Home for the Holidays

Today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

Go here to read more about the relevance of today, go here to increase awareness by sending someone you know an e-card, and go here to get involved.

Sojourner Truth

Over at Dakota Voice (I'm still following my pre-election pledge not to link to hate sites like DV) Bobby cut n' pasted a piece about the religious faith of former slave turned abolitionist and women's rights activist Sojourner Truth.

I'd like to remind Bob and the rest of our readers about "Ain't I a Woman?," Truth's most famous speech:

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne five children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or Negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

I have a feeling Sojourner wouldn't be allowed into some of the higher-profile fundamentalist churches in South Dakota were she living today and making speeches like that.

Florida Judge Rules Gay Adoption Ban Unconstitutional

I'm incredibly excited to report that Florida's ban on gay parents adopting children has been ruled unconstitutional by a Miami-Dade circuit court judge.


This isn't the first challenge to the Florida ban; another Florida judge ruled similarly in September.


Florida has had a ban on adoptions in place since 1977, although out gays and lesbians were still allowed to serve as foster parents. Until this year, they were the only state in the country to specifically ban adoptions by gay parents.


With most states having either a statute and/or a constitutional amendment, and with recent success in Arkansas, the word on the street is that adoption bans are the next big thing the Ridiculous Right will be pushing. Ironically, the same people who preach incessently about how "pro-family" they are seem pretty hell-bent on keeping families apart.


Hopefully, these rulings will take some of the wind out of their sails. Stay tuned.

The World to Our Country PAC: We Want Whatever You're Smoking

Via CNN.

DW Poll Results Unveiled

The results are in! DW readers have spoken!

The DW poll "After the anti-choice movement's recent demise, what should they do now?" rendered the following results:

Keep up the fun, public blame game: 5.56%
Get jobs at the Holy Land Experience: 5.56%
Join the circus: 13.89%
Move out of SD and perhaps, the USA: 19.44%
Practice abstinence: 22.22%

And the winner is...

Stop turding up the comments at Dakota Women: 25%


So, there you have it, folks. Maybe one of these times VY and Co. will start respecting democracy.

Saudi Arabia's First All-Girl Rock Band!

They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album cover photographs. Even their jam sessions are secret, for fear of offending the religious authorities in this ultraconservative kingdom.

That's how an article in Sunday's New York Times opened. The piece showcased Accolade, the first all-girl rock band to come out of Saudi Arabia, a place with some sad and serious obstacles in terms of both the music and feminism. Read the full story here and head over to the group's MySpace page and listen to their single "Pinocchio" here, which I actually think is pretty damn good. Maybe even friend 'em, because these chicks rock.

Funday Friday: Take the Mystery Photo Poll

NOTE: I've had a lot of people contact me requesting that I enlarge the picture, but unfortunately because it's Allen Unruh's Facebook profile pic (yeah you read that right -- creepy), it can't be enlarged. That's how the mystery poll idea developed. So now you know. Vote away!

What is (Non) Dr. Allen Unruh doing in this photo?

• Screaming "Dead baby bad, live baby good!" at kidnapped Santa
• Giving Santa a sensual massage
• Practicing for Holiday version of Ninja Warrior
• Beating up a member of the SD Right to Life who just happened to be dressed like Santa
• Hugging Leslee, who after undergoing shock therapy in the mental institution, thinks she's Santa

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Everyone has technical difficulties from time to time...

Dear World:

The United States of America, your high-quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy for over 200 years, would like to apologize for its 2001-2008 service outage.

The technical fault that led to this eight-year service interruption has been located, and the parts responsible for it were replaced Tuesday night, November 4.

Early tests of the newly installed equipment indicate that it is functioning correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional by mid-January.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage, and we look forward to resuming full service -- and hopefully even to improving it in years to come. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

The USA

[source unknown]

Isn't science a pain?

An interesting article from Time landed in my inbox yesterday. Like so many other articles on pay equity, it makes mention of the difficulty in studying the salary gap between women and men (like career choices, education, etc.).

The interesting piece of the study is this: it's the first peer-reviewed, systematic, scientific analysis of pay discrimination. Generally, pay studies aren't "scientific," since you can't randomly assign gender, or you can't compare what someone gets paid as a woman, and what they get paid as a man.

