"unborn" rights?

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Be afraid. Be very afraid.

House Backs 'Unborn Victims' Bill

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday easily approved for the third time legislation that would make killing or harming a "child in utero" a federal crime, hoping the strong 254-163 vote will give the issue momentum in the Senate.

Critics said the bill undermines abortion rights by treating the fetus or embryo as a person, although bill sponsors said they included language that explicitly excludes abortion. for now

The House has passed the bill three times since 1999 but the Senate has not acted. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, predicted the Senate would take up the bill this year, possibly quite quickly.

"It's certainly got strong bipartisan support and you can expect to see it on the Senate floor," he said.

The bill has been nicknamed "Laci and Conner's Law" after Laci Peterson, who was pregnant when she was murdered. Her unborn son was to have been named Conner. Her relatives have actively lobbied for it, adding to the emotion surrounding the legislation.

During the debate House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, invoked the image of slain mother and child watching Congress from a nursery in heaven.

Scott Peterson faces double murder charges in California for the deaths of his wife Laci and Conner.
California law allows a murder charge for Conner, but in some states the death or injury of a fetus would not constitute a separate crime.

The House bill would make killing or harming a fetus or embryo a federal crime at any stage of pregnancy.

"I think the American people want to see justice on behalf of both individuals, the mother and the child," said Rep. Robert Aderholt, an Alabama Republican.

Critics such as New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney said that having the bill apply to even the very first stages of pregnancy, when miscarriages are fairly common, could lead to such troubling situations as coffee shops having to monitor caffeine intake of pregnant woman, or someone with German measles facing possible criminal charges if he showed up at the office and infected a pregnant co-worker.

Mostly Democratic critics say that by treating an embryo or fetus as a person, the legislation undermines or at least complicates abortion rights, although sponsors of the bill disagreed.

Critics of the bill backed a substitute offered by California Democrat Rep. Zoe Lofgren that would treat a crime against a pregnant woman and her fetus as two crimes, not one, but would stop short of considering the embryo or fetus as a separate person with legal rights. It was defeated by a 228-186 vote.

New York Democrat Rep. Jerrold Nadler said the Lofgren alternative was "just as tough on criminals" without entering the "emotionally charged legal back alleys" of the abortion debate.

According to a National Right to Life Committee survey, 29 states have similar legislation on the books, although 13 of them cover only some portions of pregnancy.

Story by Joanne Kenen
Story Date: 27/2/2004
Reuters News Service 2003

Check out Planet Ark on the web at PlanetArk.com

emphasis mine

FAIR update

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http://www.fair.org/activism/marriage-amendment-update.html

ACTIVISM UPDATE:
ABC, NY Times Respond to FAIR Alert

February 27, 2004

On February 16, a FAIR action alert called on ABC World News Tonight and the New York Times to offer a more nuanced explanation of the possible effects of a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

While some proponents of the amendment claim it would allow states to offer same-sex civil union arrangements, some legal experts suggest that the vague language of the amendment could actually ban civil unions.

In response to emails from FAIR activists, New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent wrote on his web journal (2/19/04): "I urge The Times to report on it more fully -- not just on what the amendment really means, but also on the debate over what it really means."

On February 25, the Times did just that, offering a short piece on the legal debate over the amendment:

"Some conservative scholars who oppose gay unions and some gay
scholars who oppose the amendment are arguing that it might effectively block any marital benefits for same-sex couples, no matter what name is used."

The piece did tilt in favor of the amendment's proponents, offering two responses to a single comment from a critic of the amendment.

The Times story is also unfortunately framed to suggest that criticism of the amendment's language is relegated to just two small groups of legal scholars-- "a handful of conservatives" who oppose gay unions, and "a few
gay legal advocates" who oppose the amendment."

In their February 24 broadcast, ABC World News Tonight also changed the
way they reported on the amendment.
Correspondent Terry Moran ended his
report with this: "The president says he supports states deciding for themselves whether they want to establish so-called civil unions for same-sex couples, though gay rights advocates say the constitutional amendment he is backing might ban even those arrangements." �This explanation is an improvement over Moran's earlier description of the amendment, which he said "would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, but allow states to establish civil unions for gay couples."

FAIR's criticism was taken seriously by ABC and the Times thanks to the efforts of activists who contacted the outlets in response to the alert.

KWRU

You are reading http://viridianariverstone.blogspot.com/.

You are reading http://livinginthehood.blogspot.com

Come support KWRU as we stand trial for demonstrating in defense of victims of domestic violence!

