Kermit Gosnell, and the opportunists that followed. For Shame, Pennsylvania. You’ll come to regret this day.

This is the first “Piggie of the Week” I did all myself, from the writing to the one-the-street interviews, to the capturing and rough cuts, to the final edits. Big props and tons of gratitude to Brodzilla and Sean for the editorial guidance and advice, teaching me how to edit video and audio, including chromakeying, into the final package you see here.

I think it’s pretty ok for a first-timer, and regardless of any skips and jumps, I learned a LOT over the course of the project. I sure hope I get to do more of these.

…after dealing women’s reproductive rights away for the second time in a row.

So ladies, the president wants you to make equal money, even though it’s hard to find full-time employment when you’re pregnant with a baby you don’t want because you can’t access an abortion.

The Democrats have already caved, by agreeing to $78 billion in cuts:

“The numbers have been agreed to, but it’s an opportunity for the right wing in the House to really sock it to women,”Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said. “I don’t usually use this language, but I really believe this is true.”

Emphasis mine. You’ll also note that noted republican voices are saying Planned Parenthood isn’t enough to shut down the government: they know they’ve already won, and besides, there’s the debt ceiling coming up, an excellent opportunity to defund all sorts of programs. This is part of the plan.

if we had a real president and a real party, there would be much more significant pushback. This is all for show.

To my readers: in 2008, I did you a disservice by writing a few posts that suggested you vote for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. I continue to hold no doubt that I would be angry as hell over her policies, but I hold no doubt at all that she would be publicly fighting the right wingers tooth and nail, in a way that Mr. Obama has refused to do. I apologize for my error, and if my posts were the deciding factor in your choosing Obama over Clinton in the primary, I am deeply, deeply regretful.

This isn’t to excuse Mrs. Clinton’s own gaffes on the trail, and it’s certainly not to excuse the core evil of the Republicans (who quite frankly could die en masse in a fire and even their own children wouldn’t cry). It’s just pointing out that we need a President who fights for the working people, and Mr. Obama ain’t it. And yeah, Hillary’s in bed with the banks etc too: but like her husband, she understands the old maxim my Grandmother taught me, handed down from my great-Grandfather who immigrated here from Russia/Poland:

Both parties steal, but the Democrats… they leave a little for you to steal too.

Obama doesn’t get this. And so we engage in kabuki over “saving Planned Parenthood”, while $78 billion in money that the unemployed, the poor, the working poor, and the middle class desperately need.

It’s a war, and we need a warrior.

You know, it’s funny. I’ve never understood why the wealthy, who already have so much, are determined to have it all at the expense of everyone else. It’s been a long time since 1917 and even longer since 1789, when the rich (perhaps) learned why it’s important to keep the proles well-fed, employed, and financially secure. It’s not rocket science: well-fed, employed, secure proles don’t rise up en masse and kill rich people.

I suspect that 2011 is going to be a very bad year for the United States, with more desperate people doing something stupid as they watch their lives circle the drain. It’s already happening:

My Testament: Some people (the government sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster (V)… no… I was just born poor in a country where the Wealthy manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95% of the population. Rich Republicans, Rich Democrats… same-same… rich… they take turns fleecing us… our few dollars… pyramiding the wealth for themselves. The 95%… the us, in US of A, are the neo slaves of the Global South. Our Masters, the Wealthy, do, as they like to us…

Let’s be honest: there is no one standing up for the poor, for working people, and for the middle class. Not Republicans and not Democrats. In a time when “When money equals political speech those who do not have a majority of the money will never have a majority of the political speech.”. And so, as the Glorious Obama Tax Cut indicates that, yes “Citizens United has codified the absolute political power of a small, super wealthy Oligarchy”, I direct you, again, to the words of Lucy Parsons, who a previous oligarchy deemed “more dangerous than a thousand rioters.”

To Tramps
by Lucy E. Parsons
Alarm, October 4, 1884. Also printed and distributed as a leaflet by the International Working People’s Association.

TO TRAMPS,
The Unemployed, the Disinherited, and Miserable.

A word to the 35,000 now tramping the streets of this great city, with hands in pockets, gazing listlessly about you at the evidence of wealth and pleasure of which you own no part, not sufficient even to purchase yourself a bit of food with which to appease the pangs of hunger now knawing at your vitals. It is with you and the hundreds of thousands of others similarly situated in this great land of plenty, that I wish to have a word.