This study, however, is actually a systematic analysis of transgender people's pay before and after they transitioned their outward gender expression. This study concludes pretty blatantly that women get paid less than men. Shocking, right?

Controlling for things like education, region, and overall time spent in careers, the researchers found that people whose outward gender expression transitions from male to female (MTF) see an average salary drop of 32%...while people whose gender expression changes from female to male (FTM) see a salary INCREASE of 1.5%.

I'm hopeful (but not expectant) that this will help put the kibosh on some of the "No, discrimination doesn't really happen! It's just that women always pick low-paying jobs!" crap that gets thrown around in the pay equity debate. For the first time, we have valid, *scientific* data--including the ability to compare what an individual makes when they present as one gender versus another--that highlights the discrimination a lot of us already knew was there.

Based on this research, here's what we know:

-Pay discrimination isn't largely the result of women's inability or unwillingness to negotiate for higher salary/benefit packages. One would assume that when men "became" women, they didn't suddenly lose their ability to ask for higher salaries...and that women who "became" men didn't take a crash course in negotiating as part of their transition.

-Pay discrimination isn't largely the result of career choices. The study found that post-transition MTFs who switched jobs or careers after transitioning had basically the same pay cuts as non-career switching MTFs.


Here's the take home: Discrimination is real, and hopefully this tendency to blame women for the "situation" will start to decline.

Farewell Tribute to Ted Stevens

Breaking news: Alaska's Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens has been officially defeated by Mark Begich. If it couldn't get more crappy for Stevens, today's apparently his 85th Birthday. So, the oldest person next to John McCain is out, Sarah Palin's DC hopes are crushed yet again, the myth that felons can continue to serve in office is dispelled, the Democratic supermajority inches closer and closer, and the Republican brand goes further into the toilet. What a day, huh?


To bid farewell to TS in style, a little birthday jam...

Church: Seven Days of Sex!

Pastor Ed Young of Texas has made a suggestion to his parishoners: married couples should have sex for the next seven days straight, coining it "The Seven Days of Sex." Check out his website here.

The CNN interview below is a bit long, but if you watch a little, you'll get the basics. I think it's refreshing to see a sex positive attitude coming from within the church, but I'm guessing all the frenzied, anti-choice, abstinence WITHIN marriage crazies are just going file this one under their "Sexual Anarchists" tag, while vilifying Pastor Young.

Sorry, McCain...America missed your crazy train.

There's been tons of great analysis coming out of this election cycle, but one piece did catch my eye this morning, that I thought was worth mentioning.

CNN conducted a poll after the election asking about perceptions of what the trifecta of a Democratic Senate, House, and Presidency would be like. According to the poll, 59% of people asked think that Democratic control of the Senate, House and White House will be good for the country, with 38% saying that such one-party control will be bad.


That's interesting, given that McCain spent months and months of the campaign talking about what a terrible thing it would be for "the liberals" to take over. Hey McCain? I guess your message missed about 60% of the country.


It gets even better: 62% of poll respondents have a favorable opinion of Democrats overall, while 31% expressed an unfavorable opinion. Pretty much the opposite is true for their opinions of Republicans, with 54% having an unfavorable view of the GOP and 38% holding a positive view.


I guess McCain talking about how he and Palin were going to reform those Democrats in charge of Washington (even though they've only been in charge for 2 years, compared the previous 6 with Republicans) didn't get through either.


So what's the take-home message? I think we can look at this and see that Americans as a whole have a pretty decent bullsh*t detector, and no matter how hard he huffed, and he puffed, he just couldn't blow the Democrats down.

Things That Make You Go "Hmmm"

It's not often that I thank Mike Huckabee, shake my finger at Keith Olbermann, and commend John McCain, but there's a first time for everything, I guess. See exhibits A, B, and C.

A) Mike Huckabee recently said/wrote this for Fox News. It's unbelievably refreshing to hear a pastor as conservative and theocratic as he is talk with as much reason, respect, and decency as he does in this piece. Most of us around the DW parts are limited to hearing the Steve "Stalker" Hickey brand of Christian, which is, well, everything but. Thanks, Mike. You give us hope.