Monday, March 1st @ 8 AM
Criminal Justice Center
1301 Filbert St., Center City - Philadelphia
***********************************************
Dear �Friends,

I have been active in the fight for low-income women for years now.

KWRU and I personally were the first in the nation to testify before congress on the impact of welfare reform to poor women. �We have been instrumental in working with shelter providers around the country in addressing the economics of violence and the need for domestic violence work to include affordable housing as a priority on everyone's agendas.

We were the first to hold demonstrations in Philadelphia on the impact of welfare reform to victims of domestic violence at the center district welfare office. Our work helped to pave the way for a statewide body to monitor these issues. �Everyday for years now we have kept women alive when Women Against Abuse had reached capacity.
We are on a first name basis with Judges and police because we have secured so many protection orders and literally helped hundreds of women pack up and leave.

So today, I call upon you for your help. Once again, I face criminal charges for demonstrating without a permit at City Hall before the holidays for seven victims of domestic violence. The city offered no safety for these women so six of us were arrested and went to jail.

I now face a misdemeanor in the third degree, a point away from a felony and was issued a STAY AWAY ORDER FROM CITY HALL!

I have missed many important meetings with city council members as a result. �What is so terrible about all of this is that I just won a settlement against the Philadelphia Police Department after their last unlawful arrest.

Please join myself and KWRU at 8 am on March 1st at the Criminal Justice Center, the day we are expected to stand trial for demonstrating.

Signed,
Cheri Honkala
Founder, KWRU
National Organizer, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign


http://www.kwru.org/

2ND NATIONAL DAY OF RALLIES CALLED IN RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT'S ANTI-GAY AMENDMENT DRIVE

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2ND NATIONAL DAY OF RALLIES CALLED
IN RESPONSE TO PRESIDENT'S ANTI-GAY AMENDMENT DRIVE

Rallies to coincide with historic 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education decision

WASHINGTON, DC - DontAmend.com announced today a second national day of rallies on May 17th in response to yesterday's call by President Bush for passage of a federal constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. May 17th is the date the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has said that same-sex marriage licences must begin to be issued in that state, and it is also the 50th anniversary of the date that "judicial activists" on the Supreme Court issued their famous Brown v. Board of Education ruling.

"With the President openly endorsing second-class citizenship for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people, and the Democratic front-runner saying his position mimics the anti-gay stance of the Vice President, our community is left with no equal rights voice in national politics unless we become that voice ourselves," said Andy Thayer, National Rally Coordinator for DontAmend.com. "We all remember the tremendous response of our community and allies following the murder of Matthew Shepard. While many in our community had been brutally murdered before Shepard, it was the outpouring of people in the streets of America following Shepard's murder which prompted a national debate about right-wing fundamentalist hatred of gay people."

Working with other local and national organizations, on February 14th DontAmend.com organized equal rights rallies and pro-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered activities in over two dozen cities around the country.

"The President's endorsement of the anti-gay amendment is a crude attempt to divert attention from his falling poll numbers," said John Aravosis, co-chair of DontAmend.com and creator of the newly-launched DearMary.com that was profiled in yesterday's Washington Post. "Rather than address the real concerns of Americans such as the economy or the war, President Bush has opted for legislative gay bashing. It speaks volumes about the George Bush's low moral character and lack of family values that he would scapegoat an entire community in a desperate attempt to save his own political skin."

Aravosis also noted President's Bush's woeful ignorance of the basic functioning of our government. "The President derides so-called 'activist judges,'" Aravosis said. "It was 'activist judges' who had the courage to give us Brown v. Board of Education fifty years ago on May 17th. Is George Bush suggesting that he would have been blocking the schoolhouse door? After all, those activist judges were clearly not representing the will of the overtly racist, segregationist sentiment prevailing in America.

George Bush has a fundamental ignorance about the way our democracy operates if he think our court system is simply a rubber stamp for the whims of the majority. We call on all who support equal rights and fairness to rally with us on May 17th in order to give the president a civics lesson he desperately needs."

DontAmend.com, DearMary.com and The Equality Campaign, Inc. are a combined national grassroots campaign devoted to stopping any amendment to the US Constitution that would ban marriage equality for the LGBT community. The campaign was founded by the same veteran civil rights advocates who ran the successful StopDrLaura.com campaign targeting anti-gay radio host Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

To get involved in organizing a rally in your town, please contact DontAmend.com by emailing ATDontAmend@aol.com, or visiting the DontAmend.com and DearMary.com web sites.

Progressive, not oppressive!

You are reading http://viridianariverstone.blogspot.com/.

