity.
For most of history, families looked stable from the outside because the husband and father controlled all the property and could enforce his will through physical violence. Even after wife and child abuse became illegal, most states had "Head and Master Laws" until the 1970s [emphasis added], giving husbands the final say over many family decisions.
2. Parents today don't sacrifice for their kids or spend the kind of time with them that parents did in the past.
Families didn't use to save up to send their kids to school. They pulled their children out of school to work for the family. Most mothers and fathers today --- even in two-earner families --- spend more time with their kids and invest more in their education than ever before.
3. Couples don't work at their relationship the way they used to.
For thousands of years, marriage wasn't about love but about raising capital, sealing business deals or military alliances, expanding the family labor force, and reinforcing male authority [emphasis added]. It was only 200 years ago that we invented the radical idea of marrying for love. Today a marriage that works can be fairer, more intimate and more loving than most couples of the past ever dared to dream.
4. The male-breadwinner family was the traditional model.
Until the 20th century, most wives not only brought home half the bacon but also raised the pig, helped butcher it and took it to market. It wasn't until the 1920s that a bare majority of kids grew up in a home where the wife wasn't working beside her husband in a farm or business and the kids were at school instead of working on farms or in factories. That family faded during the Depression and World War II, made a comeback in the '50s, but was a minority again by the end of the 1970s.
5. People are much more tolerant of nonmarital sex.
Premarital sex is much more accepted than in the past, but disapproval of coerced sex and underage sex is much higher than it used to be. Until the 1880s, the age of consent for girls was 10, 11 or 12 in most states --- 7 in Delaware. Marital rape was not considered a crime until the 1980s [emphasis added]. And the percentage of people who believe it is OK to be sexually unfaithful in a marriage has fallen over the past 40 years.
6. Divorce rates began to rise only after the 1950s.
Conservative myth: Divorce rates started rising because of the cultural revolution of the 1960s.
Liberal myth: Divorce rates were a result of the economic stress on families that began during the 1980s.
Rising divorce rates were an instant side effect of the growing emphasis on married love. As soon as people began to marry for love, they began to demand the right to leave a marriage that felt loveless [emphasis added].
7. Traditional families always "stood on their own two feet" and never needed help from the government.
In the 1950s, 40 percent of young men starting families were eligible for veterans' benefits. Thousands of working-class men got an education or training for middle-class jobs and were able to buy homes because of those benefits. Plus, the government paid 90 percent of the costs of massive highway projects that opened up suburbia to home buyers and provided blue-collar workers with jobs that paid a family wage. Today's families receive far less government support, even though job security and real wages are falling.
Source: Stephanie Coontz, professor of history and family studies at Evergreen State College and director of research at the Council on Contemporary Families
Single Fathers

Scott Coltrane
In both single-father and two-parent families, American men are taking more responsibility for the daily aspects of parenting and housework, but they still have a long way to go.
In the majority of two-parent families, fathers and mothers still perform different tasks (mothers cook, clean, wash, shop, and do child care; fathers take out the trash, mow the lawn, and sometimes play with the kids). In single father households, in contrast, men's family work looks a lot like women's. Parenting requires on-the-job training, and a growing number of single fathers are proving that they can do the job. The challenge ahead is for fathers in two-parent families to follow their lead.
ON THE NUMBERS:From 1990 to 2000, the increase in the number of single mothers was more than double the increase in the number of single fathers. The percentage increase for single moms (about 20%) sounds less than the 62% for single dads, but 6 of 7 single parents are still mothers. We have seen an increase in single fatherhood because fathers are more likely to be awarded custody by the courts and because it is culturally more acceptable for men to do the job [emphasis added]. The increase seems large because there were so few children living with single fathers in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s (1.5, 1.3, and 1.1 % of all children respectively) . It was not until the 1980s that the proportion of children living with single fathers surpassed the levels common in the earlier part of the twentieth century (2.5-2.8% from 1890-1940s; 3.1% in 1990, 2.6% in 1996. from CPS and SIPP data on internet). The 1998 CPS data shows an even bigger jump (to 4.4%, with a total of 2.1 million single fathers).
How the pro-marriage movement harms children and families: It is naive to believe our society could legally privilege married couples without simultaneously treating unmarried people like second-class citizens. For instance, denying health insurance to domestic partners will force one parent in an unmarried partner farnily to buy expensive individual insurance (resulting in fewer financial resource available for child-related expenses) or go uninsured (increasing the risk that the child will experience the serious illness or death of a parent). Given the growing millions of children and adults living in families that are not defined by marriage, it is essential for policies to recognize the existence of these families in treat them fairly.
Mixed Messages on Marriage -- by Frank FurstenbergFifty years ago, the overwhelming majority of Americansbelieved that anyone who wasn't married by their early 20swas an immature neurotic who would never achieve asuccessful adult existence. Today, according to a pollsponsored by the Network on Adult Transitions funded by theMacArthur Foundation, half of all Americans believe that onecan become a mature, responsible adult withoutmarrying. Many people have ceased to believe that marriageis even essential for its age-old purpose of havingchildren. More than a third of first births in America nowoccur out of wedlock.   Belief in the necessity of marriage has declined for allage groups and in every region of the country. Theonly groups that have substantially increased their supportfor the institution of marriage over the past three decadesare gays and lesbians.   Ironically, however, federal policy is now focused on tryingto promote marriage for individuals hesitant to wedwhile moving to permanently deny marriage to gays andlesbians so eager to take their vows that they travelhalfway across the country and stand in line for days. TheBush Administration has committed $1.5 billion to promotemarriage for low-income heterosexuals, and who-knows-howmuch in the effort to pass a constitutional amendmentbarring gay couples from marriage.[...]
For heterosexuals, the President's marriage program islargely about persuading low-income people that they wouldbe better off if they got married. But most low-incomepeople already agree that marriage is a desirablestate. They hesitate to marry for practical reasons, becausethey and/or their partners may not be able to support afamily. They believe -- and social science backs them up --that a stable marriage requires stable employment withdecent wages for both partners. Yet there is nothing in theadministration's proposal to help young people cope with thestresses of working minimum-wage jobs with no benefits, orprovide them with the educational opportunities that are thekey to a secure future in modern America.[...]
 Forty percent of American marriages, demographersestimate, will end in divorce. And research shows that ratesof marital conflict and divorce are even higher than thisamong couples under economic stress. Even if theAdministration is successful in achieving its goal ofgetting more people to marry, their accomplishment mighthave a perverse effect: driving up the divorce rate. Manyfamily scholars predict this outcome unless couples get morehelp from a government that has become stingier and stingierwith its support for fledgling families.
[...]
  Paradoxically, conservatives may win the battle overexcluding gays from marriage while losing the war becausemore young people may simply find marriage less relevant tothem. If marriage is no longer "cool," then all the hotrhetoric issued by politicians who give lip service to theideal of marriage but do nothing to help people actuallyconstruct stable relationships, will have been for naught.   Media Contact: Frank Furstenberg, fff@sas.upenn.edu