B) I read today that Keith Olbermann doesn't vote. Uh, what? You're thinking "Did I read that right?!" Unfortunately the answer is "yes, you did hear that right." I had the very same reaction, actually, but it's true: Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's Bill O'Reilly-dissin' "Countdown" says he doesn't vote as some sort of "symbolic gesture" and something about "journalistic objectivity." What? Did "Countdown" become unbiased when I wasn't looking, because if so, I should probably discontinue watching it, since that was its appeal. If there's anything I have no tolerance for, it's people who don't vote and more so, people who have some dumb reason for not voting. Ugh, c'mon Keith. I expected so much more from you. Shame, shame, shame.

C) John McCain showed up un-tooled on Leno tonight. In fact, he even made me laugh a little (well, in a lame grandpa joke kind of way). Jokes aside, the dude was finally real and as a result, he appeared relaxed, level-headed, and even likable. If McCain would have hung on to any shred of dignity in his campaign and acted like the decent human being he clearly can be instead of becoming a giant hypocrite, the election maybe wouldn't have been a total slaughter. My only complaint about the appearance: the finger quotes made another appearance - ugh - though thankfully not in reference to women's health this time.

Judge Judy on Obama and Prop 8

I've gone back and forth over the years about my feelings for Judge Judy, but this segment puts her firmly on my good list.


To give some background about what's been happening in California:

-In May 2008, the California state supreme court ruled that it's unconstitutional (based on their state constitution) to deny same-sex couples the right to get married. Over the next several months 18,000 couples tied the knot there.


-Around the same time, Proposition 8, which was designed to prevent LGBT couples from getting married in the state, qualified for the November ballot.


-The amendment passed, with about 52% of the vote. Thanks in LARGE part to the Mormon church dumping millions of dollars into it.


-After the election was finished, several legal groups (including the ACLU, Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and probably some others I'm forgetting) filed suit in three counties in California, claiming that Prop 8 was unconstitutional. I think their suit might have merit, and here's why:

According to the California constitution, amendments that amount to only minor revisions to the constitution can be made by a ballot initiative--that is, getting a crapload of signatures. For more substantial amendments to the constitution, the proposed amendment *first* has to get a 2/3 vote in the California Assembly. The suits argue that, based on the findings from the May decision that the right to marry is a fundamental right, that denying people a fundamental right amounts to a substantial change to the constitution, and therefore should have been passed through the legislature.

It appears that the state supreme court thinks the suit has merit, too...they've agreed to hear the case. Stay tuned on that one.


-If nothing else, there's a fair chance that an amendment to repeal this could end up on the ballot in 2010. There are too many scenarios for me to even hazard a guess, but if lawsuits don't work, we could see the first repeal of an anti-marriage amendment. Holla!



Anyway, props to Judge Judy.

The Beginning of the Beginning

The US News and World Report's Deborah Kotz recently had a conversation with Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards. Here's the list of Richards' predictions for the future of women's health under the Obama administration. Read the whole post here.

1. No more federal funds for abstinence-only education.

2. No more global gag rule.

3. Better coverage for contraception and pregnancy.

4. Reversal of the "conscience" regulation that threatens women's access to birth control.

5. Increases in funding for reproductive health clinics serving uninsured.

6. Fixing gender displarities in health insurance premiums.

7. Improved access to morning after pills and abortions for US military women serving overseas.

Creeps

The VYFL crazies are getting weirder and weirder as they contemplate their second loss in two attempts.

They're so fixated on their hate for the Campaign for Healthy Families that they can't get over the bogus voter fraud allegations that no one cared about even during the campaign. Their focus on one voter (Chris Cassidy) - who, from my understanding, wasn't illegally registered anyway - amazingly causes them to ignore the other 206,517 South Dakotans who voted no. Do they think that the entire 38,000+ vote margin between no and yes is as a result of voter fraud, I wonder? Maybe their singular focus on Chris Cassidy is part of the reason they lost so badly.

They're mad about SDCHF's out-of-state donations and employees - never mind that VYFL also accepted out-of-state funds and had workers from other states.

They suggest that South Dakotans have been fooled by deceptive advertising. Again, never mind VYFL's blatant lies and attempts to obscure the real issues throughout the campaign.

The mental gymnastics these people are doing at the moment are truly fascinating to watch. It's just too bad that they think stalking, harassment, and intimidation will make any of us go away. It doesn't help your cause, guys - it just makes everyone think you're a bunch of creeps.

Take the Dakota Women Poll!

