Menstrual Poetry

Missing My ‘Don’t Taze Me, Bro’ Moment

It’s been way too long since I’ve had the time to sit down at the computer for more than a few minutes or haven’t been too overwhelmed with work that needed to be done for other people, so yet again, Menstrual Poetry has been neglected and for far longer than I had expected or anticipated for. To those who still visit, thank you, I love you and for those who have given up on Menstrual Poetry, well you won’t be reading this anyway so it’s all good.

I received an email last night from a friend of mine telling me that McCain was going to be doing a Town Hall Meeting only about an hour and a half away from where I live. Of course, as you can expect from a lot of the posts to grace this website, I was more than excited thinking of the possibility to be able to not only attend and see this hypocritical misogynist in person and know the truth about whatever he chose to speak about but to also ask a question of my own. Of course, this friend who had emailed me had only heard rumors that he would be in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and didn’t know exactly when this would happen and gave me the email address of someone who was spreading the word about the meeting. I emailed this person and got a response this morning and it just so happened to be a few hours before McCain was scheduled to speak and I ended up waking up to receive this email a half hour after he was supposed to go on stage. Just my luck! I missed my opportunity to see this poor excuse for a presidential candidate and I missed my opportunity to ask him a question.

I turned the television on and luckily, the local news was covering the town hall meeting so I was able to watch it on television. By the end of the meeting, I was beyond disappointed. He accepted questions from the audience and all the audience could think to ask him was about the war in Iraq, what’s going on with Israel, social security, education and No Child Left Behind and not one question on women’s rights or even women in general! I obviously needed to be at this meeting and was probably a little more disappointed than I should have been. Just watching it on television, I was yelling at the television screen more than a few times when he repeatedly contradicted himself and fed the public lies about the war and No Child Left Behind, so who knows what would have happened if I were to actually be there. Furthermore, I really wonder what would have happened if I did have the opportunity to ask a question.

After finding out about the meeting, I immediately went onto Plurk, which I am on a lot so if you want an awesome social networking site that is kind of like Twitter but actually works and is so much better, I recommend you join, and while talking with a friend of mine, calinazaret, I knew what question I wanted to ask:

Given your horrendous voting record on women’s rights, how do you expect women to be able to support you as a presidential candidate?

What was very interesting about this meeting was that he was giving people the opportunity to have a mini-debate with him. Two people had opposing views on the Iraq war and so they were able to go back and forth two or three times with McCain about his policies, what he would do if by some miracle he were elected into the presidency, and what he believes needs to be done to change what’s happening now, and thinking about my question and what McCain’s prior reactions to any question involving women’s rights, I wonder…Did I miss my ‘Don’t taze me, bro‘ moment?

I Certainly Don’t Wanna Discuss that Issue–Birth Control or Women

McCain was recently answering questions when something he hadn’t expected happened–Someone asked about the fact that many health care providers will cover Viagra but refuse to cover birth control. Apparently a man’s ability to get it up and have sex is great, just as long as the woman isn’t using birth control and exercising her right to safe sex.

Before the woman even finished asking the question, as soon as McCain heard the words birth control, he said that he certainly didn’t want to discuss that issue and hadn’t given the issue much thought at all. The woman then reminds him of the fact that he voted against a bill that would cover birth control on health care plans. The following video is of John McCain’s reaction to the question and how it took him over 2 minutes and a lot of awkward laughing to say that he had absolutely no idea how he voted, what he thinks about granting women the right to get birth control covered on their health care plans and really, that he doesn’t really give birth control or women, for that matter, much thought at all.

Glad he thinks it’s so funny.

Via Bitch Ph.D.

On a related note, I urge you to check out Feministing’s latest Friday Feminist Fuck You by Ann who covers another bill John McCain voted against because it would have benefited women and he’s a complete misogynist. But if you asked him about it, he would probably tell you he couldn’t remember.

We Know McCain=Bush, So What’s the Problem?

Two days ago, a 61 year old librarian was escorted from a public McCain campaign event at the Denver Center of Performing Arts in Denver, CO. What was this woman doing wrong to get her not only escorted off of city property she had every right to be on, but also served with a court date (July 23, for those interested) for trespassing? Letting everyone know that McCain=Bush; but that was already common knowledge, wasn’t it? I don’t see the problem here and just as I thought–There really wasn’t one.

