Michael Hardt talks about Revolution in the Examined Life.

heygirlitsbarackobama:

Hey girl,

My head hurts from shaking it so hard after Romney set foot onto foreign soil and managed to insult ever ally we have ever had in 72 hours.

True facts.

Speculation offered by yours truly.  Hope you like foreign affairs.

feministryangosling:

Virginia

 Oh, also, I live here.  Luckily, seems our governor is actually a decent person? Who knew?  He issued this statement today.

hey-appleblossom:

gop controlled va legislature passes two of the most restrictive anti-abortion/anti-birth control bills in the country.

slagslapper:

slutvies:

yourfriendtheviking:

On Tuesday, the Virginia House of Representatives passed two of the most restrictive abortion bills in the country. By a vote of 66-32, the Republican majority passed House Bill 1, which defines personhood as beginning at conception and effectively bans any woman from having an abortion, even if she is raped. The bill also would restrict contraceptives and an amendment to the bill would allow civil lawsuits against any doctor that performs an abortion. The bill is by far the most restrictive bill passed by any Republican controlled legislature in many years. Republican Rep. Bob Marshall wrote the legislation and Governor Bob McDonnell said he will be signing the bill.

A second bill was also passed that forces women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound, which is a serious violation of the body(not to mention medically unnecessary), before being able to get an abortion. Of course if House Bill 1 passes the Senate as it is expected to, women won’t be able to get an abortion at all.

While Democrats passionately opposed both bills, their effort to defend women’s rights seems to be futile. The Virginia Senate is poised to pass both bills and since Governor McDonnell is a very conservative Catholic, one has to wonder whether his decision will not come from his own mind or the will of the Bishop’s im the Catholic Church. House Bill 1 not only bans abortion, it would fly in the face of President Obama’s contraception coverage rule, which requires insurance companies to offer contraceptives free of charge. The second bill is also outrageous because it forces women to surrender their bodily rights if they want an abortion, by forcing them to undergo a procedure that violates their bodies and destroys their privacy and personal liberty.

Republicans meanwhile, couldn’t care less about the needs of women or the pleas of the Democrats who defend them. “We hear the same song over there. The very tragic human notes that are often touched upon involve extreme examples,” declared Tom Gilbert, R-Shenandoah. “But in the vast majority of these cases, these are matters of lifestyle convenience.”

These bills are an abomination to the Constitution. They effectively revoke a woman’s right to privacy and strip them of their personal liberty. It makes them slaves to men and forces them to be pregnant against their will. As stated above, House Bill 1 would disallow access to birth control and may even ban it altogether. These bills are the most restrictive in the nation. Even the people of Mississippi refused to ban abortion when they rejected a personhood amendment. But this bill isn’t being voted on by people of Virginia. The state legislature has decided to impose its will on the women of the state whether they like it or not.

We have to stop this from being passed in the Senate, contact McDonnell’s office and let your opinion be known. You can find his contact information HERE.

:(

Anti dreamland

actually probably gonna kill myself

 There are some serious composition errors in this particular piece.  However, pretty sure this is a mess, and while I myself am not really into the idea of having an abortion ever, I know several people who have had them for health reasons, and would have died otherwise.  Additionally, if “personhood” begins at conception, how do we define conception?  Is it when an egg is fertilized, or when it actually attaches to the uterine wall?  Because if it is the former, that pretty much outlaws all contraceptives, and either way completely gets rid of Plan B.  Needless to say as a woman living in Virginia I am not too happy about this.

(via freestatefeminist)

pantslessprogressive:

“If you’re part of the 1 percent, even getting fired comes with a cushion made of eiderdown. GMI, a research company that gets paid to keep an eye on such things, just issued a study headlined, ‘Twenty-One U.S. CEOs with Golden Parachutes of More than $100 Million.’ That’s each.

This news came the same day as another report, this one from Indiana University, titled, ‘At Risk: America’s Poor during and after the Great Recession.’ Its researchers conclude, ‘The number of people living in poverty is increasing and is expected to increase further, despite the recovery. The proportion of people living in poverty has increased by 27% between the year before the onset of the Great Recession (2006) and 2010 … Poverty is expected to increase again in 2011 due to the slow pace of the economic recovery, the persistently high rate of unemployment, and the long duration of spells of unemployment.’

In fact, the white paper finds that we now have the largest number of long-term unemployed people in the United States since records were first kept in 1948 - four million report they’ve been unemployed for more than a year. Not necessarily counting the former CEO’s gently floating to earth from those golden parachutes.

So, no, Mitt Romney, when we say that Americans are waking up to the reality that inequality matters, we’re not guilty of ‘envy’ or ‘class warfare,’ as you claimed to Matt Lauer on NBC’s ‘Today.’ Nor are we talking about everybody earning the same amount of money - that’s the straw man apologists for inequality raise whenever anyone tries to get serious.” - Bill Moyers and Michael Winship 

Inequality Matters

[Photo: Occupy Wall Street]

 The most upsetting thing about it all is how people like Romney and Boehner and Palin (and Bachmann and Santorum and pretty much every person on Fox News) use these very specific buzz words designed to invoke emotions of indignation, horror and uncertainty among the very people that would benefit from a greater focus on economic equality in our society.  We all agree there is such a thing as too much government.  We all agree that there is also a problem when people can’t even get a job, well-qualified, hard-working people.  We all agree that even when you do get a job, it’s often hard to make ends meet.  And yet, no one does anything about it, and those who speak up are considered radicals, labeled by the media as “UnAmerican”.  Is it “unAmerican” to want a better life for yourself, and for your children? 

(via mermaidcomplex)

hannahswiv:

cognitivedissonance:

If you’re thinking of voting Republican because you’re pissed at Obama, remember the words of Stephen Colbert in the voting booth.

More Stephen Colbert fabtabbery.

 Basically this is how I feel.

(via terribleminds)