After the anti-choice movement's recent demise, what should they do now?
Move out of SD and perhaps, the USA
Stop turding up the comments at DW
Get jobs at the Holy Land Experience
Organize a coup against the Unruhs
Keep up the fun, public blame game
Join the circus
Practice abstinence


(View Results)

Create a Poll

DooHickey: Real women have babies!

Although I think getting in a "debate" with Hickey is about as useful as trying to teach calculus to my cat, I feel the need to point out a real gem he left for me in the Voices Crazy comment section:

"Originally I thought Dakota women were women and I had some level of respect but I quickly learned the spitballs coming my way were being fired by angry selfish catty girls. You are callous to the pain of women and what real woman give life to - children."

Something tells me that the women of South Dakota (and everywhere) would take issue with the idea that the if you don't have babies (by choice or not), you're not a "real woman." I guess women who don't want to have children, or who can't conceive aren't "real women." I guess women who haven't had children yet because of their career aren't "real women." I guess women who spend their time doing anything that doesn't involve being barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen aren't "real women."

The idea that you have to have children to be a "real woman" isn't a new one, and the idea that women are baby cannons is DEFINITELY not new among anti-choicers. The only thing that's surprising here is that they said it out loud, especially since he tends to blabber on about what a "real feminist" he is.

Hey, Hickey? The 1950s called...they want their misogyny back.

Watch out, guys...

Bob Ellis says he has a REALLY GOOD IDEA that will help the VYFL wackos win in 2010.

Gee, with geniuses like Ellis rubbing both their brain cells together, we might really be in for a fight next time...or not. How old is the Earth again, Bob?

Even the former head of the Family Policy Council is telling you guys to GIVE IT UP. See if there's some other state where you can peddle your wares - South Dakota isn't having it anymore.

Don't dig too deep, Leslee...

While a lot has been said already about how South Dakotans defeated the abortion ban (for the second time in as many years!), I think this deserves a bit of reiteration:

After South Dakotans rejected the ban in 2006 and ultimately said "No, we don't want to ban abortion," Leslee apparently took that to mean "We want a ban with some (BS) exceptions." So that's what we got in 2008.

In 2008, South Dakota has again said, "No, we don't want to ban abortion." To help keep Leslee and Co. from going through all the work to think about what this "really" means, and so in 2010 I'm not hearing "This is the ban you asked for!" let me make this crystal clear:


South Dakotans ARE NOT asking for a new ban.


This wasn't South Dakotans *asking* for a ban with exceptions fatal fetal anomolies (or non-fatal anomolies, for that matter). This wasn't South Dakotans *asking* for a ban with any specific conditions. We're not *asking* for anything, other than for Leslee to drop it. We don't want government involved in this. Period.

If you compare the county-by-county results, most individual counties voted on IM11 by the same margins that they had on Referred Law 6 in 2006. People's votes didn't change from 2006 to 2008, and there's no reason to believe that they would change in the future, with a re-worked ban. The Argus poll said that for 56% of their respondents, the exceptions didn't matter. That speaks volumes.

The people of South Dakota have spoken. Twice. Deal with it.

Anti-choicers with "nowhere to go"

Here's an article in this morning's Argus about the anti-choice side's most recent defeat at the polls in South Dakota.

They brought forward a near-total ban, and it failed. Then they brought forward another near-total ban with a couple of "exceptions," and it failed by almost exactly the same margin. Most state legislators, at least those who even remotely pretend to care about the opinions of their consituents, shouldn't be willing to touch another ban with a ten-foot pole. (By the way, if the Campaign for Healthy Families doesn't do another breakdown of the vote by legislative district to provide to legislators if this foolishness comes up in Pierre, I think DW should work on it.)

So Leslee, Bob, DooHickey, and the other fringe elements in the state insist they'll continue their pointless crusade, but the question that observers seem to be asking is: how?

A University of Richmond (Va.) law professor, Carl Tobias, said that if Measure 11 did indeed fail this year, it could be a signal that South Dakota has tired of the debate.

"If the 2006 ban failed and this more tolerant effort does, I don't know what would be a next step," he said.