Dear Editor,

Please explain to Mike that behaving like the reactionaries makes progressives no better than they.

As to Ann Coulter's marital and motherhood status, I'm an unmarried woman and my only daughter died. http://viridianariverstone.blogspot.com

Does Mike mean to imply that childless, unmarried women are mentally unstable?

Or does he imply Ms. Coulter is Lesbian? Because many Lesbians I know have children and either are, or wish to be, married.

Mike hurt ME in his attempts to attack Drudge. I've never hurt him one bit!

In fact, apparantly, I'm more progressive than he!

Rogi Riverstone
http://rriverstone.com

Niagara Falls Reporter
MATT DRUDGE IS SO GAY, WHY DOESN'T HE SAY SO?
By Mike Hudson

Being a cyber-gossip looks like such an easy job, I'm tempted to take it up myself.

The great thing about it is that you apparently don't have to talk to any of your sources.

I used to be in show business and I've lived and worked with a lot of great gay people. My best friend from childhood and old bandmate, Tim, is queer, and has been open about it for the past 30 years. My sister, Linda, is openly gay as well, and lives in one of the "red" states, where that can be a big problem.

So when cyber-gossip Matt Drudge published half a dozen demonstrably false stories last week about Sen. John Kerry having an affair with a grown woman, I asked the question with no malice.

Because it's been my observation that no one is more interested in the heterosexual doings of grown men and women than repressed homosexuals.

Drudge, who made his bones reporting heavily on the various real and imagined sexual dalliances of former president Bill Clinton, has vigorously denied his homosexuality, perhaps because his largely Republican, right-wing audience would look unfavorably upon it.

I wrote him an e-mail and asked if he was homosexual.

He didn't answer.

Like I said, I don't care what a man and a woman do in a bedroom.

And I don't care what a man and a man do in a bedroom. Keep the kids out of it and everything's fine by me.

But Drudge seems to take great delight in peeking under other people's covers, while at the same time failing to fess up to behavior his political bedfellows might deem "unnatural."

Drudge's pals in the media -- the drug-addled Rush Limbaugh or the serially-married and estranged-from-her-family Dr. Laura -- have similar problems. So does the family values harpy Ann Coulter, who remains childless and unmarried, and has demonstrably lied about everything from Vice President Dick Cheney's resume to her own age on drivers' licenses taken out in various states.

Bill Bennett, former education secretary, drug czar and another one of Drudge's favorites, has proven to be a degenerate gambler, as records of his million-dollar losses in Las Vegas and Atlantic City show.

The worst of all is probably is Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly, whose phony populist palaver seemingly has many convinced he's "looking out for you" when, in fact, he's a lying, racist coward. Sometimes, being in the media business is something you're almost ashamed to admit. Drudge's homosexuality doesn't disturb me.

Nor does Bennett's gambling degeneracy, Limbaugh's drug use, Coulter's obvious mental problems or O'Reilly's hypocrisy.

It's a free country and we're all pretty much allowed to go around saying whatever we want.

What bothers me is that these were the people who worked in tandem to get George W. Bush elected.

Somehow, Bush lost by a half-million votes and still got into the White House.

Somehow, when he did get in, he used every tool at his disposal to redistribute the wealth in this country from the poor and middle-class to the rich, throw three million people out of work and get about 550 brave young American men and women killed in a war we didn't have to fight.

Phonies and cowards like Drudge, O'Reilly, Dr. Laura, Limbaugh and Coulter facilitated this, and now have the nerve to call those who disagree with them traitors.

None of them served in the military.

Indeed, none of them were fit to serve in the military.

And yet, now, they presume to tell the rest of us who is and who is not patriotic.

The Federal Communications Commission, headed up by Colin Powell's kid, Michael, has launched an investigation into how Janet Jackson's breast -- its most interesting part covered by what looked like a sheriff's badge -- got onto television for a nanosecond during the annually abysmal half-time show at the Super Bowl.

The FCC would do better looking into shows like O'Reilly's -- which played the clip over and over again for a week straight in slow motion -- or Limbaugh's radio broadcast, which he's admittedly done high, a clear violation of the FCC Code.

In the meantime, I want to know whether the conservative slimemeister Matt Drudge is a closeted homosexual.

Since he won't respond, any of you ladies out there with any pertinent information may contact me either by phone or e-mail.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com
February 24 2004

Dear Mary

You are reading http://viridianariverstone.blogspot.com/.

Vice President Cheney, your father, recently said he would support adding anti-gay prejudice to the US Constitution, making you and millions of other Americans second-class citizens. As an open lesbian who has worked for years as a public advocate for gay civil rights, you are in a unique position to defend yourself and your community in this dire hour.