Have you not worked hard all your life, since you were old enough for your labor to be of use in the production of wealth? Have you not toiled long, hard and laboriously in producing wealth? And in all those years of drudgery do you not know you have produced thousand upon thousands of dollars’ worth of wealth, which you did not then, do not now, and unless you ACT, never will, own any part in? Do you not know that when you were harnessed to a machine and that machine harnessed to steam, and thus you toiled your 10, 12 and 16 hours in the 24, that during this time in all these years you received only enough of your labor product to furnish yourself the bare, coarse necessaries of life, and that when you wished to purchase anything for yourself and family it always had to be of the cheapest quality? If you wanted to go anywhere you had to wait until Sunday, so little did you receive for your unremitting toil that you dare not stop for a moment, as it were? And do you not know that with all your squeezing, pinching and economizing you never were enabled to keep but a few days ahead of the wolves of want? And that at last when the caprice of your employer saw fit to create an artificial famine by limiting production, that the fires in the furnace were extinguished, the iron horse to which you had been harnessed was stilled; the factory door locked up, you turned upon the highway a tramp, with hunger in your stomach and rags upon your back?

The days of tramps are back, by the way.

Yet your employer told you that it was overproduction which made him close up. Who cared for the bitter tears and heart-pangs of your loving wife and helpless children, when you bid them a loving “God bless you” and turned upon the tramper’s road to seek employment elsewhere? I say, who cared for those heartaches and pains? You were only a tramp now, to be execrated and denounced as a “worthless tramp and a vagrant” by that very class who had been engaged all those years in robbing you and yours. Then can you not see that the “good boss” or the “bad boss” cuts no figure whatever? that you are the common prey of both, and that their mission is simply robbery? Can you not see that it is the INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM and not the “boss” which must be changed?

Now, when all these bright summer and autumn days are going by and you have no employment, and consequently can save up nothing, and when the winter’s blast sweeps down from the north and all the earth is wrapped in a shroud of ice, hearken not to the voice of the hyprocrite who will tell you that it was ordained of God that “the poor ye have always”; or to the arrogant robber who will say to you that you “drank up all your wages last summer when you had work, and that is the reason why you have nothing now, and the workhouse or the workyard is too good for you; that you ought to be shot.” And shoot you they will if you present your petitions in too emphatic a manner. So hearken not to them, but list! Next winter when the cold blasts are creeping through the rents in your seedy garments, when the frost is biting your feet through the holes in your worn-out shoes, and when all wretchedness seems to have centered in and upon you, when misery has marked you for her own and life has become a burden and existence a mockery, when you have walked the streets by day and slept upon hard boards by night, and at last determine by your own hand to take your life, – for you would rather go out into utter nothingness than to longer endure an existence which has become such a burden – so, perchance, you determine to dash yourself into the cold embrace of the lake rather than longer suffer thus. But halt, before you commit this last tragic act in the drama of your simple existence. Stop! Is there nothing you can do to insure those whom you are about to orphan, against a like fate? The waves will only dash over you in mockery of your rash act; but stroll you down the avenues of the rich and look through the magnificent plate windows into their voluptuous homes, and here you will discover the very identical robbers who have despoiled you and yours. Then let your tragedy be enacted here! Awaken them from their wanton sport at your expense! Send forth your petition and let them read it by the red glare of destruction. Thus when you cast “one long lingering look behind” you can be assured that you have spoken to these robbers in the only language which they have ever been able to understand, for they have never yet deigned to notice any petition from their slaves that they were not compelled to read by the red glare bursting from the cannon’s mouths, or that was not handed to them upon the point of the sword. You need no organization when you make up your mind to present this kind of petition. In fact, an organization would be a detriment to you; but each of you hungry tramps who read these lines, avail yourselves of those little methods of warfare which Science has placed in the hands of the poor man, and you will become a power in this or any other land.

Learn the use of explosives!

Dedicated to the tramps by Lucy E. Parsons.

Lucy also said, “Let every dirty, lousy tramp arm himself with a revolver or knife on the steps of the palace of the rich and stab or shoot their owners as they come out. Let us kill them without mercy, and let it be a war of extermination and without pity.”