My understanding from talking to friends and family at home who aren't political activists is certainly that people are tired of it. It seems like even some of the VYFL supporters understood that IM 11 was pretty much do-or-die as far as banning abortion in South Dakota:

Gerald Andrews, who attended the VoteYesForLife.com rally, said he was "praying for a victory. We really need to win this one.["]

But they didn't! Oh, snap. Isn't today a good day?

Give me liberty, or give me death.

After hearing about President Obama, some pretty significant pro-choice victories in the state legislature, yet another abortion ban going down in flames, I've been thinking about how much I love democracy this morning:



This has to be one of the craziest Youtube videos in existence. Of course, it stars Allan Unruh, who is apparently taking up historical reenactment in his spare time. Maybe he could practice his Patrick Henry instead of cooking up another ridiculous initiated measure for 2010.

Jan Nicolay: "It's time they just wised up."

I just wonder, with Leslee's insane non-concession concession remarks on KELO, how many times South Dakotans will have to go through this in order to satisfy her/DooHickey's personal crusade to control other people's lives. How many times will we as a state have to say 'no' before they find some other tactic? Five times? Six times? Twelve times? I almost feel kind of sad for them, that they can't even conceive of any other way to reduce the number of abortions than through proposing ban after ban after ban.

People are tired of you, Les and Steve. You didn't lose because of "money from the national abortion industry," you fools, you lost because South Dakotans DO NOT WANT TO BAN ABORTION.

Incidentally, as I listen to VYFL flunkies bitch about out of state involvement in the Campaign for Healthy Families, I wonder where on God's green earth they think Troy "Flat Broke" Newman is from? These VYFL people are really all beneath our contempt. They believe rules don't apply to them and they'll say anything, lie about anything, do anything - and yet, they still lose by double-digit margins when their wacky opinions are actually presented to voters in the form of referred laws and initiated measures.

They say insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. In that case, these people are seriously INSANE.

Open Letter to Vote Yes for Epic Fail...

Dear all of you,

How do you feel? You tried once -- you failed. You tried again -- you failed AGAIN! Maybe you might want to consider the following:

1) It isn't about exceptions, this isn't about 'provisions,' this is about the fact that SD sees through CRAZY...and oh yeah, SD is PRO-CHOICE. Deal.

2) SD doesn't want to ban abortion...not a little...not a lot...not at all.

3) SOUTH DAKOTA HAS SPOKEN...AGAIN. RESPECT THE PEOPLE!

4) Steve Hickey is CRAZY! (Note his last couple of posts. Wait a minute...note his blog...and oh...him.)

5) Leslee Unruh is crazy! Period. Period.

Conclusion: Tonight marked a new era in abortion rights. Obama. Biden. Roe is solid. Period. With Obama in White House and the defeat of abortion ban 2.0, this is just our beginning. You hear that VY? THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING! From the bottom of our hearts here at Dakota Women we just want to take a minute to say SUCK IT.


Love,

Dakota Women

Overjoyed.

It's hard for me to express my happiness this evening. I'm pretty certain I've never been quite so pleased on an election night.

As someone who has largely been forced to watch the IM 11 campaign from the sidelines, I'd like to say thanks to those of you reading this who put in the volunteer hours that defeated this abortion ban once again. In particular, Tiffany and Chris Campbell put human faces on the abortion issue - and dealt with some pretty unbelievable smears from Unruh, Hickey, and the rest of the VYFL crew.

We did it again, you guys! Hooray!!

IM 11 on SDPB's Dakota Midday

Any thoughts from our readers on this? "Dr." Allan Unruh and Dr. Buehner spoke about IM 11 today on SDPB.

Some random thoughts from me:

I always wonder why Allan and his VYFL friends continue to say over and over again how clear and easily understood the exceptions are - LITERALLY EVERYONE DISAGREES.

I also don't know what his deal is with Planned Parenthood. He really seems obsessed and they aren't the issue.

Big LOLs at how the host punked Unruh with the Samuel Casey memo indicating that the exceptions are a big ruse.

It seems almost impossible to get him to directly answer a question. He goes off on tangents, and I am CONVINCED that he is frequently reading from a script. We hear about slavery, the civil rights movement, Playboy magazine (in response to a question about what kind of medical training prosecutors will have to understand evidence presented to them in rape cases under IM 11), John Adams, etc etc etc. Seriously wacky.

He's also totally lying when he says he's not sure if VYFL would bring this issue up again in 2010 if they lose. His own wife is telling everyone they plan to do it again.