Won't you join us in publicly opposing this bigoted un-American proposal?

Sincerely, A concerned citizen
______________________________

WEB VISITORS: Please replace ALL the text in this box with your own public letter to Mary, preferably signed with your FIRST name, city and state, then click "Submit." We will post as many of your messages as possible on this site, and with your monetary help publish them in newspaper and magazine ads and beyond. All emails submitted to DearMary.com are the property of DearMary.com, DontAmend.com and The Equality Campaign Inc. and may be edited for length and clarity and reprinted in any format including but not limited to newspaper and magazine ads for the express purpose of this campaign as decided solely by DearMary.com.

Choice

Ok, everybody out of my pants!

That means you, Mr. Bush, Mr. Roberston, Mr. Ashcroft, Mr. Schwartzenneger, Ms. Dunlap.

And you, too, Mr. Richardson, Ms. Madrid, Ms. Boxer, Mr. Kerry, Mr. Edwards.

I am a modest person and there's nothing down there that's any of your business.

I've been kidnapped! It's a coup! It's a coup! It's a coup!

I am bisexual. I'm comfortable understanding, and standing up for, every political and religious issue in this country, pertaining to reproductive organs.

There's nothing you've got that I haven't seen, or loved.

When my daughter was dying, I was handed a leaflet by the hospital.

It warned, "you are in danger of a miscarraige."

It went on to say what steps I needed to take to try to prevent losing my baby.

One of these emphatically stressed that I not allow anything to invade my body.

So, when the doctor started poking around, it was all I could do to keep from kicking him in the head to protect my child.

The maternal instinct, in my case, was a fierce and savage thing.

I'm feeling that way now.

Put down the speculum, camera, cross, patriot missle and walk away from the stirrups, before I kick your brains out!

For the first time in history, our so-called "representatives" have legislated against a necessary medical procedure.

This administration is calling for ammending the Constitution, contradicting their advocacy of states' rights.

Medical clinics get their funding jerked, if they advocate using protection!

Schools are forced, with federal funds, to preach "abstainance only," as though normal, human sexuality was the most depraved, perverse and twisted aspect of humanity.

A state governor, who assaults women, implies Gay and Lesbian marriages will cause civil "chaos," as if married Gays and Lesbians will behave like he has!

The current administration discovered feminism, for ten minutes, as a pretext for bombing Afghani women out of their burhkas, but have ignored women's plight there since.

And, rumor has it, the Senate may pass "Laci's and Connor's law," named for Laci Peterson and he fetus, which would make harming a pregnancy, even in the first trimester, a crime, potentially punishable by death.

Hello?

Look, I'm an ugly, old woman, with bad teeth.

I doubt reproductive or marriage issues will ever affect me directly again.

But that doesn't mean justice is none of my business.

I remember the sacred embraces.

I remember the healing of intimacy.

I remember patting my tummy and whispering to that flicker of life, whom I nicknamed, "tadpole."

I remember the hope and purpose I felt as I hung nursery curtains, researched parenting, tried to quit smoking.

If you think I don't know how to love, you don't know what love is.

I was, I suppose, lucky that my pregnancy ended before a much more traumatic, late-term procedure was required.

I barely survived the psychological trauma of what I did go through; I can't imagine the horror of anything worse.

I was lucky to have married twice.

My first wedding was to a Lesbian, on Venice Beach, California, at sunset, on my grandmother's quilts.

My second marriage, the only legal one, was to a man, in a Unitarian Universalist church basement, on the Vernal Equinox, during a rainstorm, wearing a thrift store wedding gown.

I know something about motherhood and I know something about love.

And regime change begins with my pants!

I have a dream that, one day, our children will be judged, not by the configurations of their genitalia, but by the content of their character.

I have a dream that, one day, little breeder boys and girls and others will be able to hold hands with little queer boys and girls and others and sing, in the words of the old, Drag Queen anthem,

"I am what I am.
I don't want praise;
I don't want pity.

"I bang my own drums.
Some thinks it's noise;
I think it's pretty. . . .

"It's my life that I want to have a little pride in,

"My life and is not a place I have to hide in!

"Life's not worth a damn till you can shout out,
'I am what I am!'"

Keep the U.S. out of my pants!

March for Women's Lives

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To demonstrate overwhelming majority support for a woman's right to choose safe, legal abortion and birth control, the largest pro-choice majority in history will march on Washington on Sunday April 25, 2004.