Attorneys for the Obama administration objected Thursday to a proposed worldwide injunction being considered by a California federal judge that would halt the military’s ban on openly gay troops.

Calling the possible move “untenable,” Department of Justice attorneys filed their objections in U.S. District Court in Riverside.

They said Judge Virginia Phillips, who declared the policy unconstitutional earlier this month, would be overstepping her bounds if she tried to stop it in its tracks.

Instead, she should limit any injunction to the 19,000 members of the Log Cabin Republicans, the gay rights organization that filed the lawsuit to stop enforcement of the ban, the lawyers said.

Riiiiiight. So the gay people who won their legal fight can serve, ie Log Cabin Republicans, but the rest of the gay population can’t?

Why not just set up two sets of water fountains, shove the faggots to the back of the bus (the one they’ve been thrown under, repeatedly) and be done with it?

I really hope someone has the balls to primary Barack Obama in 2012. I really do.

(and as usual, the president’s supporters on the Intertoobs will ignore this because it doesn’t fit their worshipful narrative).

Officer Martin H. Escobar claims in the suit that the law will “seriously impede law enforcement investigations and facilitate the successful commission of crimes.”

He also says there are no “race-neutral criteria or basis to suspect or identify who is lawfully in the United States,” including a person’s proximity to the Mexican border, linguistic characteristics and capabilities, skin color, clothing worn or the type of vehicle driven…

Escobar’s suit says the law “is the product of racial bias aimed specifically at Hispanics” and places every Hispanic within the state at risk of losing his or her constitutional rights.

His complaint is here (warning, .pdf), and it’s well worth reading in full, because it provides ample ammo against the inevitable right wing lies. For example:

Escobar expands on this theme, explaining in straightforward terms how skin color, language, music preference, clothing, number of people in the car are not race-neutral identifiers of who is here legally or illegally.

Escobar nails it: cops in Arizona are now required to stop and question anyone who appears to be Latino, the majority of the immigrant population in the state. But the only way to do this fairly, without racial profiling, is to question EVERYONE. What a waste of police manpower!

On top of this, Escobar notes that Latino victims of and witnesses to crimes will have a major disincentive to cooperating with the police and the court system: so while Arizona has decided to transform itself into a racist police state, community support for the police is going to plummet, which creates an environment ripe for high crime.

Already seven other states have expressed interest in passing laws similar to Arizona’s, insane, irrational laws that do no good for anyone, and indeed undermine the fabric of our society.

So thank you, Officer Escobar, for doing your part to put a stop to race-based fascism (also known as Nazism) in the United States. And I am so sorry you have to serve and protect such abject nincompoops.

The price of health care has been women’s reproductive rights:

Stupak wants to outlaw abortion coverage in the new health insurance Exchange, where individuals and small businesses will purchase their coverage. Instead, women would only be able to purchase abortion coverage in a “abortion rider” plan – a single-service plan that covers abortion only. Such an “abortion rider” is discriminatory and illogical. Women do not plan to have unintended pregnancies (or pregnancies in which a complication will arise that will require ending the pregnancy). In fact, about half of all pregnancies are unintended. Abortion is simply not something that women plan to insure against.

Put simply, the Stupak amendment is a dramatic departure from current law which would restrict a women’s right to choose. What’s more, it would put an unprecedented restriction on people who pay for their own health insurance.

I already thought the health care rform bill was going to be shitty: now I think it’s hateful and loathesome. 64 Democrats voted for this piece of shit amendment that undermines women’s rights and reproductive health. They deserve not only your scorn and hatred, but primary challengers. Here are their names:

AL-2 Bright, Bobby; AL- 5 Griffith, Parker; AL-7 Davis, Artur; AR-1 Berry, Robert; AR-2 Snyder, Victor; AR-4 AR-4 Ross, Mike; CA-18 Cardoza, Dennis; CA-20 Costa, Jim; CA-43 Baca, Joe; CO-3 Salazar, John.

GA-2 Bishop, Sanford; GA-8 Marshall, James; GA-12 Barrow, John; KY-6 Chandler, Ben; IL-3 Lipinski, Daniel; IL-12 Costello, Jerry; IN-2 Donnelly, Joe; IN-8 Ellsworth, Brad; IN-9 Hill, Baron; LA-3 Melancon, Charles; ME-2 Michaud, Michael.