Dr. Buehner did a fabulous job of explaining the real problems doctors will face if IM 11 were to pass. I've never met this doctor, but he seems so calm, detailed, and direct, particularly when compared to Allan Unruh.

I hope lots of people listened to this today.

Mitchell Daily Republic says 'no' to 11

The Daily Republic, one of the most conservative newspapers in the state, urges a no vote on IM 11:

Whereas we by no means condone abortion, we feel Initiated Measure 11 is poorly worded.

Among our worries:

- Initiated Measure 11 could boost instances of wrongful accusations of rape or incest.

- Initiated Measure 11 may force health professionals into difficult situations. It may be tricky to precisely prove a woman’s health is in danger, and the decision-making process could result in potentially career-threatening decisions for a physician. One troublesome fact of Measure 11 is that debates about a woman’s health could end up in court, instead of simply within the discretion of a family doctor.

- We question the timeframe related to determining rape cases. For an abortion under the rules of Initiated Measure 11, a rape must be reported. But to prove a rape occurred can sometimes take months, through the courts.

- Measure 11 is unconstitutional. Attorney General Larry Long, in his explanation of the measure, said that if approved, Measure 11 likely will be challenged in court. The state may be required to pay attorney fees and costs.

Simply put, the wording on the measure appears too restrictive. If passed, Measure 11 couple possibly force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term even if the fetus cannot survive on its own after delivery.

It just doesn’t seem an appropriate government role.

VYFL Docs: Incest makes genius babies

Bob Ellis mentioned Dr. Donald Oliver in Rapid City, and dredged up an article of his from 2006 in support of RL 6. I thought I'd remind our readers of another gem from Oliver:

Just two months ago, I personally took care of a baby boy born to a very young teenage mother who was allegedly raped by her brother. So here we have the two scenarios brought forth most often by those on the pro-abortion side, rape and incest. This brave young lady carried her child to term and delivered a healthy normal boy. Here is an interesting fact that you may not be aware of. Just as two bad genes might pair up and lead to an unfortunate outcome, two good genes can pair up, and the infant of this incestuous relationship, may become the brightest person in the family - sometimes in the genius range of intellect.

The individuals behind the abortion ban in South Dakota fully subscribe to this bizarre way of thinking. Keep this in mind when you vote on Tuesday. Is this really the kind of state you want to live in, to raise children in, where the Don Olivers of the state make public policy - not to mention these kinds of moral judgments about survivors of incest who seek abortion care?

Tony Basil Left Wondering "WTF?!"

This just might be one of the most hilarious VY videos of the year, courtesy of Troy "Flat Broke" Newman and Operation Rescue. Leslee should start breathalyzing her volunteers before they go on camera. Really.

Troy Newman "flat broke"

As batshit crazy as our homegrown South Dakota anti-choicers have proven themselves to be over the last several months, literally nothing compares to VYFL BFF Troy Newman.

Here's an e-mail he sent to supporters (no doubt including DooHickey, the Unruhs, and crazy Bob Ellis) just last year. Maybe they'll remember it:

"HOWEVER, I HAVE SOME VERY BAD NEWS...

WE ARE FLAT BROKE!!!

TO GET TO THIS POINT IN OUR FIGHT AGAINST PLANNED PARENTHOOD, IT COST US MORE MONEY THAN WE WERE ABLE TO RAISE... WHICH MEANS WE’RE BROKE!

I JUST SPOKE TO OUR ACCOUNTANT, AND WE’RE $22,000 IN THE RED!!

I HAD TO BORROW MONEY FROM FRIENDS JUST TO SEND YOU THIS LETTER!"

Guess DooHickey must have sprung for that barbecue meal the other day in Sioux Falls....

Saturday night laffs

Here's a picture of Voices Crazy/Leslee Unruh BFF Troy Newman under arrest at a Cher concert in Topeka, Kansas:



The folks VYFL is bringing in for the final weekend are more than a little unstable.

A question for the wackjobs:

While both sides agree that the SDSMA has a neutral stance on abortion, is the SDSMA in SUPPORT of, NEUTRAL toward, or OPPOSED to Initiated Measure 11? Just give me a one word answer in the comments.

I'm trying to figure out if these people have any grip on reality whatsoever at this point.