a reminder to women about why we should vote

Remember how women got the vote

The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 helpless women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic."

They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie "Iron Jawed Angels." It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder...

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized.  And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave.  That didn't make her crazy.  

The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

via houston independent media center

              alice paul, suffragette leader                                            lucy burns, 1913

click here for more information on these amazing suffragettes and others in the national woman’s party, 1910-1920

juneau

link

Bush equates "Angry Left" with Hanoi Hotel Torturers

Tonight in his address via satellite to the Republican National Convention, President Bush blasted Sen. John McCain’s critics. Invoking McCain’s time as a POW in a North Vietnamese prison, Bush compared these torturers to members of the “Angry Left”:

"If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain’s resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the Angry Left never will."

- dubya

curious how he wasn't at the convention, long after the major hurricane threat had passed. god i can't wait until he's gone.

this statement got a standing ovation. if you can stand it, watch it here (via Think Progress)

i mean, the Angry Left? that's gotta be a rovian invention. that's so absurd it made me LOL! liberal bloggers are now to be equated with torturers, even as the sitting republican administration continues to condone the use of torture throughout the world? it's incredible to me how these guys can condemn torture so grandly on the stage at the convention (in the case of white american john mccain and his friends of course), and at the same time their president's administration, with their support, is known to have authorized torture, violated the geneva convention, contemptously ignored too many other global human rights laws to name...

sigh.

their lies are so transparent... will people see?

more about palin... and more, and more...

The Associated Press: Campaign money hurts Palin's outsider image

GOP vice presidential pick Sarah Palin accepted at least $4,500 in campaign contributions in the same fundraising scheme at the center of a public corruption scandal that led to the indictment of Sen. Ted Stevens.

The contributions, made during Palin's failed 2002 bid to become Alaska's lieutenant governor, were not illegal for her to accept. But they show how Palin, a self-proclaimed champion for clean government, has been part of an Alaska political system that is now under the cloud of an ongoing FBI investigation.

It's the latest in a string of revelations that raise questions about whether John McCain's presidential campaign had sufficiently investigated the background of Palin, 44, a little-known governor new to the national stage.

(snip)

The list of potentially embarrassing details grew Tuesday:

- Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group in Alaska with some members supporting succession from the United States.

- In her earlier career as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin hired a lobbyist to help the tiny town secure at least 14 earmarks, worth $27 million between 2000-2003. McCain has touted Palin as a force in his long battle against earmarks.

- Under her leadership this year, Alaska asked for almost $300 per person in requests for pet projects from Stevens, one of McCain's top adversaries. That's more than any other state received, per person, from Congress.

- The head of the firm hired to defend Gov. Palin in a state ethics investigation was previously her family's lawyer and is permitted to bill the state up to $95,000 for work in the current case. It involves the dismissal of public safety commissioner Walt Monegan after he refused to fire a state trooper who had divorced the governor's sister.

- Palin opposed the U.S. government's listing of a variety of animals as endangered, including the polar bear and the beluga whale, both of which inhabit areas also rich in oil and natural gas.

good move, john...

barack obama: he completes us

from the daily show

this is truly one of the funniest things i've ever seen.



"every time barack obama speaks, an angel has an orgasm"



and this isn't bad either.

police intimidation and raids on protestors at the RNC

click here for the full email from starhawk, writing about the insane police intimidation and raids on protesters at the RNC in st. paul/minneapolis... and this was only on Friday... it's been getting worse all weekend.

if you feel so moved, please call the mayors' offices to voice your opinion on this:

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman
651-266-8510

Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak
(612) 673-2100
(612) 673-3000 outside Minneapolis

some excerpts:

It's Friday night. Our Pagan Cluster is sitting on the bluff of the Mississippi having our first real meeting, when Lisa gets a call. The cops are raiding the Convergence Center, where we're organizing meetings and trainings for the protests against the Republican National Convention. It's not a role play, the caller says. It's real.

... We wait. That's what you do when the cops have guns trained on kids inside a building. You wait, and witness, and make phone calls, and try to think of useful things to do.

... Through the kitchen door, we can see young kids sitting on the floor, handcuffed. We walk across the street, back, made more phone calls. An ambulance is parked in front, and the paramedics head into the building, leaving a gurney ready. Susu, from her car around the corner, reports that the cops have been grabbing pedestrians from the street, forcing them down to the ground, handcuffing them.

... One by one, protesters trickle out. Now we get more pieces of the story.

The cops burst in, with no warning. They pulled drew their guns on everyone - including a five year old child who was there with his mother, forced everyone down on the floor. It was terrifying.

They had a warrant, apparently, from the county, not the city, to search for 'bomb making materials.' They were searching everyone in the building, then one by one releasing them as they found nothing.

They continue to find nothing, as we wait through long hours. Meanwhile, more and more media arrives. These cops are not as creative as the DC cops during our first mobilization there against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Those cops confiscated the lunchtime soup - which included onions and chili powder, claiming they were materials for home made pepper spray.

We wait until the last person gets out. He's a twenty year old who the cops have accused of stealing his own backpack, but apparently they relented...

via Kitsap River at dailykos.com

what's your egyptian zodiac sign?

Satis Peace-loving and tolerant, receptive to wealth, analytical and science-minded, tender towards those who are not ignorant, can sometimes be angry. Colors: male: deep red, female: deep blue Compatible Signs: Amon-Ra, Set Dates: Jan 1 - Jan 7, Jun 19 - Jun 28, Sep 1 - Sep 7, Nov 18 - Nov 26 Role: Goddess who protected the sources of the Nile and goddess of the cataract at the border of Egypt and Nubia Appearance: A woman wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt with antelope horns on the sides. Sacred animal: antelope What is Your Egyptian Zodiac Sign? Designed by CyberWarlock of Warlock's Quizzles and Quandaries