Tuesday, March 13, 2012

March is Women's History Month - 1

It is during Women's History Month that we have had some of the worst recent attacks on women by right wing big mouth Rush Limbaugh.  It has been during Women's History month that we have had the controversy over the right wing judge in Montana using his official email address to send this:
The email forwarded -- from his official email address, on a government computer -- by Judge Richard Cebull:
Cebull-email
Sign the petition:

The copy of the offensive email, one which is not only insulting to President Obama and his mother, but is offensive in how it portrays women and sexuality, and issues of race and racism, was accompanied by this email from People for the American Way, which I think makes a very good point.  

President Obama can easily ignore crap like this.  It is beneath his attention.  But to the extent that this affects the culture and social and cultural climate for women in this country, where the right wing is attempting to institute repressive measures against women, WE should not ignore this. This is an attitude from another era, an era when women were not equal, when women were subordinate.  It is an ugly part of our past; it should not be part of our present.

I hope that our readers who do believe women are equal, and deserve to be treated with respect will sign this petition, for themselves and for the women in their lives who matter to them:

UPDATE: Three right-wing state legislators in Montana have come to Judge Richard Cebull’s defense, with one even ridiculously thanking Cebull for exercising his "freedom of speech."

The judge's reckless and offensive email had nothing to do with free speech. A federal judge is free to hate the president and his policies, just as other Americans are. And he is free to privately tell his friends that, just as other Americans do. But Judge Cebull used his official government email address to make a statement that has now become very public.
It is important that Americans see their judges as neutral arbiters, not as political figures. Therefore, it is imperative that Judge Cebull resign.
If a football referee is known to have grossly insulted some of the teams, then acknowledges that he did so because he strongly dislikes them, would anyone want him refereeing a game they cared about? Would anyone trust his calls?
Good referees are constrained in what they can say about the teams whose games they oversee, not because they don't have freedom of speech, but because they accept voluntary constraints as part of their job description. With Judge Cebull, we are talking not about the integrity of a sports league, but rather the integrity of the American justice system.
Judge Cebull is unfit to judge. Speak out now. And then please help spread the word.
Thank you for all that you do.
-- Ben
The right tries to excuse this as humor, the way Rush Limbaugh claims humor and entertainment to excuse his excesses.  It IS NOT satire, it IS NOT humor, it IS NOT entertaining.  It IS offensive, it IS intolerant and bigoted and prejudiced, it IS hateful.
It IS a reflection of a sick and twisted ugly right wing attitude towards sex and human sexuality.  It IS an expression of a perverse and ugly attitude towards race, especially towards individuals who are bi-racial, or who engage in relationships that were once banned under miscegenation laws.

It IS profoundly misogynistic. 
It IS profoundly right wing.
It is deeply and fundamentally WRONG.

1 comment:

  1. Yeah, it may be Women's History Month, but based on what is occuring in state legislatures, it is also Women Lose Their Health Rights Month.

    FYI : Governor Rick Perry and Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs are considing gutting the Texas Medicaid Women's Health Program — risking the health and lives of thousands of women.

    One in four Texan women is uninsured, and the state has the third-highest rate of cervical cancer in the U.S. — while the state also has some of the worst laws in the country aimed at shaming and demeaning reproductive health care ... and considering more.

    Cartoonist Garry Trudeau is using his Doonesbury strip to highlight some of the insanity ... it has been rejected by some newspapers so there is a copy of it in a commentary on the MN Political Roundtable.

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