Abortion

as i'm sure you have already seen/heard/read how different states in the USA are trying to control people who can have babies (women/non-binary/transgender) by having their constitutional right of having an abortion taken away. this is a bunch of crap.

ABORTION IS HEALTHCARE.

it doesn't matter why you are getting the abortion. it doesn't matter if you are getting your 5th abortion or your 1st. abortion is healthcare and no one can tell you how to take care of your body. you can think of abortion however you want, but don't you dare tell me or anyone else how we should take care of our body.

this is completely about control and not about 'life'. if it was about taking care of life then what about undocumented immigrants, people killed in interactions with the police, school children that are shot, addicts who overdose, death row inmates, people who need health insurance - all of these people have lives also. but the same people who cry 'it's about stopping murder, and life is so special', don't care about those people. all they care about is controlling the people who can have children.

how this is about control, sadly there are many examples of this. 1)by making abortion a federal crime, any person who has an abortion and/or the doctor who preforms the abortion get convicted of the crime, when they are out of jail, they will not be able to vote. 2)when the law is written that the people who rapes me goes to jail shorter then the doctor who does the abortion. 3)by having the laws written that not only is it against the law for me to have an abortion, it's also against the law to have birth control. 4)when the law is written that there aren't any exceptions even for the life of the person who is pregnant. so if i'm pregnant and i'm dying (for whatever reason: cancer, pregnancy its self), i cannot have an abortion. these are just a small sample of the laws that have been passed by different states in the USA.

my feeling for all of this is just rage. who do these people think they are to tell me and other people how they can take care of their body. its my body not theirs. so in my rage i found an image and just knew i had to embroider it. it expresses everything i think about these laws that are getting passed. stop telling me what to do with my body. i won't tell you what to do with your body.

vagina

so in the michigan house of representatives state rep. lisa brown and rep. barb byrum caused an uproar when they said the word vagina and vasectomy. the legislature is considering legislation that would ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, unless a pregnant woman’s life is in danger. representative brown stated in her speech to the house “Finally, Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no’ means ‘no’.”. state rep. barb byrum was silenced after she tried to introduce an amendment requiring men to prove that their life is in danger before being allowed to receive a vasectomy. after they had both said this, house speaker james bolger declared in a statement that brown and byrum could not enter the house and speak on a school employees retirement bill. bolger added that they “will not be recognized to speak on the house floor today after being gaveled down for their comments and actions yesterday that failed to maintain the decorum of the house of representatives.” at a press conference where she could speak, rep. brown declared:  “"They banned me from speaking because I dared say vagina, the correct, medical name of a part of a woman's anatomy these lawmakers are trying to regulate. I am outraged that this legislative body not only wants to dictate what women do, but what we can say.” as a reaction to what had happened to them, rep brown got tony award winner eve ensler (the creator of the vagina monologues) and other state reps to do a performance of the vagina monologues on the michigan capital steps in protest.

HOLY CRAP! talk about the power of words. the legislation can regulate a woman's body but they won't let people talk about the body part they are regulating. i'm so glad rep brown did the performance of the vagina monologues on the steps of the capital. that is an amazing protest to what they are telling her she cannot say in the house. and i think it is even more amazing that the creator of the vagina monologues, eve ensler, showed to be part of the performance - let alone other politicians.

republicans don't want college students to vote

-i read an opinion article from the new york times today that i just couldn't believe. yes it's an opinion article so take it with a grain of salt, but it still is true. i couldn't believe what i read. why would you want to introduce to young people that their government really doesn't like and doesn't want them to be part of the government. WOW.

Next fall, thousands of students on college campuses will attempt to register to vote and be turned away. Many republican state lawmakers are doing everything they can to prevent students from voting in the 2012 presidential election. Some have openly acknowledged doing so because students tend to be liberal. Seven states have already passed strict laws requiring a government-issued ID (like a driver’s license or a passport) to vote, which many students don’t have, and 27 other states are considering such measures. Many of those laws have been interpreted as prohibiting out-of-state driver’s licenses from being used for voting.

It’s all part of a widespread Republican effort to restrict the voting rights of demographic groups that tend to vote Democratic. Blacks, Hispanics, the poor and the young, who are more likely to support President Obama, are disproportionately represented in the 21 million people without government IDs. Republicans usually don’t want to acknowledge that their purpose is to turn away voters, especially when race is involved, so they invented an explanation, claiming that stricter ID laws are necessary to prevent voter fraud. In fact, there is almost no voter fraud in America to prevent.

William O’Brien, the speaker of the New Hampshire State House, told a Tea Party group earlier this year that students are “foolish” and tend to “vote their feelings” because they lack life experience. “Voting as a liberal,” he said, “that’s what kids do.” And that’s why, he said, he supported measures to prohibit students from voting from their college addresses and to end same-day registration. New Hampshire Republicans even tried to pass a bill that would have kept students who previously lived elsewhere from voting in the state; fortunately, the measure failed.

wisconsin has imposed requirements that invalidated the use of virtually all college ID cards in voter registration. Colleges are scrambling to change their cards to add signatures and expiration dates, but it’s not clear whether the state will let them

don't tell santorum

what's the matter with kansas?

so i am reading the book called what's the matter with kansas? by thomas frank. and i'm only in the second chapter but it has proved to be very interesting. in the first chapter he talks about 'the two nations'. how america has divided into the red state/blue state nation. red state being the consevatives and the blue being the liberals.

there was a quote that i just had to share. mr frank is talking about class seperation and he quotes dos passos from the american enterprise magazine. mr passos says "class-consciousness isn't a problem in Red America," he assures them; people are "perfectly happy to be slightly overweight [and] a little underpaid."

i just had to share that. for all my 'red state' friends would you agree with this?