For the first time ever this pro-choice march is a collaborative effort - seven leading national women's rights groups have come together to organize this momentous event.

The AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, BLACK WOMEN'S HEALTH IMPERATIVE, FEMINIST MAJORITY, NARAL PRO-CHOICE AMERICA, NATIONAL LATINA INSTITUTE FOR REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH, NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN and PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA are the principal organizers of the March for Women's Lives and have pooled efforts and resources to lay the groundwork. Other progressive organizations have signed on as CO-SPONSORS - offering everything from member participation to help spreading the word and help defraying costs.

The march will begin at noon on the national mall, although participants may begin assembling on the mall, between the Smithsonian museums (between 3rd St. and 14th St.), as early as 10 a.m. After marching on Washington, a rally will be held from 1-4 p.m. on the National Mall. Special seating will be available for people with disabilities. The rally program will be signed for the hearing impaired. The route is wheelchair accessible and transportation will be provided for those who cannot negotiate the route.

SIGN UP NOW!

http://www.marchforwomen.org/

Sweet Bitter Love

Sweet
Sweet bitter love
Sweet
Sweet bitter love

The taste still lingers
Going through my helpless fingers
You slipped away
Sweet bitter love

Sweet
Sweet bitter love
Sweet
Sweet bitter love

What joy you brought me
What pain you've taught me
So sure is day
You slipped away
Sweet bitter love

Sweet
Sweet bitter love
Sweet
Sweet bitter love
Sweet
Sweet bitter love
Sweet
Sweet bitter love

My magic dreams
Have lost their spells
And that was lost
There's an empty shell
Sweet bitter love

Sweet bitter love
Hey
Sweet
Sweet bitter love
Sweet
Sweet bitter love

What have you awaken
And then forsaken
A trusting heart like mine
Ooh like mine
Sweet bitter love

Sweet bitter love
In the middle of the night
I want your sweet sweet sweet
Sweet bitter love
Sweet bitter love

Sweet
Sweet bitter love

You slipped away
Sweet
Sweet bitter love
Sweet bitter love
Sweet
Sweet bitter love.

Van McCoy

Right to Life?

Offer your feedback and comments at Rogi's Kitchen Table.

What do you hypocrites know about rights to life? Here's your inheritance:

MARY TURNER

In May, 1918, a white plantation owner in Brooks County, Georgia, got into a quarrel with one of his colored tenants and the tenant killed him. A mob sought to avenge his death but could not find the suspected man. They therefore lynched another colored man named Hayes Turner.

His wife, Mary Turner, threatened to have members of the mob arrested. The mob therefore started after her.

She fled from home and was found there the next morning. She was in the eighth month of pregnancy but the mob of several hundred took her to a small stream, tied her ankles together and hung her on a tree head downwards.

Gasoline was thrown on her clothes and she was set on fire. One of the members of the mob took a knife and split her abdomen open so that the unborn child fell from her womb to the ground and the child's head was crushed under the heel of another member of the mob; Mary Turner's body was finally riddled with bullets.

She was still alive when her baby was killed.

Document 7: "The Anti-Lynching Crusaders: The Lynching of Women," [1922], NAACP Papers, Part 7: The Anti-Lynching Campaign, 1912-1955, Series B: Anti-Lynching Legislative and Publicity Files, 1916-1955, Library of Congress (Microfilm, Reel 3, Frames 570-73).

Little Potato

Offer your feedback and comments at Rogi's Kitchen Table.

Written by Malcolm Dalglish, Oolitic Music, BMI, and recorded on Metamora, Sugar Hill Records, SH-CD 1131

You're my little potato, you're my little potato,
You're my little potato, they dug you up,
You come from underground!

The world is big, so big, so very big! To you, it's new, it's new to you!

You're my little potato, you're my little potato,�
You're my little potato, they dug you up,
You come from underground!

Let's talk about root crops (they dug you),
And lamb chops (they chew on you),
And things to eat...like apples and cheese and 'nanas and cream,
Jellies and butter, it's late at night, I hope this little bottle helps you go to sleep!

They must have grown you wild, you make a grown man a child,
I'll go and play in the mud to be with you my spud (potato).

When you came out looking red as a beet,
You had wrinkles on the bottoms of your feet!

Oh, you are so sweet potato!

You're my sweet potato, you're my sweet potato, dug you up!
You come from underground!

You smile, a smile, a little smile!
The world is small, so small, it's very small!

You're my little potato, you're my little potato, you're my little potato, they dug you up,
You come from underground!

You're my little potato, you're my little potato, you're my little potato!


just some of the things I missed and miss.