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Aug
26
August 26 of each year is designated in the United States as Women’s Equality Day. Instituted by Rep. Bella Abzug and first established in 1971, the date commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, the Woman Suffrage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave U.S. women full voting rights in 1920.
Sheeet – women haven’t even been able to vote for more than 88 years? We do work fast if you ask me.
Here’s the White House’s official proclamation.
My own local paper has a nice guest column about the importance of this date and action.
The Democratic Women’s Caucus meets for the first time today at the DNC Denver convention.
Gloria Feldt wrote this column about the speech Hillary Clinton will give on this day of commemorating strong women in leadership and the ability for all women to lead.
What did John McCain have to say about this day?
Nothing, except perhaps some mumble-mumble under his breaths curses that his campaign has to spend any money at all trying to convince women to vote for him, now that women can vote.
Hmm. Maybe this is a good time for a reminder, courtey of Crooks and Liars, on just how awful John McCain is on matters that matter to women:
David Greenberg, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood in Oregon, had an especially good item this week on the subject.
John McCain is one of only a few Senators to earn a Zero percent lifetime rating from Planned Parenthood’s Action Fund, and he only scored that high because the organization doesn’t have a lower rating…. Let’s look at his record:
He voted against requiring health care plans to cover birth control (3/22/03).
He voted against comprehensive, medically accurate sex education (7/25/06).
He voted against international family planning funding (3/14/96).
He voted against funding to prevent teen and unintended pregnancies (3/17/05).
He voted against public education for emergency contraception (3/17/05).
And he voted against restoring Medicaid funding that could be used for family planning for low-income women (3/17/05).
NPR reported (2/2/08) that, “Many Republican voters seem to believe, incorrectly, that the current Republican front-runner, Arizona Senator John McCain, supports abortion rights.”
John McCain wants us to believe that he’s a moderate who supports improving the health of women in the United States, but in fact he’s among the most extreme members of Congress who voted against common sense measures on family planning, sex education and access to basic healthcare.
In contrast, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton agree on all of these issues.
Just sayin’.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:35 pm August 26th, 2008 in Politics
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4 Responses to “Women’s Equality Day & how John McCain doesn’t seem to want any part of that”
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Jill, something you said in the TCS chat last night stuck with me. Sorry, this is off-topic
When we were talking there, I forget what, you said something to the effect of “I even got over Scalia handing the election to Bush in 2000.”
why Scalia? He was only one of 5. Why didnt you say “I even got over OConnor handling the election to Bush in 2000.”
I didnt really think about it at the time, but now I am curious to know why you singled out Scalia there.
Hi Ben – no prob.
First – here’s a link to all the opinions in that opinion.
Second, Scalia is Bush’s go to justice. For all the arguing Scalia does about sticking to the four corners of the law and being a strict constructionist, I find his opinions to routinely be a decision in search of a way to reason it. I know – that’s very cyncical.
Third, and as to this particular decision, Buck Naked Politics had a nice round-up not too long ago about how the decision was political and not guided by stare decisis or other legal dogma.
This objection applies to many of Scalia’s opinions – they are political, not in line with the guidelines we learn in law school for how to review a decision. And Scalia does this constantly.
The most recent example is a case calle Met Life which had to do with the federal regs under ERISA. I read that case very closely and it is astonishing how he reaches in order to dissent. There are parts of that decision where he actually, literally, makes no sense.
Of course, I feel that way about Senor Bush on a regular basis – but I’m just a Democrat.
Fair…..but it was still 5-4. 4 other votes were still needed.
Ben – as a general proposition, Souter, Breyer and Kennedy are almost always above reproach in terms of providing objectively legally supportable positions. And, as a general proposition, Clarence Thomas almost never sounds sane (to me, of course) and as a general proposition, Scalia is the worst kind of jurist there is because he makes decisions based on political outcomes – that’s a hefty accusation but I’m no unique in making it and his opinions tend to support that.
What’s not okay about that is that it sets precedent and reduces decision-making – legal decision-making to subjective, and sometimes arbitrary or capriscious standards = which is absolutely not what it’s supposed to be.