MA-2 Neal, Richard; MA-9 Lynch, Stephen; MI-5 Kildee, Dale; MI-1 Stupak, Bart; MN-7 Peterson, Collin; MN-8 Oberstar, James; MS-1 Childers, Travis; MS-4 Taylor, Gene; MO-4 Skelton, Ike; NM-2 Teague, Harry

NC-2 Etheridge, Bob; NC-7 McIntyre, Mike; NC-11 Shuler, Heath; ND Pomeroy, Earl; OH-1 Driehaus, Steve; OH-6 Wilson, Charles; OH-9 Kaptur, Marcy; OH-16 Boccieri, John; OH-17 Ryan, Timothy; OH-18 Space, Zachary.

OK-2 Boren, Dan; PA-3 Dahlkemper, Kathleen; PA-4 Altmire, Jason; PA-10 Carney, Christopher; PA-11 Kanjorski, Paul; PA-12 Murtha, John; PA-14 Doyle, Michael; PA-17 Holden, Tim; RI-2 Langevin, James

SC-5 Spratt, John; TN-4 Davis, Lincoln; TN-5 Cooper, Jim; TN-6 Gordon, Barton; TN-8 Tanner, John; TX-16 Reyes, Silvestre; TX-23 Rodriguez, Ciro; TX-27 Ortiz, Solomon; TX-28 Cuellar, Henry.

UT-2 Matheson, Jim; VA-5 Perriello, Thomas; WV-1 Mollohan, Alan; WV-3 Rahall, Nick; WI-7 Obey, David.

Here is the list of 26 Democrats who voted “Aye” on Stupak but “Nay” on the final bill:

Altmire, Barrow, Boccieri, Boren, Bright, Chandler, Childers, Davis (AL), Davis (TN), Gordon (TN), Griffith, Holden, Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, Melancon, Peterson, Ross, Shuler, Skelton, Tanner, Taylor, Teague

Despite my deep anger over this unconscionable anti-woman amendment, I’m proud of my local representatives today. You don’t see one sinlge Philadelphia-area representative on that list. Whatever problems I have with Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah, Pat Murphy, Joe Sestak, and Allyson Schwartz, they voted NO on Stupid Stupak’s anti-abortion demagoguery.

Remember that in 2010. The entire Philadelphia delegation voted FOR women’s rights.
As for me, I plan to help undermine re-election for the rest, and hope you will as well.

And then they walked up the steps of MY front porch.

“Who are you?” I asked, poking my head out the door and putting on my grumpiest Philly face, “and what are you doing on my porch?”

“We’re from the Church of Latter Day–,” one of the shiny white faces began to say when I cut him off.

“You’re the folks responsible for that awful Proposition 8 crap!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “We don’t support hate in this household. You get the hell off my porch, and don’t you DARE come back here!”

As they turned to leave, I added “And that whole posthumous baptism shit is wrong too!”

But by that time they were talking to my neighbor Caralyn. As I unloaded my car, I could hear her telling them to go away too (albeit in much more polite terms).

I have no problem with anyone’s religion, but once they start shoving their beliefs down the throats of other people, they can go jump in a lake. And if I’d had a bucket of water on hand, they might have walked away just as wet.

This Saturday is Valentines Day, and what Philadelphia institution is more deserving of a little love than our beleagured branch libraries?

Celebrate Philadelphia’s great public libraries at the following branches this Saturday, February 14, 2009. And make sure you see below for an earlier event at the Ogontz Branch.

Haddington – 446 N. 65th Street
1-3pm : Arts & Crafts for the Whole Family

Fishtown – 1217 E. Montgomery Avenue
3-4:30pm : Library Celebration & Arts Workshop

Kingsessing – 1201 S. 51st Street
1-3pm : Friends of the Library Celebration

Wadsworth – 1500 Wadsworth Avenue
2-4pm : Arts & Crafts for the Whole Family

Durham – 3320 Haverford Avenue
12-3pm : We Love Our Library Fun Day!

Queen Memorial – 1201 S. 23rd Street
1pm : Valentine’s Day Poetry Party

PLEASE NOTE THIS EARLY EVENT!
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 13th* – 6017 Ogontz Avenue
Ogontz – 3-4:30pm – Valentine’s Party

And please visit the Coalition to Save the Libraries for more information!