As a presidential candidate who has voted with bush 95% of the time in 2007 and 100% of the time in 2008 and who had even celebrated his last birthday with George Bush himself (Did I mention this was during hurricane Katrina? You know, the disaster that John McCain had said he would have landed his plane at the nearest Air Force base to help personally but didn’t because well, he was celebrating the day of his birth with George Bush! Yeah.) anyone can see that these politicians are buddies who agree on the issues. John McCain uses Bush’s agenda in his own presidential campaign speeches and agenda, he has built his politician standing on the same elements Bush had–So while it is obvious that McCain would indeed be another Bush, what’s the problem?

This woman was spot on in the end of the video when she asked who her sign would offend. It is a warning to liberals and democrats who refuse to accept another Bush in office and it is also a positive message to republicans and conservatives who had voted for Bush themselves the first(? and second?) times anyway.

This just shows yet another thing McCain has in common with Bush, since in 2005, the White House had three activists expelled from a Denver public forum with President Bush because it was the administration’s policy “to exclude potentially disruptive guests from Bush’s appearances nationwide.”

Politicians, just taking away your first amendment rights one event at a time. Heil America!

Fox News is A Lot of Things

Such as “a parade of propaganda” and “a festival of ignorance” and not only I think so.

Don’t you just love how as soon as someone speaks up about the amount of one-sided news Fox delivers, they immediately turn your attention to something else so it doesn’t seep into your brain and you start to believe them–Just in case the amount of “McCain is good, Obama is bad” stories and the amount of coverage on Hillary Clinton eventually all leading to sexist remarks haven’t tipped you off yet.

I personally have very, very basic cable and the only news channels I get is Fox News and Cspan, so those channels are all I have to rely on while sitting downstairs waiting for my coffee to brew and just today, the boyfriend commented on how Obama is flip flopping about everything and how McCain has stayed true to what he has been saying while fighting for the presidency all along. I looked at him, dumbfounded, and said “You know, this is Fox News so take what you hear with a grain of salt.” If you also find yourself in this situation, look up the story you’re interested in on CNN or basically any other news channel except for Fox News. You’ll thank me later, I promise.

Don’t you also love how the woman in the video is all “Uhh…But I love Fox News! I mean it, I really love you. I loooove youuuuu! Come on, please listen to me? Is that it? We’re all done? But I haven’t gotten to say how much I love Fox News yet. Oh, alright, we’re done.”

And in classic Fox News behavior, why not throw some sexism into the mix, too? Wouldn’t that be fun!? “Umm yeah, hopefully you missed that little demonstration of us ripping away someone’s free speech, here’s some sexy chicks to take your mind off of it. Remember folks, don’t hate Fox News, we show you chicks in bathing sui…I mean, dresses.”

Via Feministing.

The True Price of Beauty is Needles in Your Face

I have been a big fan of Target Women done by Sarah Haskins who has developed quite the following with her hilarious and spot on humor about products and media targeted at women.

So far, Sarah Haskins has brought us the ridiculousness how all women are angry because of Hillary Clinton losing the presidential candidacy and how McCain and Obama want us for our votes and target us on basic cable and think “Well all women watch Army Wives, Ellen, The View and insert other television shows that are popular among women here and so if we put out PSA’s during those shows, they will have to vote for me!” We’ve also learned about the hilarious and stereotypical nature of WE, The Women’s Channel and how we, as women, all flock to shows about weddings and we’ve also seen several commercials about yogurt and how all women love yogurt and there’s never a bad time to have some, even if you’re at a wedding reception, which I believe was the first Target Women feature.

And now, ladies, we have the horrible fact of aging! Oh no, wrinkles! Not being looked at as sexy anymore because oh no, you’ve aged and now everything is ruined!

Welcome to the McCain Clinic, Where You Have No Options

McCain has been very firm about his pro-life standing. By throwing in his “pro-life” stance into the mix and from what we have learned through the past few months about this stance, we know that McCain does not believe women should be entitled to the right to choose and to have control over their own bodies. What some might now know, however, is that McCain is also against a woman’s right to obtain birth control, (although it is about time he actually made a decision about where he stands on birth control–although someone else probably told him where he should stand on the issue) which 99% of women in the United States will be on at one point or another throughout their lives; to add, McCain is also against the right to emergency contraception.

So what would a John McCain women’s clinic be like?

Yeah, something like that.

Sadly, McCain’s pro-life record couldn’t be worse. He voted to permit federally funded Title X family planning clinics (like Planned Parenthood) to decline to counsel women on abortion services. He has repeatedly voted to deny low-income women access to abortion care except in cases of rape, incest or life endangerment. He voted in favor of four anti-choice US Supreme Court nominees, putting a woman’s right to choose under direct attack. He supports and voted in favor of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and has also voted in support of “almost every important pro-life law proposed in the last decade.” He had also released a statement on the Federal Abortion Ban on April 18, 2007, saying:

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a victory for those who cherish the sanctity of life and integrity of the judiciary. The ruling ensures that an unacceptable and unjustifiable practice will not be carried out on our innocent children. It also clearly speaks to the importance of nominating and confirming strict constructionist judges who interpret the law as it is written, and do not usurp the authority of Congress and state legislatures. As we move forward, it is critically important that our party continues to stand on the side of life.”

Taking a look at just these few issues regarding women’s rights and issues that John McCain has voted on, it’s obvious to say that the video above isn’t an exaggeration at all. The truly unfortunate fact of the matter is that according to a recent Planned Parenthood Action Fund poll [PDF] half of female voters in 16 battleground states don’t know enough about McCain’s views on reproductive health. This is due to the fact that the mass media will not cover McCain’s horrendous anti-choice record because they will not admit that there is currently a presidential candidate so anti-woman. What’s even more appalling is that 1 in 4 pro-choice McCain supporters would be less likely to vote for McCain after knowing he opposes Roe v. Wade and backs abstinence-only education.

This is the time to truly educate yourself on the candidates and the issues they stand firm on. McCain is a true misogynist who will do what is in his power to take the rights women have fought hard for since the early 70’s away and moreover, he will stand firm on his belief that teenagers should only have access to abstinence-only education.

John McCain Doesn’t Support the Troops

The current GI Bill as it stands today is the same GI Bill that was in effect during World War II. When considering the cost of living and how much more money is needed by every American just to keep a roof over their heads and eat has significantly risen since the time of World War II. The current GI Bill is also said to pay for the college education of an American soldier in addition to providing necessities; in reality, as of right now, American soldiers who are returning from several tours overseas are receiving a sum of $650 per month. This amount of money may have been sufficient for WWII veterans, however, as the cost of living has risen, more money is needed for veterans of the current war to receive what they were promised at their time of enlisting.

As it stands today, the GI Bill does not cover an American veteran’s entire education, which is upsetting specifically because so many Americans enlist in the military for the simple fact that they are promised a college education. For years, the American government has relied solely on people of lower income families and have lied to a frightening number of people about the benefits that they would receive if they enlisted. The benefits that soldiers receive now after active duty overseas is much like a college scholarship if anything else, and because of the bill is so inadequate, many soldiers are in debt because the GI Bill has not kept up with the rising cost of living in America.

There is a new GI Bill now by Senator John Weeb that covers the cost of college tuition to the price of a state college and will give the troops the peace of mind that finally they will be given what they are promised. The only problem with this new GI Bill is that it’s not getting passed due to the lack of support, including lack of support from Senator John McCain.

While McCain loves to boast that he is an American veteran and loves to give the illusion that he of all people, as an American veteran supports the troops, he should be one of the first people to endorse the new GI Bill, which doesn’t blatantly lie to the American people and leave veterans in debt or uneducated due to the cost of living and the rising cost of education. However, John McCain not only does not support the new GI Bill, he downright refuses to co-sponsor it and in turn, does not support the troops.

This is unacceptable. As a veteran himself and a candidate in the current presidential election, refusing to co-sponsor a bill that will help the soldiers with whom he loves to identify himself with, is disgusting. There is no way that any American can support John McCain while supporting America and American troops because John McCain himself does not.